Dbrand’s Killswitch case for the Switch 2 is lightweight, blends in well with the console, and feels good in your hands. There’s just one problem: it interferes with the Joy-Con magnets and can make the portable hardware easy to drop if you’re not holding on correctly, which, to be quite honest, many of us often aren’t!
The Switch 2 accessory manufacturer’s subreddit has been filling up with users sharing video clips of exactly this problem. Part of a $60 bundle that includes an open face dock so fans can play in TV mode without removing the case (which is also having some issues), the main culprit are the plastic grips that hug the new Joy-Con. As Dbrand itself has explained following all of the customer complaints, there’s a small lip on the inside edge of the Joy-Con case that’s meant to keep it from easily sliding out. But that lip also fills in an air gap engineered into the Switch 2 between the screen and the Joy-Con to help with the magnetic locking mechanism.
Dbrand sent me the Killswitch case at launch and I’ve been testing it along with a bunch of other accessories. When I started to wonder why I never encountered this issue before, I realized it’s because I didn’t have my Joy-Con fully in their cases so the lip was never filling that air gap. The result was that the Joy-Con never popped out while I was holding the console. Instead, the problem I encountered was that the Joy-Con cases easily popped off if I moved my hands laterally at all.
Dbrand actually brings up that exact problem in a long Reddit post on June 22 defending the Killswitch case for the Switch 2. It mentions the sliding issue with a “different brand’s NS2 case,” which in this case is Genki’s Attack Vector. I’ve been testing that kit as well and have had that precise issue. So it’s a design challenge that’s not unique to Dbrand, but it’s also clear from the issues people are experiencing that it’s one Dbrand hasn’t adequately solved either yet.
After making sure my Joy-Con were firmly locked into my Killswitch case, I did some testing today and sure enough the Joy-Con kept popping out, leaving the rest of the console to plunge to its doom. Dbrand claims, in its defense, that this is only an issue for people holding their Switch 2 wrong. The company claims all three of the following criteria need to be met for the Killswitch case to fail:
- You are specifically holding onto the console from only the Joy-Cons, in such a way that your fingers are making no supportive contact with the main console, and
- you are holding the Switch 2 with only one hand, and
- your Switch 2 is held more parallel to the ground than not.
The notoriously irreverent and abrasive accessory maker then went on to blame customers for user error, stating “nobody routinely holds their Switch 2 like this.” That set off a fresh firestorm in the subreddit of people showing that many have in fact held the Switch 2 like that, including YouTuber LinusTechTips and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. Also my oldest kid, who walks into my home office flapping the Switch 2 by the Joy-Con with one hand at least three times a week despite my constant threats to never let him play it again if he doesn’t stop.
Dbrand maintains that only a small number of the over 100,000 Killswitch cases it’s manufactured are exhibiting real problems. Its position is that while people who want to make their Switch 2 fall off while using the case can, most won’t experience that under normal usage. For those that do, Dbrand is changing the variance in size of the Joy-Con case lip to filter out overly big ones during the manufacturing process starting with July shipments. “For those that have received their order and are having issues that they believe fall within ‘regular use,’ we’re fucking sorry,” Dbrand wrote on Reddit. While the explanation makes sense, the tone and lack of accountability do not.
“People bought a case to protect damage for their expensive product but also expected to use it as the original console design intended, and there’s a point where [you] need to drop the act and start acting like adults, not children behind a keyboard,” wrote one person in response. “To see the company not only blame the consumer, but also refuse to retool their clearly defective product, and then have the gall to ask dissatisfied customers to not use the product and pay expensive return shipping rates to a completely different country in order to get a refund, erodes the trust Dbrand has gained from its community,” wrote another.
Implying that at least some of the people who bought the Killswitch case and then posted videos of the Joy-Con popping out on Reddit were disingenuous clout chasers was a bold strategy that doesn’t yet appear to be paying off. It’s easy to see the obstacles on Dbrand’s end. The Switch 2's magnetic connectors are a bespoke and precisely engineered solution to a design challenge by a different company. Designing around that is not easy task, especially if you’re racing to manufacture inventory for launch in the middle of a chaotic trade war without early access to the actual hardware in question.
But after testing the Killswitch off and on for a couple of weeks, I’m not convinced that it’s any more deserving of special considerations than other accessories, especially cheaper ones on offer from any number of generic copycat shops. The Killswitch doesn’t feel so good or so premium that it’s worth overlooking a key vulnerability. The rail locks for the Joy-Con on my older Switch OLED were treated so roughly over the years that one of the tiny screws fell out without me even noticing and it jiggles now. So for now I’d hold off on the Killswitch until the air-gap problem is fixed across the board.
What I can recommend is Dbrand’s screen protector. It’s hands-down the best on the market thanks to a specialty case that makes applying it perfectly with no bubbles or botched angles completely dummy proof.
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