this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025

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648

iFixit says the Switch 2 is even harder to repair than the original (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Just don't break it smh.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wonder if Nintendo will ever embrace repairability like some phone companies have

I guess there's more competition in phones than in devices that can run Mario Cart

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I implore people to watch the teardown guide itself, which is way more nuanced than the clickbaity The Verge article.

I'm not a fan of the use of glue in the joycon sides and the fact that the color strips under the controllers are hiding screws. The bigger complaint is the battery glue, especially because you can imagine aftermarket parts with bigger capacity could be a thing here. I definitely wouldn't open this thing unless it has a problem.

Some components are still modular, which is nice. I can't imagine the sticks not having changed design is great, but it's entirely possible they're way more durable, which the teardown acknowledges. Keep in mind that, while all controllers can drift, most controllers don't fail that way. It's possible to build this type of stick without widespread issues. Time will tell, though.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The switch 2 gives out complete apple vibes. It's repairability is pretty horrid after watching the teardown guide.

Controllers will fail sooner or later and will have to be replaced. Here it will end up replacing the whole stick just due to glueing small parts of the controller.

Battery will also fail sooner than later. The whole thing yells planned absolesence...

[+] [email protected] -20 points 1 day ago (9 children)

It absolutely does not. Nintendo hardware is built like a freight truck. The teardown guide references the JerryRigEverything "durability test" and I am pretty sure unless you use it to bash someone's head in this thing will last (and even then).

What it reeks of is Nintendo wanting to make things cheap and sell you multiple of them. Which they do. My launch Switch 1 lasted until I got a Lite and then an Oled and I expect this one will do pretty much the same. That doesn't mean their joycon won't need fixing or replacing (and I did have to open and mod my Lite, which wasn't easy).

I think Nintendo hasn't adjusted its industrial design to modern repairability concerns yet, which is a very Nintendo thing (and definitely not the same as Apple artificially holding down the repair ecosystem to itself artificially). I like neither option, but I'd take Nintendo's approach over Apple's any day. They absolutely need to comply with modern right to repair regulations, though, and that will mean doing more than they're currently doing.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What it reeks of is Nintendo wanting to make things cheap and sell you multiple of them

That's the "apple like" planned obsolesence part I was refering to. Think about airpods for example.

The teardown doesn't touch on part serialization, although the ability to brick your device if they "feel like it" is on PAR with Apple.

Although I'm not sure we should be arguing about which of the two is shittier when both are already deep in non compliance of "modern right to repair regulations (lmao)"

[+] [email protected] -6 points 1 day ago (7 children)

No, big differences at play here. Nintendo won't plan obsolescence, they will give you a base version at launch (multiple, if they can, since they're handheld devices and a single family may conceivably want a couple) and then they will iterate on the form factor with a cheaper, slimmer alternative and a bigger, premium alternative. None of those will stop working or break at any point, though. They don't care about them being replaced. In fact, they prefer if they aren't, given they make a cut of the software, too.

They are planned to stack on each other. Sell you multiples for multiple users. Apple can't do that trick, because everybody already owns a phone and the software is backwards compatible and interoperable, so they need to push you to replacement hardware. Nintendo's on a different business.

The remote bricking is not planned obsolescence, it's Nintendo's draconian opinion that they own every part of the hardware and the software fundamentally, so emulation, user modding and jailbreaking are crimes against humanity. They are wrong, but they will continue to enforce it aggressively even beyond what is legally established. This is because it goes fundamentally counter to their hardware design, which relies on cheap-but-robust devices you can give to kids that are built with imaginatively repurposed older tech. They see enthusiasts improving on their price-optimal design as a threat and will send ninjas to stab you if you disagree.

I disagree, but there are degrees of separation here. Nintendo still needs to be forced to provide replacement parts, specs and so forth, though.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Haha when they did that blog post to change the switch from 8/10 to 4/10 saying they don't normally do that but wanted to make sure you could compare the 2 properly against the original, I thought they were making space for the 2 to be above the original, not that they were going to mark it as worse 😅

[–] [email protected] 119 points 1 day ago (2 children)

All the more reason for me not to purchase it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

The guy doing the teardown recommended you wait until a third party company makes a drift proof module to replace the same as last version joystick decoders

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago (5 children)

After the initial excitement I think the Switch 2 is gonna bomb. Offers too little for too much.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Just yesterday I spent 3 hours playing MK8D on my PC. Cozy on my bed and a controller + a remote keyboard.
Felt like the real deal.

Edit: Why the downvotes? Is emulation so frowned upon here?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Hope the drift issue is fixed. Ran into the issue with two of mine. The paper under the joystick hack didn't work and one of the brand new replacement joysticks I installed isn't responsive. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

Congrats it's worse! Harder to get to :)

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's not, and the joycons are even HARDER to repair due to a piece of plastic glued over a screw on the inside..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Thanks to 3d printing I have litres of isopropyl. What sucks is you probably want to replace the glue since it's there to protect against liquids, and Nintendo don't care to provide a seal kit

You also need to remove stickers to get at the screws

Also you need a security screwdriver (three blade) for those screws

There are no replacement stickers, we wait for iFixit to provide guidance on adhesives

[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Spoiler alert: it's not. Same joysticks as last time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's the same joystick design. As the video says that doesn't mean it will have the same issues as frequently, but it does mean it can have the same issues. The question will be at what rate.

Given the coverage I have very low hopes that we will get a good idea of that from the press. Instead I expect the first Switch 2 joycon to drift will be put on an auction sale for every clickbait article to parade in front of people with rotten tomatoes at the ready. Still, it will matter if it's one in two or one in a million.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (7 children)

They could have easily fixed it with hall effect sticks. That is a proven and inexpensive solution, but Nintendo prefers to sell more joycons and create waste, it's that simple.

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[+] [email protected] -56 points 1 day ago (13 children)

I honestly don't care how difficult it is, only if it's possible, if it's cost-effective, and if there are any fucking corporate shenanigans that intentionally make it harder.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

From the teardown the only "corporate shenanigans" seem to be the usual soft security measures of hiding screws, having glue in a couple of places and using their security screws in the outer shell. I guess until we start seeing experimentation with swapping parts around we won't know if any pieces are signed to the board (something both Sony and Microsoft have been doing with optical media readers for ages, for example), but I'd be surprised. I assume iFixit have either tried or will try soon.

I think the difficulty matters, particularly for stick replacements. The Switch sticks weren't super easy to change but it was doable. I'd say this one is... harder. I'm hoping the sticks are more reliable, but I would seriously consider buying an aftermarket joycon before trying to replace a stick with myself on this one. That's perhaps the one significant escalation I see here, and I will give it at least a bit of a pass in terms of difficulty because man, are the joycon insanely packed with stuff.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I honestly don't care how difficult it is, only if it's possible

Can you think in the relationship of the two variables?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

Bruh just likes a challenge.

[+] [email protected] -28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

...wat

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The more difficult it is to repair something, the less possible it becomes to repair it.

Damn-near anything is possible to repair with the right training and equipment but there is a very wide spectrum between what an average person can do with tools they can easily pick up at any hardware store for cheap and a little common sense and some YouTube videos to guide them, and repairs that require specialist knowledge and equipment.

When something is made more difficult to repair, it slips further into that specialist end of the spectrum, so it's possible for less people.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

For most people: the more difficult, the more expensive to get fixed

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's... What the repairability score is.

[+] [email protected] -23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wasn't talking about the repairability score. I was talking about the title of this article stating that it's "harder" to repair than the Switch 1.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it is harder to do. Specifically

you need to remove stickers in a way that you can replace them, if you want to keep them looking good
You need to undo glue, iFixit used isopropyl alcohol and force
Once you're in its fairly easy to replace parts, but Nintendo don't supply parts
Batteries are glued down, you need to destroy the foam beneath them to get the batteries out, Nintendo don't sell replacement foam, or even a specification for the foam

By being harder it will be more costly to repair

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

The article is clickbaity and a bit crappy. The repair guide is not.

Welcome to the modern gaming press, I suppose.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I don't care about the difficulty

Nintendo better not have made it difficult

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