With less than three days till the official release of the Nintendo Switch 2, iFixit just announced it is chopping the original Switch's repairability score clean in half, taking it from an 8 out of 10 all the way down to a 4. Now, the actual console from 2017 has not changed a bit, but iFixit says its way of looking at repair and what is even possible in handheld gaming has come a long way in eight years.
The company figured that with the Switch 2 about to drop, people would want a proper way to compare the old with the new. Back when the Switch first came out, it was a weird one to score because it was part console, part handheld. iFixit now feels it has a better handle on things, and since Nintendo itself says most people play the Switch undocked, the device is getting judged harder as a portable machine.
So, what are the big complaints making iFixit take an axe to the score? Well, that glued-in battery is still incredibly difficult to remove, and the only way to charge the thing is through a port soldered right onto the main circuit board, which is always a recipe for repair nightmares. On top of that, Nintendo has never bothered to sell official replacement parts for the original Switch or even give out official repair guides. You cannot just ignore issues like that when you are talking about how easy something is to fix.
Even finding one of the specific types of thermal goop you need for many fixes inside the console has been a pain. And while everyone knows about the Joy-Con drift, iFixit is clear its score does not hit for bad durability, but seeing so many busted joysticks has made how easy they are to fix a bigger deal in its scoring lately.
This is not the first time iFixit has had to go back and change a score based on new information or a change in how it sees things, like in 2023 when it cut the iPhone 14's repairability score because Apple started using software to link almost every part to a specific phone, making independent repairs a massive pain even if the phone was physically easier to open.
iFixit still gives Nintendo credit for the plug-and-play joysticks (even if they drift), storage you can replace and add to, and an inside layout that is mostly simple. But those good points just do not count for as much when you compare the Switch to what is out there now and how much easier other companies like ASUS with the ROG Ally and Lenovo with the Legion Go, are making repairs.
iFixit is hoping Nintendo learned a few things for the Switch 2. Plus, there is a Right to Repair law in New York that kicked in for gadgets made after July 1, 2023. That law might just force Nintendo to sell parts and share repair info for the new console, at least for things like batteries and screens. If Nintendo starts selling parts and guides for the original Switch while people are still buying it, iFixit says it will happily look at the score again.
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