Every Switch model has it, but almost nobody uses it: the touchscreen. Some people may have even forgotten that it even exists. Even Nintendo consistently ignores the alternative input method.
A commentary by Robert Kohlick.
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The Nintendo Switch's touchscreen is superfluous
The Nintendo Switch is a real all-rounder. Thanks to the Switch dock, the Nintendo hardware can be used effortlessly stationary on the TV, and in handheld mode the small console lasts long enough to get through boring train journeys. And since the update that finally gave the Switch Bluetooth audio support, another point of criticism is history.
But while Nintendo is giving the Switch new functions, other already integrated features seem to have been completely forgotten. For example, did you still have on your radar, that the Switch has a touchscreen? Probably only if you accidentally landed your fingers on it while gaming recently and turned the camera.
The touchscreen on the Nintendo Switch is hardly ever used. Only a few games, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Super Mario Maker 2, support the feature in a meaningful way, for example to draw pictures for designs or to intuitively place objects in the level. But there probably won't be any more. And there's a simple reason for that: the docked mode.
If the Switch were a pure handheld console, Nintendo would probably have developed many more games with practical touchscreen functions, similar to the DS, and pushed the feature – or at least included a touch pen. However, since the majority of players simply use the console in the dock directly on the TV, this would be wasted effort and could even lead to problems.
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What if a puzzle or task in the game requires the player to use the touchscreen? Should the player then use the Switch take out of the dockto keep playing? That simply doesn't make sense – neither for the players nor for Nintendo. And making extra games for the Switch Lite, which can't be used in docked mode, isn't an option either, as the target audience is probably too small.
Who is the slimmed down Nintendo Switch Lite worth it for? We'll tell you in the video:
The Switch 2 doesn't need a touchscreen
Hence my appeal to Nintendo: Just leave out the touchscreen on the Switch 2. Save yourself the cost and make the console a few euros cheaper. It seems that a discount is desperately needed if the first leaks and rumors are to be believed.