Is The Switch Dock Scratching Screens? Here's What Nintendo Says

(Image credit: Nintendo)

After launching the Nintendo Switch two weeks ago, a number of people have had some complaints about the system, namely the left Joy-Con desynching when in TV mode, and an issue with the docking station scratching the screen. Well, Nintendo has finally opened up about the issue.

Speaking with Time, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime explained that some of the issues that have been floating around on some popular YouTube videos may be a bit exaggerated compared to what's happening in reality. In regards to the docking station for the Nintendo Switch scratching up the screen of the system, Reggie says...

Again, this is why we're encouraging consumers to reach out to us directly. We have done, as you know, literally hundreds of events, starting with our activity back in January, and most recently the various tours that we continue to take the system out on. As soon as I heard of this report, I asked my teams, "Have we seen this in our own experience?" And the candid answer has been no.

Now, in both cases it should be noted that these are anecdotal experiences. Some users claiming that their docking station has scratched the screen has so far made its way into YouTube videos and then back into the news media, but there haven't been wide reports of this in user reviews or feedback from those who purchased the system. There are approximately two 1-star reviews on Amazon from verified purchasers who mentioned screen scratching, but that's out of 337 total reviews. So while a video with millions of views pointing out the flaws of the Switch might make it seem like a huge thing, we don't know how much of an issue it actually is unless there's a failure report rate or at least some sort of percentage gauge so we have an idea of whether or not this is a widespread issue or just fringe cases.

For instance, the red rings of death for the Xbox 360 was widely reported by a lot of users and customers on forums, in the review sections on retail outlets, across aggregators and news sites. The RROD issue was impossible to miss. Right now, the issue of the Nintendo Switch docking station scratching the screen has been met with confused and mixed reports. Some people have claimed that the way it's designed it's impossible to scratch the screen the way it's displayed in the YouTube videos. Others are claiming that it's too tight and the docking station is scuffing the Switch's screen.

This also follows on reports of the left Joy-Con desynching from the system. It's another issue that's hard to gauge. There are plenty of people out there with a Switch claiming that they haven't experienced the left Joy-Con desynching, even though it was widely reported in the media. A video from GameXplain actually delved into the issue, however, attempting to troubleshoot the problem, and the users found out that blocking the signal connection with the Joy-Con will cause a failure of read input. It was demonstrated in the video that covering up the signals on the Joy-Con controllers prevented them from working properly.

As far as the dock scratching the Nintendo Switch screen is concerned, it's hard to tell exactly how widespread the issue is, but Nintendo's warranty is available for the console so you can always have it repaired or replaced within the allotted time of the warranty. We'll likely have to wait to get a sound figure on just how many units are being scratched by the dock when putting it in and taking it out.