Blinded by the Lite

To see the Lite is to touch it.

The matte finish feels just crispy enough under your fingertips. Your index fingers nestle into a slightly deeper scoop on the trigger buttons. Like resting your hands in slime, it’s tactile bliss, ASMR for the grabbers.

Both airy and sturdy, the discounted (C$259) hand-held-only Lite model of Nintendo’s hit console Switch is the most comfortable mobile gaming device ever made. Even if you already own the mobile-capable Switch, you should consider picking up a Lite.

I’ve played every iteration of Nintendo’s hand-helds. None of them, even the beloved DS series, were ever known for their comfort. Devices would be too thick, too thin, too tall, too heavy. Only two other devices even approached this level of comfort: the Game Boy Advance and Sony’s Playstation Vita, but neither knows the human hand as well as the Switch Lite.

After the Wii U, Nintendo’s failed first attempt at a hybrid tablet-console machine, the Switch was Apollo 2. Nintendo beat the skeptics in 2016, quickly selling as fast and sometimes faster than Sony’s more powerful Playstation 4. The Switch Lite is not just another iteration of the Switch, but a successor to its DS series.

The Switch entered the market as a console, but since then has been accepted and considered by many as a hand-held device. With the Lite, there’s no “switch” to connect to a TV. The detachable controllers are gone (though you can connect them to the device for more players).

This time, the directional pad makes its official triumphant return, feeling about as good as Nintendo’s already excellent Pro Controller for the Switch.

The 720p output is the same resolution as the hand-held version of the Switch. But because of the smaller screen, more pixel density results in a crisper looking image, even if it’s the same thing. Be wary of games with heavy reading. Text was already a struggle to read on the Switch’s hand-held mode, and it’s worse on the smaller screen.

Also be wary of the speakers, which are now mostly located at the bottom of the system, as opposed to only the back. Covering the bottom will muffle sound. The Switch’s kickstand is also gone, which is good since it was the biggest design flaw in the original system.

Linking accounts is easy. Just punch in your Nintendo ID account and password, and you can access your downloaded games, backed-up save data from the cloud and all your original options.

An important note for people buying their second Switch: Only the “primary” Switch for the account can play games without the internet. Every additional Switch needs to check in online before starting up a game. It makes sense, then, for multiple Switch owners to designate the Lite as their primary. Keep your console in its dock at home, bathed in Wi-fi.

Each system only comes with 32 gigabytes of storage, same as the old system, so if you’re going to be downloading games, you’ll need a micro SD card to bolster your capacity. Nintendo says you’ll get about half an hour more in battery life.

Remove the “gimmick” of the Switch and you’re left with one of the best gaming consoles ever released. Stacked with titles like Doom, Dark Souls and, soon, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, along with its own first-party Mario and Zelda titles, Nintendo can boast an S-tier library early in the system’s life.

So who is this for? There are the Switch holdouts, for whom the original $398 price tag might’ve been too much for a system that’s not nearly as powerful as Microsoft and Sony’s platforms.

And Nintendo nerds will naturally eat this up. Nintendo and Apple share similar tactics when it comes to updating their devices, and don’t be surprised if some ludicrously named Switch Lite XL Pro is released in a few years.