The All New DSi

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:26:00 -0500

The new DSi has now come into china, and will soon come to Amarica after this christmas! :DThe Nintendo DSi is about 12% thinner (2.6 mm) than the Nintendo DS Lite.The new handheld has two VGA (0.3 megapixel)digital cameras; one on the internal hinge pointed towards the user and the second one on the outside of the shell.It also has larger screens (3.25 inches, up from 3 inches) and improved speakers.The power switch has been replaced with a power button, as the original DS had, now located next to the bottom left side of the touch screen. The DSi has five brightness settings compared to the DS Lite's four; however, battery life is reduced to 14 hours on the lowest brightness setting compared to the 19 hours in its predecessor.The internal rechargeable battery may still be replaced by the user at the end of its useful life of (typically) several hundred charge/discharge cycles.

A new SD card slot is utilized for external storage of pictures and downloaded software and to play AAC audio.The front slot for Game Boy Advance (GBA) cartridges has been removed,thus removing the unit's backward compatibility and its compatibility with accessories that require the GBA slot, such as the Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades grip, which is essential for those games. The removal of backward compatibility also prevents games such as Pokémon Diamond and Pearl from accessing saved data stored on GBA cartridges. The DSi has 256 MB of internal flash memory.Photos can be synced to the Wii's Photo Channel.

All existing flash cards for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite are incompatible with DSi; Acekard has produced a new compatable card called the Acekard 2i. however, flashcards designed for DSi are available. Similar to its competitor, the PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo's home console, Wii, the DSi will have upgradable firmware. This is a first for a Nintendo handheld system.

It has been reported that the DSi utilizes region locking for DSi-specific software, since it provides Internet services tailored individually for each region,but the DSi itself does not have region lock-outs, so Nintendo DS games from any region can be played.In addition, the DSi uses rating-based parental controls, which differ by country. The WPA and WPA2 support is not backward compatible with original DS games. Only DSi services can use WPA.

Blog

The All New DSi