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Nintendo's Media Summit has just thrown us its first juicy bone of the night, and it's a big one. As was previously rumored, Satoru Iwata has revealed the Nintendo DSi, the direct successor to the DS Lite which comes absolutely jam-packed with new features and trinkets, including two cameras, music playback functions, expanded screens, an SD card slot, and a whole new, DS-specific download service. Hit the break for the full list of improvements and adjustments, as well as the Japanese launch date and price!
- Overall size has been reduced -- DSi is 12% or 2.6 millimeters slimmer than the Lite.
- Comes with an external 0.3 Megapixel camera (for 640 x 480 pixel pictures) and a VGA camera located on the hinge, directed towards the user. You'll be able to edit pictures using the touchscreen.
- Full music playback functionality, including adjustable pitch and playback speed.
- Both screens have been expanded to 3.25 inches.
- SD memory card slot is included, and there'll be on-board memory also.
- Will ship with an built-in Nintendo DS web browser.
- DSi will allow users to download games from DSWare, a new service that operates with Wii Points -- or, as they are now known, Nintendo Points.
- Logging onto DSWare for the first time will grant users 1,000 free Nintendo Points.
- DSWare comes in four pricing categories: free (!), 200 Nintendo Points, 500 Nintendo Points, and 800 Nintendo Points.
- Will come in lovely matte white and matte black. Begone, foul fingerprints that have taunted us so!
- And finally, it launches on November 1st in Japan, and will cost ¥18,900, or roughly $179. Check out the official site at the "Source" link below!
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
10-02-2008 @ 7:44AM
dwonder3 said...
sweet, I'm looking forward to wario ware. I'm just ticked it does get released till early 2009 in America. Which is stupid for Nintendo to do that. Why not release it before Christmas? Although the price is good.
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10-02-2008 @ 8:08AM
Jo said...
YAAAAAAAAAY! (as expected)
It's spectacular! :D
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10-02-2008 @ 8:12AM
rikki said...
No GBA slot = Instant no sale. Moreover, it doesn't (and no DS ever will, most likely) support WPA(2) encryption because apparently there are no standard, Nintendo-provided wireless librariess. (It's up to the vendor to implement them in each game/app, and they sure haven't yet.)
...Why the deuce do you need TWO cameras?
So glad that the DSi doesn't offer any of the features I was looking for. I'm trying to save up for a current-gen console and games; this means there's no shiny new DS that tempting me to upgrade. :>
I wonder if Nintendo will sell GBA software over the new DS Store?
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10-02-2008 @ 8:44AM
Icester said...
Not impressed. I can guarantee that I won't be buying and I have 3 DSes (one for me, my daughter, and my wife - great on trips!).
My analysis:
a) No GBA slot = dealbreaker (I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Guitar Hero yet. Have fun with THAT on your DSi - NOT!)
b) Same crappy, underpowered CPU. (Not bad when it came out, but it's getting pretty dated by now.) Probably has the same paltry 4MB of RAM also (admittedly this is speculation on my part). This means that homebrew will still have the same limitations. I was hoping for more RAM & better CPU which would encourage homebrew authors - maybe we would finally be able to see full SNES and Sega Genesis emulators. (Not knocking the current efforts. I am _amazed_ at what the authors have been able to get out of the very limited hardware.)
However, after further reflection, there is a chance that internal RAM has been upgraded since it now has a browser - before the browser required the additional RAM of a GBA cart. Still, without added CPU to augment additional RAM, I can't see a lot of added benefit to the homebrew scene.
c) Camera idea is cute, but will quickly lose its novelty for a couple of reasons - not high enough resolution for any pictures worth saving (i.e. not a digital camera replacement - heck its not even a really bad cell phone replacement) and seriously underpowered CPU to do any type of video processing (still pictures, yes... video, no).
d) Downloadable content? It would have to be as good as most of the lame games on the DS to even make it worth the $5 or $10 and I don't see that happening. (Admit it, most of the DS games rate from 'Suck' to 'Poor' with a few stellar titles every now and then that make the DS oh, so sweet overall).
e) It was time for a refresh physically - make it more beautiful, significantly smaller (more pocketable), or both. Looks exactly the same and the extra 0.25" on the screens? A cruel joke. Look at the side-by-side comparison on Nintendo's Japanese webpage - only way you can tell the difference is with a micrometer.
f) If Nintendo was going to break DS to new DS compatability (forward compatability), they should have done it with something like dual touch screens. The whole camera thing hardly seems worthwhile (see (c) above).
g) SD slot is great. Let's just hope that its not the SD slot from the Wii (i.e. not SDHC). Does anybody know how read/write speeds compare to the GBA slot (thinking of homebrew here...) Also, what about number of lifecycles (how many write cycles is SD good for compared to GBA - this might limit SD memory as RAM compared to GBA slot cards such as the 3-in-1 expansion.)
Overall, my assessment has to be that Nintendo took the easy road to make another pile of cash. I can't blame them - after all, money is the name of the game, but I am disappointed.
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10-02-2008 @ 8:46AM
Mert said...
"DSi a complement to the regular Nintendo DS, not a replacement"
You can call it a "DS spin-off", it's not a real upgrade
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10-02-2008 @ 8:59AM
njbeetle said...
Long time DS fan here but this new DSi isn't that interesting. The screens increase isn't really much and the camera resolution is worse than most cell phones. Seems like Nintendo really just built a hold-over device until they come up with something better. Let's hope they are working on that.
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10-02-2008 @ 9:08AM
monkeymonkeymonkey said...
The real question is
DOES IT HAVE WPA SUPPORT?
If not, no money from me stupid Nintendo.
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10-02-2008 @ 9:10AM
WalkingCarpet said...
I'm guessing that removable storage means that they will be able to update the firmware on the thing as well. Hurray updated built in internet browser. I think I'm probably going to have to pick one of these up. I busted the hinge on my lite a little while back, and I've been thinking about getting a new one anyway.
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10-02-2008 @ 9:19AM
mags1587 said...
I want to know more about the "free" games. And 1000 points just for visiting the store? That more than anything else makes me want to buy the DSi.
I'm disappointed by the lack of a GBA slot, but if they let me download Game Boy and GBA games to play through the SD card, I will be happy. I'm tired of pulling out my GBA to play the Oracle games.
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10-02-2008 @ 9:28AM
Morning Toast said...
Crap. Figures. I get my DS not long ago and it's already outdated! Curse you Nintendo for your portable goodness!!
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10-02-2008 @ 9:46AM
diegolt said...
Only one camera!! Who needed 2 anyway.
If there's not GBA slot, what about guitar hero??
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10-02-2008 @ 9:58AM
igorponweed said...
Gba/GB/GBC/SNES/NES/Original DLC pleeze.
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10-02-2008 @ 9:58AM
Puddles said...
The good news is that this guarantees that we will be getting new DS games for at least another couple of years.
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10-02-2008 @ 10:01AM
Timerider said...
Commence hyperventalating
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10-02-2008 @ 10:14AM
NetOperator Wibby said...
Okay, I thought this was a joke at first. Holy crap. HOLY CRAP!!
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10-02-2008 @ 10:52AM
Zealot said...
Eew, eew, the camera is 0.3 megapixels? That's the power of the Jazz Digistick I had......back in the 90s. Poor show, Nintendo. Of course my decision wasn't going to hinge on camera strength, but 0.3 megapixels just seems insulting. The screens are negligibly larger, and DSWare isn't a valid selling point until they actually have a worthwhile library of downloadable games and apps to speak of. I love the DS, and honestly think it's the best system on the market, handheld OR console, but I have zero interest in this after seeing the specs.
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10-02-2008 @ 11:39AM
eleefece said...
Activision and the Guitar Hero owners have just been kicked in the balls.
Ok, Lets see the new DS:
>Two cameras, fine… but ¿VGA?, ¿is this year 2001?
>Battery life reduced by 1/3, FAIL.
>Bigger screen, Fine but ¿the same resolution? DOUBLE FAIL.
>MP3 player, browser and SD spot: Nintendo ¿did you know that the DS already do all this things (with the help of the R4 or CycloDS of course)?.
>No GBA slot: What i´m supposed to do with the GH, the rumble and the arkanoid pad, nintedo?
Conclusión: This is for you nintendo .|. ----> Grab your DSi and shove it.
A proud owner of a Cobalt/Black DS Lite.
P.S. DSi? VEEERY SUBTLE!!! (i supose iDS would´ve been too shameless, right?)
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10-02-2008 @ 11:41AM
tambre said...
wow, i'm really disappointed that the GBA slot is gone. i've owned all of their hand held systems (except the gameboy pocket...) since the brick gameboy came out...
here's hoping that they:
1. rerelease the GBA games as DS games
or...
2. release the games in that DS browser thing like the Wii has and allow the games to be downloaded...
i'll miss being able to play super mario world, legend of zelda, ff6, etc...
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10-02-2008 @ 11:48AM
Mert said...
The external camera has 3 mpix. 0.3 is for the hinge one.
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10-02-2008 @ 12:23PM
Conor said...
I'll keep my original ds untill this one gets hacked or something because I doubt my R4DS will work in it.
To be honest I'm not really dying for an upgrade but I won't have to pay much for it if I trade my ds lite in and sell my r4 to someone.
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