I was going to do this as a news piece this morning, then changed my mind - but I wanted A) some input from Switch owners and 2) to plant my flag so when other news outlets pick it up I can say I SAW IT FIRST, DAMMIT. People are reporting that their Nintendo Switches are warping, apparently when used for long periods in docked mode (where it's running the CPU and GPU at full pelt in an enclosed plastic box, thus not only generating more heat but not getting rid of it as easily as when it's in the gimped portable mode and the open air.) Can anyone confirm they're seeing the same on theirs? If so, I might write it up tomorrow. Ta!
Ninty's shoddy quality control is countered by the quality of lolz from the comments that come after the OP. But yeah, I don't think "dropped the ball" covers it anymore... Between the screen scratching and/or warping, games running like plop, overpriced accessories and general software gremlins it's more an avalanche of sweaty testicles at this point.
I'm shocked. Injection moulded plastics aren't the most rigid things when heat is applied for, what we can assume to be, fairly lengthy periods of time? What about when being handled by over excited people/children? Surely there it's got the backbone to sta.. Oh, no, no. Then there must be some chunky metal suppo-- Oh, also no.
Plastic screen plastic casing. Have you seen the way they chafe when put in and out of the dock? This does not surprise me at all tbh. I've got £30 tablets here made about as well as the Switch.
And the issues with the joy-con things [issues with the 'left' ones dropping connection because of how in the internals were laid out]
I must admit I don't really "get" the Switch dock in its current format. Either it should be like it is but with additional functionality (cooling / additional HW grunt) or as it is now functionality wise but looking more like the WII U controller dock. As it stands it is a hunk of plastic that potentially scratches the screen (seriously.... felt padding Nintendo) and offers up only limited functionality (TV out and USB ports). I quite like the idea of a switch but more from the portability aspect.
From the relevant sites I frequent, this doesn't seem to be a widespread issue. Personally, I use my Switch almost exclusively in handheld mode so far, but I know many others have used their's in almost exclusive docked mode and have had no such warping issues. Just another example of the web's ability to blow isolated (and unproven) cases out of proportion, or so it seems so far.
I struggle to see the mechanism behind the warping. I think plastics would take a substantial amounts of heat and some sort of pressure or differential to warp like that. Maybe different materials are expanding and contracting to different extents while docked I suppose, but: ...I would imagine keeping the unit docked and playing for long hours without removal (or even very rarely removing it at all) is a fairly common usage. It seems such a problem would more likely be a fairly fundamental material choice or heat dissipation issue rather than a quality control issue. Because of this I'd expect it to become a very broad issue fairly rapidly rather than the odd case without clear evidence that there aren't any other factors involved. Because of this and the rather viral value of creating a secondary fuss around popular/trending products that already have perceived/actual problems with design I would tread very carefully. It could be an actual slow burning issue, but sitting on it might be an equally or more effective way of achieving the effect in question
