Nintendo's New Switch Consoles Benefit From Power Efficient Sharp IGZO Display Panels

by Brandon Hill — Wednesday, August 07, 2019, 09:11 AM EDT

Nintendo over the past month has released two new gaming consoles: the all-new Nintendo Switch Lite and a revised version of the original Nintendo Switch. The Switch Lite is a smaller and lighter console with fixed controllers, while the revised "standard" Switch looks largely the same as the original, but features vastly improved battery life.

We're now learning thanks to a new report that these new Switch consoles may be benefiting from a previously undisclosed hardware upgrade. According to The Wall Street Journal, Sharp Executive VP Katsuaki Nomura confirmed that his company is proving indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) display panels to Nintendo for the Switch.

IGZO panels are known for their energy efficiency, which is a big concern for a mobile gaming device powered by a battery with finite energy. IGZO panels are also said to be more durable with improved touch panel sensitivity compared to the panels used in the original Switch.

We should mention that the Nintendo Switch Lite has marginally better battery life than the original Switch (maxing out at 7 hours of runtime versus 6.5 hours) despite the fact that it has a smaller battery. Likewise, the revised standard Switch has the same battery capacity as its immediate predecessor, yet sees its max runtimes increase from 6.5 hours to an impressive 9 hours. Some of this increase could be chalked up to a more efficient NVIDIA Tegra X1 SoC, but we can't rule out the efficiency benefits inherent with an IGZO display panel.

The new Nintendo Switch Lite is priced at $199, while the revised Nintendo Switch retains the $299 price tag of the original model.

Tags: Nintendo, Sharp, IGZO, nintendo switch, nintendo switch lite

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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