Nintendo, Valve, and anyone else really has no excuse not to make the battery user accessible. The devices aren’t water resistant and never will be since they need active cooling. A back cover with sliding locks like a laptop that gives access to the battery as well as the fan would be a great addition to future devices. Easy to replace the battery, easy to clean or replace the fan. It would ease a lot of my own anxiety about the longevity of these devices.
Can you not access the battery in the Steam Deck? I haven’t opened mine up before.
I also haven’t opened the Switch before either though. Is it not possible to just swap out batteries like you could on the DS and 3DS? I had to swap out my 3DS’s battery a couple years ago when it ballooned and always just assumed it was an option on the Switch too if it ever happens there.
Edit: Just took a look at the iFixit video, that’s a much more involved process than I was expecting. Hate that they used adhesive on the battery, and didn’t even add a pull tab to get it out.
This got me to look up iFixit’s guide to Switch battery replacement. It’s better than some of my devices, but as soon as a replacement involves spludgers and adhesive it crosses a “yuck” line for me, going from something that looks kinda fun to sort of dreading that I’ll break it.
For contrast, past Nintendo handhelds made this a doddle, even in the post-AA era: here’s the New 3DS battery replacement guide. The DS Lite even had a little battery door.
Good. Not only for longevity reasons but also because for video game consoles specifically it’s an enormous PITA to have a cable strapped to it for an external charger or battery pack.
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