Scott The Robot

Say hello to the future, not much has changed.

With the launch of the DSi just around the corner (April 5 for those of you who don’t keep up to date with the latest gadgets) the question was going to be brought up at some point:  Should I get a new DS, again?  Well, if you have an original DS, let me save you the time of reading the rest of the post and answer your question in a single word:  YES!  If you have a DS Fat, first, don’t be too ashamed, and second, scrounge up $170 pre-tax and the sleeping bag, and wait outside of your nearest store, as you will no longer have to hide your DS from all your cooler friends.  For the rest of you, read on after the jump.

For those of your who own DS lites as I do, the decision is unfortunately not so black and white.  While the changes are numerous and some key changes are made, nothing groundbreaking occurs, and unlike the change from the DS Fat, there is also no huge aesthetics alteration.  One thing nice to know is that you will only be loosing on feature:  the GBA slot.  If you prefer more current games, like most, then this will not effect you.  But do be warned, some DS games do make use of the GBA slot, so you may lose the ability to play certain games.

Now that that is all out of the way, onto the good stuff.  Much is added to the DSi, most obviously, the two cameras.  These cameras are both VGA (just a measly .3 megapixel), but the idea isn’t to take the most amazing, crisp pictures ever, it is have fun.   One of these cameras is where you would expect it to be, on the outside of the device; the other is facing the user, on the hinge of the device.  The DS comes with a camera and pictures channel (more on the channel system later) which can be used to launch the camera and look at your other photos.  Within the camera, effects, or “lenses” as Nintendo advertises them as, can be applied either before or after photos are taken, and therein lies the fun.  These are supposed to make picture taking fun for the simple reason of just messing around, be it with friends or yourself.  While the appeal of the camera may be lost on you, it can also be accessed by developers for in game use.

Beyond the camera, the next largest physical change to the DS is the addition of an SD card slot.  Removable memory for the DS is long overdue, and badly wanted.  With this, you can now put pictures on your DS from your computer or put on music.  The music is now launched from yet another channel (I’ll get around to explaining it, hold on!) and can also have various effects added to it.  You have the option to speed up, slow down, raise the pitch, or lower the pitch of all your music, in real time.  This can make music much more entertaining.  You can also just listen to your music, if you want to be boring.  One other feature within this channel is the ability to record your own voice, for up to ten seconds, and save it and play it back.  The ten second limit kills the entire appeal of this in my opinion, and hopefully they fix this in a future firmware update.  Aside from music and photos, the SD card can also hold DS Ware games.

While those are the big changes on the hardware front, the big change is in the software.  The DSi features a completely reworked firmware which shares some similarities to the Wii channel system, obviously the fact that it has channels.  These include the previously mentioned Photo/Camera and Music channels plus many others, including the Game channel (launches DS game) and the DS Ware channel, the real game changer.  On this channel, you can download various pieces of software onto the DS.  These are not just games, but also include some Apps, borrowing a little from Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.  These are priced on various tiers, which range from free to $8.  These are all saved onto the DS internal memory (256 MB) or the SD card, if you so choose.  With the purchase of a DSi, you will also receive 1000 free DSi points (currency used to buy things off the store, 1 point=1 cent) to buy anything you would like.  While not much software has been released, or even announced, it is widely expected to become much larger than it is now, and it is also widely speculated that the DSi will get a Virtual Console like experience, most likely with Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games available.

The major changes are not very numerous, nor major, but the DSi also includes a number of smaller, less noticable updates.  These include a new larger stylus, a power button and not a switch with the same change on the volume controls, DS cards can be taken out and swapped with the system on, the firmware is updatable, better speakers, raised shoulder buttons, more wireless encryption standards supported, and it has larger screens (3.25 inches versus 3 inches on the previous variations).  It also has some cosmetic changes, which are a 12% thinner system, matte only (no fingerprint smudges here!) , and a slightly larger footprint.

All these changes amount to quite the upgrade, but is it worth it?  At $170, it is $20 more than what the DS Fat cost when it launched, and is a full $40 more than the DS lite is now.  If you absolutely need the GBA slot, then don’t get it.  Other than that, there are no clear major turn on or turn offs.  The cameras are nice and the music is equally pleasant, but I think that it is the DS Ware and possible Virtual Console support that is going to be the driving force behind any purchase.  If you have the money, get the DSi, and you will at least know that it will be worth it eventually, and if you don’t have the money wait until you do, and by then, some great software may be on there worth getting.  A definite improvement on the DS lite, but it is far more revolutionary than revolutionary.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 9:41 pm and is filed under General Tech., News, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.