Went out early this morning and purchased a new Nintendo DSi, which was released today.
The box is heavy, mostly because the booklet inside is over 330 pages long (and in full colour). The system is a slight upgrade to the old DS (the DS lite), but given I didn’t know that much about it I’m pleasantly surprised by the differences.
For starters, the screen is slightly bigger as you can see in the following image.
The system is also a little wider (about 4mm) but at the same time it’s thinner (about 3mm). It is heavier, but it feels more compact which I like. Furthermore the finish is matte rather than the shiny coat of the DS Lite, which means less fingerprints! The power slider is now a button (which can be pressed once for reset) and the annoying volume slider of the DS Lite is now replaced by much better ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons for volume control.
The biggest difference (at least for now) is that it has two cameras. Here’s a shot of me using one of them:
< Smile!
They are both 3 megapixel, which means about cellphone quality. One faces toward the user when the system is open, and one faces away. Games will be able to use these for various purposes, and you can currently save the photos and toy with them in an application included on the DS.
The DSi also supports SD cards (finally), and in addition to downloading photos to them you can also save games to them and possibly .mp3’s as well (although this is a guess, I haven’t fooled with this yet since I don’t have an extra card). The games (and eventually other applications) are downloaded via the internet (like the old DS, the DSi has built-in wireless wi-fi) from the ‘DSiWare Shop’ Nintendo has set up. Currently there are 4 games ranging in price from $2 to $8 and a free internet browser.
I downloaded the browser, and it’s a spiffier version of the DS browser released commercially a few years back. While it doesn’t hold a candle to Safari on my iPod touch, it’s quite acceptable for what it is.
For me though, this is 99% a games machine, and the immediate advantages are the better sound and the (slightly) bigger, brighter screens. The lower screen uses a new technology, so the slight polarization of the image that the older DS’s suffered from is gone. The end result is a cleaner, sharper image that looks superb.
So my old, white DS Lite now goes into long-term storage under the bed. I’ve had this guy since May 2006 (our last Japan trip) and in the last couple of months it had begun to suffer from the dreaded cracked hinges that seemed to affect all first-run JP DS Lites:
< Farewell Brave DS Lite!
It was time to give the old girl a rest, so for me the DSi couldn’t have come at a better time…
Is it worth the $180 to upgrade if you have a Lite? The answer, right now, is an unabashed “No!”. In the future though we will see DSi only games, and I also expect some nifty apps will eventually be added to the store. So in time, yes you will own one of these. But save your dollars until there’s a bigger reason to buy.