Nintendo Switch 2 Has A Brand-New Feature You'll Want To Enable Now

4 hours ago 3

Two Nintendo Switch 2s on a bright red and blue background.

Published Mar 17, 2026, 1:41 PM EDT

Billy Givens is an entertainment and tech journalist with over two decades of experience. In addition to ScreenRant, you can find his work at other major publications like IGN, GameSpot, Kotaku, The Guardian, Popular Mechanics, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, USA Today, and beyond.

Nintendo has unveiled a new feature that provides substantial improvements to the image quality of original Switch 1 games when being played in handheld mode on the Switch 2. The aptly-titled Handheld Boost Mode takes advantage of the Switch 2's 1080p screen so that these older Switch 1 games will target that resolution rather than the previously limited 720p maximum imposed by the original Switch's screen.

To put things in the simplest terms: Using Handheld Boost Mode on the Switch 2 effectively displays Switch 1 games in TV Mode while running on the newer system's handheld screen. So, you'll get a very similar image as you would when playing docked on a Switch 1. This is a drastic improvement that is instantly noticeable in most games we've tested across both first and third-party offerings.

To get the benefits of Handheld Boost Mode, though, you'll first need to turn the feature on in your Switch 2 settings. You can do so by following the steps below.

Select System Settings on the Switch 2 main menu.
Select System.
Select Nintendo Switch Software Handling.
Select Handheld Mode Boost to enable or disable the setting at any time.

Note that Nintendo does warn that the improved visuals may come at the cost of increased power consumption. This means your battery may drain a bit more quickly when playing Switch 1 games in handheld mode. In our limited test of this, we didn't notice dramatic changes in battery drainage, but it's likely something that differs between games. It'll be up to you whether this is a worthwhile trade-off, of course.

Furthermore, Nintendo states that the effects of Handheld Boost Mode will vary from game to game and that some titles may be unaffected altogether. Due to running the game in TV Mode while using the system as a handheld, unexpected errors or operations can also occur. We didn't encounter any issues, but just don't be shocked if something arises.

The Handheld Boost Mode feature comes as part of the Switch 2's 22.0.0 update, which is available to download now.

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