Nintendo DS redesign is here: DS Lite

[Guden Oden]

Looks good but early Nintendo handheld adoptors are screwed. as always.

If I gave out red dots for trivial reasons, this post would be one I'd pick as a recipient...

Do you feel screwed by ATi and Nvidia too when they release new graphics cards every 6-12 months? You should go back to the NES, my friend. That way you can be certain nothing about your system will change again...ever.

I want to see this thing from other angles. It's hard to see how the buttons and D-pad fits into the top half of the console for example and where exactly the stylus goes when the unit is closed. Does it sit stuck in through the hinges? It seems like it might do that, which would be a great idea I might add. No risk of it popping loose if it can't be removed without folding the unit open.

 

[Teasy]

Time the sell my original DS

Found a comparison rendering:

 

[darkblu]

teasy, that rendering does not look right: the bottom screen of DS" seems to have bigger area then the bottom one of the DS', which is darn unlikely (unless an optic illusion). same with the upper screen, if we consider what is the visible area (i.e. sans the black margins) of the upper screen of the DS'. IOW, on this rendering the visible areas of both DS" screens seem bigger than their DS' counterparts, and that's very unlikely.

otherwise i like the new design, aside from the fact that the upper screen is too darn far from the lower edge of the half it is embedded in, thus making the games that use both screens as one virtual screen ever more seam-full than they were before on the DS' (having that bloody addictive metroid pinball in mind).

ed: and i absolutely welcome the slight shifting up of the controls on the lower part - i was having a hell of a tough time getting accustomed to the incompoftable positioning of the controls on the original, and i still can't say i feel completely alright about them.

 

[mech]

Heh, Nintendo did a pretty good job keeping a lid on this. Rumours were running wild but I'm pretty sure most people didn't expect a redesign to be announced until E3 at the earliest.

Reckon? It seemed pretty obvious to me a redesign was just around the corner, which is why I held off buying one.

Interesting that so many people complained about the PSP having upgrades in its lifetime and saying they weren't going to buy one because of it, and it's still the exact same hardware while the DS has already undergone its redesign.

It irritates me how often Nintendo re-releases hardware, I wish they'd get it right first time - I think the GBA was the worst case of that.

Anyway, I'm glad I waited it out this time, will grab one of these when they launch Size looks a lot better, and it's a fair bit lighter than the current DS and the PSP.

 

[Ty]

darkblu,

I think the screen sizes are equal but simply shown at a different angle, thus altering the perception of it.

Also, I am pretty sure that Nintendo will keep the "seam" (nearly) the same as changing it would throw because some games might choose to represent the "seam" as non-visible play space (e.g. the wonderful Metroid Pinball you mentioned) so if the difference is great, it would throw off the game some.

 

[StefanS]

Am I getting this right? They left out the GBA slot?

 

[Teasy]

teasy, that rendering does not look right: the bottom screen of DS" seems to have bigger area then the bottom one of the DS', which is darn unlikely (unless an optic illusion). same with the upper screen, if we consider what is the visible area (i.e. sans the black margins) of the upper screen of the DS'. IOW, on this rendering the visible areas of both DS" screens seem bigger than their DS' counterparts, and that's very unlikely.

Its definitely not perfect, you can see that also by looking at the position of the top screen on the original DS. On the real DS there is a gap between the top of that screen and the hinge. Its just an early rendering though, not much I can do about it either, I didn't do it myself I just found it

otherwise i like the new design, aside from the fact that the upper screen is too darn far from the lower edge of the half it is embedded in, thus making the games that use both screens as one virtual screen ever more seam-full than they were before on the DS' (having that bloody addictive metroid pinball in mind)

I don't think there is anymore space between the two screens then with the DS. The rendering is just slightly off in the positioning of the top screen on the original DS. Considering the screens are the same size on the new DS and its quite a bit smaller I doubt there would be any room to make the screens wider appart anyway.

 

[Teasy]

Interesting that so many people complained about the PSP having upgrades in its lifetime and saying they weren't going to buy one because of it, and it's still the exact same hardware while the DS has already undergone its redesign.

Which upgrade are you talking about?

Am I getting this right? They left out the GBA slot?

I doubt it, they certainly dnon't mention leaving it out, they say it has all the features of the original DS.

 

[mech]

Which upgrade are you talking about?

When PSP was just about to come out, Sony made some comments regarding battery life being improved in the future (IIRC) - a lot of people on the forums I read then made a bunch of comments about what a waste of time it was buying a PSP now, that it's only get upgraded in a few months, etc. Sony has indeed upped the battery capacity, but it was done quietly and without changing the machine. Anyway, that was just by the by I just felt it was unfair at the time, and still do, given the PSP is one of the few portable gadgets NOT to get a relatively quick redesign (like Gizmondo, GBA, GBA SP, Nintendo DS, Wonderswam, NeoGeo Pocket, etc).

I'd be interested to see how they would redesign the PSP actually - there is little to no wasted space on it, and it's not lacking any features I can think of.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It was made mention, before PSP was even release IIRC, that Sony were designing a smaller version.

 

[Refreshment]

Hmmnnnn...............

Nintendo is giving a busynes/strategy lecture lately.

I mean the DS is in the pinnacle of its popularity in Japan so one could thing that theres no need for a redesign this early in the game. No one expected this, the GameBoy advance redesign came after 23 months, this one took 15 months. Yet the change isnt as radical in this case as the GBA SP case.

Makes sense because one can spect a shorter life cycle for the DS than the GBA, plus no one was absolutly satisfied with the look of the DS.

I think Nintendo should have tried to provide some extra functiones like MP3 playback for the DS redesign to give the machine more functionality and cut to some of the gap that separates it from the competition. Or at least make the play yan more available with better pricing.

 

[Guden Oden]

It was made mention, before PSP was even release IIRC, that Sony were designing a smaller version.

I never heard anything like that, and I don't think it's true. Sony put a big screen on the device for a reason, and it's not really possible to make the device much smaller anyway; the UMD drive has certain dimensions and cannot be reduced in size. That gives a certain natural screen height, and since it's a widescreen aspect that gives it a natural width as well. Then there has to be room for the controls as well... No, how could they shrink it? More than a centimeter or so either direction, I mean. It's not really possible without compromising ergonomics.

 

[Hardknock]

I never heard anything like that, and I don't think it's true. Sony put a big screen on the device for a reason, and it's not really possible to make the device much smaller anyway; the UMD drive has certain dimensions and cannot be reduced in size. That gives a certain natural screen height, and since it's a widescreen aspect that gives it a natural width as well. Then there has to be room for the controls as well... No, how could they shrink it? More than a centimeter or so either direction, I mean. It's not really possible without compromising ergonomics.

They could possibly make it a clam shell design like the GBA SP, with the UMD slot being on the bottom half behind the controls.

Also for people that wanted a more accurate idea of the difference between the "Lite" and regular DS, check this out:

http://ds.ign.com/articles/683/683686p1.html

Can't wait to get mine :smile:

 

[Guden Oden]

They could possibly make it a clam shell design like the GBA SP, with the UMD slot being on the bottom half behind the controls.

It still wouldn't really get SMALLER, with the screen ratio it has it would still be nearly as wide, and about as tall as well, and it would get (considerably) thicker. The battery would have to be in the top half if the UMD is in the bottom... I don't think it would look very elegant at all to be quite frank.