Users started reporting issues with their Nintendo Switch warping toward its right edge in an unsettling thread on the /r/gaming subreddit yesterday. Redditor _NSR uploaded a picture of their Switch clearly showing that it is warped in a post titled “The Nintendo Switch Is Starting To Warp While Only Being In Dock Mode“. The photograph was taken from the top-down, and a screen protector with lines on it is under the system as a visual reference. The warping isn’t a full curve, but more of a slope where the game card slot is. Comments on the original thread and in a cross-post to /r/NintendoSwitch were split between other users who noticed similar issues with their Nintendo Switch warping, and owners whose consoles were still perfectly straight. User tge90 initially suggested that the issue could be the battery bulging, but then referred to an engadget teardown feature of the Switch, which shows that the battery is on the other side of the system.
We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment.
To be clear, this doesn’t look like it’s being physically caused by the dock; its open slot is straight, and despite being prone to scratching the Switch’s screen, it doesn’t bend the system. The warping seems to be heat-related, and in my experience the Switch heats up when docked. It’s possible that heat generated by the system when undocked is enough to also contribute to the issue. Either way, with Nintendo doubling production of the Switch, it would be somewhat of a catastrophe to have sixteen million consoles that may become misshapen due to heat on the market.
I’m sad to say that upon checking my own console, it does look to have a similar, but (so far) less-pronounced warping to it. Here are some pictures I took of my Switch, which you can compare to _NSR’s:
Switch owners out there, does your system have warping, or any other issues? Leave a comment below and tell us about it.
UPDATE 1:11PM 4/3/2017 – A colleague of mine just received a Switch delivered to his desk that he ordered online. I asked to check it, and found that his brand-new, out of the box console appears to have slight warping already:
This makes me wonder if it’s a manufacturing defect that gets worse with heat over time. A recent statement from Nintendo indicated that a ‘manufacturing variance’ was responsible for a number of left joy-con controllers having sync issues, meanwhile it does look like a number of non-warped Switches do exist.
