4w ago

Switch 2 Teardown: Still Glued, Still Soldered, Still Drifting

www.ifixit.com

Joysticks: Probably Still Drifty

Joy-Con joysticks use a potentiometer to read the voltage at a wiper that slides across a strip of resistive material. That material wears down over time, or plastic and dust can dirty the sensors.

Stick drift is a huge problem with other Switch models. One survey found that 40% of Switch owners had problems with their Joy-Cons drifting, and things didn’t get any better with the Lite or OLED editions. After a bunch of lawsuits, Nintendo’s president even admitted it and apologized, setting up a free repair program for customers in some parts of the world.

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I'm a little tired of the fearmongering from people who seem to be racing to the assumption that JoyCon 2s will definitely be as brittle as JoyCon 1s. We don't know that yet. Yes, we know it's not Hall Effect, but that's been true of the majority of video game controllers for a long time. JoyCon 1s were just anomalously defective in a way specific to that controller, and I highly doubt they haven't considered this with the 2. Until we actually start seeing a failure rate comparable to JoyCon 1s, can people just... wait and chill for a sec?
- While I agree with the overall message, I'd say this is on Nintendo for not doing proper communication on the topic. They must know this is a major concern for most people who had a Switch.
  Yes, I get they don't want to acknowledge the drift problem publicly, but surely someone on their marketing team can still come up with a way to discuss the improvements they made and alleviate fears.
  
  I think they did briefly mentioned they improved the sticks, but they never clarified what exactly.
  
  I remember during the initial console reveal, basically the only thing they had to say was that the sticks are larger and smoother (in motion, not the caps themselves).
  I don't know if they mentioned much else later, but they were very tacit about their durability/longevity. I don't have much hope that things will be better, at any rate. I still bought a Switch 2, because I know it will still bring me joy to play, but as much as I enjoyed the comfort of playing with a Joycon in each hand, I've learned from the original Switch to avoid using the Joycons where possible and opt for a separate controller when playing docked (I'm just using the Pro Controllers I have left over from my original Switch).
  
  I haven't gotten a Switch 2 (probably will when there's more exclusive games), but I'm definitely going to avoid the Joycons as much as possible and just use my 8bitdo Ultimate and my old Pro Controller (which has been modded with Hall Effect sticks).

97 comments