This DIY kit gives you the Switch Lite OLED that Nintendo hasn’t

Retro Remake has announced that its Switch Lite OLED screen upgrade kits will be available for sale on September 26th at 10PM ET and will start at $49.99. The Super5 OLED kits come with everything needed for the upgrade, including tools like screwdrivers. And unlike many mods, they don't require soldering or modifications to be made to the Switch Lite's shell to fit extra components in.

A proof-of-concept video demonstrating a working prototype of the upgrade kit was shared on YouTube by Taki Udon last July, with the price tag confirmed to be under $50. That's still true but with a catch. The Super5 OLED Standard Upgrade Kit will be $49.99 but has a screen that doesn't support touch inputs, making games like Super Mario Maker 2 that heavily rely on a touchscreen interface difficult to play.

If that's a deal-breaker for you, you'll need to spend a bit more on the $64.99 Super5 OLED Touch Standard Upgrade Kit that includes a touchscreen. For an extra $20, there's also a $84.99 version of the touchscreen OLED kit (or a $69.99 version without touch) that adds 1080p video output through the Switch Lite's USB-C port - a feature Nintendo didn't include on the smaller version of the handheld.

Although the upgrades sound relatively easy since soldering skills aren't needed, they do require you to open the Switch Lite and remove components like the original LCD screen, which isn't trivial. For those less confident in their modding skills, a $109.99 Mega Kit includes both the OLED touchscreen and HDMI output upgrades preinstalled in a third-party replacement shell, requiring users to just swap over their console's guts.

Retro Remake says the OLED screens used in its new upgrade kits are brighter than the screens Nintendo uses in the Switch OLED, with better contrast and a wider color gamut.

If you're hesitant about potentially spending over $100 with a relatively new hardware maker, the Super5 OLED kits won't be the first products the company has successfully shipped, according to our colleague Christopher Grant. "While a new shop, we have one of Retro Remake's 'MiSTer Pi' clones of the MiSTer's DE10 Nano, as well as the accompanying USB hub and A/V hat, so they're capable of shipping real hardware," he said. But he did note, "the SDRAM module that accompanied the kit failed in our tests, but once replaced with a module from another working MiSTer setup, the rest of the kit performed dutifully."