Nintendo confirms portable-only, $200 “Switch Lite” for September [Updated]

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  Turqoise, grey, and yellow are the first three official Switch Lite colors.

After months and months and months and months and months of credible rumors, Nintendo this morning confirmed that the Switch Mini is real in a short video announcement. The cheaper system, which is “dedicated to handheld play” and not compatible with docking to a TV set, will be available for $200 starting September 20, 2019 in three different colors.

The more compact system shrinks the original Switch’s 6.2 inch screen to 5.5 inches, diagonally. The screen keeps the same 1280 x 720 resolution, though, resulting in a small increase in PPI and overall sharpness. The Lite system also reduces the original’s weight (from about 0.88 pounds to about 0.61 pounds, including Joy-Cons), height (4″ to 3.6″), and width (9.4″ to 8.2″).

Nintendo says there should be no performance difference between the two versions of the console when comparing portable mode. And the smaller system still supports games on physical cards, eShop downloads to SD card storage, standard wired headphones, and a Wi-Fi connection to the Nintendo Switch Online service.