I personally don’t recommend anyone get the Switch 2. The new price points are frankly ridiculous, and I’d hate to see that shit get justified by sales.

Personally, I’d recommend looking into handheld PCs. I haven’t looked into them much myself due to lack of money, but they’re generally much more worth the cost from what I’ve heard.

All that said, I missed that you were looking for something to play with your 7 year old child. Switch might be better, but any handheld would be… notably destructible, so that’s a factor to keep in mind.

Honestly, you should get the OG Switch.

It does everything you’re looking for in the Switch 2, but without most of the downsides.

If you haven’t had one already, you have a lot of great games to catch up on, which you could buy with the money you’d save by not buying a Switch 2.

Get a Steam Deck. The existence of Family Sharing alone makes it a much better choice for portable family gaming.

Nintendo has numerous major anti-consumer problems, from game ownership, to hardware quality and longevity, to their abusive behavior towards fans, consumers, and competitors. It’s not worth it, there are better options.

Every piece of news on the Switch 2 made it sound less and less impressive.

I’m the opposite of you, I pretty much buy EVERY console and I’m skipping the Switch 2 for now.

1. Price is too high.
2. Game prices are too high.
3. Cartridges aren’t games, they’re download keys.
4. Demo that should have been included is a paid demo.
5. Features are pay gated after 1 year (camera).

If you absolutely need to entertain the 7 year old, get a Switch OLED. It’s a better deal.

If you skipped the Switch 1, I think it’s worth going for. It’s overpriced for the moment - there are only a handful of Switch 2 exclusive games worth playing this year. Even the flagship Mario Kart game is a little weird with how it does some of its modes. But the Switch 1 has an extensive library with plenty of great multiplayer options. If you’re ready for a purchase, might as well go ahead and get the 2 so y’all can play the new Nintendo games when you want.

I agree that Nintendo the company is really slimy though, and it does feel a little gross to support them sometimes.

Honestly, I’m absolutely happy with my Steam Deck, I think it ticks most of your boxes (it even runs Linux, so it’s essentially a portable Linux computer designed for gaming), so I think it’s the better option that you’re looking gor. To your points specifically:

it’s really geared towards family/party gaming

There are plenty of party games on Steam.

it’s Nintendo, so you get the whole usual games (Mario Kart, Zelda, etc.)

This is the only reason to get a switch, if you want a Nintendo console and Nintendo games this is the way. Everyone who gets a switch understand this is the reason they’re getting it. If this is as strong a point to you that it makes you overlook everything else, then get the switch.

like most consoles, it’s plug and play and can be enjoyed in the living room (I kind of gave up trying to set up a proper gaming experience with my Linux PCs, given that I don’t have the hardware for it)

Steam Deck also has a Dock that you can plug to your TV, you’ll need controllers but even so it should be much cheaper in the long run since games are extremely affordable compared to Nintendo.

the battery life is not great to say the least (2.5 hours takes me back of the Game Gear in early 90s!)

Haven’t seen many benchmarks of the switch to be honest, but that does sound bad, the Deck only gets that bad battery life if you’re playing Cyberpunk or something, for more casual games it can get upwards of 6h. Plus you can get power banks that fast large it while playing, which I assume is also possible on the switch although the switch 1 used to have some issues with power banks.

the screen seems to be pretty bad too (at least it’s a step back from the OLED one of the Switch)

All but the cheapest Deck models now use a 90Hz OLED panel

the joycons are still not using a Hall effect sensor, meaning they might still be prone to drifting

While the Deck’s default sticks are not hall effect, they are easily replaceable and Valve sells hall effect replacements on ifixit, so if you ever get drift in your sticks it’s fixable.

most of the games will not be sold as proper cartridges but as download codes

If you’re going down this rote Steam sells download codes for much cheaper

the whole thing (console, additional gamepads, games) is quite pricey

The Deck is about the same price, but like I said you’ll end up saving in games since you start with your whole Steam Library and can get more games much cheaper.

it’s Nintendo, famous for their anti-everything (anti-homebrew, anti-emulation, anti-piracy)

The Deck is by far the most open console you can get, you can even replace the entire OS if you want to, but StramOS is great and you shouldn’t need to.

I have it and I like it. It’s the switch 1 but with the hardware of the steam deck.

Switch 1 accessories work with switch2, even all of the controllers. Games work better on the new console as well.

The 2.5 hours battery life are more like 2 hours if playing Mario kart with 120fps and high brightness. Games like Deltarune get ~4.5 hours.

I haven’t powered on my switch in years, but when I used it, 99% of the time it was docked with a TV, so the battery life and screen didn’t matter to me. I would think that’s the best setup for family gaming anyway.

The cartridge/download code is a step down in ownership of your games, but that’s been a lost battle for years. Steam is widely seen as the standard for gaming, and you are only buying a conditional license when you buy a game on that platform, you don’t own those either. This change only really matters if you, personally, rip games from disks/cartridges.

Like someone else said, take an OG switch.

• If you want a good screen you may look at the OLED model.
• If you don’t care and are on a budget you may find one for 100€ on second hand marketplaces.

It’s not a powerful system but the library is worth it for a living room/family experience IMO.

Just don’t take the switch light as it lacks support for TV output.

I have one and I can tell you that even though it’s not an OLED, the screen is not bad in the slightest. It’s really big, super sharp, and the high refresh rate just makes anything that takes advantage of it look fantastic. The battery is more or less the same as the Switch 1. It’s also pretty comparable to my Steam Deck. It really just depends on the game. I tend to keep a charger nearby and I haven’t had it come close to dying on me yet. While some of the joycons may have an issue with drift, I am sure plenty of them won’t. I haven’t had an issue with mine yet, and I can say they are a massive step up from the Switch 1 joycons. It is definitely pricey and that is certainly a valid concern. There will still be plenty of physical carts released, that really depends on what the developer wants to do. Nintendo definitely has that strong anti piracy stance and that does have the potential to cause issues. But if you don’t use it for anything other than legitimately purchased games, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll run into any issues caused by it.

Get a steamdeck and wait for the emulator.

This is probably not to place to ask about getting a Nintendo console. Most people here are hardcore pc. (which is fine, but definitely biased).

My personal recommendation is this:

Do you want to play new Nintendo games? Get a switch 2.

Want to older Nintendo games and multiplats? Get a steamdeck.

Get the Switch OLED. The Switch 2 offers nothing for your family. You think they are going to care that Breath of the Wild is “only” 1080p?

For the cost of the Switch 2, you can get the OLED plus a library of games. If you haven’t already seen the OLED screen in person, it will blow you away. It makes the S2 screen look like a $200 Walmart TV from 2008

Switch 1 would be my recommendation.

Personally, I’m skipping the Switch 2 because I used my Switch 1 like four times since its launch.

The Switch 2 will likely have games similar to ones that came before it, so if you haven’t been tempted into trying those, you probably won’t be into the new ones.

Like, I’d want the Switch 2 for Mario Kart World but then realized that I played Kart 8 like twice. Online play didn’t scratch the itch, my wife sucked at it, and it was hard to get a group IRL together to play often.

Maybe try emulating some of the older versions of games you’re interested in. It’ll at least give you an idea of how much fun you’d have on the newer versions.

Also ask yourself if you’re a handheld gamer. I don’t think I am which is why I also don’t use my steam deck ever.