Report: Some Nintendo Switch Tablets Are Warping

[Steven Bogos]

Report: Some Nintendo Switch Tablets Are Warping

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Is this the iPhone 6 plus all over again?

A troubling report is hitting the interwebs today, with several Nintendo Switch owners, including those at the iPhone 6 Plus [https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/03/nintendo-switch-owners-report-yet-another-issue-warping/].

The issue was first raised in a reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/6311k9/the_nintendo_switch_is_starting_to_warp_while/] thread, where users compared photos of their warped consoles. The consensus seems to be that this is caused by using the Switch in docked mode for a long period of time - as the machine is working harder, it gets hotter, causing the internals to expand and warp the body.

The good news is that this warping seems to be a purely asthetic thing (at this point) and doesn't seem to be affecting the way the console works. Also, according to one reddit user [https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/6311k9/the_nintendo_switch_is_starting_to_warp_while/dfqpog8/], while Nintendo has not officially acknowledged the issue, it is willing to perform free repairs on affected consoles.

Has your Switch experienced this warping?

Source: Techno Buffalo [https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/04/03/nintendo-switch-console-warping-bending/]

Permalink

 

[totheendofsin]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

 

[snintendog]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

More likely some redditor sat on their switch and wants a new one. There is literally a bandwagon saying they are warping with only a single picture circulating around.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

More likely some redditor sat on their switch and wants a new one. There is literally a bandwagon saying they are warping with only a single picture circulating around.

Hm. Says the guy with "nintendo" in his name.

 

[Xeorm]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

The switch has much more hardware going on that can go wrong. Other consoles are effectively cheap computers and we've been doing that for ages. More parts in the switch means more stuff likely to go wrong, that's all.

 

[Avnger]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

The switch has much more hardware going on that can go wrong. Other consoles are effectively cheap computers and we've been doing that for ages. More parts in the switch means more stuff likely to go wrong, that's all.

This... this is probably one of the worst defenses I've seen for the Switch manufacturing defects. The Switch is nothing but a tablet (aka a cheap computer). Like the wireless controller issue, this one probably comes down to rushing the engineering QA aspects. They simply didn't build a machine that handled heat dispensation well enough when its stuck into the dock. Considering that Ninty tried to make the claim that this was a full home console as well as a mobile one, that's a fucking large oversight.

More likely some redditor sat on their switch and wants a new one. There is literally a bandwagon saying they are warping with only a single picture circulating around.

This doesn't really even deserve a response, but blatant stick-your-head-in-the-sand fanboyism really annoys me.

The almighty holy one Nintendo could never make a mistake. Gods don't make mistakes; it must be a problem with those heathens who jealously despite my master's perfection.

Nintendo is a corporation looking to make a quick buck every other corporation out there. They don't deserve your loyalty because they don't care about you or me or anyone or anything except their bottom line. Don't throw away your personal credibility and dignity to defend their fuck-ups.

 

[kenu12345]

Inb4 nintendo fans say the issue doesn't exist. Oh wait. Either way, I really hope that they fix these sort of issues on later designs. Like that dock. Would be interesting to see what Nintendo does from this point forward

 

[Fulbert]

This is alarming but so were the reports of ps4pros LITERALLY MELTING. I will wait until I hear more of this story before I get worried about it.

 

[HomuraDidNothinWrong]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

The switch has much more hardware going on that can go wrong. Other consoles are effectively cheap computers and we've been doing that for ages. More parts in the switch means more stuff likely to go wrong, that's all.

What? no. Just no. The switch is literally a tablet. It does not have more hardware. It has a fan, a system-on-a-chip processor, and the various normal chips that all tablets have (wifi, screen controller, etc.). Its a cheap tablet that they marked up double and it has the associated problems that tablets have with their manufacturing.

 

[SAMAS]

On the one hand, it seems harware failures like that are becoming a thing in modern consoles.

On the other, Nintendo is usually better than this.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

More likely some redditor sat on their switch and wants a new one. There is literally a bandwagon saying they are warping with only a single picture circulating around.

Hm. Says the guy with "nintendo" in his name.

Ehhhhhh to be fair to him though, it is a pretty small-scale problem (last I heard there was all of 2 actual cases of it warping, out of the... what, 5 million+ sold) that people kinda are blowing out of proportion because... fuck nintendo, apparently?

That said, the warping is apparently caused by the dock, and given there's already been a sizable number of problems with the dock to begin with it's just another thing to be rolled into the general 'these docks are pieces of cheap shit Nintendo maybe try fixing them' complaint going around.

 

[Saelune]

I really wanted to be one of the early owners, but with all the "not at launch" features and things like this, I guess waiting was the right thing to do.

The Switch has really left me off-balance. Im glad it wasnt any of the horrible things I thought it could have been (like a Nintendo Phone), but it really isnt anything that is blowing me out of the water, which is a bummer.

 

[Guffe]

So the "curved" feature of screens isn't a thing anymore? //sarcasm

Hope the people experiencing this get their stuff repaired, like people get their joycons repaired for free.
I haven't noticed anything like that on my switch, now that I read this and started looking at my switch, I am getting more and more delusional that it actually isn't 100% straight. I never looked at that when it arrived, could've been from the start, and it might be placebo on my part just thinking it is a bit curved now that I read about it. Either way it is so little I do not notice it and the machine is working perfectly.

I was hoping with that headline that the Switch would've warped someone somewhere from their livingrooms... I am a bit disapointed.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

...So bend it back. I watched a guy try and snap one in half with his bare hands. He couldn't do it. And it worked just fine afterwards. Just take the Switch out of the dock and bend it back. Problem solved.

This is alarming but so were the reports of ps4pros LITERALLY MELTING. I will wait until I hear more of this story before I get worried about it.

Nah man, gotta get that outrage train going full speed ahead.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Anecdotes are not proof. Either way.

I've owned a switch for a month and had none of the issues that ANYONE has described.
Does that mean these other people are lying?

Does one account of a failure mean it's a rampant, widespread design problem?


Keep in mind something about electronics. ALL hardware has failures.
Typically anything in the 5-8% range is considered 'good', and anything above that is exceptionally reliable.

Anything below that starts to raise questions.

Statistically, the PS3 has a 92% reliability.

What does a genuine disaster look like? Xbox 360 - RROD failure affects between 30 and 50% of ALL systems prior to the design changes.

What about an exceptionally reliable system?
The Wii has a 98% reliability rating.

But note that a 2% failure rate on 100 million consoles is 2 million! faulty consoles!

Just imagine the anecdotes and crap you could throw around with 2 million failures worth of anecdotal evidence!?

You'd be wrong of course, but it's more than enough anecdotal evidence to 'prove' that one of the most reliable consoles of the last 20 years does in fact have serious and disastrous design flaws...


So... Either get some real data, or stop with the alarmist, but hollow stories.

Someone cut a triforce symbol ALL THE WAY THROUGH a switch, and it still ran fine for going on 20 seconds with holes in it so big that half the system was technically missing.
So... Who can say at this point what's right and what's wrong?

Though it does seem incredibly fashionable these days to bash Nintendo for anything imaginable, whether the problem is real or imagined, serious or blown out of proportion... You can trust a mob of people to try and prove why it's the worst thing ever...

 

[WeepingAngels]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

More likely some redditor sat on their switch and wants a new one. There is literally a bandwagon saying they are warping with only a single picture circulating around.

...because Nintendo makes perfect hardware?

 

[MonsterCrit]

I must have gotten really lucky in that my Switch hasn't had any of the hardware issues the system has been having (yet)

I get that early adoption woes are a thing and are for the most part overblown, but it seems like the Switch has more things going wrong than most consoles do this early in their life

The switch has much more hardware going on that can go wrong. Other consoles are effectively cheap computers and we've been doing that for ages. More parts in the switch means more stuff likely to go wrong, that's all.

Basic tenet of engineering. More parts, more problems. Not that this defends the switch, since this is more or less showing a lack of foresight.

Why does leaving it in docked mode cause this as opposed to undocked?

Heat. Waht's drawing away the heat the tablet is generating while it's docked?

In handheld mode, it freely radiates from the back. In docked mode....well. less room for radiation.

I just hope it didn't inherit the exploding battery problems.

 

[Ravenbom]

I mostly play in handheld mode and the console definitely gets hot.

I mostly play in handheld mode in part because of the launch Breath of the Wild framerate issues, but mostly because of the other issues like the dock limits the wifi and the joycons lose sync when I had the dock behind the TV.
Joycons in front of the TV now so few if any sync issues... but man. This sucks.

 

[FalloutJack]

Oh, well, I guess I'll have to keep an eye on the Switch that I clearly do not have and do not want to own, so that I can be sure to call for no refund because I haven't really been interested in Nintendo's machines since the bricking problem they introduced in the 3DS. Basically, they sell defective things and poorly, so I do not buy them.

 

[deadish]

Oh, well, I guess I'll have to keep an eye on the Switch that I clearly do no have and do not want to own, so that I can be sure to call for no refund because I haven't really been interested in Nintendo's machines since the bricking problem they introduced in the 3DS. Basically, they sell defective things and poorly, so I do not buy them.

This is because you are doing it wrong. You are suppose to wait for the Lite version that fixes all the bad design problems of the initial hardware.