You forget how much of a hit, how much of a turnaround, the Nintendo Switch turned out to be. After the major wobble (and baffling form factor) of the Wii U, Nintendo came back with a hybrid console that would replace and fuse its handheld and home console lineages. The console had no right being as playable (and enjoyable) as it was.
Now, finally, its . And for once, Nintendo’s calling its new console a sequel. Nintendo took the best features from the original and upgraded nearly all of them.
The major upgrades in hardware include a bigger 7.9-inch LCD screen, a more mature design that feels more solid and significantly upgraded performance and power. The only major drawback is battery life. Nintendo says it should provide between 2 and 6.5 hours of runtime on a single charge, but that depends on how resource-intensive your games are.
According to Sam Rutherford’s review testing: “In Mario Kart World, the Switch 2 lasted two hours and 23 minutes, which is on the lower end of Nintendo’s official estimate. Meanwhile, in the NS2 edition of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the console fared a bit better with a time of 2:56.” Compared to the OLED Switch’s battery life, it’s a reduction, but it’s also equivalent to other high-powered handhelds, like the ROG Ally X and Steam Deck.
Check out our (and perhaps our guide to the — because backward compatibility).,
— Mat Smith
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The news you might have missed
It’s a solid discount.
If you’re struggling to find a good present for Father’s Day, MasterClass has discounted its subscriptions by up to 50 percent. I grabbed a similar deal for myself, unfortunately only 40 percent off, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the solid interface and how many courses are available. Many course videos can even be downloaded for viewing offline.
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Best Buy is picking up the handset for Canada.
Nothing CEO Carl Pei has been teasing this news since April, but now it’s official: You might actually be able to buy the company’s next flagship phone. The Nothing Phone 3 will be available to purchase from Amazon or directly from the company. Until now, only the Phone 2 has made it to general sale in the US. For the other models (including the very impressive Phone 3a), users would have to buy a unit via a beta program, which has no after-sale support. Any caveats? Well, there will be no carrier discount. The Phone 3 will support 4G and 5G with AT&T and T-Mobile. While there’s no explicit support for Verizon, the Phone 2 worked well with its network, so that’ll probably be the case with the third phone.
How much? There’s no official US price yet. Pei recently said it would cost £800 in the UK at launch, which would translate to around $1,080 in US dollars.
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The Olto has a removable battery.
Infinite Machine made waves with its retro-futuristic P1 electric bike, and now it’s back with the Olto. Its new e-bike boasts 40 miles of range and a top speed of 33 mph, with a 20 mph limit while riding in the bike lane.
Just like the P1, the Olto e-bike looks both futuristic and retro, (like a transformer that turns into a vape.) What’s notable is it can carry two riders at the same time, and you can add accessories, like child carriers.
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