64GB Nintendo Switch OLED Console w/ Joy-Cons (JP, Mario Red Edition)

Best Buy recently had the non-OLED version for $240. But it sold out quickly.

Technically not true. Japan switches have a minor issue in that 5GHz WiFi networks in Japan only support lower channels. This is due to differing WLAN channels in different countries.

Your home router in US will generally be set to use all available US channels, which includes higher channels as well. If it is broadcasting on a higher channel, the switch won't be able to connect to it. Most networks use 2.4GHz as fall back, so the switch will just connect to the 2.4GHz network (which will generally have lower speeds). Some people prefer to disable their 2.4GHz network to make doubly sure all their devices are leveraging faster speeds afforded by the 5GHz bands, and so this might be a problem for them. One can go into their router settings and disable the higher 5GHz channels, or set it to a fixed channel, and then this won't be a problem.

That being said, for people who are traveling and aren't sure of what channel is available in which public hotspot, this might be an issue. Not much of a problem today since most public hotspots use 2.4GHz, but one can't be certain of what the future will bring as 5GHz devices become more prevalent.

Practically, it's not much of an issue, and personally I think the savings here justify the slight inconvenience one might face due to this (if any). Lack of warranty would definitely be the bigger consideration. But at the same time, that's not the only difference like some people believe, so just wanted to alert people of this issue.

Reference for WLAN channel support in different countries -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...N_channels

But are client devices bound by those rules? A router has to transmit signals based on the regional rules but will the receiver reject signals.

You got me on that. I mistyped and wrote hopping between channels when I should have put, frequencies. 2.4 or 5, as long as both are saved in the device. In the case of home routers set up with the same SSID on both networks, it would go unnoticed.

That is NOT true at all, and the way you have written it is actually quite misleading. A home router will generally transmit data only on one channel (or on overlapping adjacent channels) within each frequency band. Typically, a router will scan the frequencies and try to determine which channel within each band has the least amount of interference. It will then pick the channel that has the least noise. So when you start your router, your router may choose to transmit data on the 5GHz band on Channel 153. While it is transmitting data on channel 153, it is NOT transmitting data simultaneously on lower channels (e.g. channel 56). In this case the Japanese switch will not be able to connect to the 5GHz band. And your router is not going to magically take note of the fact that your switch is not connecting to channel 153, and switch to a different band. What will happen, is that since routers are typically set to transmit at 2.4GHz as well, the switch will hop onto that frequency band.

If someone chooses not to use 2.4GHz band (for whatever reason), and the router has auto-picked a higher channel of the 5GHz band, the Japanese switch will not connect to the internet (while a US switch in the same scenario will connect). Now, this is a fringe case - most people need not worry about it, since most routers are set to use 2.4GHz as well. And if someone has gone out of their way to turn that off in settings, they can manually select a 5GHz channel as well. I am NOT saying this is something to worry about; just that this is something to be aware of.

I'm not sure if it's still possible as Temu has some random coupons, but they were selling the HK OLED version for ~$100 or so after coupons. I bought one for myself and one for a buddy. This was about a year ago.

Mine delivered today. Still bumped I had to pay tax on this