The short answer: Yes.
The longer answer:
It all depends on the games that you want to play. That’s why I have two Xbox Series consoles, a Switch 1, a Switch 2, a Legion Go S (running SteamOS) and an AMD Mini PC. I no longer own a PlayStation, but I once owned a PS4 to play the Uncharted series.
Since I own those handhelds, I mostly use them for gaming, simply because I no longer want to be tied to a desk or a big screen.
I use the Legion Go S for games that have not been ported to the Switch 2; it’s a great device with a very nice screen, but worse battery life than the Switch 2 and also noticeable louder, but not annoyingly loud, it’s basically just audible wind coming out of the device.
The Switch 2 is virtually noiseless and with the case that I bought for her also very ergonomic and much lighter than the Legion Go S. The screen is not as good as the one that Lenovo built into their handheld, but it’s still a good (and large) enough 120Hz VRR display.
Everything about the Switch 2 feels “light” and the gadget is a showcase for excellent engineering – it’s a gigantic improvement over the original Switch in every single aspect.
The advantage of the Switch 2 is that it works much more comfortable in docked mode than the Legion Go S – and the Pro Controller 2 is the best controller on the market, and I’m saying that as a die-hard Xbox fan. You simply plug the device into the dock and the running game switches on the fly to a higher resolution and higher FPS, if the game supports that in docked mode. On SteamOS, you have to manually change all the settings. It’s just not a streamlined experience – it’s still a clunky (Linux) PC under the shiny surface.
People always claim that Nintendo games are more expensive than games on Steam. Most of the time, I buy games when they are on sale. And there are always hundreds of games on sale every single day of the week in the Nintendo eShop. Yes, there still is a small “console tax” to pay, but it’s not higher than it is on Xbox or Playstation. But you’ll buy comfort with that tax – and the games are guaranteed to run on your hardware. You don’t have that guarantee on Steam.
One thing that is always overlooked: OFFLINE MODE.
The Switch 1 and 2 have that BY DEFAULT. The console simply does not care whether you are online or not, it’s only relevant for downloading games. Once the game and its “virtual keycard” (read: license) are on the console, the game will ALWAYS just work.
On SteamOS, you have to switch to offline mode BEFORE you actually lose the Internet connection, otherwise you can’t play anything on the device.
On Xbox, you have to declare ONE specific device to be your offline device – that could be a PC or notebook (“Xbox Play Anywhere”) or ONE console. And only that offline device is allowed to play games offline; all the others MUST have an Internet connection.
From where I stand, that makes the Nintendo platform the ONLY truly offline capable gaming platform in the year 2026. And that is a killer argument when you travel or live somewhere in the boonies with a shaky Internet connection (which is very common here in Germany).
Games.
There are the Nintendo exclusives. Truth be told, the only Nintendo exclusive that I really loved playing was Luigi’s Mansion 3, and that game was the main reason why I bought the original Nintendo Switch. I liked Donkey Kong Bananza on the Switch 2 but never finished it. I only spent a few hours with the other Nintendo exclusives that I have. They’re just not my kind of games.
But the Switch is the home of literally thousands of indie games (there are over 16,000 games in the eShop and the Switch 2 is backwards compatible to almost all of them except for a fistful of titles); some of those games only exist for the Switch, many are good ports from PC that got great controller support that the original PC versions sometimes don’t even have.
And now on Switch 2, more and more big AAA titles are getting ported to the 10 watts console, because this little engineering marvel can handle it – it was a smart move by Nintendo to have Cyberpunk 2077 as a launch title; if this game can run on Nintendo’s mobile hardware, obviously everything else can run, too. There are no excuses anymore for not porting a title to the Switch 2.
And it shows: We’ll even get Oblivion Remastered later this year and Resident Evil Requiem on the same day when it is launched on all other platforms.
But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the simple question whether the games that you want to play are available for the Switch 2 – especially if you can only afford to own one platform.
People might suggest to buy Steam Deck instead of a Switch. Beware: Those people usually spend more time playing with the settings of a game to make it run on the Steam Deck instead of actually playing the game, and that is their idea of fun! And they love to ignore the fact that SteamOS just loves to compile shaders on every game launch for several minutes, while the same game on the Switch 2 just… runs.
The Switch 2 is a pleasure to use and it guarantees hassle-free gaming, either in offline, online, docked or in handheld mode.
Yes, the Switch 2 is worth it.
