The Verge seems to have verified our infamous Redditor from the future who has been leaking the Switch 2.
NextHandheld literally emerged at the start of this week, as someone who convinced reddit moderator MacksNotCool that they did have a Switch 2 and can speak about it.
The other day, we reported on another moderator, Spheromancer, who has their doubts on whether NextHandheld is credible or not.
You can read our articles on NextHandheld’s and Spheromancer’s claims above, but to keep things simple, we will consider Verge editor Sean Hollister’s report as a separate rumor. You will see some repeated claims here, but we’ll leave it to you to cross reference them if you are interested.
Sean talked to NextHandheld, and was convinced by their evidence and his vetting that their claims could be legit; though he fell short of saying it was all confirmed.
We’ll quote Sean directly on the evidence he was shown:
“In particular, I’ve seen two photos of a possible Nintendo Switch 2 dock, and one photo of the inside of a possible Switch 2 controller rail, covered in certification logos and with copper contacts exposed, which also shows its metal kickstand hinge open at an angle. Notably, the dock was not included in the 3D scan that’s circulating among case manufacturers.”
NextHandheld also told Sean these pictures were firsthand evidence of the Switch 2. Sean saw that the dock had the Switch logo, with a number 2 next to it, and the console’s name under it.
NextHandheld’s dock has the same ports as the original, but they hint on the dock hiding a big fan. While that’s not as exciting as an Oculink GPU dock, they suggest that this fan will push performance far higher than the original Switch is capable of. While the original Switch is rated for 18W of performance, the Switch 2 is rated at 45W docked and 60W undocked.
Sean describes the Switch 2 controller rail below:
“…the photo I saw of a joystick rail region contains no rail: it’s just a long, rounded, hollow area, with a 13-pin connector that sticks out so it can slot into the Joy-Con.”
In plain English, Sean was shown evidence that the Switch 2 Joy-Cons do attach magnetically to the console. NextHandheld also told Sean that the Joy-Cons will have magnetic Hall Effect joysticks, and of the second USB-C port on top.
One of the photos Sean saw also proved to him that the Switch 2 will have U-shaped kickstand. Interestingly, Sean says that the kickstand could be ‘beefier’ than what we have been seeing in the Switch 2 image leaks and 3D printed mockups.
It’s certainly interesting to learn what this could mean. Could that U shape be wider than what we’ve seen in mockups? Or could it be thicker, creating deep trenches in the bottom of the Switch 2? The latter could be another instance of Nintendo cleverly designing the console to have better airflow lying on its stand.
The last thing NextHandheld tells Sean is that they know of three SKUs. One will be dark grey, one will be white, and one will be themed around a Nintendo game that hasn’t received a Switch yet.
Sean pointed out that we won’t have to wait long if NextHandheld’s claims are true, but we certainly wonder about the images NextHandheld promised to release later this month. Will they go through with it? What difference does it make to release it then compared to now? And what if this all turns out to be fake after all? But that’s what we anticipate for the next few weeks.
