Switch 2 sports ~7.9“ screen, 33% bigger tablet surface—Ars video analysis

Thursday's teaser trailer for the Switch 2 made it abundantly clear that the upcoming console will be quite a bit larger than the original Switch that came before it. But Nintendo is still being coy about the specific dimensions of the Switch 2's expanded tablet and Joy-Cons.

Fortunately, the trailer itself features a number of head-on shots of the Switch 2 hardware next to a known quantity—the original Switch Joy-Cons. Using the established measurements of that older controller (102×35.9 mm) and some Photoshop pixel counting, we can use freeze frames from that trailer to extrapolate a rough size and shape for the Switch 2 hardware.

Using the original Switch Joy-Cons as a reference, we can estimate the size of the Switch 2 shown in the trailer. Credit: Nintendo / Ars Technica

After spending a good chunk of Thursday performing just those calculations, we're ready to estimate that the Switch 2 hardware features a roughly 7.9-inch screen (measured diagonally), up from 6.2 inches on the Switch and 7 inches on the Switch OLED. We also learned that the Switch tablet itself has a roughly 33 percent larger footprint than that of the original Switch (in terms of total area), while the joysticks on the Switch 2 Joy-Cons have a roughly 26 percent larger diameter than those on the Switch.

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It’s official: Take a first look at the Switch 2

After months and years of rumors and official hints, Nintendo has finally pulled back the curtain on the Switch 2 with a first-look trailer (and sparse promo web site) highlighting many small changes from the old Switch.

The Switch 2 tablet, shown with original Switch Joy-Cons for scale. Credit: Nintendo

A close-up of the new USB-C port on the top of the system. Credit: Nintendo

An expanded kickstand can work at multiple angles. Credit: Nintendo

The short trailer shows off the Switch 2's larger tablet and screen, and a slightly more rounded edge on the top and bottom. The new system also sports an additional USB-C port on the top (next to a headphone jack) and a wider, U-shaped kickstand along the backside that can support the system at a number of wider angles.

The trailer also shows off black Joy-Cons that are significantly larger than those on the original Switch, with colored accents behind the joystick itself. An extended, colored Joy-Con "rail" on the inner edge features wider shoulder buttons and a new connector in the center. Rather than sliding in vertically, like the plastic rail on the Switch Joy-Cons, the controllers on the Switch 2 snap in horizontally with what appears to be a magnetic connection, and disconnects with the aid of a horizontal lever to the side of the shoulder buttons.

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This PDF contains a playable copy of Doom

Here at Ars, we're suckers for stories about hackers getting Doom running on everything from CAPTCHA robot checks and Windows' notepad.exe to AI hallucinations and fluorescing gut bacteria. Despite all that experience, we were still thrown for a loop by a recent demonstration of Doom running in the usually static confines of a PDF file.

On the Github page for the quixotic project, coder ading2210 discusses how Adobe Acrobat included some robust support for JavaScript in the PDF file format. That JS coding support—which dates back decades and is still fully documented in Adobe's official PDF specs—is currently implemented in a more limited, more secure form as part of PDFium, the built-in PDF-rendering engine of Chromium-based browsers.

In the past, hackers have used this little-known Adobe feature to code simple games like Breakout and Tetris into PDF documents. But ading220 went further, recompiling a streamlined fork of Doom's open source code using an old version of Emscripten that outputs optimized asm.js code.

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2002’s Neverwinter Nights gets a patch in 2025 from “unpaid software engineers”

Neverwinter Nights came out in 2002 and received an enhanced edition in 2018. In 2025, that should really be it, but there's something special about Bioware's second dip into the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The energy from the game's community is strong enough that, based largely on the work of "unpaid software engineers," the game received a new patch last week.

Neverwinter Nights (NN) Enhanced Edition (on Steam and GOG) now has anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering built in, major improvements to its networking code and performance, and more than 100 other improvements. As noted by PC Gamer, NN was originally built for single-core CPUs, so while it may seem odd to seek "major" improvements to performance for a 23-year-old RPG, it is far from optimized for modern systems.

NN received a similar fan-led patch, described as "a year-long love effort" by community developers, in 2023.

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Report: After many leaks, Switch 2 announcement could come “this week”

Nintendo may be getting ready to make its Switch 2 console official. According to "industry whispers" collected by Eurogamer, as well as reporting from The Verge's Tom Warren, the Switch 2 could be formally announced sometime this week. Eurogamer suggests the reveal is scheduled for this Thursday, January 16.

The reporting also suggests that the reveal will focus mostly on the console's hardware design, with another game-centered announcement coming later. Eurogamer reports that the console won't be ready to launch until April; this would be similar to Nintendo's strategy for the original Switch, which was announced in mid-January 2017 but not launched until March.

Many things about the Switch 2's physical hardware design have been thoroughly leaked at this point, thanks mostly to accessory makers who have been showing off their upcoming cases. Accessory maker Genki was at CES last week with a 3D-printed replica of the console based on the real thing, suggesting a much larger but still familiar-looking console with a design and button layout similar to the current Switch.

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Of course Atari’s new handheld includes a trackball, spinner, and numpad

In the wake of the successful Nintendo Switch and Valve Steam Deck, we have seen a wave of PC-based, Android-based, and even FPGA-based handheld gaming systems that can sometimes be hard to tell apart. The upcoming Atari GameStation Go sets itself apart with what we're relatively sure is a first for portable gaming: built-in trackball, spinner, and number pad controls.

Gamers who cut their teeth after 1990 or so might not remember an era when arcade and home console games often relied on controls that went beyond the usual D-pad/joystick and action buttons. But there are plenty of classics from the early days of electronic gaming that just don't feel right unless you have a trackball (Centipede, Missile Command, Crystal Castles), spinner (Arkanoid, Tempest), or number pad (Star Raiders, Intellivision sports games). Many modern retro re-releases try to re-create these kinds of games with more standardized joystick and button controls, but the results can be limited at best and unplayable at worst.

The Atari GameStation Go, on the other hand, seems to be aiming for maximum retro authenticity by packing a whole host of control options into its $150, 7-inch display portable. While a prototype shell for the GameStation Go was briefly shown at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show a year ago, this year's CES is the official announcement party for a playable version of the GameStation Go.

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Gentrified Doom remake trades chainsaw for cheese knife

Just when you thought you had seen every possible Doom mod, two game developers released a free browser game that reimagines the first level of 1993's Doom as an art gallery, replacing demons with paintings and shotguns with wine glasses.

Doom: The Gallery Experience, created by Filippo Meozzi and Liam Stone, transforms the iconic E1M1 level into a virtual museum space where players guide a glasses-wearing Doomguy through halls of fine art as classical music plays in the background. The game links each displayed artwork to its corresponding page on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.

"In this experience, you will be able to walk around and appreciate some fine art while sipping some wine and enjoying the complimentary hors d’oeuvres," write the developers on the game's itch.io page, "in the beautifully renovated and re-imagined E1M1 of id Software's DOOM (1993)."

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New videos show off larger Nintendo Switch 2, snap-on Joy-Cons

Nintendo still isn't ready to officially reveal any details about the Switch 2 (beyond a brief mention of backward compatibility in November). But that hasn't stopped gaming accessory maker Genki from giving us one of the best looks yet at the size and shape of Nintendo's upcoming hardware, as well as a video glimpse of how the console's new Joy-Cons will attach to the base tablet.

Genki is reportedly using a scale 3D model of the Switch 2 to show off its console cases behind closed doors at the Consumer Electronics Show. A video from French tech site Numerama shows that 3D model dwarfing an original Switch model in both length and width.

VIDEO — La Nintendo Switch 2 en avant-première au #CES2025.

L'accessoiriste Genki indique posséder la vraie console et expose une maquette 3D + des accessoires.

Les détails ici : https://t.co/5LDlnR2zC1 pic.twitter.com/IJ6taQggIQ

— Numerama (@Numerama) January 8, 2025

In a longer write-up of Genki's Switch 2 mock-up, Numerama reports that Genki says its 3D model was derived from an actual Switch 2 console, not merely "3D blueprints." Genki's model also includes a second USB-C port atop the system, Numerama reports, as well as a mysterious C button underneath the home button on the right Joy-Con.

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Bye-bye Windows gaming? SteamOS officially expands past the Steam Deck.

Almost exactly a year ago, we were publicly yearning for the day when more portable gaming PC makers could ditch Windows in favor of SteamOS (without having to resort to touchy unofficial workarounds). Now, that day has finally come, with Lenovo announcing the upcoming Legion Go S as the first non-Valve handheld to come with an officially licensed copy of SteamOS preinstalled. And Valve promises that it will soon ship a beta version of SteamOS for users to "download and test themselves."

As Lenovo's slightly downsized followup to 2023's massive Legion Go, the Legion Go S won't feature the detachable controllers of its predecessor. But the new PC gaming handheld will come in two distinct versions, one with the now-standard Windows 11 installation and another edition that's the first to sport the (recently leaked) "Powered by SteamOS" branding.

The lack of a Windows license seems to contribute to a lower starting cost for the "Powered by SteamOS" edition of the Legion Go S, which will start at $500 when it's made available in May. Lenovo says the Windows edition of the device—available starting this month—will start at $730, with "additional configurations" available in May starting as low as $600.

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New GeForce 50-series GPUs: There’s the $1,999 5090, and there’s everything else

Nvidia has good news and bad news for people building or buying gaming PCs.

The good news is that three of its four new RTX 50-series GPUs are the same price as or slightly cheaper than the RTX 40-series GPUs they're replacing. The RTX 5080 is $999, the same price as the RTX 4080 Super; the 5070 Ti and 5070 are launching for $749 and $549, each $50 less than the 4070 Ti Super and 4070 Super.

The bad news for people looking for the absolute fastest card they can get is that the company is charging $1,999 for its flagship RTX 5090 GPU, significantly more than the $1,599 MSRP of the RTX 4090. If you want Nvidia's biggest and best, it will cost at least as much as four high-end game consoles or a pair of decently specced midrange gaming PCs.

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Switch 2 leaks point to controllers that work like computer mice

Here at Ars, we're judicious about which of the many, many Switch 2 rumors we decide to highlight on this page. For every report on hardware power or magnetic Joy-Cons that we share, there are probably five others we see and decide are too lightly sourced, too unlikely, or just too plain obscure to spread here.

But when we started hearing reports that the Switch 2's Joy-Cons could be cradled on their sides and manipulated like a full-fledged gaming mouse, we knew the concept was one you'd want to hear about.

Rumor: More images of Switch 2 Joy-Cons have immerged from China.

Source: https://t.co/MplOUwKhRi pic.twitter.com/5ZdFmVlggl

— Stealth (@Stealth40k) January 5, 2025

The rumors of mouse-like functionality on the Switch 2's included controllers got supercharged over the weekend when a Reddit poster shared detailed photos of purported Switch 2 Joy-Cons, sourced from an unnamed Chinese social media user. In between the longer shoulder buttons along the Joy-Con's inner edge (SL and SR) and a new central connector port, eagle-eyed viewers noticed what looks suspiciously like the optical sensor that sits on the bottom of practically every mouse these days.

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AMD’s new Ryzen Z2 CPUs boost gaming handhelds, if you buy the best one

Nearly two years ago, AMD announced its first Ryzen Z1 processors. These were essentially the same silicon that AMD was putting in high-end thin-and-light laptops but tuned specifically for handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X. As part of its CES announcements today, AMD is refreshing that lineup with three processors, all slated for an undisclosed date in the first quarter of 2025.

Although they're all part of the "Ryzen Z2" family, each of these three chips is actually much different under the hood, and some of them are newer than others.

The Ryzen Z2 Extreme is what you'd expect from a refresh: a straightforward upgrade to both the CPU and GPU architectures of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme. Based on the same "Strix Point" architecture as the Ryzen AI 300 laptop processors, the Z2 Extreme includes eight CPU cores (three high-performance Zen 5 cores, five smaller and efficiency-optimized Zen 5C cores) and an unnamed RDNA 3.5 GPU with 16 of AMD's compute units (CUs). These should both provide small bumps to CPU and GPU performance relative to the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which used eight Zen 4 CPU cores and 12 RDNA 3 GPU cores.

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Ars readers gave over $39,000 in our 2024 Charity Drive

Last month, we asked readers to donate to a couple of good causes in our 2024 Charity Drive sweepstakes. And boy, did you deliver. With the drive now complete and the donations all tallied, we can report that Ars Technica readers gave an incredible $39,047.66 to Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in this year's drive. That doesn't set a new record, but it nearly matches last year's total and raises our lifetime Ars Charity Drive donation haul since 2007 to over $540,000. Well done, Arsians!

Thanks to everyone who gave whatever they could. We're still early in the process of selecting and notifying winners of our swag giveaway, so don't fret if you haven't heard if you're a winner yet. In the meantime, enjoy these quick stats from the 2024 drive.

• 2024 fundraising total: $39,047.66
  • Total given to Child's Play: $14,914.82
  • Total given to the EFF: $23,912.89
• Number of individual donations: 378
  • Child's Play donations: 201
  • EFF donations: 174
• Average donation: $103.30
  • Child's Play average donation: $74.20
  • EFF average donation: $137.43
• Median donation: $50.75
  • Median Child's Play donation: $50.00
  • Median EFF donation: $66.95
• Top single donation: $3,000 (to EFF)
• Donations of $1,000 or more: 7
• Donations of $100 or more: 133
• $5 or less donations: 6 (every little bit helps!)

• Total charity donations from Ars Technica drives since 2007 (approximate): $542,935.18
  • 2024: $39,047.66
  • 2023: $39,830.36
  • 2022: $31,656.07
  • 2021: $40,261.71
  • 2020: $58,758.11
  • 2019: $33,181.11
  • 2018: $20,210.66
  • 2017: $36,012.37
  • 2016: $38,738.11
  • 2015: $38,861.06
  • 2014: $25,094.31
  • 2013: $23,570.13
  • 2012: $28,713.52
  • 2011: ~$26,000
  • 2010: ~$24,000
  • 2009: ~$17,000
  • 2008: ~$12,000
  • 2007: ~$10,000

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Meet the man keeping hope, and 70-year-old pinball machines, alive

The pastime of pinball has lived a fraught existence. Whether due to public sentiment, hostile legislation, or a simple lack of popularity, the entire silver ball industry has repeatedly teetered on the brink of collapse. Yet it has always come back, today again riding a wave of popularity driven by the successes of high-tech machines capitalizing on familiar brands like X-Men and Godzilla.

Pinball arcades are springing up everywhere, but private ownership is also surging. Those modern tables with their high-definition displays and brilliant LED lights are getting the most attention, but there is a breed of pinball enthusiast who not only owns a selection of classic machines but also obsessively maintains and restores them.

These collectors have just as much love for the maze of mechanicals beneath the surface as the trajectories the silver ball follows. The goal isn't high scores; it's keeping ornately complex vintage contraptions looking and playing like new.

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Rumors say next-gen RTX 50 GPUs will come with big jumps in power requirements

Nvidia is reportedly gearing up to launch the first few cards in its RTX 50-series at CES next week, including an RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070. The 5090 will be of particular interest to performance-obsessed, money-is-no-object PC gaming fanatics since it's the first new GPU in over two years that can beat the performance of 2022's RTX 4090.

But boosted performance and slower advancements in chip manufacturing technology mean that the 5090's maximum power draw will far outstrip the 4090's, according to leakers. VideoCardz reports that the 5090's thermal design power (TDP) will be set at 575 W, up from 450 W for the already power-hungry RTX 4090. The RTX 5080's TDP is also increasing to 360 W, up from 320 W for the RTX 4080 Super.

That also puts the RTX 5090 close to the maximum power draw available over a single 12VHPWR connector, which is capable of delivering up to 600 W of power (though once you include the 75 W available via the PCI Express slot on your motherboard, the actual maximum possible power draw for a GPU with a single 12VHPWR connector is a slightly higher 675 W).

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