(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Nintendo says the Switch 2's Joy-Con controllers are more durable than the originals and offer smoother gameplay. However, the dreaded "drift," where the sticks move on their own, is reportedly still a problem.
Nintendo left the actual stick design largely unchanged from the first-generation Switch, according to iFixit, which posted a teardown video of the controllers. "These joysticks look almost exactly like the old sticks, same drifty sensors. Just a slightly different form factor," it says.
Another teardown video from TronicsFix reached the same conclusion. On the outside, the Joy-Con 2’s analog sticks look different, but once the casing is pulled off, they're largely the same. “Honestly, I’m not impressed with this redesign,” TronicsFix’s Steve Porter says in the clip.
The drift problem —although not unique to the Switch— appears mainly because of wear and tear inside the analog stick's physical mechanisms. The controllers use a sensor to measure movement with the help of a metallic “wiper” inside. “Over time, the wiper scrubbing back and forth against the resistive pad creates imperfections, altering the voltage readings across the terminals,” iFixit says. Dust and debris getting inside the mechanism can also cause drift.
However, Porter notes that the "metal wipers" inside the Joy-Con 2 appear to be smaller, which might reduce the wear and tear. But he isn’t confident. “I think we’re just going to see stick drift on these Joy-Cons kind of like we did in the previous Switches,” he says.
Nintendo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company has previously said the analog sticks were built to be “larger and more durable,” suggesting they might contain material upgrades that could make a difference.
Nintendo could have better addressed the drift problem by adopting “hall effect” sticks, which rely on magnetic fields to register the movement. But the company likely refrained from doing so because Joy-Cons attach to the Switch via magnets, which could interfere with the hall effect sensors. There’s also an ongoing debate about whether hall effect sticks are better.
In the meantime, iFixit says Switch 2 owners should take it easy with their Joy-Con controllers. A few unlucky Switch 2 owners have also reported encountering stick drift right out of the box.