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I Spent Some Time With Samsung’s AI Appliances. Is the Cost Worth The Hype?

AI-powered dishwasher, fridge, oven, washer and vacuum may sound cool but after comparing the cost to non-AI appliances, I’m not sure you’re getting more value.

Every company is working hard to put AI in all your home appliances. Samsung is no exception. It showcased a range of AI-powered appliances during CES 2024 and CES 2025. Highlighting smart fridges, dishwashers, ovens, washing machines and dryers, Samsung’s smart home appliances integrate AI features, LCD touchscreens, cameras, auto-open doors and other features to improve your day-to-day cooking, clothes washing and cleaning. 

None of these AI features are particularly new. All of them have existed on previous iterations of Samsung’s lineup but it’s become increasingly clear that home appliances are going to get AI in them, regardless of need.  

Samsung invited me to Samsung Home Studio to see how the AI-powered features work but what I really looked at was how much of this AI is actually useful for you as a customer. Is it worth the hype and the extra cost?

Here’s what I learned and why I ultimately think the AI revolution for home appliances isn’t quite there yet.  

Samsung Bespoke AI Kitchen Appliances 

Samsung is introducing four bespoke refrigerator models (some of which were showcased at CES). The largest of which is the Bespoke AI 4-Door Refrigerator with AI Family Hub+ and AI Vision Inside. All the models (with exception to the Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerator) are available for preorder starting now on Samsung.com for $1,000 off and come with an additional year of warranty. 

AI is back, but not significantly improved 

The first thing I noticed with Samsung’s 4-door refrigerator is the 32-inch LCD touchscreen on the front. It’s the largest I’ve ever seen on a home appliance and, according to Samsung, the largest in the industry. But it’s not particularly new or notable. AI Family Hub has appeared on previous models of Samsung fridges, giving you access to apps such as YouTube and TikTok, showing recipes, setting reminders, creating a grocery list and more.
I’ve never been a huge fan of putting a touchscreen on everything; I err on the side of having physical controls whenever possible. That said, the 32-inch screen is big and bright and serves the same function as my Amazon Echo Show 8: it provides a hub to control your smart home, add things to your calendar, and keep an eye on reminders. It’s useful enough as a general home screen.

AI Vision Inside also returns. It’s basically a camera inside the fridge that can identify the food you put in and take out, letting you know when things are getting low. It can automatically add things to the SmartThings grocery list and alert you when food is about to expire. If you’re a big grocery delivery person, like I am, you also can set it up to add things directly to your Instacart grocery list. 

Currently, the AI Vision recognizes about three dozen food items automatically but you can also add things manually. I expect that it’ll learn new items over time, although Samsung has been saying that for some time now. This, to me, would be the biggest selling point. Too often I’ve opened a carton of berries that I thought were new to find them covered with mold. Getting a warning a few days before an expected expiration would help me reduce food waste. 

The fridge comes with Wi-Fi and SmartThings integration, naturally. It also has auto open doors so you can stock the fridge even if your hands are full, which is a nice quality-of-life feature. I imagine it will also help reduce staining and streaking on the fridge (a curse of stainless steel appliances) if you don’t need to grab the handle anymore.

The Bespoke AI Refrigerator with AI Family Hub+ will be priced at $4,699 and available in stainless steel, white glass, and charcoal with matte black. It also has a range of customizable door panel colors and finishes. Three other models are in the lineup, including a 4-door model with a 9-inch AI Home Screen and the same AI Vision Inside feature for $3,999. 

AI cooling? Kind of, but the real magic is with the Peltier module 

Another model worth mentioning is the Bespoke AI Hybrid 4-Door Flex priced at $3,999. The AI name is slightly misleading because it doesn’t have AI Vision inside. Instead, the Hybrid model uses AI to optimize cooling efficiency and energy use. It does this by combining two power sources, a compressor and a Peltier module. During normal use, the compressor is the cooling mainstay, while the Peltier module kicks in during other scenarios for added cooling. 

AI algorithms can detect changes to the fridge’s interior, such as warm air entering when you open the door or an increase in temperature when you put in food that’s still hot. When this happens, it’ll deploy the compressor and Peltier module at the same time. According to Samsung, the hybrid cooling technology gives the interior of the fridge an additional 2.5 inches of usable space compared with a traditional compressor-only refrigerator. 

I like this use of AI quite a bit more than AI Vision. It’s less in your face than having a screen and camera on your fridge. If energy bills are a major concern for you, this hybrid cooling model seems like it could be worth considering. 

A space-saving fridge 

Last, with price and availability still to be determined, is the Bespoke 4-door Flex Kitchen Fit Refrigerator. As the name suggests, it is designed to fit into tight places, with a 4-millimeter installation gap on both sides. The doors can be opened to 90 degrees and Samsung says its SpaceMax technology allows the refrigerator walls to be thinner, creating more interior space without compromising insulation. I’m giving it serious consideration for my 800-square-foot apartment because I’m long overdue for a new fridge but very limited in space. 

Samsung’s ovens are still oddly targeted to influencers

Once again, this isn’t a new feature, but the Bespoke 30-inch Double and Single Wall Ovens come with AI-powered cooking, as with previous members of the lineup. The double wall oven comes with a 7-inch AI home screen that acts as a control center, the same as the one you get on the fridge. It supports a smart home hub, apps such as YouTube and Spotify, and it can pull up a camera view of the dishes inside your oven if you want to monitor it and upload a clip to social media. It seems oddly targeted for cooking influencers but the other features are more useful for people looking to do actual cooking. 

With the Samsung AI Pro Cooking software, the camera can automatically recognize 80 recipes (others you can save manually) and display the optimal cook time and temperature for different dishes. It can even tackle different types of meat in the same dish. Samsung showed me a bizarre example of salmon and a whole chicken being baked together, which sounded truly disgusting. A more reasonable combination I might actually try is bacon-wrapped chicken, which require different temperatures to be eaten safely.   

There are also no physical handles. It has a Push to Open feature that makes opening it easy if you have your hands full with a dish, letting you bump it with a shoulder or elbow. I like this tech in theory and it worked just fine in practice but I’m curious how it’ll fare in a less curated environment. For instance, if my cat gets the zoomies and runs face first into the oven while it’s baking, will it open? I assume it’s too smart for that but there are some things you can only find out with testing. 

Wi-Fi and SmartThings connectivity also allows you to monitor and preheat the oven from your phone, monitor energy use and search for recipes. This is something I already do with my much less smart LG oven but the feature is hit and miss so I’m hopeful that Samsung’s take on it is more reliable. 

The Double-Wall Oven costs $4,649, and the Single-Wall Oven costs $3,759. Both are available now on Samsung.com. 

Samsung is also releasing a 30-inch and 36-inch Induction Cooktop with some smart features focused on energy efficiency. Samsung says the cooktops are Energy Star-certified and come with four and five burners, respectively. Both have a 4.3kW Power Burner for more intense heat. All the burners also have a Power Boost function for faster cooking and the Sync Burner lets you control two at the same time with one control. As with all the other appliances, Wi-Fi and SmartThings are integrated. 

The 30-inch model costs $1,499, and the 36-inch model costs $1,699. These are both available now for preorder on Samsung.com. 

Dishwashing gets the AI stamp

Cooking can be fun but the dishwashing that comes afterward is usually less so. The Bespoke Auto Open Door Dishwasher should make things a bit easier. The smart features here aren’t really new either, which is a fairly common theme in this article. The AI Wash feature is intended to help remove stubborn food residue more easily and works together with the rotating StormWash dual arms. There’s a high-resolution sensor that keeps an eye on your dishes and the machine learning algorithm automatically adjusts washing and rinsing cycles based on the soil level. 

To some extent, this is tech that already exists on dishwashers. My LG dishwasher has an Auto mode that uses sensors to detects the soil level of my dishes and clarity of the water and adjusts the cleaning cycle to accommodate it. Unfortunately, I’ve found that it doesn’t always do a great job of figuring out how dirty something is and I get dishes that still have food particles on them. If Samsung can use AI to make this soil detection feature smarter, I could definitely see myself using AI Wash but I still question if this feature is actually AI.   

You also get a 2.25-inch LCD panel with controls and there are features including Smart Dry that lets warm air circulate better, which Samsung says results in 2.5 times better drying performance. The dishwasher itself is quiet at 38 decibels. For reference, appliances with a decibel rating from 38 to 40 are generally considered quiet. A regular conversation is usually around 60 decibels and many dishwashers are generally in that range so that makes Samsung’s new dishwasher quite a bit quieter than the competition. 

The Wi-Fi connectivity and SmartThings app let you remotely start and stop the dishwasher and monitor its power use. 

It’ll cost $1,399 at launch and is available for preorder on Samsung. 

All-in-one laundry machine with — you guessed it — AI 

Laundry isn’t spared from AI. The Bespoke AI Laundry Vented Combo is a washing machine and dryer combined, meaning you can do your washing and drying in one unit without having to move clothes. Like the fridge and oven, the 7-inch AI Home touchscreen acts as the hub for the controls, cycles, settings and various apps, just like the other features in the lineup.

All-in-ones tend to have bad reputation about how well they clean and dry but Samsung is implementing some features to improve things — in theory. Opti Wash & Dry adjusts the settings on the cycle automatically and the vented electric dryer has an internal heater and fan to move hot air through clothes more easily. The entire wash and dry cycle happens in 77 minutes, with the AI and sensor determining temperature and cycle time. The AI learning model predicts when the rinsing process ends and can have the other cycles take over when it thinks things are sufficiently clean. 

If you chose not to start an automatic dryer cycle, the Auto Open Door automatically opens after the washing cycle to release humidity and moisture, preventing your wet clothes from festering if you forget about them. 

You also don’t need to constantly top up on laundry detergent. The Flex Auto Dispense System can automatically dispense up to 47 loads of detergent or you can split the compartment to dispense 34 loads of softener and 25 loads of detergent. 

Like almost every other appliance in Samsung’s lineup, it comes with Wi-Fi and SmartThings for remote monitoring but also adds voice control for starting and stopping cycles hands-free.  

The Vented Combo will cost $3,099 and doesn’t require any additional laundry hookups for installation. It’s available for preorder now through Samsung. 

Does a vacuum need AI? Samsung thinks so. 

Finally, Samsung is putting the AI branding on cordless vacuums, although once again I hesitate to say that it’s actually new because an earlier version of the model was released in 2023. There’s an LCD panel to show you suction levels, battery life and alerts. When you start vacuuming, the so-called AI senses floor types and automatically adjusts suction power and brush speed to optimize runtime and maneuverability on those types of floors. I was able to briefly run the vacuum in Samsung’s demo area and I found it to be fairly lightweight and easy to maneuver, although it was hard to judge cleaning performance in the fairly clean environment. 

The Bespoke AI Jet Ultra Cordless Stick Vacuum has 400 air watts (a measure of suction power) and the company’s proprietary HexaJet motor. For reference, most vacuums have between 150 and 200AW of suction, with 200AW being considered good. 

Samsung also says it has the longest battery life of any stick vacuum, with 100 minutes of runtime. If true, that would be a pretty incredible runtime, although I’d be curious to see what suction power level it was tested at. With my Ryobi vacuum, I’m lucky if get a half-hour at full suction power before I have to swap out the battery and it’s not like I have a particularly big apartment. A 100-minute runtime should be more than enough to handle all the rooms in my apartment with plenty to spare so it may be a great option for people with bigger spaces. 

We’ll undoubtedly be getting the Jet Ultra into CNET’s testing lab to put it through the paces, so keep an eye on our list of best vacuum cleaners and best cordless vacuums to see where it ranks. 

Other features include an All-in-One Clean Station that charges the vacuum and automatically empties and closes the dustbin. Samsung says it traps 99.99% of fine dust particles. This is a huge quality-of-life feature if you’ve never used a vacuum with a dock before, sparing you from getting dust everywhere when you empty it into the trash. 

Like everything else, the vacuum has built-in Wi-Fi and SmartThings connectivity. If you get a phone call or text while vacuuming, the vacuum display will alert you about the message so you don’t miss anything important while cleaning up. This strikes me as being a little bit of a solution in search of a problem. Most people, including myself, have a smartwatch that does that and unless the suction on the vacuum is totally deafening, you’re unlikely to miss a phone call if it rings or vibrates. Still, I suppose it’s a nice-to-have feature if you have a vital phone call you’re expecting that you can’t miss but decide you also need to vacuum. 

The Bespoke AI Jet Ultra will cost $1,099 and it comes with a 10-year warranty on the motor and a 2-year warranty on the battery. It’s currently available for preorder through Samsung. This is pretty pricey for a cordless vacuum, putting it in the same price range as Dyson’s $949.99 Gen5 Detect Absolute

Are these AI appliances worth the cost? 

With prices ranging from $1,000 to $4,000, depending on the appliance in question, I hesitate to say that any of the AI features showcased by Samsung are game-changing enough to warrant the price premium compared with a similar «dumb» product. 

Take one of the ventless all-in-one washers and dryers, for instance. Samsung’s smart model costs $3,099, while a quality ventless one from GE will run you $2,599 at MSRP but is currently on sale at $1,798. Notably, it’s also Energy Star-certified and has some smart chops on its own, like the SmartHQ app for notifications and specialty cycles, even if it isn’t as fancy as the one from Samsung. 

Compared with a regular four-door refrigerator from Whirlpool or KitchenAid, you’re looking at spending approximately $1,000 more for the Samsung refrigerator’s AI features and screen. By themselves, I’m not sure any of these features are worth an extra $1,000, but I suppose if you’re already in the market for a smart fridge, it’s not too bad. A high-end LG Signature fridge with similar smart features such as auto opening doors can cost you twice as much at $7,199, though there are also more affordable smart models available that match Samsung’s pricing.

Of course, you can get a perfectly good «dumb» fridge from a quality brand like Whirlpool for significantly less. While undoubtedly there are some promising features at play for some of this lineup, ultimately I don’t think AI features are worth the premium compared with buying a simpler, high-quality appliance from a reputable brand at a similar or lower price. 

Technologies

Zelle App Is Gone. Use These Alternatives to Send Money Digitally

You still have lots of free ways to send money to friends and family electronically.

If Zelle has been your go-to app for sending money digitally, it’s time to find a new method. The digital payment app shut down on April 1.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use Zelle altogether, however. Zelle has only discontinued its standalone app. You can still send money using Zelle if your bank belongs to the Zelle network. You’ll just need to do it through your bank’s app or website. You also have other services to choose from. Here’s what you need to know about this change and your options moving forward.

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Why the Zelle app is shutting down

When Zelle launched in 2017, only about 60 US financial institutions offered the service by the end of that year. Today, that number exceeds 2,200. As a result, less than 2% of Zelle transactions occur through the standalone app. Zelle has been phasing out the ability to make transactions on its mobile app since October 2024.

«Today, the vast majority of people using Zelle to send money use it through their financial institution’s mobile app or online banking experience, and we believe this is the best place for Zelle transactions to occur,» Zelle said in an October 2024 press release

In December, Zelle was in the spotlight when the Consumer Financial Protected Bureau sued the company and three of the largest US banks for failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud on the peer-to-peer payment network. The lawsuit has since been dropped.

Other ways to send money digitally

You can still use Zelle through your bank’s app or website if it belongs to the Zelle network. You can also switch to another digital payment app, such as:

  • Apple Wallet
  • Cash App
  • PayPal
  • Venmo

Take some basic precautions when using Zelle or any other digital payment service. These apps are a frequent target for scammers, and Chase Bank has started blocking some Zelle payments it believes could be fraudulent. Only send money to people you know and trust, and watch for red flags like an urgent message claiming to be from your bank or an online ad for concert tickets that seem impossibly cheap.


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Technologies

Marvel Rivals Season 2 Starts Next Week, Devs Drop Big News

Emma Frost and Ultron are joining the Rivals roster in season 2, and developers are upping the pace to one new hero per month starting with season 3.

After surviving the endless night in New York City with the Fantastic Four, Marvel Rivals players are getting invited to the shores of Krakoa for the start of season 2 on April 11. The game dropped the first trailer for the new season, giving us our first official look at the new heroes, and a developer vision video dropped major news about the future of hero releases. 

The trailer features the former foe and sometimes-leader of the X-Men, Emma Frost, inviting people from across Rivals’ various timelines to the mutant nation of Krakoa, where everyone gets dressed up for a fancy gala — even Wolverine puts on a white tux. The event, however, is unceremoniously interrupted when Ultron shows up preaching extermination. 

We also got a look at some of the cosmetics in season 2, though it’s unclear which are from the shop and which might be in the battle pass. In addition to the dressed-up Wolverine, we also got looks at Magik and Psylocke in the traditional X-Men blue and yellow. Nonmutant guests are also getting in on the fun, with fancy attire for heroes like Cap, Widow and Luna Snow. 

New Heroes and balance changes in Marvel Rivals Season 2

Emma Frost joins the roster as a Vanguard. We don’t have detailed information about her abilities yet but expect that information to drop ahead of next week’s season launch. Ultron is coming in the season 2.5 update, which should be in late May. 

Some team-ups are changing in season 2, including three new team-up abilities that were previewed in the newest developer vision video. 

  • Emma Frost allows Magneto and Psylocke to create illusions of themselves.
  • Doctor Strange teams up with Scarlet Witch allowing her to use small portals to seemingly increase her damage output via a rapid-shooting alternate fire.  
  • Cap finally teams up with Bucky, allowing the Winter Soldier to leap to allies.

A few existing team-ups are getting adjustments, with Psylocke, Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange being removed from older team-ups in favor of new ones, and Namor moving from working with Luna’s anchor to Hulk’s to empower his ultimate with gamma energy. Two team-ups are being removed entirely: Magneto can no longer team up with Scarlet Witch, and Thor is no longer anchoring Cap and Storm.

The developers vaguely teased other balance changes, including buffs to Peni, Mister Fantastic and Moon Knight, with Strange trading offensive pressure for more survivability and Rocket getting more utility while Loki and Adam Warlock receive nerfs to their Regeneration Domain and Soul Bond abilities.

Future seasons will be shorter, which means more new heroes

One of the most surprising moments in the developer video was the announcement that, beginning with season 3, seasons will be two months long instead of roughly three. There has been a lot of discussion online about whether Rivals’ pace of new heroes (about eight per year based on three-month seasons) was sustainable. Well, apparently the Rivals devs took that personally and are cranking up that pace to a new hero every month, meaning 12 new heroes per year. 

This feels borderline ludicrous compared with other hero shooters that average about three new heroes per year, or even MOBAs like League of Legends, which has averaged about four new champions per year over the past five years. Rivals benefits from having an overflowing stable of Marvel characters to pull from rather than inventing their own hero concepts, and compared with Overwatch, the developers seem less worried about mechanical overlap in their heroes, as seen with many support ultimates. Still, a new hero every month feels unheard of for a hero shooter.

New Krakoa map and competitive changes

A new Krakoa-themed domination map is being added in season 2, and Yggsgard: Royal Palace (domination) and Tokyo 2099: Shin-Shibuya (convergence) will rotate out of the map pool for ranked modes, though they’ll still be available in quick play and custom games.

The threshold for competitive picks and bans, which currently only happen in diamond-ranked lobbies, will be lowered to gold 3. Players in Eternity or One Above All ranks will only be able to duo queue, instead of queuing with larger groups — a measure that’s likely intended to keep high-level teams from stomping lobbies. 

Speaking of ranks, season 2 will drop everyone by 9 divisions, which is equal to 3 ranks. That means players in Eternity will drop to diamond, and any players at platinum 3 or below will start their climb from bronze 3 again. (AGAIN… AGAIN.)

Rivals developers also announced that individual player performance will be weighted higher when determining competitive progress after a match, meaning if your stats outperform your team’s, you’ll earn more for winning and drop less for losing. This change can help elevate smurfs and other high-skill players in lower-ranked lobbies by getting them into their appropriate ranks faster. However, it can also lead to players stat-farming, instead of playing in a way that is most effective for winning games. Overall, given that Rivals doesn’t use any sort of competitive placement matches, this should be a net positive for the game.

Other announcements

Rivals is adding new skin recolors to certain hero skins and (finally) giving players the option to gift costumes to their friends so they can surprise someone for their birthday, which you definitely did not forget about.  

Missions are changing a bit, with the addition of weekly missions and a redistribution of where battle-pass-progressing chrono tokens are earned. The devs framed this as creating a «smoother expectation» of how to earn chrono tokens, but the surface-level description sounds like they’re just making it harder to earn battle pass progress over the season by tucking away more progress under missions with shorter time limits.

The developer vision update also gave us our first look at the competitive distribution, showing how many Rivals players are in each tier as of season 1.5. 

The Hellfire Gala trailer says season 2 will start on April 11. While it doesn’t give a specific start time, expect the between-seasons maintenance to finish sometime in the middle of the night in the US.

For more on Marvel Rivals, check out which heroes and roles you should play and how to get free skins.

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Technologies

Nintendo Switch 2 vs. Switch 1: Every Detail Compared

The Nintendo Switch 2’s official specs aren’t too different, but the new console has a lot of upgrades on the original Switch.

The Nintendo Switch 2 may look like its predecessor, but there’s been a lot of changes to its features and under the hood. The new console has «10x the graphics performance» compared to the original Switch, says Nvidia, which built the custom processor powering the Switch 2.  

The Switch 2, with a release date on June 5, is priced at $450 alone or $500 in a bundle with Mario Kart World, the headliner of the console’s launch games. Here’s all the info on how to preorder the Switch 2.

Note that we’re mostly comparing the Switch 2 to the original Switch 1 released in March 2017, because looping in the Switch Lite and Switch OLED gets complicated.

Design

Broadly, the Switch 2 is a larger version of its predecessor, with everything looking slightly inflated: bigger footprint, bigger screen, bigger Joy-Cons. 

Original Switch: The original Switch, with Joy-Cons slotted into the side rails, is a little over 9.4 inches wide, 4 inches tall, a little over half an inch thick and weighs about 10.5 ounces (297 grams). The Joy-Cons slide into place from the top of the device’s sides, while a thin wedge of plastic pops out of the back of the console to serve as a kickstand.

The Switch also came with a dock, which the console could slot into to for recharging and outputting to a TV or large display via HDMI port.  

Switch 2: The new Switch 2 is bigger in every way, but it has the same overall shape and layout as the original. The new Joy-Cons will indeed be held in place on the console magnetically, and connect to the console via pins. The new console also sports a wide U-shaped kickstand that spans almost its entire rear width, which can be moved around to prop up the Switch 2 at a variety of angles. Nintendo says the console has more powerful speakers, which we’re looking forward to testing.

The Switch 2’s dock is largely similar in function though it has rounded edges and an internal fan to cool down the console during long game sessions. More importantly, it can output games in 4K to TVs, but only for select games. 

Joy-Cons

The Joy-Cons were a marvel when they arrived on the first Switch, and while they’re functionally similar in its successor, there have been upgrades in the Switch 2’s controllers.

Original Switch: The Switch Joy-Cons are simple but powerful controllers that slid on and off the console via plastic rails, connecting and recharging via pins on the side. Detach and they become their own micro-controllers, with little shoulder buttons to boot.

Switch 2: The new console’s Joy-Cons are larger to fit the Switch 2, and lock into the side of the console via powerful magnets — there are small inward-facing buttons to the side of ZR and ZL to detach the controllers from the console. The larger-size Joy-Cons have longer L and R outside shoulder buttons, as well as much wider SL and SR internal shoulder buttons, which are accessible when detached from the console. 

And yes, you can use the Switch 2 Joy-Cons as mice by placing their inner edges flat on a surface. During the Nintendo Direct, we saw it being used to control active action games like the wheelchair basketball-simulating DragXDrive and strategy games like Civilization VII. 

Display size

Original Switch: The original Switch has a 6.2-inch LCD screen with 1,280×720-pixel resolution, which was reasonably impressive at launch in 2017 but has been outclassed by newer handhelds with sharper displays. The Switch OLED upgraded this with a larger 7-inch display showing deeper blacks and colors, but no upgrade in resolution. The Switch Lite has a 5.5-inch LCD screen.

Switch 2: Unsurprisingly, the Switch 2’s larger size means a larger display. The new console has a 7.9-inch 1080p LCD screen that can get up to 120Hz refresh rate in handheld mode, or up to 4K when docked and outputting to a TV. 

Why no OLED display? Possibly to save on costs… or possibly to give Nintendo room to release a Switch 2 OLED version down the line.

CPU/GPU

Original Switch: The original Switch runs on an Nvidia custom Tegra X1 processor split into four ARM Cortex A57 CPU cores, and according to Hackaday, there are four extra A53 cores that aren’t used. 

Switch 2: Once again, Nintendo hasn’t released any official info on the Switch 2’s specs, even after the Nintendo Direct reveal stream — and they most the company reveals is that it has a «custom processor made by Nvidia» on the Switch 2’s official specs page. Nvidia confirmed it also has a custom GPU, claiming that the new console has «10x the graphics performance» of the Switch 1, and the custom processor’s AI-powered features include Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), face tracking and background removal for video chat and real-time ray tracing.

We do still have more supposed details from previous leaks. Months ago on X (formerly Twitter), leaker Zuby_Tech posted that the Switch 2’s CPU will be an eight-core Arm Cortex A78C. They also suggested that the GPU will be an Nvidia T239 Ampere, aligning with years of similar rumors reported on by Eurogamer and others about the custom chip, which derives from Nvidia’s Tegra line of chips for smartphones and mobile devices.

RAM and storage

Original Switch. The Switch has 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of onboard storage, expandable up to 2TB via microSD cards in the slot beneath the kickstand.

Switch 2: Even after the reveal stream, Nintendo didn’t release official specs for RAM. Leaker Zuby_Tech posted on X back in September suggesting the Switch 2 will have 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. That leak also suggested the new console will have two internal fans, up from the single one in the original Switch. 

Nintendo did confirm that the new console will have 256GB of onboard storage, which can be expanded with special microSD Express cards — sorry, your old Switch-compatible microSD cards won’t work on the Switch 2.

Battery life

Original Switch: The original Switch packs a 4,310-mAh battery, which gives between 4.5 and 9 hours of battery life depending on screen brightness and other factors.

Switch 2: Though Nintendo didn’t release details on the Switch 2’s capacity in the reveal stream, the company does list specs on its website, showing it packs a 5,220mAh battery. While that’s notably larger than the one in its predecessor, Nintendo estimates this will only get players between an estimated 2 and 6.5 hours, depending on games played.   

Ports

Original Switch: The first Switch sports a single USB-C port out the bottom, a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top and Wi-Fi 5 plus Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity. On the top is a slot at the top for Switch game cartridges as well as the microSD slot beneath the kickstand on the rear of the console.

Switch 2: The Switch 2 retains the original’s USB-C port on the bottom and 3.5mm jack on the top while adding another USB-C port topside, and now we know what it’s for: to connect with accessories like the Nintendo Switch Camera, a webcam-like camera on a stand to let you do Nintendo’s version of FaceTiming while you play games with your friends.

Nintendo hasn’t clarified the console’s connectivity options, and rumors are scarce on the subject. 

As for cartridges, Switch 2 will play some original Switch games in physical versions. The cartridge slot is to the right of the headphone jack in the above image, which is where the slot is on the original Switch. You can tell game cartridges from the two console generations apart by color: ones for the new Switch 2 are red, while older Switch 1 games are black.

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