Ever since I first became addicted to my Nintendo DS, I kept whinging about how it just wasn’t quite right – the buttons are poorly positioned and made out of really crappy plastic instead of being rubberised, and it was quite big for what it was. Finally, Nintendo has announced the released of the new Nintendo DS Lite.
According to my shoddy Babelfish translation, the press release says that the DS has been the fasted selling game machine of all time and has been really popular with women – moi inclus! Perhaps this is a reason for the design update – to try and woe more women with something small and fun, and of course something that doesn’t look clunky and plasticy. I don’t see that going inside any Gucci purses.
Aside from the obvious different colour, the buttons have been slightly moved with the select and start buttons now below the actual play buttons. This should make it feel a bit more natural to hold and play than the existing model.
| DS Lite | Original DS | PSP | |
| Length: | 133.0mm | 148.7mm | 170.0mm |
| Width: | 73.9mm | 84.7mm | 74.0mm |
| Depth: | 21.5mm | 28.8mm | 23.0mm |
| Weight: | 218g | 275g | 260g |
The comparison shows that the new DS Lite is 57 grams lighter, which doesn’t seem that much – but in conjunction with the smaller size I think it will be a lot more portable. It is released in Japan on March 2nd, 2006.
Now, if only I could find a way to justify buying another DS…