Nintendo DS Lite: A Review (with pictures)

[BrianSalts]

Nintendo DS Lite: A Review (http://www.spheredesigns.net/blog/?p=222)

I decided to go crazy and write a really long review (with pictures) of my new ds lite. I love it :)

[stonyc]

Wish I had the money available... I'd buy one in an instant.

[shadowmoses]

Nice review, you picked up the exact combo as I did (ds lite and new mario) its awesome fun and I love my DS lite highly reccomended!

SHadoW

[backupdrummer]

I so want one. I just try and remain patient. My birthday is in October so maybe I will buy one then.

Great review by the way.

[Vader]

I want one, but just a note, the PSP is sleek and has the similar face to a black iPod 5G, and the PSP is only $200, and it was never $300.
I loved the review, it was great, and made me want to buy a DS even more, but I just hate it when people ruin a nice review of one system (DS or PSP) and compare it to the other, but use slightly umm... lets just say crappy info on the system they are saying is worse.

[Haoshiro]

Nope, not $300... just $299

[macdaddy121]

I want one but I can't find one to buy.....NICE REVIEW!!!

[Vader]

Nope, not $300... just $299
Very funny. But actually it is $199 (http://www.gamestop.com/search.asp?keyword=&platform=31&filter=0&lookin=title&rangeFrom=0&rangeTo=all&genre=31&selection=ALL&searchtype=adv&sortby=default&OrderAscDesc=Asc&imageFlag=show&statcd=&searchbutton.x=84&searchbutton.y=24) if you want to get all smart about it.

[Dagless]

Is that the same as saying "well theres the PSP core package with nothing but a PSP and power charger for £150" where there is also the £220 package available?

You can also (if you're lucky) get a real PSP off eBay for 99p.
I think we're talking about the package that actually means something. just how the 360 core package is negligible, along with the PS3s.

[Haoshiro]

Right, you can get the "Core" for $199 now.

And I was off, it retailed for $249 USD, so yeah... it wasn't $300 in the US, but it was more then $200.

[Malcster]

Great Review, I love my DS Lite, however my PSP is seeing all the action at the moment, Loco Roco has taken over my life! The best game ive played in a very long time.

Its so good it could be nintendo, its insanely catchy tunes have embedded themselves in my head..

[BrianSalts]

Yea, I live in canada, so I meant 300 cad. :D Don't get me wrong, I loved the psp... until now.

[Dagless]

Yea, I live in canada, so I meant 300 cad. :D Don't get me wrong, I loved the psp... until now.

So fickle is the gaming world :rolleyes: not having a go, I'm the same! somehow wanted a PSP, got it, got bored after 2-3 days (the DS Lite launch didn't help either), sold it for a marginal profit on eBay.

[rockandrule]

I want one but I can't find one to buy.....NICE REVIEW!!!
I believe that they are in very low quantity everywhere. The only place I could find one was at WalMart (I got the last one) and that's in a town where we have 5 game shops and a Best Buy and Circuit City. Good luck!

[cheekyspanky]

Another thing to add to the Cons section...Scratches too easily! Thought I'd wipe some of the finger marks of my black DS lite with my tshirt and now I have a scratch on the front (about the thickness of a hair and about an inch long...).

Kinda wish I'd gone for the white which would hide it better now...! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Bugger.

[2nyRiggz]

In this thread i have to see the same thing about the PSP....well everyone else is enjoying there PSP besides....

Good review by the way...don't know about the score though


Bless

[BrianSalts]

Hey cheeky, I guess it does scratch, but when I look closely under the light for my white one, I don't see any.

Maybe the enamel is different on the two colors because on the black it has to be completely transparent, but on the white, it doesn't have to be?

[mark!]

Sorry to be sorta off topic does the screen scratch easily? Will Ice Cream (http://www.radtech.us/Products/IceCreme.aspx) work on it if it does?

[JDOG_]

Nice work, a good read.

My only qualm is that the picture quality is a bit lacking. Use the macro button for any close shots, and use a mini tripod to get clear screenshots if your camera's shutter can't handle hand shake.

Cheers

[pulsewidth947]

Nice review.

I'm waiting for Mario Bros to be released here, so I have Mario Kart in the mean time. Its only been a couple of days since I bought it but its been great. Glad I got it in 'apple' white :)

I had a PSP for ages, got bored of it. Cumbersome, uncomfortable joystick, not a great selection of games, really nice screen though. I knew I'd get a DS, I've owned every nintendo console, except for the NES, at some point in my life! Nintendo geek through and through.

[macidiot]

I have a DS lite. I got it to replace a DS phat. I wasn't planning on getting either, but I was able to buy the first one for $100 new. After I got it, I was hooked. The games are what make the platform. And the DS has great games.

Regarding the lite, it pretty much takes care of every problem I had with the original one, mostly size, weight, and the stylus. However, I have to say I prefer the feel of the buttons on the old DS over the lite.

And I don't know what things are like in other parts of the world, but it seems that the psp is getting punked by the ds here in the US. I know plenty of people that have a psp and

a) never use it because there aren't any games
b) only use it to watch movies and only because that's all that's available for the psp
c) never use the psp or got rid of the psp because the movies are expensive and there are no games and what games there are cost twice as much as ds games.

Don't get me wrong, I like the psp. It has great technology. It also happens to be expensive and has virtually no software.

[BrianSalts]

Sorry to be sorta off topic does the screen scratch easily? Will Ice Cream (http://www.radtech.us/Products/IceCreme.aspx) work on it if it does?

The screens don't scratch as easy as say, an ipod, but it smudges if you touch it. I guess you could use icecream on the top screen but the bottom screen is a touch screen so a) it won't scratch that easily and b) its made of a different material.

JDOG, I'm currently using my RAZR v3i (you can check out my review of it here (http://www.spheredesigns.net/blog/?p=65), i do a lot of reviews of gadgets) to take the pictures so the picture quality is indeed lacking. There is no macro mode for the phone's camera so that's all I could use. I'm not using my camera right now because I don't have an sd card reader (it broke)

Sorry :o

[sam10685]

Wish I had the money available... I'd buy one in an instant.

same here. i'll probably get one with my Wii. i'll have $$$ by then.

[mark!]

maybe if you stopped spending $13 on tuna sandwitches! :p

[SteveRichardson]

yup, someone put a macbook in the shrink-ray...


and that someone is nintendo. :cool:

[Littleodie914]

...and the PSP is only $200, and it was never $300...Where in the world did you get this info? When I bought my PSP it was definitely $300. I believe the price has just recently dropped to $200... :confused:

[wako]

Where in the world did you get this info? When I bought my PSP it was definitely $300. I believe the price has just recently dropped to $200... :confused:



LOL, then you got ripped off. The PSP came out at the price of 249.99 MSRP.

[SteveRichardson]

LOL, then you got ripped off. The PSP came out at the price of 249.99 MSRP.


NUH UH you guys, it came at the price of $248.99 MSRP.

[pink-pony115]

Great Review :D Now I'm 100% sure that I need a DS Lite!

[BrianSalts]

Thanks for all the kind comments- I'll work on taking clearer pictures next time :P

Just, taking pictures close with a cameraphone is pretty tough.

[BrianSalts]

I just got my mario kart ds. Does anyone wanna post their friend codes? :D

[mark!]

I just got my mario kart ds. Does anyone wanna post their friend codes? :D

there's a thread for this ... but ehres mine 008663-479331 & me name is markkk! pm me when you wanna play. haha. i havent played any people i added the friend code...to or whatever. theyre never on :o

[HiRez]

Just got mine last week, a few thoughts on it:

PROs:

-- Nice bright screens.

-- Good battery life (I'm getting well over 5 hours with the screens at maximum brightness, and you could honestly drop the brightness down a notch or two and have it still look good).

-- Touch screens are nice and responsive. Even writing is not bad.

-- Decent audio, better than the GBA (even on the built-in speakers).

-- Very small recharging transformer with fold-out plug. This is really nice, the only thing that would have made it a tiny bit better is to be able to wrap the cord around itself like with Apple's chargers.

CONs:

-- Screen color depth is low-ish. I don't know what it is, but it's definitely not 24-bit color, and doesn't even look like 15/16-bit color to me. This results in some noticeable color banding on things like gradients.

-- Upper and lower screens don't quite match. The lower one is slightly dimmer and fuzzier, I assume because of the touch-sensitivity. It's noticeable when you have the same kind of background on both screens and can compare them.

-- Not a great range of viewing angles for the screens, they quickly wash out when going off-axis, so you must position it just right to your eyes if you want full color and contrast richness.

-- No antialiasing (at least not hardware-based).

-- It's a bit large. It's not BIG, mind you, but "pocket-sized" is a stretch. The awkward shape makes it hard to carry it around without a jacket or huge pant pockets. The GBA is smaller (although slightly bigger in two of three dimensions), so by comparison the DS Lite is a step backwards (although an improvement on the original DS).

-- Annoying splash screen and some kind of warning screen everytime you start up, that must be bypassed by touching or hitting a button. Small thing but over time it's a bit annoying.

-- They didn't build in the web browser with some user flash RAM. I know there's going to be an addon (with no way to store anything though, as I understand it) but this would have really been awesome to build it in, and I would have even paid extra for it.

-- Tiny external volume slider. Gotta check this before you turn it on because it can easily move on you, and it's a bit hard to get it at just the right place you want it because it's so small.

[mark!]

-- They didn't build in the web browser with some user flash RAM. I know there's going to be an addon (with no way to store anything though, as I understand it) but this would have really been awesome to build it in, and I would have even paid extra for it.

there is going to be a little thing you put in the GBA slot and then you will put the actual browser in the DS game slot.

[HiRez]

there is going to be a little thing you put in the GBA slot and then you will put the actual browser in the DS game slot.I know that but it would be cooler to have the browser built-in, and be able to toggle into and out of it while playing a game (imagine, for example, having game tips from gamefaqs.com for the game you're playing, and being able to access them while you play the game). I also hate having to worry about an extra two cartridges to carry around and not lose, and also the browser would be a lot more useful if you had memory to store stuff on (not much, just a few pages, maybe a map, a few text files, or a PDF would be cool). Having it all go away when you power down kinda sucks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK, there's no memory to store anything, and with flash memory and microdrives being dirt cheap nowadays, that's a shame. There is a microdrive addon, but since it uses the GBA slot like the browser does, they can't be used at the same time, right? Also, the GBA-slot thingy sticks out from the box, so you can't leave it in there and slide it into your pocket. I also understand there is no WPA security...blahhh.

Overall it's better than nothing, but it just seems like a clunky afterthought addon and I'm disappointed because I think they had a great opportunity with the DS to make it elegant and integrated.

[mark!]

I know that but it would be cooler to have the browser built-in, and be able to toggle into and out of it while playing a game (imagine, for example, having game tips from gamefaqs.com for the game you're playing, and being able to access them while you play the game). I also hate having to worry about an extra two cartridges to carry around and not lose, and also the browser would be a lot more useful if you had memory to store stuff on (not much, just a few pages, maybe a map, a few text files, or a PDF would be cool). Having it all go away when you power down kinda sucks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK, there's no memory to store anything, and with flash memory and microdrives being dirt cheap nowadays, that's a shame. There is a microdrive addon, but since it uses the GBA slot like the browser does, they can't be used at the same time, right? Also, the GBA-slot thingy sticks out from the box, so you can't leave it in there and slide it into your pocket. I also understand there is no WPA security...blahhh.

Overall it's better than nothing, but it just seems like a clunky afterthought addon and I'm disappointed because I think they had a great opportunity with the DS to make it elegant and integrated.

no. the extra cartridge does not stick out. it is even with the edge. there are 2 versions, 1 for the ds lite, 1 for the ds fat. the ds lite has a smaller memory cartridge. i dont know what the little memory cartridge does, but all i can find is that it is a ''memory expansion'' thingy. but i dont expect the ds lite to have as many features as the PSP does becase the PSP costs much more.

[HiRez]

no. the extra cartridge does not stick out. it is even with the edge.Hmm...then what is this (http://my.opera.com/organicchunkysalsa/homes/albums/87578/DSC00210.JPG)? If it has user memory, that is a good thing though.

[mark!]

Hmm...then what is this (http://my.opera.com/organicchunkysalsa/homes/albums/87578/DSC00210.JPG)? If it has user memory, that is a good thing though.

whats this?

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=252&products_id=9325&

whats this? a bigger cartridge so that it fits in the ds fat????

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=279&products_id=9326&

whats THIS??????!?!??!?!?!

http://static.flickr.com/62/179919560_03a09cd864_o.jpg

[crachoar]

Nobody ever seems to mention this, but:

The original DS has much louder speakers, and in general, seems to sound better with Surround Sound. However, the DS lite appears to have better quality speakers, and doesn't distort on low-levels.

Another annoying Nintendo Trade-off I suppose...

[Dagless]

Yup, first thing I noticed about the big DS was the speaker quality. there are the strange low volume noises and can distort at it's peak volume. but inbetween was perfect. The DS lite speakers sound more like the PSP. they lack depth, sound tinny. Surround sound isn't as good. but I just plugged in a pair of Bose headphones and I don't think I'm ever using built in speakers again :)

the ol' girlfriend says "I suppose they're quite so they don't distort as easily"

[17luv]

I want one but I can't find one to buy.....NICE REVIEW!!!

ToysRus sells them and so does Target sometimes in bundles for a little more I just got mine with Brian Age (sudoku is ADDICTIVE!:eek: ) and brain academy. Good times, though not much sleep.

[AppleGuy08]

Just got my DS Lite today! gotta say i love it. Got it with mariokart ds. WOOHOO

[BrianSalts]

Hahahahaha was expecting this. They're going to have two versions of the cartrtidges- just how much nintendo pays attention to the little details.

I'm so looking forward to the browser.

whats this?

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=252&products_id=9325&

whats this? a bigger cartridge so that it fits in the ds fat????

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=279&products_id=9326&

whats THIS??????!?!??!?!?!

http://static.flickr.com/62/179919560_03a09cd864_o.jpg

[BrianSalts]

I just got Advanced Wars Ds, it's a great game- can't believe that more people don't have it.

My brother stole my ds and has been playing that game non stop.