The Switch 2 is more powerful than its predecessor and a lot bigger, but can it take a beating? That’s what one YouTuber tried to find out, wasting absolutely no time before putting a stomach-churning beatdown on Nintendo’s new hardware.
Nintendo Switch 2 Could Launch With Almost No Reviews
TechRax’s YouTube channel is best known for smashing all sorts of high-end consumer electronics, usually iPhones and Apple Watches. Sometimes he throws golf balls at Tesla Cybertrucks. When he’s really feeling bored he pours laundry detergent into a car’s fuel tank just to feel something. Today, on June 5, as regular tech fans celebrate the launch of the Switch 2, TechRax decided to put the $450 console that fans spent hours standing in line for through a “durability test.” The results were hard to watch and minimally illuminating.
What kind of a beating can the Switch 2 survive? That was the question TechRax answered in his latest video. First he dropped it on the floor. No damage. So far so good! Then he pulled out a razor blade and scored the middle of the screen. “That was a big scratch line and that’s not coming off, so guys this is not like an iPhone 16 Pro or something. If you do something like that, that’s it, you are toast,” he said before cutting it a second time just to be sure.
Next, rather than pressing the buttons on the Joy-Con to release them from their magnetic grip slots on the sides of the Switch 2, he bent them until they snapped off. He did it multiple times and much to my surprise, despite the heart-stopping snapping sound, neither part of the connector appeared to be damaged. Good news for everyone whose kids are going to bend and flex the new Joy-Con a dozen times a week.
Finally, after successfully bending the metal hinge kickstand, TechRax concluded his survey with the hammer test. What is the hammer test? Exactly what it sounds like. First he drops a metal hammer onto the screen. Then he does it a second time from higher up. Eventually he just starts whacking it until the screen cracks. The Switch 2’s new LCD screen stood its ground until hammer blow number 10. Not bad. Not bad at all. But if you see TechRax coming into your store, please don’t sell him any more Switch 2s.
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