Nintendo is receiving all manner of compliments for its latest hardware, but special praise must be reserved for its name -- a near perfect paradox. The Switch Lite is, after all, light on pretty much everything that gave the original Switch its name.
No Joy-Cons for out-of-the-box multiplayer, no kickstand to turn the diminutive screen into something around which friends can gather, and, crucially, no option to hook connect the hardware to a television and move the experience from your hands into the front room. The Switch Lite may be priced at $200 rather than $300, but it loses a lot in the name of reducing costs.
This is the underlying argument in Kotaku's review, in which Mike Fahey simultaneously lamented what is missing from the Switch Lite while also proclaiming it "one of the finest handheld gaming devices I've ever used." Fahey is not alone in praising the Switch Lite in those terms, but few critics articulate its shortcomings so clearly.
"'Switch Lacking' would be more accurate, if far less marketable"
Kotaku
"It still supports near-field communication for Amiibo support, and has a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope for motion control, so not all of the Switch's extra features have been stripped away. But most of them have," Fahey wrote. "As has been pointed out time and time again since the hardware was announced in July, there's not much 'Switch' in the Switch Lite. 'Switch Lacking' would be more accurate, if far less marketable.
"If my only desire was to play Switch games in handheld mode, I would choose the Switch Lite over the regular Switch, hands down... But the original does a whole lot of cool stuff the Switch Lite does not do -- stuff I've grown used to, and now feel awkward going without. Removing Joy-Cons to play multiplayer games is a Switch feature I hardly ever use, but when I have, it's led to some pretty magical moments. My gaming is normally a personal thing, but the ability to make it social with the click of my Switch means it doesn't have to be."

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ical-consensus