Nintendo Switch – How to avoid damaging the screen in the dock

Sebastian Pohl - 13. März 2017

Nintendos latest console, the Switch, was launched only a few days ago but there already are people pointing out flaws in the first version.

This includes people complaining about the taste of the cartridges ( that is not a flaw, it is a safety measure ), the skin manufacturer dbrand discovering that the surface finish nintendo has choosen is not compatible with any adhesive for vinyl skins and a few people who managed to scratch their screens within a few days of normal use.

The last one is what concerns me personally. Some users managed to scratch their screens by simply using the dock. Apparently there is a chance that the plastic screen becomes scratched from the hard plastic used on the rails.

Check here and here for coverage on this matter. It seems that not every console is affected and that there is a chance that it is not a problem at all. But regarding flawless screens i like to be better safe than sorry!

In the linked articles there are suggestions on how to deal with this and most solutions involve some sort of thick adhesive felt or something similar. This is neither optically pleasing nor a mechanically nice solution as it creates a lot of pressure when the switch is in the dock. Especially for those who are unfortunate enough to have a bent dock.

After some research i settled for a velour film with an adhesive backing. It has a smooth and soft surface and is very thin. I got mine from amazon.

From here it is very straightforward. Measure the contact surfaces and cut the film to size. While checking the size for the strips i discovered that Nintendo already had some padding in place but only on the bottom and the lower part of the rail that is touching the screen. They inserted little rubber pads in there.

What i needed were two strips each of 11mm x 50mm and 11mm x 60mm. The shorter strips are on the „front“ (screen side) rails, the longer ones are on the back.

To apply those accurately it is a good idea to start by peeling back the paper backing only a few millimeters and stick that end on first. This makes it easier to align the whole strip.

When you are happy with the alignment, take some tweezers and slowly pull back the backing paper watching the alignment.

You could also disassemble the dock, but i like to keep my warranty on newer electronics.

After getting out the paper take something not too hard to press on the velour film firmly.

And that is all there is. Repeat it on all four rails and your switch should be protected from that evil hard plastic without adding multiple millimeters of felt. In addition, this should be very easy to remove.

If you have any questions, just ask in the comments and i will try to answer!

Just to be on the safe side: If you decide to follow my example, you do it on your own risk! I am not responsible for any damage you cause to your hardware.

 

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