Except it’s not. If you actually take a second to look at the specs of the hardware here it’s not quite as simple as it might seem at first glance.

I’m comparing the OLED model here since it’s most comparable to the Switch 2.

• HDR - tie both support this
• VRR - Deck only supports this with an external display - win Switch 2
• Resolution - 800p vs 1080p max, not even close Switch 2 is a big upgrade here - win Switch 2, not to mention 4K while docked. Good luck getting anywhere near that in even a somewhat recent game on Deck
• Max framerate - 90 FPS max vs 120 FPS max - win Switch 2
• Specs - hard to say but seems like overall Switch 2 is more powerful
• Storage - hard to say exactly but while it seems like on paper Switch 2 should be better here, the actual capacity is way bigger, and Valve has some done some amazing work here to make even games running off an SD card very fast
• Battery - basically the same - tie
• Price - Switch 2 is cheaper at least here in Canada. The 512 OLED model is $689. Switch 2 is $630.

I think it’s entirely likely that Switch 2 will perform much better with ports of modern games, where the Steam Deck is starting to show its age and really struggling here.

I love my Steam Deck and it’s fantastic for playing smaller budget indie games, older games, emulated games, and tackling my backlog. But any AAA game that’s come out say in the last year or two? Forget it. It’s just not a good experience. Even BG3 which is Verified was just fine. I played it a lot on my Deck but would it perform better on Switch 2? Probably yes.

It’ll definitely be interesting to see how performance of third party titles shakes out between the two.

Ukraine might think otherwise. Palestine might think otherwise. Like it or not the US is a major world power and what happens there at the federal level does have an impact globally.