Hardware How durable do you think switch is?

[Reploid]

I think older consoles were made to last. Probably because they were more primitive overall, but those atari CSVs seems pretty durable and easy to maintain. While more modern system drop like flies. Especyally 360s, but I heard PS3 of earlier models starting to die out. I know DS3 are becoming hard to find, cause old are being broken, and new never made.

Anyhow, I'm a tad worried about switch. I'm glad to have my totally vulnerable switch unit. This Atmosphere dude said that new revisions may never be hacked. While Nin says switch gonna have a long lifespan, longer than usual. Whilish internet says that switch design leaves much to be desired. Stick are floating, battery life is not great. But dock is the worst culprit. Screen gets scratched, it can brick your console, but temperature issue is what concerns me to most. It barely allows heat to dissolve properly into surrounding air, cause there is little to no air around it.

When I play Astral Chain alone in handheld for an hour it barely warm, but when I play freakin Lego Harry Potter for an hour with my gf in dock it's very warm. Lately I've heard unit itself can slightly bend if you using dock too much.

Do you first models of switch could even last up to 10 years you play dock with OC? DF says it won't throttle, but if you play often like this maybe materials will start to degrade after a while? I usually play handheld w/o OC, but, you know, just out of pure curiosity, what does anyone think on that matter?

 

[MasterJ360]

If anything im more worried about the battery life. Im very skeptical about leaving it on sleep mode b/c of autorcm.

 

[Clydefrosch]

also, slight bending can happen, you don't hear much about it anymore though.
and regardless of that, it's only the case and really doesn't impact you beyond it not lying completely flat on a table.
in all other regards, the switch is made to last. the joycons are basically bumpers preventing damage to the tablet if it's dropped, it's really modular so you can replace most parts kind of easy.
just the battery might degrade somewhat with overclock, but hell, what battery doesn't.

 

[Agilato]

Lol.... now i know whom i am buying switches in this condition from....

 

[Kraken_X]

I'm not one to buy cases, but I bought one for my switch day 1. While my GBA, DS and 3DS have spent years rattling around my backback unprotected, I doubt the switch would survive a day in those conditions. It's basically a phone, but without the gorilla glass that protects most phones from scratches and with big joysticks that have a reputation for drift even when they aren't catching on things.

As for the dock, get a dock sock (cloth dock cover) on day 1 too. It's a damn bad design to have an easily scratchable screen slide over hard plastic regularly. In terms of heat, I haven't really noticed. It has played many hours in docked mode with no issue, but I also don't overclock. I'm hoping that docked mode doesn't harm the battery life, because mine is in sleep 24/7 on the dock.

 

[LordRahl72]

No matter how careful you are with the Switch, a battery replacement will be required at some point.

I remember back when I got my first Game Boy when they first came out in the late 80s, now that was a tank.

 

[Worldblender]

I'm grateful that I get to have an unpatched Switch unit now, but I'm only in for as long as the hardware can last. If it ever happens that the hardware starts malfunctioning, and it's something that can't be easily replaced (components soldered onto the motherboard are the worst case scenario, as I have yet to find replacement motherboards), I'm just going back to playing free/open source games, and other PC games (most likely those which can be acquired via Steam). If I waited too long instead, like after graduating in May 2020, unpatched units will most likely become harder and more expensive to find (or perhaps no more being sold), which will bring frustration to me and my family.

 

[Budsixz]

Honestly, the switch is very delicate
The joycons drift after a while, the railing can become flimsy, the clips on joycons give out, joycon buttons feel weak, the screen is made of plastic so very likely to scratch, the kickstand will become loose after a while, the battery will give out after few years, and maybe some internal components might give out due to voltage issues or whatnot (seen many switch repair videos where chips get shorted)
Wish they made these like N64 cause those things were tanks

 

[TheCyberQuake]

Modern devices have far more at play in terms of fault vectors. For portable devices like the switch, batteries will degrade over time. Anything with mechanical parts will eventually see failure in those parts due to natural wear and tear.
Along with that, older devices are far easier to maintain because a lot of the components are substantially larger than their modern counterpart, often with much easier methods to replace. If you have basic experience in soldering, you can replace almost anything on an NES and even SNES. Whereas due to the small nature of components in modern electronics, the sheer increase in the amount of items on a mainboard and many chips being surface mount using tiny solder balls, difficulty to repair devices has gotten much more complex with more skill required to do so.
When you add all of these together, it's a recipe for devices having shorter lives in general, not to mention in terms of power devices become obsolete fairly quickly thanks to newer software requiring more power or new technologies.

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Honestly, the switch is very delicate
The joycons drift after a while, the railing can become flimsy, the clips on joycons give out, joycon buttons feel weak, the screen is made of plastic so very likely to scratch, the kickstand will become loose after a while, the battery will give out after few years, and maybe some internal components might give out due to voltage issues or whatnot (seen many switch repair videos where chips get shorted)
Wish they made these like N64 cause those things were tanks

As someone who has owned a Switch since day one, I've never had any of those problems.
Also N64 was a much more simple machine. Open one up and you'll see there's nothing really in there in comparison. And due to not having any kind of mechanical devices in it (HDD, fans, etc) and the fact that it's largely open space inside it, it has plenty of room to take damage without actually causing problems. Unfortunately modern devices are much more complex, so to build them like tanks while still having the amount of power needed to do most games, you have to make it large and bulky. And given most consoles have mechanical devices to help with the heat of the more powerful hardware as well as mechanical drives for the xbone/ps4, you've got a combination that just can't be chucked across the room onto a hardwood floor while still surviving.

As for the shorting thing, that's only been caused by using third party docks, which I've seen similar things happen to old consoles using third party power bricks so it isn't a new thing. Also for switch it's thanks to the complexities of USB C only being a physical connection standard rather than including the protocols as well. Meaning technically USB C can be used however anybody wants. And unfortunately Ninty has PD protocol, but in weird ways where it doesn't follow the rules properly. Seems fine to charge in handheld, but throwing in the dock seems to do funky things

 

[Budsixz]

Modern devices have far more at play in terms of fault vectors. For portable devices like the switch, batteries will degrade over time. Anything with mechanical parts will eventually see failure in those parts due to natural wear and tear.
Along with that, older devices are far easier to maintain because a lot of the components are substantially larger than their modern counterpart, often with much easier methods to replace. If you have basic experience in soldering, you can replace almost anything on an NES and even SNES. Whereas due to the small nature of components in modern electronics, the sheer increase in the amount of items on a mainboard and many chips being surface mount using tiny solder balls, difficulty to repair devices has gotten much more complex with more skill required to do so.
When you add all of these together, it's a recipe for devices having shorter lives in general, not to mention in terms of power devices become obsolete fairly quickly thanks to newer software requiring more power or new technologies.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


As someone who has owned a Switch since day one, I've never had any of those problems.
Also N64 was a much more simple machine. Open one up and you'll see there's nothing really in there in comparison. And due to not having any kind of mechanical devices in it (HDD, fans, etc) and the fact that it's largely open space inside it, it has plenty of room to take damage without actually causing problems. Unfortunately modern devices are much more complex, so to build them like tanks while still having the amount of power needed to do most games, you have to make it large and bulky. And given most consoles have mechanical devices to help with the heat of the more powerful hardware as well as mechanical drives for the xbone/ps4, you've got a combination that just can't be chucked across the room onto a hardwood floor while still surviving.

As for the shorting thing, that's only been caused by using third party docks, which I've seen similar things happen to old consoles using third party power bricks so it isn't a new thing. Also for switch it's thanks to the complexities of USB C only being a physical connection standard rather than including the protocols as well. Meaning technically USB C can be used however anybody wants. And unfortunately Ninty has PD protocol, but in weird ways where it doesn't follow the rules properly. Seems fine to charge in handheld, but throwing in the dock seems to do funky things

well it is a good thing you didn't face any of those issues but the joycon drift is a real thing that way too many are facing and has been brought up to ninty too
the clip issue I didn't face yet but I do feel something like that will occur with wear since I remove the joycons a lot (some people already face this issue)
and as for the kickstand I dont use it but saw a 2nd hand in shop which had it loose and hanging so brought it up

 

[TheCyberQuake]

well it is a good thing you didn't face any of those issues but the joycon drift is a real thing that way too many are facing and has been brought up to ninty too
the clip issue I didn't face yet but I do feel something like that will occur with wear since I remove the joycons a lot (some people already face this issue)
and as for the kickstand I dont use it but saw a 2nd hand in shop which had it loose and hanging so brought it up

The clips don't really wear down over time in my experience (4 switch units in the house, multiple joycons on top of it). The wear on clips is usually two main things, with other potential ones I'm probably not thinking of.
1. If you ever attach the joycon strap backwards, it's almost always going to cause damage to the clip when you eventually get it off
2. Any kind of bangs and bumps to the joycon while connected to the system.

In theory sliding the straps on and off can cause wear due to the fact that they don't require pushing the button to pull them off.
Perhaps I'm lucky, but I baby my switch and I haven't had any major problems that I didn't obviously cause myself (breaking a joycon mainboard, possibly via ESD while tinkering with it)
But honestly, it wouldn't surprise me that these things are breaking on their own for at least some people because My switch sat in the dock like 95% of the time for several months and ended up afterward missing the plastic grill for the air vent, a few chunks of the back housing cracked off and eventually the plastic around one of the screws holding in the back housing cracked allowing the screw to pull through and the backing to start coming off. So Nintendo hasn't had a good track record in that regard for me.

For my brother though, he went through two pairs of joycon due to drifting, but I've watched him play and I think he's overly aggressive. Like he smacks it around like he's punishing it or something.

 

[RandomUser]

Perhaps by the time the unpatched switch dies out due to normal wear and tear.
Then maybe just maybe we will have switch emulation by then. Weather it will be usable or being able to play commercial game by then is unknown.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

I’ve dropped mine several times, and the worst that’s happened is that the R button became somewhat unresponsive. So i’d say it’s fairly durable. The chip dying isn’t really a concern, it’s estimated that it was designed to last 5 years (as in running it at full clocks at fully load 24/7 for 5 years)

>dock bending Switch
that’s my favorite meme .

 

[1NOOB]

iv drop the tablet from waist height about 3 times now , same for the joycon , everything is still the same . gonna be 1 yrs in oct . (but changed the joycon case since but they were still ok . )