Tech
My day one Nintendo Switch 2 review: Its here, and its awesome
Folks, we’re finally here. The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally showing up on people’s doorsteps, while others braved the lengthy lines at midnight launch events that spanned the globe.
Because I have a cool job, I actually got the console a day early. And after spending about 24 hours with my new Switch 2, I’ve got plenty of early thoughts to share. I know some gamers are on the fence about spending $450 on a new Nintendo console (and $80 for the new Mario Kart World), especially in tough economic times. My full Switch 2 review will come later, but for now, let’s dive into my first day of gaming.
And because you've waited long enough, here's my early verdict: It's awesome, though not without its setup quirks.
My Nintendo Switch 2 first impressions
Remember: This is definitely not a full review of the console, as again, I’ve only had it for a little over 24 hours at the time of writing. My impressions and reviews of games like Mario Kart World and Rune Factory will also have to wait. These are my unfiltered thoughts on the hardware and user experience so far. You can also check out my first impressions of the new Game Chat features.
Setup is easy enough but not perfect
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
Let's start with good news: Getting the console up and running on the initial startup is quite simple. You turn it on, log into your Nintendo account if you have one (you should probably have one), connect to the internet, and then you’re more or less good to go. I mean, you won’t be able to play any games right away unless you have physical copies because downloading games takes time, but all things considered, I found this process pretty painless.
The only caveat I’d add to all of that? There’s a (by all accounts) lengthy and involved data transfer process if you want to transfer over everything from your Switch 1 to your Switch 2. This is obviously useful if you have a bunch of old Switch games you’re currently in the middle of playing, or if you want to grab your save data the old-fashioned way. Nintendo Switch Online members have access to cloud saves, and for almost every game, downloading them takes just a few seconds on the home screen the first time you boot the game up.
Attaching and detaching the magnetic Joy-Con 2 controllers feels so good the first time you do it. Just trust me.
I should note that I didn’t try the data transfer because I didn’t have my Switch on me at the time and I needed to start playing games ASAP, but everything I’m hearing from other gamers makes it sound like kind of a mess. Former Mashable superstar Adam Rosenberg went through his experience in a thread on Bluesky, in which he said the process took two hours. His Switch 2 tried to transfer everything instead of giving him an easy way to decide what to bring over and what to leave behind.
He’s not the only person I know who expressed frustration with the Switch 2 transfer process. To be honest, I recommend skipping the initial data transfer and just manually installing the games you want to keep playing. You've waited long enough for the Switch 2, after all, and you'll want to start playing ASAP.
The hardware itself is an immediate and profound step up
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
Strange setup quirks aside, the Switch 2 is so, so much better than the first console once it’s actually in your hands.
The new 7.9-inch, 1080p display has a 120Hz refresh rate and is a colossal improvement over the 6.2-inch, 720p, 60Hz original. There’s one more caveat here, though; it’s an LCD display, meaning it is, in one specific way, inferior to the Switch OLED. I was never a Switch OLED owner, so I can’t say authoritatively that the lack of OLED is a huge problem on the Switch 2. The new display looks pretty darn good to me, though I suppose it could be a bit more vibrant in certain spots. That said, your mileage may vary if you’re used to looking at an OLED display.
Beyond that, the new Joy-Con 2 controllers are substantially bigger than before, making them much better suited to adult-sized hands. The new analog sticks have a bit more travel to them and feel a little more responsive overall, though it remains to be seen if stick drift will be a big problem on Switch 2, given the lack of Hall Effect sensors.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
I’d also like to shout out the new magnetic attachment mechanism for the Joy-Con controllers. On the first Switch console, the Joy-Cons slid on and off via a vertical rail. This was fine for 2017, but over time, it became clear that a better solution was needed. Switch 1 Joy-Con controllers have a bit of wiggle to them, even when attached. That’s been entirely eliminated on Switch 2, based on my experiences so far. Attaching a Joy-Con 2 to the unit is as easy as slapping it into the open slot and letting magnets take over from there. Thankfully, there’s a release lever you have to pull to detach them, making it functionally impossible to detach them accidentally. (At least, that's been my experience so far.)
Attaching and detaching the magnetic Joy-Con 2 controllers feels so good the first time you do it. Just trust me.
The new dock, which looks and works similarly, is also worthy of some praise. The new dock can output at up to 4K resolution and has a new built-in fan for heat dissipation. Crucially, it also has a built-in ethernet port now. Please, please wire up your dock if you can. Your experience will be so much better.
Virtual game cards are weird
The Switch 2 introduces “virtual game cards,” a new feature Nintendo has added to both Switch consoles. This essentially turns any games you’ve purchased digitally into a commodity that can only live on one console at a time. At any time, you can scroll to the new virtual game card section in the main system menu and load any games you own digitally onto the console. In fact, you have to do this to bring over any Switch 1 games you plan on playing. Once that’s done, you can’t play it on any other Switch console unless you boot that machine up and do the same thing over there.
For a single and childless person like me, this is only mildly inconvenient. I’m not going to complain too much about having to press an extra button to tell the Switch 2 to download a Switch 1 game I own. However, I can imagine this being nightmarish for multi-Switch households. Users have the ability to “loan” virtual game cards to other users for up to two weeks, but as I understand it, that means the loaner loses the ability to play that game while it’s in the hands of the loanee.
While some games now support “GameShare” (a new feature that allows users to play multiplayer games with only one copy of a game), that’s not universally supported. There are definitely good use cases for loaning digital games to other people, to be sure, but this is also a lot of extra management that’s foisted upon every Switch 2 owner. I can imagine it’s going to create entirely new ways for siblings to fight with each other, too.
Storage is going to be an issue in the long term
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
Obviously, I’ll do a deeper dive into the console once I’ve had more time with it, but the final first impression I’ll share is that the Switch 2’s internal storage capacity of 256GB might not be enough for serious gamers.
When it was first announced, I thought it was fine. I mistakenly made the assumption that game file sizes wouldn’t balloon too much from the OG Switch, but I was wrong. In fairness, first-party Nintendo stuff has been fine so far; Mario Kart World is a manageable 22GB, and the only other thing I saw that crossed the 20GB threshold from Nintendo itself is the Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Third-party games are a different story, however. Hitman: World of Assassination is 58GB, or roughly 22 percent of the internal storage capacity. That at least makes sense, as that’s three entire games in one package, and frankly, it’s a lot bigger on other platforms. Street Fighter 6 is 48GB, which is pretty big, but again, that’s a big game on other platforms, too.
The most confusing one I’ve seen is Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut. On a PlayStation 4, Yakuza 0 is 24GB. On a Switch 2, it’s a staggering 45GB. Granted, there’s some new content, like additional cutscenes, a multiplayer mode, and new English voice acting, but nearly doubling the file size is a bit much.
Credit: Sega/Nintendo
To make life more difficult, the Switch 2 only has one option for external storage expansion — microSD Express cards. This is a new type of memory card with substantially faster data read speeds than a regular microSD card. Nintendo going to this new standard is a good thing overall because games load way faster than before, but it also means everyone has to buy a new memory card, and they’re pretty expensive and hard to find right now. That won’t be a problem forever, so hopefully people can hold out until there are some good Black Friday sales or something like that.
I feel like I’ve spent most of this piece complaining about some relatively minor quirks with Switch 2, so I want to make something very clear: I think it’s awesome. Most of the games I’ve played have been impressive in one way or another, and the hardware is a clear improvement over the first Switch. It’s not perfect, but nothing is.
Look out for a full review in the near future. In the meantime, I'll be perfecting my grinding skills in Mario Kart World.
Where to buy the Switch 2
As of this writing, the Switch 2 is still sold out at all major retailers, though price gougers are having a good day over at eBay. You can try placing an order through the My Nintendo Store or check the retailers listed below.
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Buy the Switch 2 at Nintendo
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Buy the Switch 2 at Walmart
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Buy the Switch 2 at GameStop
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Buy the Switch 2 at Best Buy
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But the Switch 2 at Costco
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Buy the Switch 2 at Target (available online June 6)
"We don’t always get it right. Earlier this year, an update made the model too agreeable, sometimes saying what sounded nice instead of what was actually helpful. We rolled it back, changed how we use feedback, and are improving how we measure real-world usefulness over the long term, not just whether you liked the answer in the moment," OpenAI wrote in the announcement. "We also know that AI can feel more responsive and personal than prior technologies, especially for vulnerable individuals experiencing mental or emotional distress."
Broadly, OpenAI has been updating its models in response to claims that its generative AI products, specifically ChatGPT, are exacerbating unhealthy social relationships and worsening mental illnesses, especially among teenagers. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that many users were forming delusional relationships with the AI assistant, worsening existing psychiatric disorders, including paranoia and derealization. Lawmakers, in response, have shifted their focus to more intensely regulate chatbot use, as well as their advertisement as emotional partners or replacements for therapy.
OpenAI has recognized this criticism, acknowledging that its previous 4o model "fell short" in addressing concerning behavior from users. The company hopes that these new features and system prompts may step up to do the work its previous versions failed at.
"Our goal isn’t to hold your attention, but to help you use it well," the company writes. "We hold ourselves to one test: if someone we love turned to ChatGPT for support, would we feel reassured? Getting to an unequivocal 'yes' is our work."
Were you tricked by the video of a bunch of bunnies jumping on a trampoline on TikTok? Well, nearly 230 million people were — and plenty of those viewers had no idea that it was actually AI. In response, the creator who brought us the Punxsutawney Phil musical, Oliver Richman (or @olivesongs11), wrote and recorded a 30-second song about the AI video, also for TikTok. He wrote the song on day 576 of an ongoing project, where he writes a new song each day.
"That project has changed my life in so many ways," Richman told Mashable, adding that it brought him "back to the joy of creating." He scrolled across the viral video of the bunnies jumping on the trampoline and said he was "certainly fooled" and "thought they were real."
"So when I learned that they weren't, I was like, 'Oh, I think this is today's song."
The unknowing bunny song on TikTok now has over 3.8 million views, 600,000 likes, and hundreds of comments like, "Bo Burnham! At The Disco" and "Wait until you see the bear on a trampoline. Spoiler: also AI."
The song goes like this:
There were bunnies that were jumping on a trampoline
And I just learned that they weren't real
If a bot can inhabit
An unknowing rabbit
It might manufacture the way you make me feel
How do I know that the sky's really sunny?
Sometimes it feels like your love is as real as
An unknowing bunny
The video has inspired covers and renditions, stop-motion videos, reactions, and a variety of other really cool human-made art. As one creator wrote on a TikTok video using the sound, "The fact that this song written about AI is going viral is incredibly healing. Especially because us as artists and songwriters are being threatened of our livelihoods due to the use of AI. And AI could never create something this unique with this much feeling."
Richman said the response to his video has been "the most surreal thing ever."
"Every piece of art that I've seen, I like get emotional," he said. "It certainly made me feel connected to the beauty of the messiness of being a human. And the imperfections that AI tends to delete or perfect — seeing all of this human art has just been a very emotional and cool experience."
As Mashable's Tim Marcin recently wrote about the influx of faux surveillance footage of animals, it "seems to be a new genre of AI slop." But give the internet slop, and creators might make porridge (is that a saying?).
In the face of all the AI slop we see online, creators like Richman are staying positive. "Art is so cool. Human art is so cool, and that really excites me."
Updated on Aug. 4 at 3:00 p.m. ET — This story has been updated to include an interview with creator Oliver Richman. Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.
Verizon customers reportedly got double bad news this week: the phone carrier is raising fees and removing loyalty discounts.
According to users on the Verizon subreddit, several customers reported receiving an email from Verizon informing them their account discounts are ending. "We are writing to let you know that a discount on your account will soon end," the email said, according a redditor. "This discount will be removed no sooner than September 1, 2025." Several other redditors chimed in on the thread, saying they had a received the same email about losing loyalty perks offered to longstanding customers. Mashable has reached out to Verizon for comment and will update this story with a response.
A few days earlier, Verizon confirmed to Tom's Guide that the company is increasing fees for activations, phone lines, and tablet plans by Sept. 1.
Verizon customers are understandably unhappy about the changes. Some commented that they might change phone carriers to T-Mobile or AT&T as a result. "They just keep finding ways to crap on loyal customers," commented one redditor, underscoring the general sentiment of the thread that loyal customers are being penalized for their loyalty.
According to Tom's Guide, Verizon is reportedly trying to persuade customers on older plans to switch to its newer myPlan subscription. "We want to ensure you get the best value and experience from Verizon and encourage you to check out our myPlan options for the plan that works best for you," the email to customers reportedly said.
Cutting loyalty discounts and upping fees is a bold way to do that, since it seems to be alienating customers even more.
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