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Amazon has great deal on new-and-improved Nintendo Switch ahead of the holidays

By Gabe Gurwin Published October 18, 2019

If you haven’t purchased a Nintendo Switch yet, there can only be two possible reasons: You have been living under a rock, or you have been waiting for it to go on sale. If you fall into the latter category, Amazon is here to help, as the system is currently on sale and includes a better battery.

The new version of the standard Nintendo Switch is available right now on Amazon for the normal $299 price tag, but you can apply a coupon available on the page to take $24 off that total. With that money, you can purchase a great digital indie game for the system, such as Untitled Goose Game.

You can tell the new-and-improved version of the Nintendo Switch apart from the original 2017 model by its box — the new one is red, while the original is white. The consoles are essentially identical in terms of performance, but more efficient positioning of processors inside the updated model have allowed for a longer batter life. It can get a maximum charge of about 9 hours now, compared to around 6.5 on the original. The smaller Switch Lite, meanwhile, will last around a maximum of 7 hours.

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This number will also depend on the type of game you’re playing, and you have no shortage of great 2019 Switch games to choose from. In August, we got action/science-fiction game Astral Chain, while the terrific remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening arrived last month. On Halloween, they’ll be joined by Luigi’s Mansion 3, with Pokémon Sword and Shield arriving a few weeks later. If you want to build up a big collection of first-party Switch games, you’ll certainly want to look for every discount and sale you can find.

The Switch is also no stranger to ports of games from other systems, including the just-released Overwatch and The Witcher 3. Neither game runs as well or looks as beautiful as they do on more powerful consoles or PC, but being able to play them on a handheld system still makes the trade-off worth it. When you get back to your television, you can always put the Switch back in its dock and play them like traditional console games.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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The Nintendo Switch 2 marks the end of the ‘toy’ video game console

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Don’t expect these games to be backwards compatible with Nintendo Switch 2

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Yesterday, Nintendo revealed its next console, the Nintendo Switch 2, via a short video. The clip didn't reveal too much outside of its design and a brief glimpse of the next Mario Kart game. We did get one crucial detail, though: the system is compatible with Nintendo Switch games, both digitally and physically. There is one caveat that has fans nervous, though. Nintendo says that select games won't be backwards compatible, but it hasn't explained what that means yet.

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