Author: dpugh007

DNS (Domain Name System) is a system which translates the domain names you enter in a browser to the IP addresses required to access those sites.

Your ISP will assign you DNS servers whenever you connect to the internet, but these may not always be the best choice. Slow DNS servers can cause a lag before websites start to load, and if your server sometimes goes down, you may not be able to access any sites at all.

Switching to a free public DNS server can make a real difference, with more responsive browsing and lengthy 100% uptime records meaning there’s much less chance of technical problems.

Some services can also block access to phishing or infected sites, and a few offer content filtering to keep your kids away from the worst of the web.

You need to choose your service with care – not all providers will necessarily be better than your ISP – but to help point you in the right direction, this article will highlight six of the best free DNS servers around.

Why paid DNS is better than free

As with every service, you get what you pay for and it’s no different here. Free DNS can be good but it’s nothing compared to a Premium paid version. Granted, not everyone wants to pay and depending on their needs they might not need to, but paid DNS is always a better choice. Apart from the increased website performance and security, you also get additional features.

For instance, Dynamic DNS and Secondary DNS are a staple of the premium DNS service. The Dynamic DNS works with dynamic IP addresses and it allows users to access their home computer from anywhere in the world. The Secondary DNS works as a backup of sorts which is always a plus. This is just a small fraction of what a premium DNS can do and the exact number of features will depend on the service provider.

• We’ve rounded up the best website hosting services

Founded in 2005 and now owned by Cisco, OpenDNS is one of the biggest names in public DNS.

The free service offers plenty of benefits: high speeds, 100% uptime, phishing sites blocked by default, optional parental controls-type web filtering to block websites by content type, along with free email support if anything goes wrong.

Commercial plans enable viewing a history of your internet activity for up to the last year, and can optionally lock down your system by allowing access to specific websites only. These aren’t going to be must-have features for the average user, but if you’re interested, they can be yours for around $20 (£14.30) a year.

If you’re an old hand at swapping DNS, you can get started immediately by reconfiguring your device to use the OpenDNS nameservers.

If you’re a newbie, that’s okay too, as OpenDNS has setup instructions for PCs, Macs, mobile devices, routers and much, much more.

• Check out OpenDNS here

Best known for its top-rated content delivery network, Cloudflare has extended its range to include a new public DNS service, the catchily-named 1.1.1.1.

The product doesn’t have any of the extras you’ll often see elsewhere. There’s no anti-phishing, no ad-blocking, no content filtering or other attempts to monitor or control what you can access, and what you can’t.

Instead, Cloudflare has focused much more on the fundamentals. These start with performance, and independent testing from sites like DNSPerf shows Cloudflare is the fastest public DNS service around.

Privacy is another major highlight. Cloudflare doesn’t just promise that it won’t use your browsing data to serve ads; it commits that it will never write the querying IP address (yours) to disk. Any logs that do exist will be deleted within 24 hours. And these claims aren’t just reassuring words on a website. Cloudflare has retained KPMG to audit its practices annually and produce a public report to confirm the company is delivering on its promises.

The 1.1.1.1 website has some setup guidance, with simple tutorials covering Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux and routers. These are very generic – you get one set of instructions for all versions of Windows, for instance – but there are some pluses (IPv6 as well as IPv4 details) and you should be able to figure it out. Additionally, mobile users can use WARP which secures all of the phone’s internet traffic.

If you have any problems, Cloudflare offers a community forum where you can ask questions or see what others are doing, a nice extra touch which we’d like to see followed by other providers.

• Check out Cloudflare here

Google has its fingers in most web-related pies, and DNS is no exception: it’s free Public DNS is a simple and effective replacement for your own ISP’s nameservers.

Privacy can’t quite match the ‘we don’t keep anything’ promises of Cloudflare, but it’s not bad. The service logs the full IP address information of the querying device for around 24 to 48 hours for troubleshooting and diagnostic purposes. ‘Permanent’ logs drop any personally identifiable information and reduce location details to the city level, and all but a small random sample of these are deleted after two weeks.

There’s a further benefit for experienced users in Google’s detailed description of the service. If you’d like to be able to assess the significance of Google’s privacy policy, for instance, you can read up on absolutely everything the service logs contain to find out for yourself.

Google’s support site offers only very basic guidance targeted at experienced users, warning that “only users who are proficient with configuring operating system settings [should] make these changes.” If you’re unsure what you’re doing, check the tutorials from a provider such as OpenDNS, remembering to replace its nameservers with Google’s: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

• Check out Google Public DNS here

UPDATE: Norton ConnectSafe retired and the service isn’t available anymore.

Norton ConnectSafe is a free DNS service which can automatically block access to fraudulent, phishing and malware-infested websites, as well as optionally filtering sites by content.

This is a familiar idea – OpenDNS and Comodo, amongst others, do much the same thing – but ConnectSafe has one important advantage. It takes its data from Norton Safe Web, a comprehensive database on more than 50 million websites in 23 languages. The service delivers probably the best web filtering performance around, and the ability to get it for free, without having to install any software, is a major safety plus.

Setting up the service requires choosing from three levels of protection.

The Security policy blocks malicious and fraudulent websites only, and uses the nameservers 199.85.126.10 and 199.85.127.10.

The Security and Pornography policy adds support for filtering sexually explicit material, and uses the nameservers 199.85.126.20 and 199.85.127.20.

The very strict Security and Pornography and Other scheme extends the filtering to block ‘sites that feature mature content, abortion, alcohol, crime, cults, drugs, gambling, hate, sexual orientation, suicide, tobacco or violence’ by using the nameservers 199.85.126.30 and 199.85.127.30.

That’s likely to lock you out of a lot of content, but it might appeal as a way to protect young children, and you don’t have to use this policy everywhere. You could lock down your kids’ tablet with this policy, for instance, but stick with the plain Security policy for your own laptop.

There are only very basic setup instructions on the ConnectSafe site, but if you run into trouble, the tutorials on competitors such as OpenDNS may point you in the right direction. Just be sure to use Norton’s nameserver IP addresses when you change your device settings.

• Check out Norton ConnectSafe here

Comodo Group is the power behind a host of excellent security products, so it’s no surprise that the company also offers its own public DNS service.

Just as you’d expect, Comodo Secure DNS has a strong focus on safety. It doesn’t just block phishing sites, but also warns if you try to visit sites with malware, spyware, even parked domains which might overload you with advertising (pop-ups, pop-unders and more). Furthermore, you can try out the Comodo Dome Shield service, which adds additional features to Comodo Secure DNS.

Comodo claims its service is smarter than average, too, detecting attempts to visit parked or ‘not in use’ domains and automatically forwarding you to where you really want to go.

Performance is key, of course, and the company suggests its worldwide network of servers and smart routing technology give it an advantage. DNSPerf’s Comodo stats are less impressive, unfortunately. As we write, DNSPerf reports its average query time as around 72ms.

That said, Comodo may still be interesting if you’re looking for an extra layer of web filtering, and the support website has some short but useful instructions on setting the service up on Windows PCs, Macs, routers and Chromebooks.

• Check out Comodo Secure DNS here

Quad9 is a young DNS outfit which has been providing a fast and free DNS service since August 2016.

The company sells itself on its ability to block malicious domains by collecting intelligence from ‘a variety of public and private sources.’ It’s not clear what these sources are, but the website says Quad9 used 18+ ‘threat intelligence providers’ as of December 2018.

That’s a little too vague for us, and we’re not convinced that using a large number of threat intelligence providers will necessarily help – the quality of the intelligence is generally more important than the quantity.

There’s no arguing about Quad9’s performance, though. DNSPerf currently rates it seven out of ten for average worldwide query times, lagging behind Cloudflare and OpenDNS, but effortlessly outpacing contenders like Comodo.

Drilling down into the detail reveals some variations in speed – Quad9 is on the sixth place for North American queries – but overall the service still delivers better performance than most.

Setup guidance is a little limited, with tutorials for the latest versions of Windows and macOS only. They’re well presented, though, and it’s not difficult to figure out what you need to do.

• Check out Quad9 here

Verisign was founded in 1995 and through the years offered various services, including several security services, like managed DNS.

Verisign DNS service is free to use and the company highlights the three features they deem the most important and those are stability, security, and privacy. The service definitely delivers on that account, especially for the security and stability. As for the privacy, while you can never be 100% sure when it comes to the company claims, there weren’t any issues and the company assures you that your public DNS data will not be sold to third parties.

Performance, however, wasn’t that great when compared to some other providers. Still, it’s decent and depending on your needs, you might not be bothered by this. At the moment, DNSPerf.com ranks the service at tenth place, worldwide.

On their website, you can find tutorials on how to set up their public DNS. Tutorials are available for Windows 7 and 10, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices. There is also a tutorial on how to configure DNS server settings on your router.

All in all, Verisign offers a good alternative to some other DNS providers, plus it’s free so it’s worth checking out.

• Check out Verisign DNS here

Got further questions about DNS? Here are some common queries along with our answers.

What is DNS?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a phonebook for the internet, a framework which translates domain names, like facebook.com or twitter.com, into the IP addresses necessary for devices to load those internet resources.

The mechanics of DNS can be quite complicated, as information isn’t held in a single database, but rather distributed in a worldwide directory including a vast number of DNS servers.

Fortunately, the average internet user doesn’t normally have to get involved in any of the low-level technical details. Your ISP automatically provides you with access to a DNS server whenever you go online, and whenever you enter a URL into your browser, this will find the relevant IP address for you. 

Why might DNS matter to me?

DNS servers can vary hugely in speed, particularly in areas which don’t always have the best internet coverage (Africa, South America, Oceania.) To take an example of a single day when we tested, DNSPerf.com reported Cloudflare achieved an average 4.43ms query time for Oceania, while Yandex was left trailing at 350.24ms. That’s potentially more than a third of a second in extra waiting time before your browser is able to access any new website.

This is an extreme example, to be fair. European or US lookups may see less than 30ms variation between most DNS services, and as your device or router will probably cache the address for reuse later, even this delay will only occur very occasionally. Still, a sluggish DNS server can noticeably slow down your browsing in some situations, and trying an alternative – especially as the best options are all free – is generally a good idea.

There’s a second possible benefit in terms of uptime. If your ISP DNS server fails, you might not be able to access some or all of your favorite sites. Big-name providers such as OpenDNS claim they’ve had 100% uptime going back years.

How can I find the fastest DNS service?

DNS speed depends on many factors, including your location, the distance to your nearest server, and that server having enough power and bandwidth to handle all the queries it receives.

DNS Jumper is a portable freeware tool which tests multiple public DNS services to find out which delivers the best performance for you.

The program has a lot of options, but isn’t difficult to use. Launch it, click Fastest DNS > Start DNS Test, and within a few seconds you’ll be looking at a list of DNS services sorted by speed.

DNS Jumper can be useful, in particular because it’s checking how servers perform from your location, but it doesn’t run enough tests over a long enough period to give you a definitive answer.

DNSPerf tests multiple DNS services every minute from 200+ locations around the world and makes the results freely available on its own website. This gives a very good general idea of performance, and also enables seeing how services compare on different continents, as well as assessing their uptime.

How can I switch DNS servers?

The steps involved in changing your DNS service vary according to your hardware and possibly your operating system version.

Generally, you must start by finding the primary and secondary nameservers for the DNS service you’d like to use. These IP addresses are normally displayed very clearly on the service website, so, for example, Cloudflare DNS uses 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.

The simplest approach for home users is to update their router to use the new addresses. Most other devices will then pick up the new DNS settings automatically, with no further work required.

To make this happen you must log in to your router (the default password may be printed on its base) and look for the current DNS primary and secondary nameservers. Make a note of the current values in case of problems, then replace them with the nameservers you’d like to use.

If you run into problems, check out your DNS service website for any setup guidance. Keep in mind that you can also use the tutorials of other DNS providers, as long as you remember to replace their nameserver IPs with your preferred options. OpenDNS, for instance, has specific guidance for many different router types on its support site.

If router tweaks aren’t right for your situation, you may have to change the DNS configuration of each individual device. Cloudflare has short and simple guidance here, while the OpenDNS website goes into more depth.

How can I find my current DNS servers?

If you’re troubleshooting your internet connection, or maybe thinking of switching DNS servers, it might be useful to check which DNS servers you’re using at the moment.

The simplest way to do this is to visit DNSLeakTest.com and tap the Standard Test button. Within a few seconds the website will usually display your DNS server IP addresses, host names, and sometimes (if appropriate) the name of your ISP.

After that, life gets more complicated as there are several potential options. Your device could be set up to use specific DNS servers; it might ask your router to give it the best DNS servers every time it boots; or it might not know anything about DNS servers, and leave your router to handle everything.

On Windows, you could get started by entering IPCONFIG /ALL in a command line window. Look for your network adapter and you should see its DNS servers specified in the list.

If there’s a single DNS IP address which points at your router – 192.168.x.x – that suggests the router is handling all DNS queries. Enter that IP address into your browser, log in to the router if necessary and your DNS servers should be listed amongst the settings.

How can I test a DNS service?

If your browser is telling you a website’s ‘server IP address could not be found’, even though you’re sure it’s up and available, then this could be due to a problem with your DNS. But you might not want to go to the trouble of changing your DNS service to find out.

Windows users can use the command line tool nslookup.exe to look at the results of any DNS server without touching their system settings.

Run cmd.exe to open a command line window, then type:

nslookup website.com

Then press Enter (replace website.com with the address of whatever website you’re trying to reach).

Nslookup uses your default DNS server to look for the IP address of website.com. If it tells you it ‘can’t find website.com’, this means your DNS server doesn’t have a record for that domain.

Next, tell the tool to use another DNS service by entering a command like:

nslookup website.com 8.8.8.8

The 8.8.8.8 address uses Google DNS – replace that with any DNS service you like, such as 1.1.1.1 for Cloudflare.

If nslookup returns errors using multiple servers, this doesn’t look like a DNS issue. If one server returns an IP address and another doesn’t, you might want to try setting up your system to use the working DNS and see if it makes any difference.

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The wait is over…the Six Nations is back! Rugby Union fans were spoilt rotten by the World Cup last year, but now there’s the chance for six of the sport’s biggest teams to battle things go all out for Grand Slam glory. And you’re in exactly the right place if you’re unsure how to get a Six Nations live stream where you are this weekend.

Four of the six teams have new coaches since the 2019 instalment of tournament, with only England’s Eddie Jones and Scotland’s Gregor Townsend still in place this time out. 

Jones will have to use all of his managerial experience to lift a set of players who may still feel wounded after their 32-12 humbling by South Africa in the World Cup Final in Japan back in November. Wales come into the tournament as champions following last year’s Grand Slam triumph, and it will be interesting to see how they fare under new coach Wayne Pivac.

With France set to host the World Cup in 2023, all eyes will be on the nation’s new coach Fabien Galthie and the youthful squad he’ll be looking to blood in the run up to that tournament. Ireland will have a familiar face looking on from the stands as coach, with former assistant Andy Farrell replacing Joe Schmidt in the hot seat. While much of Scotland’s hopes will be resting on the shoulder’s of talisman Finn Russell, however the stand-off’s breach of discipline which saw him unceremoniously sent home during his teams preparation for their opening tie against Ireland has placed his involvement in the tournament in doubt. Oh…and then there’s Italy, too!

For all the info about how to watch a Six Nations live stream, read on. And you can scroll down to see a list of next weekend’s fixtures, too.

• And don’t miss out on a Super Bowl live stream either

How to live stream Six Nations 2020 in the UK for free

Great news! Every single Six Nations match will be shown live in the UK on free-to-air television. The coverage is spread across the BBC and ITV, so take a look at our info box below to see what channel is showing which individual games.

If you’re trying to watch online (either live or on catch-up) then you can get access via the BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub websites or mobile apps. Alternatively, just head to an online streaming TV service such TVPlayer.com, which has all of the UK’s freeview channels (including the BBC and ITV) in one place. This means you can catch the match on TV, computer, tablet and smartphone for free if you’re in the UK – or subscribe to TVPlayer Plus if you want to record it and watch later.

Not in the UK this weekend? No worries – just download and install a VPN and use a UK location to watch live as if you were back home. Full instructions below.

How to live stream the Six Nations when you’re not in your country

If you’re outside your country of residence – whether that be the UK or anywhere else – and try to start streaming the rugby via your native broadcaster, you’ll soon discover that you can’t as it is location restricted. But there’s a way you can watch anyway. By downloading and installing a VPN, you can effectively trick your computer into thinking that it’s back at home. That way you can enjoy your home coverage without having to find an illegal stream – assuming you comply with the broadcaster’s Ts&Cs, of course.

Six Nations 2020: Fixtures and UK TV schedule

All times in GMT

ROUND ONE:
Saturday, February 1, 2020 Wales v Italy, 2.15pm, Principality Stadium, Cardiff. TV – BBC SPORT + S4C

Ireland v Scotland, 4.45pm, Aviva Stadium, Dublin. TV – ITV SPORT

Sunday, February 2, 2020 France v England, 3pm, Stade de France, Paris. TV – BBC SPORT

ROUND TWO:
Saturday, February 8, 2020 Ireland v Wales, 2.15pm, Aviva Stadium, Dublin. TV – ITV SPORT + S4C

Scotland v England, 4.45pm, BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh. TV – BBC SPORT

Sunday, February 9, 2020 France v Italy, 3pm, Stade de France, Paris. TV – BBC SPORT

ROUND THREE:
Saturday, February 22, 2020 Italy v Scotland, 2.15pm, Stadio Olimpico, Rome. TV – ITV SPORT

Wales v France, 4.45pm, Principality Stadium, Cardiff. TV – BBC SPORT + S4C

Sunday, February 23, 2020 England v Ireland, 3pm, Twickenham Stadium, London. TV – ITV SPORT

ROUND FOUR:
Saturday, March 7, 2020 Ireland v Italy, 2.15pm, Aviva Stadium, Dublin. TV – ITV SPORT

England v Wales, 4.45pm, Twickenham Stadium, London. TV – ITV SPORT + S4C

Sunday, March 8, 2020 Scotland v France, 3pm, BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh. TV – BBC SPORT

ROUND FIVE:
Saturday, March 14, 2020 Wales v Scotland, 2.15pm, Principality Stadium, Cardiff. TV – BBC SPORT + S4C

Italy v England, 4.45pm, Stadio Olimpico, Rome. TV – ITV SPORT

France v Ireland, 8pm, Stade de France, Paris. TV – BBC SPORT

Live stream the Six Nations in Australia

Live stream the Six Nations in New Zealand

Live stream the 2020 Six Nations in Canada and more – for FREE

How to live stream Six Nations rugby in the US

Who are the favourites for the 2020 Six Nations?

Beaten World Cup finalists England are current favourites with most bookies to lift this year’s Six Nations Championship trophy.

What happened in the 2019 Six Nations?

Regarded as outsiders at the beginning of the tournament, Wales clinched their first grand slam in seven years, with a clean sweep of victories against their five opponents.

Who has won the most Six Nations championships

England lead the pack with six championship wins, their last in 2017. Wales and France are both close behind on five.

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Sure, it takes the number 2 spot in our guide to the best smartphones. Yes, it is one of the best camera phones around, and it has come down rapidly in price since it launched. But is all of that really enough to make the Huawei P30 Pro worth your investment?

Normally, we would say yes but Huawei has upped the appeal even more by throwing in a free Huawei Watch GT Active with pretty much all Huawei P30 Pro deals around. 

Whether you’re thinking of buying from one of the big names like Amazon or Carphone Warehouse, or scouting out the lesser-known Buymobiles or Mobiles.co.uk, there are plenty of options on-board this promotion.

But of course, scouring the pages of the 30 retailers flogging this freebie might take a while. That’s why we’ve decided to step up and become your middle man, listing the absolute best Huawei P30 Pro deals below.

• Consult our guide to the best mobile phone deals for everything else available

The best Huawei P30 Pro deals + free watch:

How good is the Huawei P30 Pro?

The Huawei P30 Pro consistently receives praise as one of the most innovative devices out there, with a lot of that praise aimed at its camera. Sporting an incredible 50x zoom camera, smart AI camera features and an overall impeccable quality, nothing can quite match it.

Backing up the camera is a high quality inifinity display screen, tonnes of power and a massive battery. In other words the Huawei P30 Pro is here battling for the spot of the world’s best smartphone with just one or two competitors.

Read TechRadar’s Huawei P30 Pro review here

How to claim your free Huawei Watch Active GT:

All you have to do is buy a Huawei P30 Pro deal before February 27. After that, go to this link and claim your new free watch. It can take up to 30 days for your Watch to arrive so don’t worry too much if you don’t see it straight away.

What other retailers are offering the watch?

(While all of these retailers are part of this promotion, not all are launching on the same day. If you can’t find the relevant promotion on any of the below sites, check back next week).

Affordable Mobiles
Amazon.co.uk
Argos
BT Mobile
Buymobiles.net
Carphone Warehouse
Currys PC World
e2save.co.uk
EE Mobile
Fonehouse
GiffGaff
ID Mobile
John Lewis
Mobile Phones Direct
Mobiles.co.uk
O2
Sky Mobile
Tesco Mobile
Three
Very
Vodafone
Virgin

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Rumors have been circling for a while now that a Nintendo Switch Pro is in the works. However, contrary to belief, a Switch Pro certainly won’t be releasing this year as Nintendo has officially confirmed that a new Switch isn’t coming in 2020.

But that’s not to say we won’t see a new Nintendo Switch in the future.

While we technically seen two new Switch devices release in 2019 – the Switch with longer battery and the handheld Nintendo Switch Lite – we’re still expecting Nintendo to have another, more premium, Switch up its sleeve. 

This new Switch (or Switch Pro) would boast upgraded hardware in comparison to the original Nintendo Switch, potentially offering better graphics and processing power, among other improved features – although it’s been suggested this upgrade won’t be as extensive as we’d like to see.

With Nintendo not even confirming the existence of a Switch Pro, and the company ruling out a 2020 release for any new Switch, when would be a likely release window? And, if the rumors are true, what features would this new Switch likely offer? While we wait for more definitive answers, let’s run through the likely (and unlikely) possibilities below.

Last year, Nintendo released two new Switch devices: the Switch Lite and the Nintendo Switch with improved battery life. However, we’re still expecting the House of Mario to have yet another new Nintendo Switch up its sleeve.

A Wall Street Journal report has suggested that – in addition to these new devices – there’s also a premium Nintendo Switch console on the way: potentially a Switch Pro. While we’re treating these rumors with caution, the report did correctly predict the release of the Switch Lite, adding more weight to this speculation. But when could we see this new Switch?

Several reports claimed that we would be seeing a new Switch this year, however Nintendo has officially shut down these rumors. Nintendo’s CEO Shuntaro Furukawa has said that there are “no plans to launch a new Nintendo Switch model during 2020.”

That means we’re pretty much in the dark about when a Switch Pro will arrive but we’re hoping for a release date sometime next year.

Obviously redesigns cost money, and redesigns with improved hardware doubly so. We’re fully expecting the Switch Pro, with its updated hardware, to cost considerably more than the current Switch’s £279/ $299/AU$469 pricing. 

In addition, the Switch Lite isn’t exactly cheap. The handheld Switch costs $199.99/£199.99/AU$329.95, which isn’t too far off the original’s price – and that’s with less features than the original.

Dr Toto suggested a price tag of $399, which seems a good estimate. After all, the PS4 Pro is $100 more than the PS4. The price mark up takes into account the improved hardware without being prohibitive. However, this is Nintendo we’re talking about, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a Switch Pro cost a tad more than that.

Nintendo may not have officially announced the Switch Pro, but we’ve gathered all the biggest news and rumors surrounding the new Nintendo Switch right here for your perusal.

No 4K or performance upgrades? – Debunked
On Korean site Clién’s community forums (via Wccftech), a poster named Cathedral Knight claimed that the Switch Pro will launch in Q4 2020 but will not boast 4K and upgraded performance as expected.

Instead of moving to an upgraded version of Tegrax1 +GPU, the post claims Nintendo will work with Nvidia to create a custom processor based on Volta. In other words, not much will actually improve with the Switch Pro, it may just be a little faster.

However, Nintendo has since shut down rumors that a new Switch will release in 2020 – meaning we can probably assume the claims about performance are also untrue.

Production rumored to start as soon as April – Debunked
A report by Taiwan newspaper DigiTimes claimed that mass production on a new Switch will start “at the end of first-quarter 2020”- with the console itself releasing in mid-2020. However, as we’ve pointed out, Nintendo has ruled out a 2020 release date.

No Switch Pro in 2019
At a press briefing for the announcement of the Switch Lite, Nintendo president Doug Bowser revealed that we wouldn’t be seeing another new Switch model in 2019, according to CNET.

“[The Nintendo Switch Lite will] be the only new Nintendo Switch hardware this holiday, as Bowser says the larger Switch won’t get an upgrade right now,” CNET wrote.

However, Bowser’s comments suggested an upgraded Switch model is on the way, perhaps a Switch Pro?

Two new Nintendo Switch devices
A Wall Street Journal report suggests that Nintendo is working on two individual Switch variants that, rather than making the current Nintendo Switch obsolete, would put it in the middle of a range growing to suit all budgets.

According the publication’s sources, the first of these new devices will be aimed at budget gamers, and will see the Switch presented in a more traditional handheld-first format. It’ll replace removable Joy-Cons with fixed ones, and ditch their HD Rumble feature in order to bring costs down. This was confirmed with the announcement of the Nintendo Switch Lite.

The second new version of the Nintendo Switch, going by the rumor, is a little harder to pin down, but would be a premium version of the console with “enhanced features targeted at avid videogamers.” That’s not to suggest it would be aiming for 4K or HDR visuals, but would more likely have features and services baked in that would accommodate the modern obsession with streaming to platforms like Twitch. 

The confirmation of the Switch Lite adds some weight to this report and could mean we will see another new premium Switch console at a future date.

The 5.0 firmware dig
Though the Nintendo Switch’s 5.0 firmware update wasn’t up to much on the surface, hackers on Switchbrew dug into the upgrade in 2019 and found evidence which suggests a hardware refresh is in the works. 

Switchbrew discovered references to a new T214 chip (which would be a small improvement on the current T210) as well as an updated printed circuit board and 8GB of RAM instead of the current 4GB. This T214 is likely what was used in the Switch Lite and improved battery Switch, but we’re expecting the Switch Pro to have even further hardware improvements that will push the devices overall performance.

AR and VR support
VR and AR support for the Switch never looked likely, with the MD of Nintendo France citing a lack of mainstream appeal for the technology back in 2018, but the Labo VR Kit shows Nintendo has changed its mind about the viability of VR.

The Switch doesn’t have the high resolution of most VR gaming rigs, so we could see an advanced model with 2K or 4K resolution to improve those close-up VR experiences. However, given the VR Kit is still focused mainly on children, we’d be surprised to see a visual overhaul simply for this one peripheral.

What about 3D?
Another Nintendo patent came to light in early 2019: this time for a 3D sensor array that sits above your television, and creates a stereoscopic image in a similar way to the 3DS, meaning you wouldn’t even need glasses.

3D visuals felt like a passing gimmick even with Nintendo’s handheld consoles – and the troubled Microsoft Kinect camera will no doubt keep it wary of unnecessary TV peripherals. But getting convincing 3D imaging on standard 2D TVs may the step needed to bring 3D gaming mainstream.

Could it support 4K?
While Sony and Microsoft push at the 4K market, there isn’t really any big reason for Nintendo, the company that staunchly sets itself apart from other hardware producers, to follow suit. 

In the same interview where he dismissed VR, Nintendo France General Manager Philippe Lavoué also brushed off 4K saying that the technology has “not been adopted by the majority” and it would, therefore, be too early for Nintendo to jump in. 

Nintendo didn’t enter the HD console market until 2012 when it released the Wii U. This was around four years after Sony and Microsoft and at the point when more than 75% of US households actually had HD displays in their home. 

Miyamoto however has said he wished Nintendo had done the jump to HD sooner than this, saying that the display technology became popular around three years before Nintendo expected it to. It’s expected that by 2020, 50% of US households will have adopted 4K technology and it might be at this point that Nintendo decides to join the 4K fray, rather than waiting until the 75% market saturation of before. 

• Looking forward to the next generation of gaming? Read more about the Xbox Series X and PS5

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