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Sliding the Switch in and out of the dock will inevitably scratch the screen

KingV

Member
So they intentionally designed the dock to damage the console instead of just designing the dock in a way that makes sense? This would be the first consumer electronics device I'd ever heard of that would be intentionally designed in that fashion.

These justifications are too much. Honestly if this were true it would prove Nintendo to be malicious instead of incompetent.

Design is a series of trade offs. Whether it's iPhone antenna placement or removing a 3.5mm port or using a plastic screen instead of a glass one.

There is no one right decision, because all decisions have implications for durability, cost, and/or usability. Nintendo probably went with plastic for both cost and screen breakage, and then when they thought about scratches from the dock, they said: "hey, we'd rather have the bezel scratched than the screen" and then designed that into the dock. Maybe a better dock design could exist, and I suspect others were prototyped but this one was the one they landed on.

People assume Nintendo only hires dumb people or something.
 
c6us2.jpg


Took the time to give an evidence since we are doubted or labeled as careless (sic)
WELP.

Not looking good for the Switch, folks.
 
I did the book trick and the hair drier thing today, it seems to have straightened my dock and I can slide it more easily now.
Still not docking the console without microfiber clothe, but it should be good when I put a screen protector.
 

koss424

Member
There have been plenty of scratch reports and/or markings on the screen, particularly the bezel area...
Glixel
glixel.jpg

Blunty
blunty.jpg

gregtis
gregtis.jpg

moldiver
moldiver.jpg

My dock
SWITCHDOCK.jpg

tendo(?)
tendo.jpg

---
There's scratches and then bent docks. If you have a bent dock you'd want to know if that's what caused the scratches/markings, right? This is a thread investigating whether the dock can scratch the screen.

the east-west scratches on the second pic looks like it was caused by something other than the dock. If it's the dock doing the scratches the damage should be somewhat uniform right?
 

nullpoynter

Member
I just installed the Hori standard screen protector last night and it was super easy to install. I just used the provided cleaning cloth and a can of compressed air and was able to install the protector without any dust getting trapped. It looks great! You can't even tell it's on there. It doesn't degrade the quality of the screen one bit. I highly recommend this if you can find one. You can't go wrong for $10.
 
Design is a series of trade offs. Whether it's iPhone antenna placement or removing a 3.5mm port or using a plastic screen instead of a glass one.

There is no one right decision, because all decisions have implications for durability, cost, and/or usability. Nintendo probably went with plastic for both cost and screen breakage, and then when they thought about scratches from the dock, they said: "hey, we'd rather have the bezel scratched than the screen" and then designed that into the dock. Maybe a better dock design could exist, and I suspect others were prototyped but this one was the one they landed on.

People assume Nintendo only hires dumb people or something.
And yet this could easily have been avoided by not having a front plate on the dock. Design might be a series of tradeoffs, but if at any point they decided a scratched bezel is worth causing for an aesthetic choice for the dock, they truly do hire stupid people.

Why is it better for you that this was intentional rather than an oversight? In my mind it would be much worse if they wanted to damage everyone's devices out of the box.

There are tons of docks for tablets on the market, and none of them damage the screens of the tablets they hold. This is Nintendo reinventing the wheel, but with corners.
 

empyrean

Member
Just checked my dock and it is bebr as well :(. It seems to dick easily and doesn't scrape the sides from what I can tell though.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
the east-west scratches on the second pic looks like it was caused by something other than the dock. If it's the dock doing the scratches the damage should be somewhat uniform right?
Not necessarily. My theory is that the scratches are micro-abrasions caused by particles that aren't easily seen by the human eye, especially down in the dock. The up and down motion could be just a "jiggling" of the system to get it to connect, or angular insertion or removal. *EDIT* Forgot about removing the Joy-cons, that could cause the shaking motion scratches as well.

Check out this picture I took just 30secs after unwrapping my dock...
residue.jpg

I have never used this dock, but imagine if I popped my seemingly dustless(not under camera flash!) Switch into this dock with all the leftover manufacturing particles in there...
dockdrop.jpg

AND did I mention my dock is bent?
SWITCHDOCK.jpg

Magically every scratch appears in the bezel and it just must be people scratching it in some other way. That's my theory, at least.
So with Shopto not wanting to exchange mine and having contacted Nintendo, has anyone else made contact with Nintendo?
I'm glad you're on. So were you able to buff any of those scratches?
 

andymcc

Banned
Mine has light scratching on the bezel area too. Dock isn't bent. Very light usage too, I think I've done handheld mode a handful of times.
 

Hylian7

Member
I need to check if my dock is bent. I don't have and scratches yet since I have been super careful every time. My Hori screen protector arrives today. While I realize it isn't the glass ones people are talking about, it will do the job.
 

Gurrry

Member
What are the actual chances that Nintendo does a recall and gives those who bought a switch at launch an improved dock? Because I feel like its a 0% chance.

And if they do, theyre gonna require us to send in the original dock, pay for shipping and then wait 2 weeks to get the new one.
 

Slaythe

Member
The good side of all this is :

We can just send the shitty dock for replacement and keep the console <3 .

Beats having to send the entire console.

I mean I hope that will be their solution. D:

What are the actual chances that Nintendo does a recall and gives those who bought a switch at launch an improved dock? Because I feel like its a 0% chance.

And if they do, theyre gonna require us to send in the original dock, pay for shipping and then wait 2 weeks to get the new one.

They don't have the choice, the consoles are all guaranteed at least a year by the seller right ?

They'll have to handle it for free. Hell they might tell resellers to just give people a free Dock in exchange for the bad one.
 
WELP.

Not looking good for the Switch, folks.


I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but I don't think it's a huge issue. The 3ds situation was way more severe (you couldn't solve it by applying a protection, I tried and still got the scratches) and I don't think it really had an impact.

For most of people, this will never be something to worry about.

Still, people who like to take no risk should be aware of this issue and take the appropriate measures.

If only reviews warned us about the plastic screen, lot of careful folks like us would have bought a screen protector day one.

The worst is that I could swear that everyone who tested the Switch at events told us the screen was glass.
 

Gurrry

Member
The good side of all this is :

We can just send the shitty dock for replacement and keep the console <3 .

Beats having to send the entire console.

I mean I hope that will be their solution. D:



They don't have the choice, the consoles are all guaranteed at least a year by the seller right ?

They'll have to handle it for free. Hell they might tell resellers to just give people a free Dock in exchange for the bad one.

I believe the standard warranty for a manufacturer is 1 year. So if we do any exchanges, it will have to be through Nintendo.
 

Slaythe

Member
I believe the standard warranty for a manufacturer is 1 year. So if we do any exchanges, it will have to be through Nintendo.

I believe it's different in Europe. At least in my country I know for a fact I can ask the store I bought it from to get me a functional product. Then they deal with nintendo.

But you don't have to pay for shipping.
 
I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but I don't think it's a huge issue. The 3ds situation was way more severe (you couldn't solve it by applying a protection, I tried and still got the scratches) and I don't think it really had an impact.

For most of people, this will never be something to worry about.

Still, people who like to take no risk should be aware of this issue and take the appropriate measures.

If only reviews warned us about the plastic screen, lot of careful folks like us would have bought a screen protector day one.

The worst is that I could swear that everyone who tested the Switch at events told us the screen was glass.
It doesn't feel like any plastic screen that I've ever touched. I would never have known that it was plastic if not for GAF.

Seeing what some people's phones look like I think glass may have lead to a lot of "My Switch Tipped Over On The Kickstand And Now My Screen Is Shattered!!!" threads instead of this one.
 

Malus

Member
Good thing I plan on playing Zelda in handheld mode lol. Hopefully by the time I'm done there'll be some word on this.
 

Kyle8497

Member
What part is scratching the switch? The long vertical bits on the inside of the front part of the dock? If so, wouldn't it be scratching the entire vertical height of the side of the Switch screen, and not just the bottom corners?
 
What part is scratching the switch? The long vertical bits on the inside of the front part of the dock? If so, wouldn't it be scratching the entire vertical height of the side of the Switch screen, and not just the bottom corners?
Yeah, I'm not totally understanding what's happening in some of these pictures but I totally believe that this is a real issue since I know someone it happened to. Yet my dock is bent, I've pulled it in and out numerous times prior to hearing about this and yet not a single mark. What could be digging into the screen that sharply? A jagged manufacturing defect on the guides?
 

Seik

Banned
There's a tone in this thread that should be corrected.

Some folks aren't questioning the truth that some have scratched screens because of the dock, I believe it myself and it scares me to death that it could scratch mine as well. Though looking at some scratches and the way those are done, one has the right to wonder HOW it could've happened, without necessarily implying that the person did mishandle his/her Switch and it's all his/her fault.

In that case, many are being jumped at by aggressive people being like ''Stop defending Nintendo and pushing the blame on the customer you fanboy.'' While their questions are totally legitimate. It's one thing to dismiss the problem, it's another to want to understand it.

THERE ARE posts that deserve to be called out like that though, many of them, absolutely, I saw too many to count in this very thread. Sometimes though, I think that people are jumping at the throat of some folks that aren't putting the blame on the customers, but are more looking to UNDERSTAND how it did happen, most likely to avoid having scratches themselves. I questioned the pic in the OP myself in that same purpose.

It is a problem, it's all on Nintendo for having the manufacturing of the dock wrong. It is also normal to want the maximum of information possible in order to, as a group, be able to help each others having our Switch's screens not scratched as well.

It's just my two cents though. That said, my setup with the white foam from the box still does the job...at least 20 days left before I get my tempered glass. D:
 

Slaythe

Member
There's a tone in this thread that should be corrected.

Some folks aren't questioning the truth that some have scratched screens because of the dock, I believe it myself and it scares me to death that it could scratch mine as well. Though looking at some scratches and the way those are done, one has the right to wonder HOW it could've happened, without necessarily implying that the person did mishandle his/her Switch and it's all his/her fault.

In that case, many are being jumped at by aggressive people being like ''Stop defending Nintendo and pushing the blame on the customer you fanboy.'' While their questions are totally legitimate. It's one thing to dismiss the problem, it's another to want to understand it.

THERE ARE posts that deserve to be called out like that though, many of them, absolutely, I saw too many to count in this very thread. Sometimes though, I think that people are jumping at the throat of some folks that aren't putting the blame on the customers, but are more looking to UNDERSTAND how it did happen, most likely to avoid having scratches themselves, most likely. I questioned the pic in the OP myself in that same purpose.

It is a problem, it's all on Nintendo for having the manufacturing of the dock wrong. It is also normal to want the maximum of information possible in order to, as a group, be able to help each others having our Switch's screens not scratched as well.

It's just my two cents though.

It's easy, some people have hugeee amount of dust and dirt around. If this gets stuck between the plastic screen and the dock plastic, and if they didn't put the switch perfectly and "slide it left and right" to fit it, it happens.
 

nullpoynter

Member
I need to check if my dock is bent. I don't have and scratches yet since I have been super careful every time. My Hori screen protector arrives today. While I realize it isn't the glass ones people are talking about, it will do the job.
Just installed the standard Hori protector last night. It looks great! It's super easy to install as well.
 

ViciousDS

Banned
Yeah, I'm not totally understanding what's happening in some of these pictures but I totally believe that this is a real issue since I know someone it happened to. Yet my dock is bent, I've pulled it in and out numerous times prior to hearing about this and yet not a single mark. What could be digging into the screen that sharply? A jagged manufacturing defect on the guides?

I can see the wear marks on my switch.......they only appear at the bottom.....something is definitely draggin upon entry and its definitely that pad.....that's plastic. Once you put it in far enough the switch itself bends the dock straight again until you pull it out which then it leans inward again.
 

HvySky

Member
How the hell is this dock $90? Can't cost more than like $5 to produce considering the housing is just a hunk of plastic?
 

Gestault

Member
Yeah, I'm not totally understanding what's happening in some of these pictures but I totally believe that this is a real issue since I know someone it happened to. Yet my dock is bent, I've pulled it in and out numerous times prior to hearing about this and yet not a single mark. What could be digging into the screen that sharply? A jagged manufacturing defect on the guides?

For something as "soft" as plastic, all it takes is a large enough grain of dust in the guide path.
 
How the hell is this dock $90? Can't cost more than like $5 to produce considering the housing is just a hunk of plastic?

It's $90 because that's how much Nintendo believes consumers are willing to pay for it. That's how Capitalism works. Prices are rarely determined solely on manufacturing costs.
 

Toparaman

Banned
I got a Switch last night. The screen is already scratched despite being incredibly careful and undocking maybe twice. They're very fine and you can't see them at all unless it's the right angle, but how fucking stupid is this issue!? Last night my friend said "yeah, but if there's any company you wouldn't be surprised at doing this, it's Nintendo". Sadly, that's completely true.

Yeah, they make brilliant games, and unfortunately you get a lot of apologists for their mediocre hardware because of that. Never mind that the hardware and software teams are likely comprised of different folks, higher-ups aside.

Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not doubting the competency of Nintendo's hardware engineers. But it seems like they're hamstrung by bad decisions made by Nintendo's business division. Same with Nintendo's OS engineers.
 

Seik

Banned
It's easy, some people have hugeee amount of dust and dirt around. If this gets stuck between the plastic screen and the dock plastic, and if they didn't put the switch perfectly and "slide it left and right" to fit it, it happens.

Isn't it impressive (in a bad way) that a screen gets so easily scratched...It's a shame Nintendo didn't consider a stronger screen that could at least resist those nasty plastic tabs.

Especially since the console JUST came out, what will it be for people with no protectors in two months. :lol
 

Slaythe

Member
It's $90 because that's how much Nintendo believes consumers are willing to pay for it. That's how Capitalism works. Prices are rarely determined solely on manufacturing costs.

It's dumb D: .

If it were cheaper I wouldn't mind buying several to put them at my parents etc... for when I visit them.

At this price they can die tho.
 

KingV

Member
And yet this could easily have been avoided by not having a front plate on the dock. Design might be a series of tradeoffs, but if at any point they decided a scratched bezel is worth causing for an aesthetic choice for the dock, they truly do hire stupid people.

Why is it better for you that this was intentional rather than an oversight? In my mind it would be much worse if they wanted to damage everyone's devices out of the box.

There are tons of docks for tablets on the market, and none of them damage the screens of the tablets they hold. This is Nintendo reinventing the wheel, but with corners.

I think they have reasons to put a face on the dock, probably that they don't want it easy to knock the device off the dock and potentially onto the floor (to protect against kids) and they don't want to draw comparisons to the Wii U By emphasizing the screen is not usable while docked.

It makes me feel slightly better to know that the scratches are almost entirely isolated to the bezel and not uniformly distributed across the device. I suspect Nintendo just decided that they think most customers are not going to care much if the bezel is scratched.

I'm not sure it's the best decision, but can understand that those decisions were made intentionally.
 
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