Upgraded Nintendo Switch reportedly aiming for 4K next year

4K-Ready not 4K-Native

New details about Nintendo’s speculated enhanced and more powerful Switch variant has emerged. According to Bloomberg sources, this Nintendo Switch Pro, or whatever it may be called, will target 4K TVs.

Breath of the Wild in true 4K on CEMU via Reddit user iamkraya Will Switch Pro reach this fidelity?

There is little question that the Switch will get a follow-up. The insane success of the handheld-console hybrid is just too absurd to become a one-off. Indeed, after the massive flop of the Wii U Nintendo turned around the boat in an unprecedented way and delivered arguably the most interesting gaming platform in recent memory.

Not only do users get the quality Nintendo handheld experience, but they can switch to regular living room home console play at an instant. The company’s long-standing trend to not follow the highest fidelity has reaped unexpected benefits this way, too.

But in an age where Sony and Microsoft have released souped-up consoles that target 4K TVs, the Switch simply failed to keep up. 1080p in 2020 is just not enough. Hence, rumors of an enhanced Switch have made the rounds for a while now.

Thanks to credible sources who spoke to Bloomsberg we know have very good reason to believe Nintendo will offer a 4K solution for its user base as soon as 2021. Reportedly, several developers have confirmed that Nintendo has been asking them to ‘make their game 4K-ready’.

Even if tech has advanced quite a bit since 2017, it’s still a big ask for a handheld to deliver 4K gaming. We suspect that this Switch Pro will rather focus on smartly upscaling internal render resolutions to 4K instead. Similar to how modern GPUs use AI upscaling.

In that regard, it would arguably make a lot of sense seeing that Nvidia is providing the silicone for the Nintendo Switch anyway. Nvidia has been leading the market with DLSS AI supersampling for several years and it’s not that out there to expect them to add it to the new Switch.