One of the interesting side effects of reviewing hardware for a living is just how mercenary you become with a new bit of gear. We treat everything we receive with an appropriate level of care, of course, but you'd be surprised how often we open up a new machine mere moments after it leaves the box to have a good look at what's going on inside. Where I might draw the line, however, is taking a sharp pair of metal cutting scissors to a brand new gaming handheld like the Nintendo Switch 2—but then I wouldn't be able to fit a much bigger battery, like this intrepid YouTuber.
Join me in saluting the bravado, then, of Naga, who's not only cracked open a Switch 2 on their YouTube channel, but gone at it with a pair of scissors to fit an 8000 mAh battery in place of the regular 5220 mAh unit. As you'd expect, the new battery is physically larger than the old model, both in height and depth, requiring a significant chunk of a thin internal metal frame to be cut away in order to fit it within the plastic chassis.
Double points for fitting the weebiest battery possible, too, a bright yellow, anime character-emblazoned model. Anyway, after a handy bit of rewiring (and a quick clean down with a microfibre cloth) the Switch 2 was up and running again, although Naga says that two to five full charge cycles were needed before the battery indicator correctly reported the available charge.
The results appear to be pretty impressive, though. Naga says that the battery life in Cyberpunk 2077 (running in 40 Hz mode) jumped from two hours 18 minutes with the old battery to three hours 25 minutes with the new model, an increase of just over an hour. Yes, maths was always my strong point. Thanks for noticing.
That's a pretty impressive leap, especially given that the battery itself appears to have been dropshipped to Naga for around $30 from a somewhat-dubious-looking website that I won't link here. Still, a quick search reveals multiple large Switch 2 battery replacements from a variety of vendors, suggesting that anyone handy with a screwdriver (and some metal snips) might be able to upgrade their handheld in the same way.
Or, as has been suggested by some, wait for Nintendo to release a potentially upgraded version of the Switch 2 with an OLED screen and a larger battery installed from the get go. Still, battery life is often a bugbear of handheld gaming PCs, too, with most of them being somewhat disappointing when you play something highly demanding for more than a couple of hours. The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the best I've tested to date in that regard, managing two hours nine minutes in the PCMark 10 gaming battery life test—although it's much more powerful than a Switch 2.
And no, I didn't take a pair of scissors to it to see if I could cram a larger battery inside its capacious frame. Given the results here, though (and only on a machine I personally owned), I could see myself taking my bravery pills and cutting one up for some serious battery life gains. I'll be interested to see whether that dropshipped battery holds up over long term testing, though. Keep an eye on it when it's charging, yes?
1. Best overall:
Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS ed.
2. Best budget:
Steam Deck
3. Best Windows:
MSI Claw 8 AI+
4. Best big screen:
Lenovo Legion Go
5. Best compact:
Ayaneo Flip DS
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