iFixit: Nintendo Switch Lite has some modified joystick components

The two joysticks on the recently released Nintendo Switch Lite have some adjustments compared to the regular Switch, claims iFixit. Whether this will remove the complaints about the drift problem with the Joy-Con joysticks is not yet known based on the teardown.

According to iFixit, the joysticks look much the same as the joysticks on newer copies of the regular Switch and don’t seem to look very different inside either, although there are some changes. There are, for example, a new traceroute, a thinner click button for the joystick and apparently slightly wider metal sliders.

The black contact surfaces under the sliders appear unchanged from the existing Switch, according to iFixit, but the website says they may be made of stronger material. However, this could not be determined during the teardown, so it is still unclear for the time being whether the joysticks of the Switch Lite will not or less quickly lead to complaints about ‘drifting’.

In July, it became clear that a lawsuit is being filed against Nintendo over the drift issue with the joysticks on the regular Switch’s Joy-Cons. Drifting is the term that stands for the situation where the user does not touch the joystick, while the Switch still thinks that is the case, with the result that in a game the camera perspective changes or a character starts moving. Here are the necessary complaints.

Incidentally, based on the teardown, iFixit gives the Switch Lite a score of 6 out of 10 for repairability; that’s two points lower than the original Switch. IFixit mentions the fact that the Switch Lite uses a lot of screws to secure most components and that many components are modular. However, there is also criticism: unusual three-point screws are used, which would complicate all repairs. In addition, the flash storage and SD card reader are soldered directly to the motherboard.