Repairing a 2DS Screen Costs $65 Plus Shipping in North America

Nintendo should have kept the two screen configuration, I don't see how one big screen costs less then two smaller screens.

I wonder how much that screen costs to make. It can't be more than 20 dollars compared to other similar screens.

@yamitora1 Well it obviously does cost less if they are selling it for less. They also don't have to run the wires and circuits and whatnot through the hinge to the top screen.

NOA has never charged me shipping and handling for repairs... Strange.

For comparison, it's $125-135 for a 3DS XL repair (if you believe it to be a defect and they determine it's physical... Extremely lame, I know), $95 if you admit causing the damage.

That's not that bad of a price....

I've never cracked a single device...with the exception of my DS Lite of which I put too much weight on.

@ACK Thats pretty bad there is certain things you would only know if you took it apart. (And if you take it apart they will presume you caused it). I had my circle pad replaced after probably about 2 months of playing Mario Tennis Open quite a bit but not deliberately trying to break it. (Every other bit of Nintendo stuff I have has been quite hard wearing and made well).

Circle Pad had a crack in it when I sent it back. (What I would expect after a whole generation of fairly heavy usage). Not too months less than an hour a day.

My phone and tablet are basically indestructible by comparison. (Cost about the same as well. Although the respective RRP's were £599 and £449). Don't see it the same though because all the profit they have to make has to be on the device whereas for Nintendo it is mainly made on the games.

Sony is still the worst. PS3's needed a board reflow for example. (That is always a manufacturing defect but they refuse to acknowledge it).

@bigbankwill Yeah but this is designed for children. Not that expensive child friendly tablets such as the Nabi 2 (http://www.nabitablet.com/nabi2) are built to take a much higher level of punishment. (Only device I have ever cracked the screen on is the very first generation ipod nano. Happened within the first few hours I had it. Fortunately I was given it).

Destructoid? Nomen est omen...

Destruction? hmm... umm... hmmmm.. ummmmmmmm... hmmmmmmmm... ummmmmmmmmmmmmm.. what was it again?

Slow new day eh?

Seems legit.

I spent 1:07 on the phone with Nintendo tech support on Friday trying to determine why my 2 month old Wii U has trouble reading Wii U discs - 2 out of 4 won't work - so I'm sending it in for repair. So far they sent me a free UPS shipping label but they haven't quoted me a price, just told me a week to 10 days to let me know what's going on.

@rjejr If it's having problems, then it should be covered by the warranty. Unless of course you opened it and threw the laser across a flight of concrete stairs

@unrandomsam Somehow I doubt most devices can survive a trip down concrete stairs

Well I guess that's why you invest in a case for the young ones 2ds and teach them responsibility and how to care for fragile items before you let them play with high tech expensive gadgets.

@ScroogeMcLz - "Unless of course you opened it and threw the laser across a flight of concrete stairs"

No, can't say that I have. I'm pretty protective of all my stuff. No smoking, no pets, well ventilated. My kids - ages 8 ad 11 - aren't even allowed to touch the discs, my wife or I put all the games in and take them out. Well except on the Wii, which has been sucked dry of it's memory by the Wii U. Ireally hope I get my Wii U back, lots of Wiiware VC stuff on there. I'll be joining the "no online account" crowd very loudly from here on out.

Well, not too bad... Here's my story:

After my screen first when dark( I got it fixed, my 3DS was warranted), Nintendo said it'd cost $40. And the screen wasn't even broken, it just had a connection malfunction.

So, considering that's for a not even broken screen and the 2DS screen is singular and is the same size as two 3DS screens, I think 2DS repair might be cheaper.

Sounds like a fair price to me, the screen must be the most expensive item in the unit i'd have thought

That's not as bad as the XL though. Here in Canada to fix the screen it is $149 plus tax. For me it's just better to buy a new one.

@unrandomsam " Not that expensive child friendly tablets such as the Nabi 2 (http://www.nabitablet.com/nabi2) are built to take a much higher level of punishment."

The guy this happened to was on gonintendo earlier. The 2ds fell down a flight of concrete stairs with no protector on it, and the screen bounced on nearly every stair on the way down.

If that thing can take that amount of damage any better, I'll eat my hat

I don't think they repair anything but just replace the whole thing. It's expensive for all consoles

@SMEXIZELDAMAN They could have kept the two separate screens still, with minimum wiring. It would cost them a lot less to use the same parts they use on the 3DS/3DS XL then to go and produce a new part. By rule of thumb, a company should always try to reduce materials and reuse parts. You don't see Mattel going out of their way to make a new barbie from the ground up every time they come out with a new one do you? Nope, they just swap out the skin tone, hair and clothing. Maybe once ever few years they redesign it a little, but they still reuse the same parts for all the different barbies in the mean time. This goes for Hasbro and their My Little Pony line. Its the same exact plastic horse, just with different color and hair. They're so evilly smart about it, they charge $5-10 more for a few strands of silver/glittering tinsel weaved into the hair for their Crystal Empire toy line, but it is still the same plastic mold used for all the ponies. Even the cartoon reuses elements of the ponies with just a pallet swap, which saves lots of $$ in production costs.

Another thing is that the new screen takes more materials to make then two separate screens, a good chunk of which is wasted because its hidden. I'd wager the material used in the portion of the screen not used/visible in 10-11 2DS' could be used to make another touch screen for the 3DS on its own. We're entering a world where people don't want as much plastic border. That is why some TVs and phones are being made and developed now, where they have little to no plastic border and large display surface that practically has no edge.

Had Nintendo made the 2DS more tablet like, with one screen and no plastic divider/buffer, that would be a different story. There is no real justification to going out of their way, spending the time and resources producing the new screen unless they plan to use it in a separate, tablet-like product. Heck, even if Nintendo reuses the screen used for the 2DS on a smaller version of the Wii U's Gamepad, it would be a better justification then to say it cuts costs for the 2DS. At the end of the day, this seems like a wasted effort on Nintendo's behalf, they could and probably should have just kept using the same screens they've been using. I mean I've yet to see anyone say the 2DS screen is an improvement in terms of touch response, that alone would go towards redeeming Nintendo's decision to go down this path.

@Yamitora1 If that would have cost less that's what they would have done. Like @SMEXIZELDAMAN said, it must cost less because they can sell it for less. Unless you have evidence to support your argument, it's nothing but conjecture.

@Yamitora1 Pardon me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Nintendo have a manufacturer who produces the screens? They likely have the capacity to cheaply manufacture many types of screens of varying sizes.

Anyway, comparing the structure of a portable system to a TV is just silly. There are many reasons for the design of each and few overlap.

@wombatkidd @ACK @wombatkidd Common sense says that it would be cheaper and faster to use the surplus of 3DS screens instead of manufacturing and shipping a supply of new screens.

I actually should clarify that its not the top screen, but the bottom 3DS touch screen that could have been reused for the 2DS. They likely have a dozen pallets of 3DS touch screens on hand in the manufacturing facilities, those have already been paid for and use less material then the new single touch screen that is about 65% unused. So many factors already suggesting that would have been the cheaper route.

Its like when you have a house built, one of the options is to purchase a prefabricated house which is faster and cheaper. Its the same with the 3DS touch screens, they've already been made so why waste? Unless a touch LCD screen is cheaper to make then a regular LCD screen, it would have cost them less to just develop and manufacture a normal, non stereoscopic 3D LCD screen for the top display.