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Nintendo Switch Owners Complain About Dead Pixels, Nintendo Says They're 'Normal' (theguardian.com)

Nintendo says the dead or stuck pixels Switch owners are complaining about are "normal" and not defects. "New Switch players have taken to online discussion boards, including a 2,000-comment strong Reddit post, to complain of screen issues distracting play, unbecoming of a $300 handheld gaming machine," reports The Guardian. From the report: In a support document entitled "There are black or bright dots on the Nintendo Switch screen that do not go away, or there are dark or light patches on the screen," Nintendo said: "Small numbers of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect." Customers wishing to swap their Switch consoles with defective screens will get no support from Nintendo. A similar issue happened with the Nintendo DS at launch in the U.S., but the Japanese gaming company eventually relented after complaints from buyers, begrudgingly offering replacements under warranty. Nintendo also warned users that using the Switch near an aquarium or within a meter of another wireless device, including laptops, wireless headsets, wireless printers, microwaves, cordless phones or even USB-3.0 compatible devices "such as hard drives, thumb drives, LAN adapters, etc," might cause the Joy-Con controllers to disconnect from the Switch.

7 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Dead pixels? Really? by ZorinLynx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like Nintendo's buying up all those panels that didn't pass muster for other companies' standards. Pretty cheap of them, considering the price of the unit.

    I haven't seen a dead pixel on a screen in years. I can't believe Nintendo would stoop so low to essentially buying up rejects to save a couple bucks per unit.

    1. Re:Dead pixels? Really? by kronix1986 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Dead/stuck pixels on a modern consumer display aren't deal-breaking - you probably won't notice a stuck pixel in a 1920x1080 5" phone display.

      The problem is Nintendo specified the Switch with a 6.2" 720p LCD - literally tech from 2012 - which should by all accounts have a mature manufacturing process by now.

      As someone else said, it looks like Nintendo is buying up B-grade panels for the Switch. Imagine the uproar if Samsung or Apple shipped noticeable dead pixels as standard...

  2. Terrible by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nintendo really should pay more attention to these sorts of things, as this can be what makes or breaks a device. I was strongly considering getting one, but between these stories, the untransferable/unbackup-able save data, and all that on top of them repeating their inability to grasp how people use online play (Really, friend codes? AGAIN? You can't just let us use handles like everywhere else on the civilized internet?), I'm shifting more to the mindset of "maybe let's wait and see if the version 2.0 is any better."

  3. Bait... and Switch? by CanEHdian · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's to be expected that for the first batch, QA standards aren't too stringent, as they need numbers, numbers, numbers, to get 3rd party buy-in. Early PSPs had some stuck pixels, but later ones were fine. None of my VITAs have stuck/dead pixels.

    I was planning to wait for the Mario Bundle, I'm guessing with a Mario-Red and Luigi-Green joycon, as here in Canada the Switch debuts at $400 and there's not even a pack-in game included. Yeah, that's $400 CAD and it also proves that a low CAD vs USD might be 'good for the economy' but it's bad for consumers (e.g. you and me). Hopefully by that that time the Canadian Dollar regained some of its value.

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  4. Dead pixels are normal. by BigBuckHunter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nintendo has it half right

    Dead pixels ARE normal.... Fortunately, so is the replacing of affected devices under warranty.

  5. Re:Dead Pixel normal in 2017 by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Aren't there any consumer protection laws that can help you in the US?

    In the UK we have Distance Selling Regulations. Basically, because buying online you don't have an opportunity to inspect the goods before buying you can return them for any or no reason at all in the first 14 days. If the goods are not otherwise defective you have to pay return postage, so in the case of a few dead pixels you would probably be out a few quid on that. but you can save some weight be discarding extraneous packaging.

    It's actually better to buy stuff online than from a physical shop for this reason.

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  6. Re:You do realize... by stealth_finger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nintendo switch price £279.99
    Xbox One price £199.95
    PS4 price £169.99

    Yeah. I'd say its premium, and thats before you get into the silliness of the pad situation.

    Well, premium in price anyway, quality is questionable.

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