Switch 2 loads Breath of the Wild's warp zones in half the time

Nintendo's new Switch 2 will make one of the biggest upgrades to any gameplay experience by reducing loading times.

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The Switch isn't known for being a fast device. Whether you're trying to play a demanding game on the Tegra X1 SoC or loading an in-game zone, the Switch is sometimes pretty sluggish. But the new-and-improved Switch 2 supercharges data speeds with new flash storage, helping cut out those interruption points.

The Switch 2 isn't as fast as the PlayStation 5's custom PCIe 4.0 SSD but it does make a significant improvement over the storage found in the base Switch, which is a single Toshiba THGBMHG8C2LBAIL 32 GB eMMC NAND Flash chip with a maximum data rate of 400MB/sec. The Switch 2 uses UFS storage instead of the Switch 1's eMMC, which is faster than the original, but Nintendo hasn't revealed specifics on the storage outside of a whopping 256GB capacity and confirmation that the storage uses UFS.

We don't know tech specs, but Nintendo did show the real-world effects of faster loading: The Switch 2 can load warp zones in Breath of the Wild in half the time as the original Switch. We haven't gotten to test this out for ourselves--battery and load time tests are a top priority for me personally--and I simply used a stopwatch app to time the sequences manually.

The results speak for themselves:

• Switch 2 - 6.35 seconds
• Switch 1 - 12.69 seconds

There hasn't been much specific discussion around Switch 2 storage speeds but the upgrade won't be free even on a software level. Older Switch 1 games can get i[grade packs that unlock the game's full potential on Switch 2. These upgrade packs can be purchased and are included with the Switch Online Expansion Pack subscription (Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom upgrades are included in Switch Online at no extra cost, but there is a cost).