Do you dig this fan-made Nintendo Switch design with a d-pad?

Switch UP

Nintendo has said outright that they do not plan on announcing a new Switch model at E3 this year. That includes a potential Switch lite (which is just portable, that would assuredly kill off the 3DS entirely) or a Switch Pro (a Switch with more powerful innards). But that doesn’t mean it isn’t coming.

Olivier Raymond Industrial Design took it upon themselves to craft a new Switch mock-up of what the next console might entail, and they’re calling it the “Switch UP.” It’s a “future proof proposition,” with rear grip handles, a symmetrical button layout, a 25% increase in screen size, and a real d-pad: I’m sure no matter how you feel about the aesthetics, a lot of you will appreciate the latter.

This also serves as a more formidable machine, with a multi-touch display, an upgraded processor (AMD Navi 7nm) and 8GB of RAM, as well as 128GB of storage. Cleverly, they also created a “Shell Kit” upgrade (which is totally a Nintendo thing), an add-on that extends battery life for portable play. The Switch UP also features a flat dock that I dig, that’s inline with a lot of modern portable charging tech. Oh, and there’s six colors to boot.

I know the immediate reaction to non-first party hardware designs is almost always negative, but there’s a lot of upgrades here that I’d appreciate when Nintendo unveils the next Switch: and I think we can all agree on the d-pad situation.

Switch UP [Olivier Raymond Industrial Design] Thanks Jeff!