iFixit is retroactively giving the Nintendo Switch a 4/10 on repairability

Would you name the Nintendo Swap simple to restore, what with its infamously drifting joysticks, glued-in battery, tiny and easy-to-damage ribbon cables, and lack of official restore directions and alternative components?

iFixit doesn’t assume so anymore. After giving Nintendo’s handheld a rosy welcome at its 2017 debut, the web restore website says the Swap not lives as much as 2025 requirements — and so iFixit is reducing the Swap’s repairability rating in half, from 8 out of 10 to 4 out of 10.

We’ve by no means put too a lot inventory into repairability scores, however iFixit’s reasoning (in this blog post) makes some sense to me, as an individual who occurs to open each handheld sport system I check for The Verge. It’s not Pleasure-Con drift — it’s that the trade has moved on.

As of 2025, many handheld gaming PCs are far simpler to get inside and restore, and gadgets are starting to supply batteries that may be changed with out painstakingly prying a fragile and dangerous-to-damage object (the glued battery) away from their frames. Some iPhones now even allow you to take away battery adhesive with a jolt of electricity.

Plus, the Steam Deck kicked off an expectation that corporations that really wish to supply repairable handhelds will make their components publicly out there to buy, even perhaps by way of iFixit itself. That’s not a spot the place Nintendo is taking part in ball —- though New York right-to-repair regulation could require Nintendo to supply components for the Swap 2 within the USA, as iFixit factors out in its weblog publish.

This isn’t the primary time iFixit has retroactively determined to diss an enormous gadget firm after considering higher of it: iFixit broke up with Samsung in 2024 after Samsung wasn’t forthcoming with official components and required prospects to purchase batteries that had been preglued to telephone screens, amongst different restrictions. I’m wondering in the event that they’ll exert similar pressure on Logitech.

iFixit isn’t dissing Nintendo almost as arduous as Samsung, although.

“The unique Swap nonetheless has brilliant spots: its modular design philosophy for the joysticks, replaceable (and expandable) storage, and principally easy inside structure all stay commendable. However when in comparison with newer gadgets that additionally supply standardized M.2 slots, socketed parts, and broadly out there components and restore documentation, the Swap exhibits its age,” writes iFixit.