Impressions: Nintendo Switch

When I got sent to the quarantine facility, I brought my Switch, and that’s where I wrecked the sticks on the thing…

The clips that hold the left and right sticks in place also went bad — the sticks wouldn’t stay put, one push and they’d pop up.

So I figured I’d just replace them, and in for a penny, in for a pound: the left and right stick clips, the console’s own battery, and the sticks themselves all got swapped.

You can buy all of this on Taobao:

• Rail clips — there are metal versions now, and I strongly recommend the metal ones, they’re just sturdier
• Sticks — there are second-gen ones, plus the newly released GuliKit Hall effect ones. If you’ve got the money I’d go Hall, but remember: the point of a Hall stick is that it massively cuts the odds of drift, not that it feels good
• Battery — I couldn’t tell which was the real “official” one, so I just bought the highest-selling listing
• The screwdrivers for teardown usually come free

Then came the swapping. The controller-side stuff is honestly the easiest. The only genuinely annoying part is the console battery — I have to say, that thing is glued down hard. I had to hit it with adhesive remover before I could pry it out.

After everything was done, there wasn’t much of a difference, honestly. The only thing actually broken on my unit was the clips, and that’s fixed — but the controllers still feel a bit loose.

The sticks never drifted to begin with, so after the swap they’re the same as before. As for battery life, maybe a tiny bit better. Mine’s a launch Switch, and launch Switches never had great battery anyway, so even after the swap it still can’t hold a candle to the revised model.

Big gains are hard, sure, but you can still swap a few parts to improve the experience.

I picked up a Tomtoc carrying case — very light. Paired that with a Skull & Co. stick cap, which does help the feel somewhat.

Most importantly, I put on an “AR film.” It’s not tempered glass, but the hardness is decent, and the main thing is it cuts down glare. I’d definitely recommend it.

All in all, after all this messing around, I guess the thing feels a little better to use. Of course, the best solution is still to just get an OLED model.