Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things they’ve been chewing on. Today Rory describes how Nintendo’s smallest Switch finally won him over…
“Yes sir, it is definitely a sleeper train. Do not worry.”
The lady at the cash register laughed to herself while her colleagues smiled meaningfully at her. There I was: another clueless Westerner, fresh off the plane to Bangkok and duped by… well, everything, to be honest with you.
“Well then, if you say so!”
With a (slightly) renewed confidence, I return to the platform and board the train for the second time. I squint through the dirty window to confirm the platform number and study the information on my map for what seems like the fiftieth time.
“Okay, I’m in the right place. This is definitely 10 o’clock for Chiang Mai.”
But I still don’t see the beds. I back is starting to hurt from the prospect of spending the next 14 hours in an upright position. But I believe the words of the ticket seller.
I momentarily look away from the impressively chubby rat scurrying around the tracks, look up to see a train guard in a spotless green uniform with an equally frozen expression on his face.
He reaches into the overhead luggage compartment and turns a special tool hanging from his neck to reveal…oh, Christ. Not a luggage compartment at all, but my bed for the night. It’s like a dinner tray! No wonder I didn’t see him.
I climb up the rather vague-looking ladder and giggle as I try to cram my six-foot-four body into definitely-not-six-foot-four room. To add to my misery, it’s September in Thailand and the humidity is punishing.
I’ve always said that a switch that can’t be plugged in is a non-starter for me.
Two nights of (very) solid partying at the Mad Monkey Hostel has ensured that my sleeping patterns are also in tatters, and as the train pulls away, screeching and bouncing, I realize that the lights in the carriage remain on for the duration of the journey. It’s going to be a long night.
At this point, I’ve already demolished the Citrus Twist Lay’s (absolutely elite, btw) and the double-stuffed Oreos I bought for the trip, so I can’t even eat the boredom. Fortunately, I have an ace up my sleeve.
Pre-flight checks
You see, a few weeks ago I was doing some last-minute packing tests, and it turns out that stuffing your whole life into a 40-liter Osprey backpack doesn’t cut it Enough
I ‘going out’ shoes are the first casualty, but with every attempt to break the patent seams, it’s clear that I’m going to have to make some pretty serious cuts. Either that or buy a bigger backpack, but honestly, ain’t nobody got time for those checked bag fees.
So, while I’m thinking about which three t-shirts to take and which seven to throw out (it’s me new to this, Alright?!) my laptop gave way to a slimmer tablet and a mini bluetooth keyboard. At this point, weight loss becomes a bit of an obsession. I feel like a McLaren engineer.
I open the zipper on the front compartment and see my OG launch Switch and its big, bulky case staring back at me. To my newly obsessed eyes, it is monstrously huge. I reluctantly began to imagine going nine months (!) without another playthrough of Metroid Dread, and…actually, you know what? That doesn’t seem so bad.
Anyway, I’m going traveling! I will jump off waterfalls, ride motorbikes to white sandy beaches, climb mountains and have fun every second of every day and night with young, beautiful people! I certainly won’t have time to worry about my GRID Autosport lap times, for God’s sake.
Change of mind
“But…we could just buy a Nintendo Switch Lite…” whispers my subconscious, almost in a Sméagol way. “What’s the master going to do on that tricky 6pm flight? To read books’? What are books, precious? What are books, eh?!”
[Switch Lite] it turned out to be a properly meaningful upgrade in more ways than I could have imagined
Sméagol was right. You won’t see it on those glossy Instagram reels, and travelers’ stories tend to be filled with talk of sunrise Buddhist temple visits rather than 19-hour bus journeys, but guess what? Traveling across a vast continent like Asia usually involves a lot of… well, travel! Who would think of that?!
And so the Switch Lite started to sound like a decent option. The thing is, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with his discovery.
“A switch that can’t switch?! No stand, no rumble, no detachable Joy-Con? And why is this so cheap I’m watching?!”
I’ve always said that a switch that can’t be plugged in is a non-starter for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played Rocket League on a tablet with the best of them, but there’s something about throwing games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on a 55” screen that makes me feel more…invested.
Every little bit helps
Besides, what a difference it could make switching from Switch to Switch Lite really to make?
Well, reader, after spending the evening obliviously pounding my clothes (which were now rolled up in a compression cube, fyi), I can confirm that this proved to be the difference between being able to stuff my bottle of filter in my front pouch, and potentially getting infected. some kind of dropsy.
Of course, I lost that bottle in a Vietnamese hostel after about 10 weeks, rendering the whole operation completely pointless, but you know what? I still am SO I’m glad I brought Lite with me; it turned out to be a properly meaningful upgrade in more ways than I could have imagined.
Fun in the sun
I picked mine up from the (admittedly often vicious) world of Facebook Marketplace for just £80
You see, a gentleman my age has blown out enough birthday candles to remember the days of the Game Boy Advance and the original Nintendo DS, both of which, while fantastic handhelds in their own right, didn’t exactly have the most impressive displays.
Fortunately, I found the 720p panel on the Nintendo Switch Lite to be an absolute marvel. Even in the intense northern Thai sun, the display’s maximum brightness of 380 nits meant that reflected glare from my double chin (damn those Oreos!) was happily rare.
As a result, navigating Metroid Dread’s dirty, subterranean corridors was an effortless affair, even during the two days I spent cruising down the Mekong River on the legendary ‘slow boat’.
And as I reminisced about fond memories of seeking shade in the playground only to be run over in Metroid Prime Hunters, I couldn’t help but think that we’ve come a long way.
Playing with power
Coming from the HAC-001, the extended battery life was also a huge boon; when you’re living out of a bag and rushing here, there and everywhere, keeping your device charged isn’t always the first thing on your mind, so it was nice to know that running out of charge isn’t the end of the world. Especially when your charging settings would sometimes look like this…
Not only does the Lite last longer on a single charge compared to the launch model, but the smaller 3570mAh battery means it charges faster too and ate less juice from my power bank – an absolute lifesaver for any traveller.
Sharp and solid
Much has been made of the decision to put the non-removable Joy-Con on the Lite, and while the move certainly isn’t without its flaws, I was definitely glad for the console’s increased sturdiness on occasions where my backpack dropped to the floor in a sweaty, dramatic exhaustion. This happened often.
And there is improved image clarity. Games running at native 720p resolution look incredibly clear and sharp on the Lite’s smaller, more pixelated screen. The effect is doubly impressive when the games also run at 60 frames per second, as is the case with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD which looks quite different from its duller Wii debut.
And the best part? I picked mine up from the (admittedly often vicious) world of Facebook Marketplace for just £80. It was practically in perfect condition, and when I pledged my Switch off for launch I was actually £50 up.
Stick around
Recently, the Twittersphere has been abuzz with talk of the Switch’s outdated hardware becoming long overdue, and with a recent Bloomberg report suggesting that Nintendo is actually ramping up production in 2023, it looks like we won’t be getting any new hardware revisions anytime soon.
And honestly, I’m fine with that. Barring a major disaster, I’ll definitely be there on day one for the Switch’s successor. But in the meantime, I’m still thrilled every time I fire up my tiny Switch Lite and watch it chew through something like Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, regardless of the “anything below 4k/144fps is COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE!” the crowd says.
Now that we can be pretty sure that a hypothetical Switch 2 isn’t an urgent concern (and now that I’m not working on it), I’m not going to lie: I’m looking for a Switch OLED, mostly so it can play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the good lord intended: on mahoosive TV.
But don’t let that take anything away from the Switch Lite; for what it was meant to be, it couldn’t have been much better.
I’ve eaten some amazing food on my travels—seriously, if you’ve never had pad krapow or panang curry, get over it—but just as sweet was the slice of humble pie that Nintendo served me.
Back to Blighty
Now, sadly, I’m back in the frozen wasteland of the British Isles after my trip was cut short. I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that I won’t be trying to break up street fights again if I ever work up the courage to go back to the Philippines.
But what did I learn backpacking through Southeast Asia for three months?
I learned that despite the misnomer, 7-Eleven is actually open 24 hours and is actually our lord and savior; life means absolutely nothing without the people you love by your side; and Nintendo is still the undisputed king of affordable handheld video game systems.
The Lite isn’t just a weaker Switch; it’s portable perfection by the kilo.
Table of Contents