Switch Owners Report Hardware Problems, Though It’s Tough To Tell How Many

Switch Owners Report Hardware Problems, Though It’s Tough To Tell How Many

With every new console launch comes a suite of hardware issues, and the Switch is no exception. People who bought Nintendo’s hybrid console say they’re running into all sorts of problems, ranging from big (crashes) to small (dead pixels).

There’s no way to tell just how many Switch users have received malfunctioning consoles. We reached out to Nintendo yesterday to see if they have a sense of the scale here, and they haven’t gotten back to us yet. But we’ve seen a large number of reports from people who say their sleek new $469.95 system is causing them all sorts of grief.

YouTube videos like this one, compiling all of the hardware problems, have gone mega-viral:

Here’s a small sampling of the issues we’ve seen reported, although again, it’s very difficult to tell what’s present in a few dozen systems and what’s present in a few thousand.

  • Left JoyCon connectivity problems. This is the most common, and it’s one that many of us on Team Kotaku have run into. The solution, of course, is to stay away from aquariums. (Or buy a Pro controller.)
  • System crashes
  • Unreasonably loud noises
  • Dead pixels (which you should cherish IMO)
  • Overheating
  • Terrible Wi-Fi signal
  • JoyCon wrist straps getting stuck (although this may be a design issue rather than a hardware failure)
  • Screen flickering
  • Screen getting scratched by the dock, which has apparently been pulled from Nintendo’s store.

Tell us Kotaku readers who just bought Switches: Is yours working properly? Have you run into any of the problems listed here? Have you encountered entirely different problems? And does Zelda make up for all this?


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