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.

Comments

You do realize...

[gweilo8888]

...that Nintendo doesn't have to accept the lowest bid if it doesn't think a good job will be done, right? The buck stops with Nintendo, not the factory they contracted construction out to. The factory will happily take whatever quality control measures Nintendo deems necessary, so long as they're paid enough.

Re:You do realize...

[gweilo8888]

Sorry, but no. It's not that hard to get quality products out of China *if you're willing to pay the cost*. I know, because I've owned many high-quality products made in China which outlasted the utility of their design long before the hardware failed. Chances are that you have too, whether or not you were conscious of it. I know it's fashionable to shout "China means low quality", but the fact of the matter is that for a company the size of Nintendo, China only means low quality if you want it to. Odds are that Nintendo has made a conscious decision to lower its in-house quality standards and thereby increase the yields / reduce the costs for the LCD panels used in the Switch. It is that simple.

Re:You do realize...

[TheRaven64]

It's not just cheap labour, it's also often weaker pollution regulation. Dumping the waste from your factory in the local river can dramatically cut the cost of production compared with having to collect and process the same waste. That's been almost as big a driver for moving production to China, India, Africa, and so on as the cheaper labour. It's now harder in China, as they're starting to tighten up pollution laws and have executed a couple of officials for taking bribes to overlook polluting factories.

Dead pixels? Really?

[ZorinLynx]

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.

Dead pixels normal... in 2001.

[Mal-2]

I didn't plan to buy one anyhow, but this is proof positive that Nintendo still has the sense of entitlement leading them to say "you'll take what we give you, and you'll like it". Getting rid of region locks might have been seen as a step to hand some control back to the customer, but refusing to accept that dead pixels are defects and have been considered such for at least ten years now is an admission that they either can't do better, or are honey badgers about what the customer actually thinks. Unreliable connections are defects too, even Apple wasn't able to get away with the "you're holding it wrong" defense for very long.

If they can't do better for technical reasons... well I'm not buying that. They can do better, because other device manufacturers are doing better. If they can't afford to do better, then they really should get out of the hardware market.

Re:Dead pixels normal... in 2001.

[RogueyWon]

I bought a Switch at launch, more out of curiousity than anything else. The story of the platform across the board is "handful of nice ideas let down by corner-cutting and failure to comprehend basic design lessons".

I haven't personally experienced the most serious issues with the device. That's to say, I have no dead pixels. I do not, under normal circumstances, have the wireless interference problems that is causing the joycons (particularly the left one) to lose synchronisation (though I can replicate them if I try, by switching on more devices). Nor have I yet scratched the screen putting the thing into and out of its dock.

That said, there are some design decisions around the Switch that scream "cheap", some which scream "incompetent" and some which scream both. For a relatively pricey piece of hardware, that's not really acceptable. Let's leave aside for the moment the crap Bluetooth transmission from the joycons and the dead pixels; here are some of the smaller quality-of-life issues with the Switch that should not be an issue in 2017:

- The size of the joycon controllers is way too small for the average Western hand (and certainly for a good proportion of adult males). The shape of the thing provides relatively little support to the hand and, whether it is held on its own or in the grip, encourages a cramped hand posture. This is really, really bad for your hands.

- When the unit is used in handheld mode with the joycons attached, the impacts on hand posture are arguably even worse. The device is reasonably large and, while I wouldn't describe it as heavy, nor is it particularly light. Your hands are supporting a noticeable degree of weight here. But the design of the joycons and the manner in which they attach to the main unit means that you end up crabbing your hands if you want to both hold the unit up and reach the control inputs. Unlike the Wii-U Gamepad and the Vita (both of which were by no means perfect in this respect), there is no grip at the back to allow you to distribute some of the weight more evenly around your hands or improve hand posture. It's worst for your right hand, where the location of the right analogue stick at the bottom of the unit means that you are essentially going to end up holding up that end of the unit by "pinching" it near the bottom.

- The layout of buttons on the joycons is terrible. The + and - buttons are located, for some bizarre reason, "above" the analogue sticks. This means you need a large thumb movement to reach them, which is both uncomfortable and likely to result in an accidental button-press or analogue stick input.

- The charging point's location on the bottom of the main unit means that it is awkward to support the weight of the unit on a table while using it in handheld mode. It also means you can't charge it while using the built-in stand.

- The built-in stand is a cheap, nasty and fragile plastic flap, barely capable of staying upright. Many people are already reporting this has snapped off or failed.

- The cartridge slot cover feels flimsy and fragile. I haven't yet seen reports of these snapping off, but I wouldn't be surprised to. The Vita had the same problem here.

- The dock unit you use to connect the thing to the TV has a cheap and nasty plastic feel. There are numerous reports that the version of the dock shipped with retail units is lower than that which was seen on preview units used for demonstrations and sent out for review purposes (though I haven't seen a preview unit myself yet, so cannot confirm this). Certainly, it is a loose and wobbly fit for the console on retail units and there are many reports of the dock scratching the main-unit's screen.

- The process of attaching/detaching the joycons is a bit fiddlier, and requires a bit more force, than had commonly been assumed.

- It is easily possible to put the joycons on the grip unit the wrong way around. What is rather less possible is getting them off again (at least without a very large degree of force) after you've done

Dear Mr. Customer

[fred911]

The defects you seem to think exist are a normally engineered design to enhance our users experience. Besides, we don't have sufficient inventory to supply the current demand. As soon as our supply is greater than our customer demand, we may consider some type of compensation. Please keep complaining and we'll contract you in 6 months or so (if you're loud enough).

  Thanks and enjoy your experience!

It's a bold choice

[grasshoppa]

...but maybe the customers are just holding it wrong?

Not in 2017

[MBGMorden]

I remember WAY back in the early 2000's when LCD flat panels first started getting cheap enough for the average consumer (I bought my first as a 17" for $300 back around 2001) it was common for there to be at least 1 dead pixel - and they generally wouldn't consider it a warranty item unless there were more than 10 or more than 2 within a few cm of each other.

That is pretty much of thing of the past now though. In the last ~7 years I can't recall having a single display with a dead pixel, and in today's age I certainly would return a display (or device) that had one.

Dead Pixel normal in 2017

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's Dells dead pixel policy for 2017. So basically Dell will ignore 5 dead dark pixels before you can get a replacement.

Flat panel monitors with Premium Panel Guarantee (HD+ (1600 x 900) and above LCD resolutions):
        1 or more 6 or more
        Bright = 1 or more
        Dark = 6 or more
Dell monitors (D Series) 6 or more 9 or more Combination of bright and dark = 9 or more
All other Dell flat panel monitors 6 or more 6 or more Combination of bright and dark = 6 or more
Dell Laptop LCD screen with standard panel (HD (1366 x 768) or below resolutions):
        Dell Inspiron laptops 3 or more 6 or more Combination of bright and dark = 6 or more
Dell Laptop LCD screen with Premium Panel Guarantee (HD+ (1600 x 900) and above LCD resolutions): :

Dead pixels are normal.

[BigBuckHunter]

Nintendo has it half right

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

Re:Dead pixels in Aus

[anomaly256]

Can confirm I've fought manufacturers on their 'dead pixel policies' before in Oz and won, with the help of the ACCC. Basically a defect is 'Anything that would prevent the consumer from buying one instance of a product over another instance of the same product if they knew about it in advance', and dead pixels are considered defects by this definition, and manufacturers can't refuse replacement on defective products, period. The '7 day' or '30 day' policies are also not enforceable, if you get dead pixels 9 months down the road they still have to fix or replace. Even if it's 1 dead pixel. Nintendo will not be able to enforce this policy here, though it might be quite time consuming and tedious to make them comply. (nb: I am not a lawyer but I've been in this boat before)

Not dead, just resting.

[fahrbot-bot]

No, no the pixels are not dead, they're just resting. Remarkable pixels on the Nintendo Switch. Beautiful plumage!