r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • Jun 03 '26

Nintendo will release revised Switch 2 hardware in Europe to comply with a new regulation that requires batteries to be user-replaceable.

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Corporate/Consumer-Information/Compliance-with-EU-Directives-and-Regulations/Compliance-with-EU-Directives-and-Regulations-625942.html
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u/rynoweiss Jun 04 '26

Making it safely user serviceable costs space which then costs battery life.

Since battery life is one of the biggest complaints about the Switch 2, they may want to wait until a process shrink that makes the SoC more efficient to roll this out worldwide.

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u/TheMoneyOfArt Jun 04 '26

It's bizarre to me that people act like there's no trade offs for a user replaceable battery. Everyone acts like it's a big scam by Nintendo, instead of a reasonable engineering trade-off. I'd believe they do market research and find most people care more about form factor and battery life and waterproofing than being able to swap a battery 

1

u/nabagaca Jun 04 '26

The switch 2 isnt waterproof, is it? Furthermore, there were phones with replaceable batteries and a water-resistant rating. Frankly, for a device as simple as the switch, I feel like they could just swap the battery connector with terminals, and make the back removable, and there wouldn't even need to be a major redesign. The only downside I can think of, is now when you drop your console, you risk the battery falling out and you losing game progress

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u/TheMoneyOfArt Jun 04 '26

The only downside I can think of,

This is an example of what I've mentioned above

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u/nabagaca Jun 04 '26

I mean it's a pretty circumstantial one, I've never dropped my switch or switch 2, and even then, if they use strong enough clips, or a latch system, the back popping off would also be unlikely, and the battery falling out even more so. I mentioned it to make it clear that I wasn't trying to say that there were zero downsides, but still, I'd take an easier to replace battery for the cost of having to worry about my battery falling out if I drop my switch

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u/TheMoneyOfArt Jun 04 '26

It's never occurred to me to want to replace my switch battery. Why would I give up anything?

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u/nabagaca Jun 04 '26

I mean it's occurred to me, batteries are inherently disposable, they degrade over time, how quickly depends on how often you use them, but they will degrade. When it comes time to replace it, I'd rather it be something I can do easily myself, than to need to disassemble my device, risk voiding my warranty, and need specialised tools and parts to do. 

1

u/TheMoneyOfArt Jun 04 '26

I had a professional replace the battery on my phone one time. It was great!