Nintendo on challenges of increasing screen size for Switch OLED
Nintendo’s new Switch OLED model increases the system’s screen size. Rather than 6.2 inches, it’s now at 7 inches. That may not seem much, but it does make quite a bit of difference, and offering a larger screen wasn’t an easy task.
Ko Shiota, the head of the Technology Development Division, as well as Toru Yamashita of the Technology Development Department, discussed the Switch OLED screen size increase and the challenges involved as part of an interview published by Nintendo today. Yamashita pointed out that the difficulty came from “trying to increase the screen size while maintaining the console’s size and product strength.”
Yamashita and Shiota stated:
Were you thinking of increasing the screen size from the beginning?
Yamashita: Originally, we did think about making the display larger. On this model, we made the screen larger, and in turn made the bezel surrounding the screen narrower. So one of the biggest challenges in making improvements to reach this new model was trying to increase the screen size while maintaining the console’s size and product strength.
Shiota: This OLED display uses organic material that enables display of vivid colors. Also, a deeper black can be displayed, so there’s a stronger contrast between white and black, and it’s now possible for a crisp color display. However, we needed to fit all the peripheral parts necessary to display images on the OLED screen—like the integrated circuits and cables—into the narrower bezel. It would’ve fit in the bezel width of the existing model, but it wouldn’t work in the same way this time around. So we consulted with the display manufacturer, and ultimately, we put the integrated circuits on a film and folded this film back into the bezel.
Yamashita: Also, even though the colors have gotten more vivid with the OLED display, some customers may feel like the colors look too vivid. Taking that into consideration, we made it so that the player can select a standard color mode, to make it look like the conventional LCD display. If you prefer the vivid colors of the OLED display, you can keep it in the vibrant color mode that is default out of the box.
I see. So you can choose your preferred color style as you like. So it seems it’s not just a simple matter of a brighter or bigger screen with this OLED display.
Yamashita: It was important not just to make the display more vivid but also to make the display itself thinner. These are part of the “visible changes,” but it also enabled us to make the stand bigger. The stand is used for tabletop mode, where you play by placing the console on a table, but you may experience glare depending on the angle of the screen. So we made it so that you can change the angle of the screen, making it easier to see and to create your ideal playing environment. In order to fulfill this while maintaining its size, it was necessary to reduce the thickness of the display itself.
