Nintendo just rolled out Switch Firmware 10.0.0, and with it came button remapping and the much-needed ability to transfer games from internal storage to SD card. There was a little something hidden away inside that firmware update, and it was found by a seasoned dataminer known as Mike Heskin who found preliminary support for a new model codenamed “nx-abcd.”
Now, that codename does sound about as far from legitimate as possible, but it’s actually inline with previous codenames for various switch devices, including nx-abca, nx-abca2, nx-abcb, and nx-abcc. Nintendo has already gone on record and said that the Nintendo Switch is only halfway through its life cycle and isn’t considered with the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 4, so this is a little strange, but we could be looking at a more premium model – one with dual displays, if you can believe that.
In Heskin’s tweet above, he mentions the new DRAM profiles, but the most important part is the “evidence” of a secondary display. Of course, he didn’t elaborate on what this evidence is, but he’s been reliable in the past, so we’re taking it at face value. Such a model isn’t necessarily out of Nintendo’s spectrum as we’ve seen it before with the Nintendo DS, for example. However, given the size of the Switch as it is now, a second screen doesn’t really seem all that feasible. Adding a slide-out screen would undoubtedly make the Switch even bulkier and, probably, more difficult and taxing to hold. Adding a flip-up screen would make the switch to bulky for portability which is one of its bigger selling points.
Ideally, if a second screen was being considered, it would be something that connects externally, possibly via the same USB-C port that we use for charging and connecting the console to its base. That would still hamper portability to some extent, but it would be optional and could open the door for some cooler game features down the road. We wouldn’t advise that you expect to see a dual-screen Switch anytime soon, and there’s a strong possibility that it’s just something some developer is playing around with, but we’re definitely interested in hearing more about it.
In the meantime, you can learn about how people have been buying up the Switch like crazy amid the COVID-19 pandemic or the rumors that Nintendo is actively working on remastering its entire catalog of Super Mario games.
