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Nintendo Switch OLED model is R7999 in South Africa

Shortly after the international reveal of the Nintendo Switch OLED model we got confirmation that the console would be coming to South Africa, but only now, months later, do we know that the price will be R7 999.

This is as many South African retailers have opened up their pre-orders today with prices attached. Any stores which had pre-orders open or some other signs ups available had done so without prices.

The distributor for Nintendo in South Africa – Core – has revealed this price in a public marketing email sent out earlier today. This email also states that stock of the console will be limited and, at least on its own online store, buyers can only buy one console.

The flagship white colourway, as well as the neon red / blue can be pre-ordered with a release date of 8th October.

So how does this price compare to what people in other countries are paying? In America the OLED model is selling for $349.99, which is a step up from the base Nintendo Switch which is available there for $299.99.

Right now $349.99 converts to around R5 136.87 but, as always, we need to take tax into consideration because in America prices are listed with out.

Even if we assume a 15 percent tax similar to South African VAT, $349.99 becomes $402.49, which is around R5 907.43.

Even if we’re calling it an even six thousand for the sake of rounding it’s clear that South Africans are paying a massive premium.

This is, unfortunately, nothing new. The base Nintendo Switch was at one point ballooned all the way to R7 999 in the middle of the pandemic due to poor exchange rates of the Rand. Thankfully this was recently reduced to R6 999 which is the current RRP of the base model Nintendo Switch.

For the sake of completeness and comparison the Nintendo Switch Lite is R4 999, still the cheapest option of the bunch with the fewest features.

Returning to the OLED model what does it do to garner the highest price of the range and a huge price difference when compared to the states?

The main features are displayed in the trailer below but it comes down to a slightly larger screen sporting OLEDs (hence the name), a redesigned kickstand, better audio and increased internal storage.

All of these benefits sound good on paper but are marginal upgrades at best. The screen, despite getting a size bump, still has a resolution of 1280 X 720. The increased storage is still a poultry 64 GB – increased from 32 GB – so purchasing an SD card is still very much required.

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