Patents and 4K-Ready Dock Point To Future-Proof Switch System

By M. Kang

Posted on October 7, 2021

[adrotate group = “15”]

The Switch Pro mystery continues to deepen as new reporting indicates that Nintendo has made several steps towards the elusive 4K console.

First, Nintendo patents were published which point to the company looking at potential 4K upscaling technologies using AI. As reported by VGC, the patents outline a technology “taking a source image, dividing it into blocks of pixels and giving each block some context data… [and running it] through a trained neural network to convert the image to a higher resolution.” If it works as describes, the Switch would be able to upscale games from 540p to 1080p or even 720p to 4K.

Nintendo Switch 4K Dev Kits Sent To Developers, Nintendo Denies Claims

Then, YouTube channel Nintendo Prime did a teardown of the console after receiving it early. They found that the new dock that comes with the Switch OLED has both an HDMI port and cable which are 4K ready. The dock, however, does not have a chip able to upscale console input to 4K. If the Switch were able to convert to 4K within the console, as the published patent seems to point to, then the dock would be able to output it.

While the signs point to an eventual Nintendo Switch or Switch-like system capable of outputting to 4K when docked, this is all speculation that Nintendo is actually gearing up for said console. Unlike they give us a definitive sign, it may be better to wait and see rather than expect.