Joy-Con 2 teardown hints at potential stick drift issues for Switch 2

Day one reviews of the Nintendo Switch 2 are out and people are discovering a lot about not just the performance, but also the build quality. JerryRigEverything on YouTube put the handheld through its paces with his regular testing but a user on Reddit got into the Joy-Con 2 controllers and found a lot of similarities with the original Joy-Cons that were plagued with stick drift issues.

It is well-known that Nintendo did not go with Hall effect or TMR joysticks for the Switch 2, but instead, stuck with the potentiometer-based design. The company, however, previously stated that the analogue sticks are larger and more durable compared to the original Switch. That being said, the Reddit user found that the internals look very similar to the original Joy-Cons which raises questions about durability and stick drift becoming a problem on the Switch 2 as well.

While stick drift can affect any potentiometer-based controller, the original Joy-Cons were notoriously plagued with it. While some users were able to find third party solutions (GuliKit TMR replacement joysticks), some others were able to solve the problem by opening and cleaning the Joy-Cons. Regardless, it was a widespread issue on the original Switch. With the Switch 2, it is too soon to say if users will experience the same problems. We’ll keep an eye out for user reports.

The JerryRigEverything durability test showed that the display of the Switch 2 is extremely scratch-prone. It was also found that in terms of brightness and color contrast, the LCD panel is not what it was cracked up to be. Hence the HDR experience is only mediocre. Furthermore, the costs for repairs have gone up compared to the original Switch. On the other hand, the performance upgrade offered by the Switch 2 is being appreciated as games that struggled to run smoothly on the Switch are running without any issues, and with faster load times.