Contents
The Nintendo Switch OLED promises a better display quality and here you will find all the qualities that the console can highlight. On the other hand, it is also worth remembering that compromises have been made.
A Zelda game on Nintendo Switch OLED // Source: Nintendo
This is the big announcement of the day: the Nintendo Switch OLED has been made official. As its name suggests, the great novelty of this brand new console is its panel which is based on OLED display technology. We regularly come across this term especially in the world of smartphones, but also in that of TV or PC. The announcement of this new product is an opportunity to recall its advantages.
In other words, we are going to see together why the Nintendo Switch OLED screen will be better than that of the classic Nintendo Switch.
SWITCH OLED VS LCD
The opposition between the Nintendo Switch OLED and the classic version of the console amounts, in large part, to confronting OLED and LCD technologies. The first, Organic Light-Emitting Diode, uses organic light-emitting diodes. What you need to understand is that each diode on an OLED screen emits its own light. To display the color black, an OLED panel will simply not light up the pixels concerned. This point will have its importance in the next part of this file.
The new Nintendo Switch has a 7-inch OLED screen // Source: Nintendo
On the other hand, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have been used extensively in our technological products for a longer time. Their operation is very different from OLED since they need to use a backlighting system to illuminate said crystals. Keep in mind these non-exhaustive explanations, they will allow you to understand what follows.
THE ADVANTAGES OF THE NINTENDO SWITCH OLED SCREEN
BEST CONTRAST
The Nintendo Switch OLED will especially highlight its better contrast. The OLED panel displays real blacks since its black pixels are off, no light passes through them. With an LCD display, these same black pixels remain illuminated since the panel cannot handle what it displays with such granularity.
So, if you put the same black background on OLED and LCD screens and with the same brightness and compare them side by side, you will have the impression that the second displays dark gray while the first will transcribe the image with much more loyalty. While few people actually lend themselves to this kind of experimentation, many users will no doubt appreciate the improved visual comfort.
In contrast, dark black pixels will show off all other colors better. On your games of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Splatoon 2, the scenes will appear more vivid and therefore richer on the Nintendo Switch OLED.
BETTER BRIGHTNESS
If you have a smartphone with an OLED screen and you have opted for an automatic adjustment of the brightness, the latter will be able to reach new heights when the conditions require it (in a very bright environment, under a very strong sun, etc. ). However, if you manually adjust this setting, you won’t be able to climb very high, as if you hit a glass ceiling. It is really the fact of going into automatic mode which makes it possible to exceed 700 or even sometimes 800 cd / m².
The Nintendo Switch OLED will undoubtedly adopt a similar behavior:
- able to raise the brightness very high when needed on automatic mode;
- a little more limited in terms of brightness on a 100% manual setting.
BEST COLORS?
The latter benefit is a bit less of a certainty, but OLED displays tend to offer a wider color gamut than their LCD counterparts. We can therefore bet on better coverage of color spaces such as the very standard sRGB and the larger and more difficult to manage DCI-P3.
Everything will actually depend on the quality of the panel that will equip the Nintendo Switch OLED. The comments above are especially valid for fairly recent screens, if the console is satisfied with a component a little outdated, this improvement will probably go by the wayside.
FEARS AROUND THE NINTENDO SWITCH OLED
We’ve gone over the improvements to expect on the Nintendo Switch OLED display. This should not prevent us from thinking about the small concessions that will also potentially have to be made. There are mainly two and they are related to the definition of the screen.
DEFINITION AND RESOLUTION
The Nintendo Switch OLED has a 7-inch screen, compared to a size of 6.2 inches on the original console released in 2017 in France, but the HD definition of 1280 x 720 pixels remains unchanged. Mathematically, the Nintendo Switch OLED will therefore offer a lower resolution. As a reminder, the definition represents the number of pixels in a screen while the resolution designates the density of pixels inside. By enlarging the size of a screen without changing its definition, we inevitably end up with a lower number of pixels per point.
In today’s example, the Nintendo Switch OLED drops to just 293 ppi, a drop of almost 9% from the 320 ppi of the first Switch. On a daily basis, this means that you are much more likely to distinguish the pixels on the screen of your new console by holding it about twenty centimeters from your eyes.
It shouldn’t happen every day, but it never feels good.
A HISTORY OF SUB-PIXELS
Moreover, for equal definition, an OLED panel may be worse than an LCD panel. Most OLED panels do not use an RGB matrix where each pixel is made up of three red, green and blue subpixels. Instead, we find Pentile matrices where each pixel is divided by only two subpixels: a green subpixel and a large blue or red subpixel.
If you are a little confused, remember that RGB matrices offer a thinner, more precise display. To compensate, the OLED panels of our smartphones will often seek higher definitions in order to avoid giving the impression that there are kinds of holes in the screen. With a definition that remains at 720 p, the Nintendo Switch OLED could be faced with this concern.
THE CONSTRAINTS OF NINTENDO
Finally, we will especially regret that the Nintendo Switch OLED does not seek a definition of 1920 x 1080 pixels, but the old Tegra X1 chip – the same as on the previous model – is probably not powerful enough to support such an optimization. .
We imagine that Nintendo wanted to limit as much as possible the increase in the selling price of its console. In this regard, speculation can be rife as to the release of a true Pro version incorporating a 1080p screen and even showing games in 4K through the dock. However, let’s not bet on such a model for at least a year.
As a reminder, the Nintendo Switch OLED will be released on October 8. In the United States, it will cost $ 349.99.
