Nintendo Switch (HAC-001-01)

Where this Switch fits now

Nintendo announced the Switch on 13 January 2017. HAC-001(-01) is the later revision that Nintendo’s US tech specs still list, and Nintendo rates it for much longer battery life than the 2017 launch model, HAC-001.

Switch 2 has since taken over as Nintendo’s current console. Within its own generation, the revised Switch sits in the middle:

Spec	Switch (HAC-001(-01))	Switch OLED (HEG-001)	Switch Lite
Screen	6.2-inch 720p LCD	7.0-inch 720p OLED	5.5-inch 720p LCD
Storage	32GB	64GB	32GB
Battery	4310mAh, about 4.5–9 hours	4310mAh, about 4.5–9 hours	3570mAh, about 3–7 hours
TV mode	Dock, up to 1080p	Dock with LAN port, up to 1080p	None

If yours still does what you need, keep it: Switch OLED’s battery rating is no better. If you’re buying used, make sure it’s the HAC-001(-01). If you’re buying new, look at Nintendo Switch 2. Switch vs Switch OLED and Switch vs Switch Lite go through this generation in detail.

Screen and TV mode

The 6.2-inch LCD is a capacitive touchscreen at 1280 × 720 in handheld and tabletop modes. Docked, the Switch sends up to 1080p to your TV over HDMI, with 5.1-channel linear PCM sound. Nintendo doesn’t publish brightness, refresh rate or HDR support; HDR10 is a Switch 2 feature.

The dock in the box has an HDMI port, a power input and three USB 2.0 ports, two on the side and one at the back. It has no LAN port, so wired internet in TV mode takes a separate adapter. Switch OLED’s dock builds one in.

Joy-Con and controls

The Joy-Con detach for tabletop play, with the console standing on its replaceable kickstand; Switch OLED’s stand is wider and metallic. Each Joy-Con has an accelerometer, a gyroscope and HD Rumble, and the right one adds an IR Motion Camera and the NFC reader for amiibo. Between them you get two sticks, ABXY, a D-pad on the left, L, ZL, R and ZR, plus and minus, Capture, HOME, and SL and SR. There are no trackpads or rear grip buttons.

Nintendo rates each Joy-Con for about 20 hours, and they take about 3 hours 30 minutes to charge on the console or a charging grip. The console itself has an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a brightness sensor.

Battery, charging and power

Nintendo rates the 4310mAh battery for about 4.5 to 9 hours, depending on the game, and about 5.5 hours in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It charges over USB-C in about 3 hours with the console in sleep mode.

Nintendo also lists power draw by mode:

Mode	Playing a game	Watching a video	Main menu	Sleep	Power off
TV	Approx. 7W	Approx. 6W	Approx. 3W	Approx. 0.3W	Approx. 0.3W
Handheld and tabletop	Approx. 4W	Approx. 3W	Approx. 2W	Approx. 0.03W	Less than 0.01W

Assuming two hours of use a day, Nintendo estimates about 6 kWh a year.

Games, storage and connections

Games come from the Nintendo eShop or on Nintendo Switch game cards, running on Nintendo’s own system software and an NVIDIA Custom Tegra processor. There’s no Steam or Windows. The 32GB of storage loses some space to the system; the card slot takes microSD, microSDHC and microSDXC up to 2TB, and microSDXC needs a system update first.

Wireless is Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.1, and there’s a 3.5mm CTIA headset jack. With Joy-Con attached the console measures about 4 × 9.4 × 0.55 inches, 1.12 inches deep from the sticks to ZL and ZR, and weighs about 0.88 lb; on its own it’s about 0.66 lb.

Price

Nintendo’s historical US price for this Switch is $299.99. Nintendo updated Switch pricing in August 2025, so check its store for today’s price before you buy new, and set any used price against that.