Nintendo's officially confirmed the Nintendo DSi LL (or 'Nintendo DS XL', as seems to be the Western name).
The massive new handheld, said to be targeted at a more mature audience who like their portables large, will be released in Japan on November 21 priced at 20,000 yen (£134) (UPDATE: And in Europe in Q1 2010).
The upgraded handheld features a larger 4.2 inch screen and comes in three colours: 'Dark Brown', 'Wine Red' and 'Natural White'.
The DS LL measures 161 x 91.4 x 21.1mm and weights 314g. In comparison, the DSi measures 137 x 74.9 x 18.9mm and weighs 214g.
The new model will offer greater battery life than the exiting DSi, says Nintendo. The XL's battery can last from 4-5 hours (extensive use) to 13-17 hours (energy saving use), compared to 3-4 hours to 9-14 hours for the DSi. On the down side, the XL will take three hours to charge - 30 minutes longer than the DSi.
Each DSi LL will come bundled with a second, larger stylus apparently meant for "home use", as it's too large to be stored in the system.
The fat portable will also pack three DSiWare games for free: a pair of Brain Age titles and an unreleased dictionary program.
UPDATE: Nintendo's confirmed a 'Q1 2010' release date in Europe. "Nintendo today confirms that a new Nintendo DSi XL console is launching in Europe in the first quarter of 2010," a rep told CVG.
"The retail price of the Nintendo DSi XL is expected to be higher than that of the Nintendo DSi. Further details will be released soon."
Are you ready to shell out for another DS so soon after the last one?
It's somewhat ironic that one of the colours appears to make it look rather like a brick...
That said, I might consider this: I like the DS, but am frankly less than enamoured with the titchy screen and buttons (my fat, caucasian hands are not an ideal ergonomic match for it).
It goes full circle, start off with a large DS, make a DS lite, then a DSi, then make a big DSi. as said earlier, the charger will probably be different
So thats 4 PSP vs 4 DS models so far. Although Sony will take the lead next year with the 5th PSP model. This has got to be a competition to see who can release the most models in one console's life. That said I don't mind the idea of a much bigger DS as I didn't buy the current DSi and my wife keeps pinching mine to play Dragon Quest etc.
A good idea but I think it's a kick in the balls to anyone who has already upgraded to a standard dsi.
On the bright side this means we will probably see at least 2 more years of support for the dsi which means there is a high probability that the dsi vc will arrive.
Wel, since I broke my DS Lite I do need another one. Not sure about the pricing though - how much mor expensive are they going to make it here? And it'd have to be black for me as well
f**king hell Nintendo I just bought a DSi. Won't the graphics on this be a bit blurrier though since most DS games were made for a 3" screen? Also, it looks bloody awful. I thought that Nintendo were supposed to make stylish bits of tech? That one is ugly as sin.
they're hardly in decline. Just the same as all these big comapanies. We didn't make as much money as usual. waaaaa.
Personally i think i'll be ggetting one of the new dsi's i'm yet to upgrade form my original ds becasue the others are too damn small. its hard to be 6'5 and a gamer. its nice to see something being made bigger for a change rather than more fiddley
People making snarky comments saying the bigger screen is for old people, because younger people's eyes 'aren't broken'? Okay, so you watch all your films on a 14 inch computer monitor and leave the 42 inch flatscreen for your granny, do you?! Yeah, right...
A bigger screen option is always a fantastic idea - it will greatly improve the experience. But I have no plans to upgrade my DS Lite until they confirm whether this has reinstated the GBA slot. If it has I'll get one, and give the DS Lite to my mum.
This is becoming pathetic now, when do the people who bought a Wii, a DS or a DSi from the begining start getting something back, Nintendo are worse than mobile phones company's nowdays.
People making snarky comments saying the bigger screen is for old people, because younger people's eyes 'aren't broken'? Okay, so you watch all your films on a 14 inch computer monitor and leave the 42 inch flatscreen for your granny, do you?! Yeah, right...
A bigger screen option is always a fantastic idea - it will greatly improve the experience. But I have no plans to upgrade my DS Lite until they confirm whether this has reinstated the GBA slot. If it has I'll get one, and give the DS Lite to my mum.
agreed completely. I only have a DSlite too bacause of the lack of GBA port. It's odd cause Pokemon has to be the biggest selling game on the DS and it needs gba as do many accesories like guitar hero.
I see a lot of people complaining about Nintendo again and some how forgetting the fact that so far Sony have released 4 models, soon to be 5 of the PSP, Then they have had the PS3 60gb, then 40GB without b/c, then 80gb and 160gb models, plus the new PSŁ3 Slim. Microsoft have had the XBox core, and Premium 20gb, then the Arcade then the 60gb premium and 120gb Elite and soon the 250gb elite. They are all doing it so stop ragging on one and not the others for a change.
i wouldn't mind one of those actually, a bigger screen would be good, just a shame they took the gba port out for the dsi, still, i've got my sp for those games.
Is this a joke? The bigger screens are for an older audience, that makes sense, so why are the D-Pad and face buttons sill so small?
Prob because they know that the older demographic they are aiming dont play games that require the face buttons/dpad like brain training etc so theres little point to upgrade them. Plus its cheaper to use the same bits the dsi does than make new ones.
I personally found the DS Lite's screens to be a tad too small, so I got the DSi for the larger screens, and they're plenty large enough for me. The DSi XL is clearly aimed at the older generation, hence the giant, pen-like fat stylus. A good idea for those with deteriorating eyesight, though.
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