How do you improve on one of the best-selling game consoles of all time?
With an OLED screen, of course!
I have a feeling there’s a lot more to this update than that, though.
Today we’re going to do a side-by-side teardown of the Nintendo Switch OLED model
and the Nintendo Switch 2019 refresh, walking you through all the notable changes we find.
Apart from the new screen, which we will get to later, there are a few other changes to the
outside of the OLED model: the whole thing is 3mm wider, the speaker slits have been redesigned,
the kickstand is finally actually usable, and my favorite change:
the joy-con rails on the Switch have been redesigned so Joy-Cons wobble less when
they are attached. Any Joy-Con will still fit, but the difference in fit is dramatic.
Let’s set these Joy-Cons aside for later and get inside the switches. The new Switch’s
screws are in slightly different places, but the story is the same: a mixture of Y000 and
JIS 000 screws, including some from the rail, all need to come out to remove the back panel.
I’ll loosen up the 2019 Switch real quick, and we’re inside!
To no one’s surprise, metal shields lguard the way. Three changes I see here:
first, the fancy new hinges of the new kickstand take up quite a bit of space.
You can see there are nice slots for them here, and I’m guessing Nintendo had to make some major
adjustments under the shield to make this happen. Next, this antenna hardware is repositioned,
with the cables routed on top of the shield. Those are going to be annoying to re-route during
reassembly, but the new antenna placement might mean wireless performance is a little better!
Finally, the SD card reader hardware is different—looks
like the board extends under the shield.
Before I can remove the OLED Switch shield, I have to deal with those antenna cables.
The larger of the two antennas has two screws holding it down,
and I'm going to try and disturb this tape as little as possible so we can re-use it.
Watch out for that second cable:
it’s bent perfectly to disappear under the shield after you disconnect it!
With the cables out of the way, both shields are held down with 6 JIS screws,
and underneath is our first good look at these internals. But before we feast:
let me get rid of this antenna straggler up here real quick.
Alright, let’s see. Right off the bat I’m seeing this new dark circuit board. Looks
like it’s the SD card reader and game card reader bundled together.
They had to build that around the slot for the kickstand hinge here,
and then on the other side, the extra width makes room for the other hinge beside the battery.
Besides that, the speakers are now enclosed, and one of them lives under that new board.
Finally, the cooling hardware looks slightly different. The
OLED model has a more slender copper heat pipe, and a slightly smaller fan.
One screw hidden under a sticker holds down that new card reader board,
then a few more for the new fan and heat sink.
Back to the old Switch, it’s the same story in reverse, with a little more modularity.
The heatsink comes off, then I can fish out the card reader headphone jack combo,
and pop off the 32 GB storage module.
It’s a bummer to the SD and game card reader parts combined,
and an extra bummer to see the modular storage drive gone! We always secretly
hoped Nintendo would offer storage upgrades with that modular drive, but, surprise, they never did.
As for the new fan and heatsink, my guess is that this hardware re-used
from the original Switch was overkill for the more efficient chip that the 2019 had,
but it didn’t make sense to redesign anything at that point.
So with the new model, Nintendo took the opportunity to shrink this down
and save a little space. That, or maybe they just found a way
to get the same thermal performance with a smaller, more efficient fan.
Our next differences are on the main circuit boards. After removing the cables,
and the screws holding them down, you can see the OLED model’s board is slightly redesigned. A lot
of the changes are placement of the tiny chips and connectors on the board, but hey, the USB-C port
gets a little reinforcement! And on the backside is the new 64 GB eMMC storage chip from Samsung.
This is the same spec as the original Switch’s storage,
so don’t expect any performance increase here. Just a little more space for an extra few games.
In a very fun “ask the developer” Q&A on Nintendo’s website, we get a sneak peek
behind the curtain of this new speaker design. The engineers describe how they initially tried using
similar speakers to the old ones, which emit sound to the front and back with their open design,
but found they were much quieter in the OLED switch’s new layout. To combat this, they closed
off the back of the speaker with these little plastic brackets, which are adhered in place.
This enclosed design required a new kind of speaker, which you can see here.
In the midst of all this new-ness, one thing remains the same, and that’s the 16 Wh
lithium-ion battery cell, glued down here in it’s own chamber. I’m … just going to leave it there.
To remove the 2019 switch’s screen, all you need is a little heat. This
one has already been removed, so I don’t even need that—just
a pick to do a little slicing and prying. The back of the LCD panel is shiny like a mirror,
and you can easily separate the panel from the plastic, to replace one or the other individually.
The new OLED screen is probably going to be a lot less forgiving. It’s got glass, not plastic,
in front of the display, and that glass is fused to the OLED panel underneath. So slicing
is basically off the table—you’re likely to damage the display or break that glass that way.
Instead, I’ll leave this on a heat pad for a few minutes and try some steady suction.
To my great surprise, it actually worked! Like the old switch, the display is only
adhered around the bezel. Now you can see there’s quite a difference between the two
frames behind the display. You can also see that this OLED panel was made by samsung!
I’m relieved that the OLED screen is still easy to remove, because it’s definitely going to break
easier than the plastic. Speaking of breaking: If you spring for an OLED switch, you might notice it
comes with what looks like a pre-installed screen protector. This actually an anti-scattering film
to prevent glass shards from escaping, should the glass shatter. So you shouldn’t remove it.
Before we wrap up, here’s a Joy-con lightning round.
These new white joy-cons are identical to every joy-con before them, but just last week,
Nintendo came out to say they have been making subtle improvements to increase
the joystick durability, so I’d like to see if we can spot any differences inside a joystick.
Last year in our investigation of the PS5 joystick drift debacle we learned
that all joysticks are consumables, something Nintendo themselves have come forward to admit.
All popular joysticks currently being used by big manufacturers rely on tiny physical
components moving against each other, which inevitably causes wear and leads to drift.
Opening up this new joystick, I’m disappointed to say I don’t see any noticeable differences between
previous ones that I have opened up. That doesn’t mean these aren’t slightly more durable though,
if Nintendo says they’re making changes, I believe it. And they still seem to be offering
free replacement for drifting joy-cons, if you don’t mind shipping yours off.
If you don’t want to wait, it’s an easy DIY replacement procedure,
you can find everything you need, including a guide, over at iFixit.com
So the Nintendo Switch OLED model has undergone some pretty significant changes,
though a lot of them don’t make a big difference to performance or gameplay.
While this minor update may not be the Switch Pro some people were hoping for,
we’re glad to see Nintendo re-using existing parts where they can,
and prioritizing backwards compatibility with existing hardware like docks and joy-cons.
On the repairability scale, the new Switch OLED fares well! it earns an 7 out of 10,
for its sensible, modular construction and general use of screws over adhesive.
Unfortunately it’s losing a point this year for the move to non-modular storage and card
reader consolidation. And, important to note: unlike most other modern consoles (and iPhones),
Nintendo doesn’t use software locks to limit repairs.