The new Nintendo Switch revision has started to appear in retailers around the world, and, with that, we can not only see the portable home console unboxed once again but watch a loading time comparison between the two different models.
YouTube channel GameXplain has covered both and while their unboxing video doesn’t reveal any surprises, it is the results of their loading time comparison that will likely be of interest to most.
That has seen them compare loading times between the original and revised model for Super Mario Odyssey (update version 1.3.0) and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (update version 1.6.0), installed on the console’s internal memory.
For Super Mario Odyssey, both consoles took around 20 seconds to load to the main menu, and travelling to the Cascade Kingdom from New Donk City too just under 12 seconds. And then, in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, warping from the Great Plateau to Kakariko Village took around 18.5 seconds on both consoles.
“So far, any difference appears to be entirely negligible with the small gap possibly being chalked up to the same random fluctuations we’ve noticed in load times even on the same Switch,” GameXplain reasoned.
“So, as far as we can tell from the handful of tests that we’ve performed, loading times seem to be unaffected between the new and original Switches to any meaningful degree.”
The revised Nintendo Switch model promises an improved battery life that can last up to nine hours. The launch model’s battery can last up to 6.5 hours, and, when playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo estimates that it will only last around three hours.
With the new model, Nintendo has been able to make improvements – presumably driven by the Tegra X1 processor revision, codenamed Mariko. The result is that the revised portable home console’s battery life can last up to 9 hours, and, when playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as the comparison point, it will last around 5.5 hours.
The new Nintendo Switch model will hit retailers in North America “from mid-August,” whereas it will come to Europe in early September, and, we expect, means that Nintendo will start to phase out the launch model.
