“This is a piss-poor excuse for a controller.” That’s how repair-focused YouTube channel iFixit starts its negative review of the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. The repair and tech experts suggest the pricey controller is a “nightmare” to repair and contains hardware that will likely fail one day. And all of this for the low price of $85. Yikes.
On July 11, as spotted by Nintendo Life, iFixit posted their Switch 2 Pro Controller review on YouTube, and the results are very, very bad. The repair experts—who champion repairability, sustainability, and quality—didn’t mince words about Nintendo’s new and expensive controller.
For example, it’s “absurdly” difficult to replace the controller’s built-in battery, which will eventually fail—like all batteries—and will need to be replaced. To do so, you have to do all of this:
Remove the top plastic face plate held down by tons of adhesive to reach seven screws. Then remove finicky plastic wedge sections. Then, using more force than expected, yank off the two thumbsticks. Next, remove more screws. Then remove another plastic covering. After that, remove the bumpers. Then take out more screws and disconnect the rumble packs. Finally, remove a few more hidden screws, and now you can remove the internal guts of the controller and reach the battery pack.
Yeah, that’s a lot of work to simply replace a permanently dead battery. And to reassemble the controller, you have to source your own adhesive to reinstall the front plate properly, or it will rattle while gaming.
And it gets worse. To remove the joysticks completely is a “pain in the ass” and requires more digging into the controller’s guts. And what iFixit found in there is alarming: some very low-profile joysticks that are prone to drifting. What’s more, the sticks appear to be using the same components found in the cheaper Joy Cons. The only good thing iFixit had to say about the controller was how easy it is to replace the headset jack.
The company suggests gamers buy third-party controllers that contain easier-to-access batteries and better thumbsticks, like the Elves 2 Pro from Gulikit. “A cash grab riding high on the Nintendo brand” is how iFixit summed up the Pro Controller 2. And yeah, seems like it. While the controller feels great in your hands and has some nifty extra buttons, it seems it’s far from being “Pro” grade hardware.
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