Do you care about the Switch 2's interface?

[sexually_inactive]

It's a slight upgrade over the original Switch's which some people were ok with and other people like to complain about. While I'd prefer a better interface, it's not a huge deal.

 

[ikynx]

As noticeable as an MS powerpoint minor update

 

[Ondrashek06]

It's still the exact same boring slop interface as in the Switch 1, just with minor changes and tweaks for Switch 2 features.

It's similar to the New 3DS situation, however at least the 3DS had a much more lively and customizable interface.

 

[RyanTheArchivist]

It's a slight upgrade over the original Switch's which some people were ok with and other people like to complain about. While I'd prefer a better interface, it's not a huge deal.

The most important thing to me is it's quick and snappy. That was the worst thing about the Wii U's UI it was ungodly slow and laggy. I definitely would prefer the system to have a bit more theming/customization but like I said most important thing is functionality.

 

[Kraken_X]

It's functional, but worse than what the Wii had 20 years ago. Keeping the same interface from the Switch 1 makes the Switch 2 feel like a "Pro" model refresh rather than an actually new console too. Theme support would be nice, I'd even pay a few bucks for a good one.

Overall though. I'll take it over the laggy ad-filled Xbox One interface.

 

[Renos44]

After dealing with how god awful the Xbox one dashboard was for years due to the insane amount of bloat and ads and the clunky feel of the ps4. I love the quick and snappy feel of the switch UI and its simplicity. The only thing I'd want is maybe some ambient sound or music from an aesthetic point of view. From a functionality want list I can name a few things.

1. Better HDR calibration screen
2. quick settings menu for bluetooth audio devices
3. Easy ability to switch between S1 and S2 versions of the same game.
4. Ability to backup saves offline. If were so worried about save hacking just encrypt save files with the console keys. At this point you already need another major entry point to get the keys.
5. game chat rooms need the ability for people to join and leave as they please. Xbox live got this right in 2006.

 

[RyanTheArchivist]

After dealing with how god awful the Xbox one dashboard was for years due to the insane amount of bloat and ads and the clunky feel of the ps4. I love the quick and snappy feel of the switch UI and its simplicity. The only thing I'd want is maybe some ambient sound or music from an aesthetic point of view. From a functionality want list I can name a few things.

1. Better HDR calibration screen
2. quick settings menu for bluetooth audio devices
3. Easy ability to switch between S1 and S2 versions of the same game.
4. Ability to backup saves offline. If were so worried about save hacking just encrypt save files with the console keys. At this point you already need another major entry point to get the keys.
5. game chat rooms need the ability for people to join and leave as they please. Xbox live got this right in 2006.

Going to go through these a bit
1. Yeah HBR is just a bitch to calibrate on literally everything but the Switch 2 definitely didnt make it any easier....
2. Should really be in the quick menu yeah.
3 I don't know if they will add this but it would be appreciated for sure. Though there is much less reason for it on a console without achievements/trophies.
4. I don't see them ever doing this as even the PS5 has blocked this feature now I think.
5. This is very likely going to be patched in later.

 

[Vixi]

It's quiet... too quiet...

 

[LazyTomato]

It really, reeeeally needs a complete rework. It's insane that you still can't change the grid size or manually reorder anything like you could on previous systems. Even putting aside the depressingly sterile flat minimalistic look that's long since worn out its welcome; that's secondary to its terrible functionality.

The moment you have more than 4-5 games (which they clearly want you to, they want you buying as many games as possible at full price) you're at the whims of the system's auto-sorting to a single row with these massive icons that take up way too much space and everything gets pushed back to that terrible "all apps" view you have to scroll all the way back to and it's a huge pain to navigate unless you're only playing the same couple games so they don't get pushed back with the rest.

You can't even avoid the issue with physical games because unlike the previous consoles it's not just a single "slot" for whatever cart's inside, the icon for every single game just stays there and adds to the bloat. And even if they didn't you'd still have keycard games to worry about now which DEFINITELY would linger since that's a game that's installed to system memory.


The 3DS's interface felt like a borderline customizable computer "desktop" where you could just make folders, move anything wherever you wanted, and customize the size and look of everything to go with whatever you were going for, and it would boot directly into that with no need to scroll to anything.

The U didn't quite have the customizable grid size or the plethora of themes but it was still very good to work with because of the folders and manual sorting features that worked the exact same way.

Now it's like they don't even trust you to be able to do that so you get no options to do anything, the console just has to take the wheel. And even the """groups""" on that all-apps view (once you slowly scroll all the way back to it) are worse than folders in every way, they're more annoying to work with, and you still can't manually order anything, just a few measly auto-sort presets, because again, they don't trust you to manually do ANYTHING.


I could not care less how "snappy" or "quick" the UI is if it's not going to let me do anything with it which defeats the point entirely because you can't manually set up things to tailor the interface to your own preference.
(and even then it isn't any "faster" to start up, the console's just hard carried by the fact you're expected to put it on standby like a phone instead of turning it off completely, of COURSE that's going to turn on faster than a cold-boot which always easily took upwards of 30 seconds)

 

[AkikoKumagara]

I don't care much because most of the time I boot up my Switch, I don't spend more than a few seconds on the menu at any given time. Would it be cool if it looked a little nicer or had some more customization? Sure, but it's not a deal-breaker to me. I don't care much either way. It works for my purposes as it is now, but could be improved.

 

[LoggerMan]

Doesn't matter what it looks like, as long as it plays the new Zelda and Mario games. Wouldn't bother me if it didn't have an OS at all and games ran straight on hardware like the N64 did.

 

[Jayro]

I don't care for it, but I care about it, and it could stand to be improved.

 

[SMNFXCN]

i like that the dark theme is actually darker than the sw1. i'd like to customize the gradient colour when selecting stuff though. and the HDR calibration screen shows an "OLED" theme of the UI so it seems like they could add that in the future. if at all

 

[ikynx]

It really, reeeeally needs a complete rework. It's insane that you still can't change the grid size or manually reorder anything like you could on previous systems. Even putting aside the depressingly sterile flat minimalistic look that's long since worn out its welcome; that's secondary to its terrible functionality.

The moment you have more than 4-5 games (which they clearly want you to, they want you buying as many games as possible at full price) you're at the whims of the system's auto-sorting to a single row with these massive icons that take up way too much space and everything gets pushed back to that terrible "all apps" view you have to scroll all the way back to and it's a huge pain to navigate unless you're only playing the same couple games so they don't get pushed back with the rest.

You can't even avoid the issue with physical games because unlike the previous consoles it's not just a single "slot" for whatever cart's inside, the icon for every single game just stays there and adds to the bloat. And even if they didn't you'd still have keycard games to worry about now which DEFINITELY would linger since that's a game that's installed to system memory.


The 3DS's interface felt like a borderline customizable computer "desktop" where you could just make folders, move anything wherever you wanted, and customize the size and look of everything to go with whatever you were going for, and it would boot directly into that with no need to scroll to anything.

The U didn't quite have the customizable grid size or the plethora of themes but it was still very good to work with because of the folders and manual sorting features that worked the exact same way.

Now it's like they don't even trust you to be able to do that so you get no options to do anything, the console just has to take the wheel. And even the """groups""" on that all-apps view (once you slowly scroll all the way back to it) are worse than folders in every way, they're more annoying to work with, and you still can't manually order anything, just a few measly auto-sort presets, because again, they don't trust you to manually do ANYTHING.


I could not care less how "snappy" or "quick" the UI is if it's not going to let me do anything with it which defeats the point entirely because you can't manually set up things to tailor the interface to your own preference.
(and even then it isn't any "faster" to start up, the console's just hard carried by the fact you're expected to put it on standby like a phone instead of turning it off completely, of COURSE that's going to turn on faster than a cold-boot which always easily took upwards of 30 seconds)

yup, HorizonOS's UI is imho textbook awful. 2/3's of the screen is left pretty much useless and UX is a non topic. It looks all too common: it's meant to look good on screenshots of Figma wireframes and mockups copy-pasted into powerpoint slidedecks, but people in charge of making decisions don't actually care (and therefore bother) with in context user experience (as in ergonomics for customers with a decent amount of games) because they are probably not users in the first place. I've seen the same kind of issue with webpage design quirks because UI design teams working in Figma design the webpage as a whole, so they ajust layout to look good as a whole, and only take into consideration the actual viewport as an afterthought (that when they do at all, and usually, with only 1 target screen resolution in mind).

 

[Marc_LFD]

After dealing with how god awful the Xbox one dashboard was for years due to the insane amount of bloat and ads and the clunky feel of the ps4. I love the quick and snappy feel of the switch UI and its simplicity. The only thing I'd want is maybe some ambient sound or music from an aesthetic point of view. From a functionality want list I can name a few things.

1. Better HDR calibration screen
2. quick settings menu for bluetooth audio devices
3. Easy ability to switch between S1 and S2 versions of the same game.
4. Ability to backup saves offline. If were so worried about save hacking just encrypt save files with the console keys. At this point you already need another major entry point to get the keys.
5. game chat rooms need the ability for people to join and leave as they please. Xbox live got this right in 2006.

I'll admit I really like using the One X, but oh God, the amount of ads it has is insane. NS1/NS2's UI is pretty basic although it's ad-free so in comparison it's an improvement.

 

[hippy dave]

Post in thread 'How do you feel about the Switch 2 UI?'

Apr 21, 2025

NO STRONG FEELINGS EITHER WAY

• hippy dave

• 

 

[Hanafuda]

Post in thread 'How do you feel about the Switch 2 UI?'

Apr 21, 2025

NO STRONG FEELINGS EITHER WAY

• hippy dave

• 

Same here, dave. I'd have to buy one first to care, and I kinda let that go when I had my daughter buy me a N3DSLL and PSVita in Japan this summer. My wallet's all tapped out for toys for a little while. With necessary accessories, the money will add up to about the same as a Switch 2.