Travel Lite

Smaller, lighter, longer-lasting – can Switch’s new model deliver joy without Joy-Cons?

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Nintendo has never held much truck with convention, but it’s still surprising to witness a hardware announcement accompanied by a trailer illustrating what it can’t do. So it was with the debut of the Switch Lite, a more compact, lightweight revision dedicated to handheld play – and which, as demonstrated by Yoshiaki Koizumi, fits within the inside pocket of a suit jacket. It will come in at $100 cheaper than its older sibling, thanks to a host of costcutting changes. There’s no dock or HDMI cable, since Switch Lite won’t connect to your TV. Controls are integrated, so no more Joy-Cons – which in turn means no IR Camera. You can say goodbye to HD Rumble, too, while the absence of a kickstand rules out tabletop mode. Here, in other words, is a Switch that no longer lives up to its name.