Although summer doesn’t officially start until June, Memorial Day is considered one of the early heralds of the season that brings with it warmer weather, a break from school, and plenty of sales. If ongoing event cancellations and travel restrictions mean that you’re expecting to spend a good chunk of summer 2020 indoors, though, then a new Nintendo Switch can make life a bit easier, and Memorial Day sales are the perfect chance to score one at a discount. Below, we’ve rounded up the best Memorial Day Nintendo Switch deals available right now on consoles, games, bundles, and accessories, so read on:
In Stock: Nintendo Switch Lite (Gray) at Target
There has been only one major revision of the Nintendo Switch so far, so deciding which console is right for you is a pretty straightforward binary choice. The original Nintendo Switch is the one most of us are familiar with, and it works more like a traditional gaming system (its unique design notwithstanding) in that it can be hooked up to your television and played with controllers — either the included Joy-Cons or the Pro Controller.
What makes the Nintendo Switch distinct from other consoles is that the system itself can be removed from its dock (the dock is what actually hooks up to and interfaces with your TV) and carried around like a portable device. This gives the Switch its unique versatility, as it allows you to play on your television at home or in handheld mode when you’re on the go.
Last year, Nintendo released a new Switch model called the Switch Lite. This is not a replacement for the standard Switch; instead, the Switch Lite is designed solely as a portable gaming system and is basically a scaled-down Switch tablet (minus the dock and detachable Joy-Cons) that functions much the same as the Switch in handheld mode, albeit with a smaller display and no motion controls or Bluetooth connectivity. It’s also worth noting that the lack of TV mode means the Lite is incompatible with a few games in the Switch library — this doesn’t really limit much, but it’s something to be aware of — as well as with Nintendo Labo kits.
Note that the Nintendo Switch Lite cannot be hooked up to a TV at all — it does not work with the Switch dock, it has no ports for a video connection of any kind, and there are no aftermarket adapters to do this (nor will there be, given the Switch Lite’s complete lack of video output capabilities). The Switch Lite is purely a handheld device. The advantages it has over the standard Switch are portability and price, as the Switch Lite retails for $200 while the original Switch is still retailing at $300.
Even at their normal prices, both the Switch and Switch Lite are pretty affordable, even more so if you score one of the above Memorial Day Nintendo Switch deals. Which of the two is right for you will boil down to your gaming preferences, namely whether you need the ability to play on a TV or if you’re perfectly happy with handheld-only gaming.
Looking for more great stuff? Find tech discounts, Memorial Day sales, and much more on our curated deals page.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.