Nintendo DSi

[Pikachu3828]

Here are the specs of Nintendo's latest DS model, the DSi:

Screen Size
DSi: 3.25 inch
DS Lite: 3.0 inch

Screen
Both TFT LCD with 260,000 colors

System Size
DSi: 137 x 74.9 x 18.9mm
DS Lite: 133 x 73.9 x 21.5mm

Touch pen
DSi: 92mm length
DS Lite: 87.5mm length

Power source
DSi: DSi AC adapter and special battery pack
DS Lite: DS Lite AC adapter and special battery pack

Weight
DSi: 214g (battery pack and touch pen included)
DS Lite: 218g (battery pack, touch pen, GBA connector cover included)

Charge time
DSi: 2 hours 30 minutes
DS Lite: 3 hours

Battery life

** listed by screen brightness, lowest to highest

DSi: 9-14 hours, 8-12, 6-9, 4-6, 3-4
DS Lite: 15-19 hours, 10-15, 7-11, 5-8

Compatible software
DSi: DS software, DSi software
DS Lite: Game Boy Advance software, DS software

Input method
DSi: DS card slot, SD memory card slot, AC adapter connector, stereo head phone/mic connector
DSLite: DS card slot, GBA card slot, AC adapter connector, stereo head phone/mic connector

New interface + 2 cameras

What does everybody think about the DSi? Personally I'm not too impressed - the Gameboy had a camera at one point and it didn't ever really do much games wise. The DSi has two pretty low-res cameras which I very much doubt people will use outside of any potential gaming uses as most people have mobile phones which include cameras, mine in particular has much better picture quality than the DSi plus video support.

I understand removing the GBA slot helped trim the model down but the DS Lite was pretty small to begin with and now they've removed backwards compatibility and made certain DS games that need attachments like Guitar Hero unplayable.

All the improvements like charge time are nice but I'm not sure how many times people are willing to buy the DS again. Personally I'm still using the original Nintendo DS and I see no need to change.

[Ho-Oh]

In my opinion there's no real "major" change since all their doing is making everything a little bigger. And I think that the camera would be basically useless since most people already have phones like pika3828 said. And removing the GBA cartridge is just sounds like a horrible idea to me.

[Pikachu90000]

Not impressed at all. While I do believe upgradeable firmware and having more features in the firmware is a good thing, it mostly is a step backwards. Why is there a camera on the DSi? It serves almost no purpose what so ever. Region locking is just plain stupid and having a shorter battery life makes it not worth it. I do think removing the GBA slot is a good thing, backwards compatibility sometimes makes it harder to improve on a product, most people already have the GBA so I don't see why it should be included.

[zen]

Not much of a difference. I don't take a lot of pictures, I could just use my laptop for the same stuff, and I mainly use gaming systems to play games.

[seavicky95]

I'm not too interested. What I dislike most about it is the fact that they got rid of the GBA slot, which you need for a few games such as D/P in order to access certain features. The camera sounds cool, but honestly, what's the point of that? Overall there aren't many major changes. Definitely sticking with my DSlite instead of wasting $200.

[WhoKnows_WhoCares]

for those that care (although i dont think anybody here DOES care) DSi has been schedculed for release

Teritory: US
Released: April 5th 2009
Price: $169.99

Teritory: Europe
Released: April 3rd 2009
Price: 149.99



chipping my 2 cents into the descussion, i can see why they've removed the GBA slot. its been ages since GBA games were a prominent feature in the game shops and the DS now has a large title range. Anybody who hasnt gotten a DS yet will not really be bothered about GBA games (in fact anybody who buys a DSi who's never had a DS before probably wont know what a GBA is). I see this as being marketed at the 'middle aged' Wii owners who dont have a DS, but will now buy a DSi because they've heard a lot about brain training.

[Pikachu3828]

With the many millions of DS consoles sold, I doubt there are many people interested in Nintendo video games that don't already own a DS of some sort.

[zen]

Yeah, I think the Nintendo DSi is gonna bomb. Maybe if they had skipped the DS Lite and released the DSi after the first DS, it would have had a greater impact.

[pikalover1234]

Heck I'm just getting it to trade Pokemon From DS to DS.
Maybe if theres some new Pokemon ranger game it would be nice to be able to transfer pokemon to Platinum

[WhoKnows_WhoCares]

that's why i kept my old ds when i bought a ds lite... for DS to DS transfers on pokemon - most i've used it for is for getting things off ranger onto pearl... but i can imagine that once i get platinum, a few more trades between carts may occur

[SonicKitsune]

I don't need it. It can't even play MP3s, instead it's playing that weird iPod format. And I'm not really into downloadable titles on portable systems. Plus, there's that whole thing about the lack of a GBA slot, and I don't need a webcam on it.

[Pikachu90000]

I don't need it. It can't even play MP3s, instead it's playing that weird iPod format.

It's AAC, and it's considered to be better than MP3 as it can use lower bitrates to achieve the same quality as a higher bitrate for MP3.

I personally think the DSi should have an emulator like the Wii does. You can have your old GB games like Tetris on the DSi and it's stored on the SD card, like the NES games on the Wii.

[Pikachu3828]

Investors aren't too confident in the DSi either as I forgot to mention originally that after the announcement of the Nintendo DSi, Nintendo's share prices fell.

[Pikachu90000]

Investors aren't too confident in the DSi either as I forgot to mention originally that after the announcement of the Nintendo DSi, Nintendo's share prices fell.

What doesn't make a stock fall these days? Even the best days for a company will result in red.

[Pikachu3828]

What doesn't make a stock fall these days? Even the best days for a company will result in red.

The announcement of a new product usually comes with a rise in stock price as investors are excited about how well the product will sell when it hits the market, such as when Nintendo announced the Wii.

The fact that stock prices fell after the announcement shows that investors have no faith in the DSi selling well.