Nintendo Switch 2 to Have an Estimated Battery Life of 2 to 6.5 Hours - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 April 2025 / 6,620 Views
Nintendo earlier today held the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct revealing new details on the upcoming video game console.
The Switch 2 will have an internal lithium-ion battery of 5220mAh. Nintendo estimates the battery life will be between 2 and 6.5 hours depending on the game.
The original Switch has a 4310mAh battery and the Switch Lite a 3570mAh. However, the original Switch has a battery life between 4.5 and 9 hours, while the Switch Lite it is between 3 and 7 hours.
Nintendo also states the Switch 2 will take approximately three hours to charge while it is on Sleep mode.
The Switch 2 will launch on Thursday, June 5 for $449.99 USD / $629.99 CAD / £395.99 / €469.99 / 49,800 yen in the US. A Mario Kart World Bundle will also be available for $499.99 USD / $699.99 / £429.99 / €509.99 / 53,980 yen. Pre-orders will open on April 9.
Read the full specs of the Switch 2 below:
Size |
Approximately 4.5 inches tall x 10.7 inches wide x .55 inches thick (with Joy-Con™ 2 controllers attached). |
|---|---|
Weight |
Approximately .88 lbs |
Screen |
Capacitive touch screen |
CPU/GPU |
Custom processor made by NVIDIA. |
Storage |
256 GB (UFS) |
Communication features |
Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi 6) |
Video output |
Output via HDMI connector in TV mode |
Audio output |
Supports linear PCM output 5.1ch |
Speakers |
Stereo |
Microphone |
Built-in microphone (monaural) |
Buttons |
POWER Button/Volume buttons |
USB-C® Ports |
2 USB-C® Ports |
Audio jack |
3.5mm 4-contact stereo mini-plug (CTIA standard) |
Game card slot |
Both Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch game cards can be inserted. |
microSD Express card slot |
Compatible with microSD Express cards only (up to 2 TB) |
Sensors |
Accelerometer, gyroscope, and mouse sensor located in Joy-Con 2 controllers |
Operating environment |
41-95 degrees F / 20-80% humidity |
Internal battery |
Lithium-ion battery/5220mAh |
Battery life |
Approx. 2 – 6.5 hours |
Charging time |
Approximately 3 hours |
Read the specs of the Switch 2 Dock below:
Size |
Approximately 4.5 inches tall x 7.9 inches wide x 2 inches thick |
|---|---|
Weight |
Approximately .84 lbs |
Ports |
2 USB Ports (USB 2.0 compatible) on the side |
Read the specs of the Switch 2 Joy-Con Controllers below:
Size |
Approximately 4.57 inches tall x .56 inches wide x 1.2 inches thick |
|---|---|
Weight |
Joy-Con [L] Joy-Con [R] |
Buttons |
Joy-Con [L] Joy-Con [R] |
Wireless |
Joy-Con [L] Joy-Con [R] |
Sensor |
Joy-Con [L] Joy-Con [R] |
Vibration |
HD rumble 2 |
Internal battery |
Lithium ion battery / battery capacity 500mAh |
Battery life |
Approximately 20 hours |
Charging time |
Approximately 3 hours 30 minutes |
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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"The Original Switch has a battery life between 4.5 and 9 hours"
Lmao... the fk it didn't in 2017
Anyone playing BotW day one was getting 2.5-3 hours of gameplay
Maybe the v2 or OLED got 4.5-9 hours but the OG absolutely did not
Go watch any hardware review from 2017 lmao
It only makes sense to compare the official numbers, and 4.5-9 hours is the official number. Now the real question is whether the situation with the Switch 2 is even worse than Nintendo promises or if the range is actually more realistic this time.
So I looked it up and 2.5-6.5 was the official battery life estimate of the launch Switch. The HAC-001(-01) revision in August 2019 brought the number up to 4.5-9 hours, and the Switch OLED shared the 4.5-9 figure.
So, the Switch 2 battery life estimate is roughly the same as launch model Switch, not great, but hopefully on most games it will end up closer to the high end of the range.
Thank you for doing the leg work on those numbers!
I haven't really touch my OLED since getting a PS5 and XSX, or my OG since getting an OLED, but I knew something was up with those numbers.
Your breakdown makes a lot more sense.
The OLED was something like a 70% improvement over the launch Switch.
I then have a Nyko battery extender case which doubles that.
I am able to get 10+ hours in Breath of the Wild with my OLED... The Launch Switch sits at about 3 hours.
2 hours is not enough, kinda outrageous honestly
I imagine 2 hours is 120hz with max brightness and volume on a graphically intensive game...
Even cheaper flights usually have usb outlets now so I can't really thing of a situation where I can't keep it charged for longer than 2 hours anyways
Many USB charging ports won't even keep up with my Switch's power use when playing resource intensive games. They extend play time quite a bit. But, my battery meter still goes down.
That's a crappy battery. Better make sure you charge it for 1 small play session.
That's THE one thing that they should not be saving on...oh Nintendo...
Its about saving space for other components and heat... not price
Batteries are pretty cheap... space in the console is very limited
So, about the same battery life as the V1 Switch. Well, I was mainly gonna use the Switch 2 in docked mode, anyway.
Similar to Switch 1 release model
256gb storage with a portion being used by the system sounds like the old days of when you could set the AGP memory allocation to use an amount of your system memory for GPU tasks. in theory, this could be set to 16gb by default and depending on the game could tap into that extra space for system memory.
I always wondered why something like the Series S did not have a similar approach. Using some of that high speed SSD to act as system memory to help with the 10gb (8gb usable) ram.
Doesn’t it just mean a part of the memory is being used for the operating system install and therefore you won’t have 256GB available to you?
in short, yes. they just arent saying how much is the starting amount and if it can use more if needed.
Yeah, but Switch 2 games are smaller thanks in part to DLSS
Cyberpunk + DLC files size
PS5: 90 GB
PS4: 130 GB
NX2: 64 GB
An extra 512gb micro sd EX is $99 on amazon right now... probably half that in 1-2 years
awesome :)
