According to VGC a Taipei-based newspaper Economic Daily News reported that the third Switch model — dubbed online as ‘Nintendo Switch Pro’ — will finally launch in the first quarter of 2021. It will begin production in the fourth quarter of this year. It’s said that the Switch Pro model will feature improved display quality and upgraded “interactivity”. While there’s no other information about what this new interactivity feature supposed to be, April Switch’s ver. 10.0.0 firmware update allegedly referenced an unannounced “nx-abcd” hardware model.
“There’s evidence of a secondary display of sorts being added exclusively on this model.” Tweeted Mike Heskin.
It’s no surprise that Nintendo is planning another iteration of its highly successful portable console. Early this year, Taiwan-based news site DigiTimes reported that Switch Pro should already launch around mid-2020. The news was backed by Wall Street Journal’s 2019 report saying Nintendo is planning to release a variant with “enhanced features targeted at avid videogames” alongside Switch Lite. It’s safe to assume the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted that plan.
“You would be wrong to think the enhanced version is similar to what Sony did with PS4 Pro,” claimed someone who allegedly has tried Switch Pro in the Wall Street Journal report.
Even back from the Game Boy Advance day, Nintendo always launches hardware updates for their portables. First, they released a base model, slimmer SP model, and later the extremely small Game Boy Micro. The same goes for the DS family; there are the NDS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL. 3DS had the most models so far: with the basic model, 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, and eventually New Nintendo 3DS XL and New Nintendo 2DS XL.
