Nintendo had a big hit on its hands last year with the holiday release of the cheaper Switch Lite. Now signs point to a forthcoming higher-end version of the Switch that may bring back a second screen reminiscent of the Nintendo 3DS (via Metro).
Rumors of a more powerful version of the Switch have been swirling for some time, but the latest comes from a reference to a new hardware model found in the recent Nintendo Switch firmware update.
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The hardware model was identified in the firmware update as "nx-abcd," which aligns with previous development codenames for Switch models. While there isn't an abundance of details regarding the device, the one piece of info that sticks out is support for a secondary display.
Firmware 10.0.0 adds preliminary support for a new hardware model: "nx-abcd".3 of the 5 new DRAM profiles are for this new hardware type and there's evidence of a secondary display of sorts being added exclusively on this model. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)April 14, 2020
There is no indication as to what form that second screen will take. Given Nintendo's history, we imagine a clamshell-style dual-screen device like the Nintendo DS and 3DS. However, making a second screen such a prominent feature of a single higher-end variant of the console would seem like an odd rift to create for Switch game developers.
It's possible this could be a smaller secondary display that simply supports offloading some content, like item management or menus (think Wii U). And keep in mind, this is a minor piece of code in a firmware update so it's possible the final hardware won't have a second screen at all.
Nintendo has officially denied that a new Switch will be coming this year, so whatever the final form for this new Switch ends up being, we don't expect to see it until 2021.
