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iFixit says the Switch 2 is even harder to repair than the original

Technology
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  • Not to mention those things are expensive AF. If I had to replace a part on my car that cost 25% of the cost of the entire car EACH time, I would just not buy from that company any longer (which is what I’m doing). Not sure why this person is writing paragraphs and paragraphs of excuses for Nintendo.

    I mean, it's not a car. The joycon are expensive, but not THAT expensive. Still, they absolutely had to provide replacements to stick issues (which they did, to their credit).

    It's extra important on this run, because the new ones are even more expensive. They better last.

    Also, I'm writing responses to things people say, not excuses. Companies aren't football teams, I don't need to root for or against any of them.

  • Yeah, the EU has shown they're serious when it comes to consumer protections. It's great to see!

    For example, coming into effect in 12 days, on the 20th of June, for smartphones and tablets:

    • Durability: Devices should be resistant to accidental drops and protected against dust and water.

    • Battery longevity: Batteries must endure at least 800 full charge and discharge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their original capacity.

    • Repairability: Manufacturers must make critical spare parts available within 5 to 10 working days, and continue offering them for 7 years after the product is no longer sold in the EU.

    • Software support: Devices must receive operating system upgrades for at least 5 years from the end-of-sale date.

    • Repair access: Professional repairers must have non-discriminatory access to any required software or firmware.

    They will also have to include a sticker on packaging that has standardised information on it concerning energy efficiency, battery life, repeated drop test results, battery endurance in charging cycles, repairability score, and water/dust protection rating:

    Source

  • Nintendo has been the Apple of the video game world since the N64.

    NES actually, a good number of PC games got made because folks didn't want to deal with Nintendo and Sega arguably got into the market cause Nintendo was too strict in their publishing policy. That last bit is ironic given the AI slop and hentai on their online store, nothing against the hentai I just think it's funny.

  • I mean yeah, I wouldn't expect otherwise. Nobody hates their fans more than Nintendo does.

    Ironic because apparently the fan is actually pretty easily replaceable.

  • Even Apple makes more repairable hardware.

    Yeah once sued. They weren't going to offer it up otherwise, I suspect something similar is going to have to happen to Nintendo.

  • That's not even the biggest issue for me. The $80 games that never get discounted will cost a lot more than that pretty quickly. Plus I know they push their subscription service too.

    As a PC gamer, fuck that. I'll play cheap better games on my free operating system that I actually control on my hardware that I can repair and replace easily. Nintendo games interest me, but not nearly at the price they're asking for with what they're offering.

    Also on PC you don't need to pay a premium for mobile device parts if you have no need for them.

  • Battery life and weight. That’s what keeps me from getting a pc handheld. Although the switch 2 is so big I don’t know if that holds true anymore

    The switch 2 would have better battery life it was powered by the life force of a mayfly.

  • It's not planned obsolescence if your device is meant to last for decades. You could argue about the joycon if they had done that on purpose, but given that they ended up having to replace a bunch of them it seems pretty likely that their business model is to sell you four pairs to play with friends, not to keep reselling you more as they break.

    Nintendo's business is not based on the product becoming worse artificially to upsell you on a replacement. Their model is to keep making incremental replacements and then drop a generational upgrade every decade or so. That's not how planned obsolescence works. You don't get artificial performance degradation, deliberately fragile parts or artifical restrictions to repair via signed components. People can (and many do) repair Nintendo hardware on third party repair services with third party replacement parts, and from what iFixIt is saying that doesn't seem to have changed.

    Which is not to say Nintendo put ANY thought into repairability here. They clearly expect you to buy a Switch 2 and keep it until you buy a Switch 2 Lite. This thing is very new and that may yet change in both directions. But so far all I see here is the same old "we built this to be cheap and durable", which is fundamentally not Apple's "you'll buy one of these every two years and if it breaks you will come to us for a replacement and like it" approach.

    I mean, it's clearly not meant to last decades given the battery situation.

  • Probably depends entirely on what games you play, and how sensitive you are, but hall effects feel like trash and destroy the joycon battery life. I tried playing Celeste with hall effects and wooooow was it bad. Basically unplayable past the early chapters.

    As a fellow celete player, I'm sorry your experience was like that, but I'm also currently using hall effect sticks on both my 8bitdo ultimate and my guillikit kong 2, it feels absolutely mint on both with no tinkering. I'm gonna have to ask you to name and shame the hall effect sticks you're using, please. Thanks!

  • I mean, it's clearly not meant to last decades given the battery situation.

    You'd think, but I have Nintendo handhelds from the 2000s that still hold a charge fine, and so does my launch Switch 1, which is about a decade old.

    The Switch 2 is the first one of these they ship with a battery care charge mode, too, which is interesting. I think as they abandon their old single-threaded, no-multitasking design, for a more mobile-like architecture they're also having to make similar adjustments to their battery management, so it'll be interesting to see if the Switch 2 battery struggles with degradation more than older devices. It sure is more power hungry, and it does get hotter so you'd expect more charge cycles per year and less durability. It's going to be an open question for a while.

    Still not the worst battery health in a Nintendo product, no matter what happens. That'll always be the WiiU controller. That sytem laster just a couple of years and I still had to replace the battery for an aftermarket one and ended up using it plugged in anyway.

  • You'd think, but I have Nintendo handhelds from the 2000s that still hold a charge fine, and so does my launch Switch 1, which is about a decade old.

    The Switch 2 is the first one of these they ship with a battery care charge mode, too, which is interesting. I think as they abandon their old single-threaded, no-multitasking design, for a more mobile-like architecture they're also having to make similar adjustments to their battery management, so it'll be interesting to see if the Switch 2 battery struggles with degradation more than older devices. It sure is more power hungry, and it does get hotter so you'd expect more charge cycles per year and less durability. It's going to be an open question for a while.

    Still not the worst battery health in a Nintendo product, no matter what happens. That'll always be the WiiU controller. That sytem laster just a couple of years and I still had to replace the battery for an aftermarket one and ended up using it plugged in anyway.

    The problem with the battery is that it's glued in and requires basically destroying the foam it sits on, with no available replacement for the foam or specifications given AFAIK.

    Also, if we're just talking anecdotes here, I have at least two Nintendo devices from the 2000s that ended up with swollen batteries. This has actually reminded me that I might need to check again.

  • For example, coming into effect in 12 days, on the 20th of June, for smartphones and tablets:

    • Durability: Devices should be resistant to accidental drops and protected against dust and water.

    • Battery longevity: Batteries must endure at least 800 full charge and discharge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their original capacity.

    • Repairability: Manufacturers must make critical spare parts available within 5 to 10 working days, and continue offering them for 7 years after the product is no longer sold in the EU.

    • Software support: Devices must receive operating system upgrades for at least 5 years from the end-of-sale date.

    • Repair access: Professional repairers must have non-discriminatory access to any required software or firmware.

    They will also have to include a sticker on packaging that has standardised information on it concerning energy efficiency, battery life, repeated drop test results, battery endurance in charging cycles, repairability score, and water/dust protection rating:

    Source

    Does that go into effect for all devices on sale, or only for devices released after that date? Also, that software support section is great. That basically means all phones need atleast 6 years of support

  • I mean, it's not a car. The joycon are expensive, but not THAT expensive. Still, they absolutely had to provide replacements to stick issues (which they did, to their credit).

    It's extra important on this run, because the new ones are even more expensive. They better last.

    Also, I'm writing responses to things people say, not excuses. Companies aren't football teams, I don't need to root for or against any of them.

    They only provided replacements after the a class action lawsuit and specifically only replaced them in North America for the longest time. That was on July 2020. Five years later and the flaw is still there on brand new devices. There is nothing to applaud or give credit for.

    Edit: to say that $80 is not expensive is to be completely detached from reality. 28% of Americans have savings of less than $1,000.

  • Does that go into effect for all devices on sale, or only for devices released after that date? Also, that software support section is great. That basically means all phones need atleast 6 years of support

    Only new devices released after June 20th.

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    This was inevitable. Everybody who was ever going to buy a Switch has already bought one. How else are they going to make more money? Keep increasing prices and keep cutting costs (enshittification essentially). These two will be the centre of all big business for the coming years.

  • Probably depends entirely on what games you play, and how sensitive you are, but hall effects feel like trash and destroy the joycon battery life. I tried playing Celeste with hall effects and wooooow was it bad. Basically unplayable past the early chapters.

    It sounds like you used crappy hall effect sticks or have defective ones, to be honest.

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    I thought Nintendo devices were built like tanks, nes, snes, all old consoles are still playable. How long did the new Nintendo devices like switch last? I think the screen and battery are the main limit of devices life.