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The DSi came out in the UK today so I picked mine up. A few thoughts...
- It feels very strange. The plastic feels gritty, and while it seems to attract dirt and dead skin like crazy, it does just brush off. I feel like I should wash my hands after playing it though.
- The d-pad sucks, it is very small and gives me a similar hand cramp that the DS lite gave in long sessions of mario kart.
- The camera is decent quality. For a pinhole camera, the picture is surprisingly good. Seems a bit pointless to have unless you want to take pictures of people looking at you playing DS, but still good quality at least. Why do I get the feeling it was designed for creepy japanese gamers to take pictures of schoolgirls?
- The screen is great. The quality is fantastic, with great colour, responsiveness, etc. The upgrade is at least as good as the upgrade from DS to DS lite was, and I have found myself wanting to play a lot of DS games over again.
- I pinched my finger in the case when opening it. Ouch. Didnt happen with the DS lite, but I presume they changed the design to prevent the cracking that was reported on the lite.
- Internet works fine, but now I'm paranoid about the big N taking pictures of me while I play
- The battery LED goes from blue (fully charged) to red (dying) to blinking red (for the love of god save your game)
- I've had to agree to 2 EULAs already (Internet connection and upgrade the OS) how many more? It has also prompted me for my email address so that I can buy stuff in the nintendo shop, but it was not mandatory. You get 1000 DSi points to spend in the shop (linked to your DS) which is enough for the 'wario ware snapped' game.
- More horrific nintendo elevator music in the shop. Everything is more casual gamer/wii style which is something I am not a fan of. The shop is rather slow as well but since it is launch day I guess that is excusable.
- Free web browser in the shop. Makes freely browsing dakka possible from anywhere that allows DSes to connect. Download progress bar is quite funny, featuring mario and friends running off and picking up blue balls and dumping them in a central progress bar. Easier to understand than the wii's cryptic gold coins progress bar.
- The web browser uses opera (like the wii), is fast compared to a phone at least, but does not support flash so no videos are watchable which is a real shame and a major problem for mainstream web browsing. I've already used it as a remote control for my TV computer which was pretty neat though. Overall I would rank it as ok for wikipedia when on the loo, or info when out and about but with a dying phone battery, but otherwise it is more of a novelty.
- WPA2 is supported so I can finally use a secure wireless connection with the DSi.

My DS lite was dying so I was actually in the market for a new DS last week, but thought I'd wait for this one. The upgrade is probably not worth it unless you really want a much nicer screen or the portable web browsing.

Anyone else got one yet? I'm keen to hear the opinions of others too.

I haven't got one but I am going to look at them in Japan next week.

I am very happy with the DS Lite. I'm not desperate for a console with a camera and web browsing, though it is was in there for efree why not.

My main gripe against the DS i is that they slipped region locking into it, which makes it useless for people like me who play Japanese, American and European games. However, I've been told the region locking has already been cracked and you can get a dodgy cart which lets you play your TOTALLY LEGAL GAMES, LEGALLY BOUGHT IN A SHOP whatever country they come from.

Shouting because I am sick and tired of being told I can't buy a game in Japan or the USA. I don't download cracked pirate software because I work in the games industry and it's against my ethics.

Kilkrazy wrote:
My main gripe against the DS i is that they slipped region locking into it, which makes it useless for people like me who play Japanese, American and European games. However, I've been told the region locking has already been cracked and you can get a dodgy cart which lets you play your TOTALLY LEGAL GAMES, LEGALLY BOUGHT IN A SHOP whatever country they come from.

FWIW I think this might just be for future games (if at all), I have old DS games from JPN, USA and EUR regions and all work fine on my EUR DSi. I would have thought that the airport/international travel market was too big for this to be a viable option for portables.

Yes, it's new games.

Thanks for your opinion LB, now I know I don't need one. Wasn't that much interested in it anyway, I prefer a real digicam

And unless they start making a lot of DSi only games, I wont miss it. I'm still having fun with the original bigger version.

Anung Un Rama wrote:And unless they start making a lot of DSi only games, I wont miss it.

How many games can they honestly come up with that require a camera?

I imagine the Region Lock is a response to the R4's and CycloDS that let you just put the ROMs onto a blank cartridge.

Platuan4th wrote:

Anung Un Rama wrote:And unless they start making a lot of DSi only games, I wont miss it.

How many games can they honestly come up with that require a camera?

I came up with a mascot for one:


If you want the high score, you cant tell your parents!

I'll stick with my PSP.

Not only more functionality, but more functionality for what I actually use. I really don't need a low-quality camera for, well, anything.

I'm guessing that they used cheaper plastic to cut costs (much like the X-Box 360) so they could actually market it at the price they did, hence the gritty texture.

Nintendo have always refreshed their handheld designs periodically -- it's a proven method of restimulating the market and can be done with colours, design updates and new functionality. The same things work for the PSP.

Reintroducing the region lock is a response to the R4 but it has already failed.

But doesn't the DSi also lack the dual slot like the DS or DS Lite? Yes it does. It made the Guitar Hero on the DS obsolete for play on the DSi and you can't dual slot your old pokemon into the newer games either.

One of the reasons why I won't buy one. I'd rather spend my money on another GBA, since I misplaced my old one and now can't play my old GB games.

They came out with a new handheld Nintendo thing? Christ last time I played with one was before 360 came out. And even then I only played the Pokemon game which everyone knows everybody played cause it was a super enjoyable game.

hm, i sold my old ds to help get into 40k
about the only thing i played on it were a few rpgs

but yea, i don't see the point of a camera beyond helping people be creepy stalkers

The Wario Ware Snapped game is interactive with the camera similar to the Playstation Eye Toy. I just wanted to add that little tidbit.

I have the DS Browser with my lite. Just like to point out that the browsing is nothing new. I still want a DSi for some reason though.

It enabled me to get a preowned original DS for like $60 (AUS) so i'm happy, all i really want to do right now is play Pokemon and the Chrono Trigger remake so i'm pretty pleased with the DSi