PSP World

Nintendo DSi LL: It's Too Soon

It's hard to shake the feeling that Nintendo is not quite sure where to go from here with its dual-screen handheld. The Japanese entertainment giant has sold more than 110 million examples of the five-year-old Nintendo DS, breaking all sorts of records and making it the fastest-selling handheld gaming machine of all time. Approximately 7 million of those are the latest hardware revision, the DSi, which launched earlier this year and comes equipped with two cameras. While the DSi has found a following among technology lovers and early adopters, it has had nowhere near the impact of the uber popular original. That's probably because other than camera functionality and downloadable minigames, it doesn't offer a significant upgrade over the standard DS Lite, and it costs \$40 more. \n\nNow, barely a year after the launch of the DSi in Japan, Nintendo is already prepping another hardware revision, this one dubbed the DSi LL. The LL is a jumbo version of the DS, with screens that are almost double the size of its predecessor at 4.2 inches (compared with the 3.25 inch screens in the DSi). It is also noticeably slimmer, looking a little bit like a new Mac Book Pro, while retaining the clamshell profile of the DSi. The DSi LL will go on sale in Japan on November 21 for ¥20,000, or about \$220 USD. In Europe and North America, the device will be known as the DSi XL when it launches later in 2010. \n\n\n\n\n\nIt has long been rumored that Nintendo was working on a big-screen DS, but it was hard to fathom what market such a device would serve. The only logical conclusion was that the larger screens would be ideal for elderly and other folks who were visually impaired and could not adequately see text on the regular screen. It has been Nintendo's recent mantra to expand the market for video games by bringing in users of all ages. \n\nIt seems as though core gamers will have a hard time justifying the upgrade. According to Nintendo, the DSi LL will not upscale the graphics from games to a higher resolution. That means that the larger screen will accentuate the already blocky graphics from ordinary games, without improving them in any significant way. The current resolution of Nintendo DS games is 256x192. The DSi LL is also a bit heavier, weighing in at 314 grams compared to the DSi's svelte 214 grams. Because the LL is quite a bit larger than the regular DSi, it will no longer fit comfortably in any sort of pocket. Despite the extra space, it does not include the GBA slot from the original DS Lite, an oversight that is sure to annoy many Nintendo fans. On the upside, the new hardware does look very shiny, and while it is larger than its compatriots, it is much slimmer in profile.\n\nConsidering that the DSi has failed to move mountains in terms of sales, The DSi LL reads like an attempt by Nintendo to rejuvenate interest in the device without substantially changing its core functionality. This is a familiar strategy that has been used with more or less success by Nintendo in the past. An example of a successful redesign would be the Gameboy Advance SP, while a less successful experiment was the pint-sized Micro.\n\nPart of the reluctance by Nintendo to release a true successor to the DS or Gameboy line can be chalked up to the poor economy. Companies are less willing to take risks and release expensive new hardware in a climate where consumers might not bite, and when older products are still in demand. Sony's new PSP Go, which also appears to be suffering sluggish uptake at retail, is another symptom of this trend. \n\nRather than awkwardly re-vamping the DS hardware, Nintendo should have held off until a more impressive handheld device was ready to launch. Unfortunately, only the inevitable slow sales of the DSi LL will convince the company that it is time to move on. \n\n
\n\n\n\nThe new DSi LL is slimmer than its predecessors, but has larger screens.\n\n\n
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