Dazzla Veteran Posted March 16, 2006 Veteran Share Posted March 16, 2006 After a day sat at Heathrow with DHL it arrived at work today. Luckily enough for me, I had a nice delivery from Videogamesplus.ca as well :Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Advance Wars and Age of Empires. Sorry the photos are a rush job but I wanted to quickly get some cause people would've asked but I also couldn't be assed, I just wanna play! First things first, no photos can prepare you for how light it is. This thing is so damn light, you can pick it up with your thumb and forefinger and just flip it around like it's nothing. This is gonna make the biggest difference, it's lost about 30% of its weight from the original DS (of which I had a few, jap launch, one from the UK and a black DS from japan; yeah I sell a lot of stuff...). I don't need to tell you how great the screens are, I think the greatest praise would be that you can play it in broad daylight, pitch black, under bright lighting, whatever; and it's still fantastic to view. I know with my PSPs they're unplayable in broad daylight so although the DS is no match for resolution, the quality of what's there is astounding. I bought the Enamel Navy and it's a strange beast, on some glances it could pass for black (which I'm glad it's not by the way, I fancied something different to black or white ;) ) and in some shots, especially with a bright flash, it'll look quite a light blue, almost like the cobalt blue SP. I absolutely love it, and I'm glad Nintendo didn't opt for black. See how different it can look: On the outside of the DS there's a thin (around 1-1.5 mm) layer of clear plastic which gives it the gloss and shine. Unfortunately it's also the thing that give it the insane ability to plaster itself in fingerprints. You thought the PSP was bad you ain't seen nothing yet. I imagine the white would be a hell of a lot better for resisting fingerprints but my iMac is white, and my iPod is white and I just wanted something different (that and I thought Navy looked best ;) ). Nice fingerprints, after about 5 minutes of owning it: The inside of the DS is a matte texture which no gloss whatsoever, nothing too special but I imagine it's more practical in terms of grip than having the gloss all over. Besides, you can't see the fingerprints when you play either, everyone else can look on in disgust at the fingerprints whilst you get lost in a marathon session of advance wars :D The D-Pad and buttons are a massive, massive leap from the DS. They're smaller, which I know a lot of people have bitched about already but the unit just sits in your hand nicely and the response from the buttons is nice. Nothing rattles or clicks or shakes, Nintendo have always been known to make handhelds solid and this is no exception (except perhaps it looks good, SP relegated to second then another few faves of mine the GB pocket and GB micro right behind). I've only played on MK for around 1 hour and AOE for about 20 minutes so I don't know how extended play will fare, but I imagine it'll pass with flying colours. The stylus is fatter and longer than the previous stylus. This is a massive difference because I always found the old stylus way too small and fiddly for my hands, the DS lite fixes this in a big way. Not to mention they all match the colour of the DS they come with this time. Another difference between this and the old model is the thumb strap, they're removed the little "nubbin" thing from it. Now I'm not sure how much I'm gonna miss this, I actually used that thing to play Mario 64 DS all the way through so I don't know how much I'll miss it. With the games I've got at the moment I don't think I'll miss it at all but it's worth mentioning. Anyway, enough blabbering, I've got some games to work through if I want to be exhausted of them before Tetris DS, New Super Mario Bros, Phoenix Wright (shipped today baby!!), Metroid Prime Hunters and Brain Training come my way! Phew, what a lineup. I've got GRAW, Oblivion and Battlefield II coming up on the 360 as well, I may well have to quit my job... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Neo Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 I can't say I find it's appearance very appealing. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dheaddy Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 My white DS lite should be arriving tomorrow, I thought to myself that I could be the first one on neowin to post some pics, assuming Dazzla doesn't do it first, but you've beat me to it! Looks awesome though, I was offered a Navy blue DS a few days ago or to wait on a white one as there's still supply problems with it. I'll drop some pics when it arrives. As ever Dazzla, I am immenously jealous of your array of hardware :crazy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druw Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 (edited) Wow cool might pick one up in june when i go on holiday. I've got a psp and wouldnt mind a DS aswell. EDIT:How much are these selling for? Edited March 16, 2006 by Druw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evolution Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Where did you get the lite version from? Lik-Sang, Play-Asia, or somewhere else :) ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_loblaw Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Ahhh of course we can always count on you Dazzla to entice us with new gadgets. You should've stuck with the white one, it would've matched your other stuff. Im definitely gonna pick up a white one when its available again without all these price gouging. Absolutely ridicoulous. Great review as always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marduk Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 I need it now! I couldn't find the link on the videogamesplus.ca :( if you've got the link could you pm me it? *drools* Me likey the enamel blue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ienhz Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Makes me want to get a white DS Lite now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoMasamune Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 The DS is region free right? Can I play U.S. games on a Japanese DS? If so, I might import a white one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted March 16, 2006 Author Veteran Share Posted March 16, 2006 Yup, DS is region free :) Starts up in Japanese but it's about 4 button presses to change it to English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoMasamune Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Awesome! How much is it selling for? and where is the best place to order from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted March 16, 2006 Author Veteran Share Posted March 16, 2006 Ranges between around $250-$299 at the moment from most importers, eBay isn't really much different. Just wait a week or 2 and it'll drop $100 to around $150-$200. Places like Play-Asia, Yesasia, BuyGame2.com etc are all selling them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoTrunks Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Wait, so there's no pad on the strap? That's going to make it hard to play games that go really well with it, like Mario 64, Splinter Cell, and Metroid Prime (most likely). :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazih3nri Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Wow0zrs. Mad impressed. How much longer before it's in teh US? if it's not already... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danrarbc Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Wait, so there's no pad on the strap? That's going to make it hard to play games that go really well with it, like Mario 64, Splinter Cell, and Metroid Prime (most likely). :( Well in my opinion Metroid is better with the stylus anyway. As for the others, I guess Nintendo has no intentions of using the touch screen as an analog stick ever again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ji@nBing Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Nice review as always Dazzla. Looking really nice. I'm happy enough with my normal blue DS though. As for games, if you haven't tried it already, I highly suggest you check out Meteos. I know you liked Lumines a lot for the PSP, and this is made by the same developer and IMO a lot better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nav1 Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Damn, Dazzla, why do you always get everything I want !! (except for the iPod). Will you marry me ? (kidding, btw). I'll pick one up when they come to america and the prices are normal, that is, if I get to sell my Red Mario Kart edition one at a reasonable price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillz Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Nice review! I'm going to get a white DS Lite once it finally comes out here in the United States. I believe a release date of May 7 is rumored, to coincide with the release of New Super Mario Bros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted March 17, 2006 Author Veteran Share Posted March 17, 2006 Nice review as always Dazzla. Looking really nice. I'm happy enough with my normal blue DS though. As for games, if you haven't tried it already, I highly suggest you check out Meteos. I know you liked Lumines a lot for the PSP, and this is made by the same developer and IMO a lot better. I had Meteos when I had my black DS before, I didn't like it as much as Lumines, you could get away with just scratching the screen a lot of the time. I held off doing that because I knew it'd ruin the game for me but whenever I was in a tight spot I just scratched like mad :wacko: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BroChaos Veteran Posted March 17, 2006 Veteran Share Posted March 17, 2006 what is that they did to the screen that makes it visible even in bright sunlight? that still bugs me about my psp... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zingysaturn Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 I see you got Animal Crossing: WW. I know the DS is region free, but does Wi-Fi work anywhere? I was waiting for the UK release just to make sure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imek Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 what is that they did to the screen that makes it visible even in bright sunlight? that still bugs me about my psp... The brightness has increased a lot. Makes me want to go and get a Lite when it comes out here, trying to play the DS in full sunlight on the train to college is difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snipe Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Thanks, nice pics as always (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted March 17, 2006 Author Veteran Share Posted March 17, 2006 I see you got Animal Crossing: WW. I know the DS is region free, but does Wi-Fi work anywhere? I was waiting for the UK release just to make sure... Yeah, had no problem connecting to WFC at both work and home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sn00pie Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Nice review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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