Nintendo DS lite

What the heck just happened? Didn't Nintendo just say that there's no redesign in the works for the Nintendo DS? And yet, here we are with a new announcement that the Nintendo DS lite will be released on March 2nd.

Now, I don't mind the redesign all that much. Sure I'm annoyed that Nintendo keeps releasing better designed handheld systems after I buy them, but it's something that I should be used to and expect from Nintendo by now. I was never really happy with the NDS design anyway. To me, it's too bulky and heavy to be a portable system. The NDS lite's design is not all that dissimilar to the design that I drew in a previous post. The main point of my drawing was to show that the new design would be slimmer. My guess was correct (I even guessed correctly about a brighter screen!).

Based on the image that Nintendo provided, it seems as though the directional pad and face buttons will be made of the same plastic that is used for the GameBoy Micro's buttons. Good choice. Something that I don't like is how the bottom LCD screen seems to be elevated (or at least have a ridge around the screen). This ridge/elevation is on the original NDS design as well, but it seems more pronounced in the NDS lite.

Sony could learn a thing or two from this design (another of Nintendo's seemingly Apple inspired designs). Note that the Nintendo DS can no longer be powered off by accident (power button is now in a similar position as it is on the GBm - or seems to be at least). I've never had that problem with the NDS myself, but others complain about it now and then. And while Select and Start have been moved, they seem to be very easily accessible still.

The real question to me is: Will it continue to use the old GBA SP/NDS charger or use the GBm charger? Hopefully it'll be either one. Yet another charger would suck. I also think Nintendo has learned its lesson about not having a standard headphone audio jack in their systems, so there should be no problem about that. I'd also like to know if Nintendo is going to replace the crappy volume slider in the NDS. I hate the volume slider on the NDS. It sucks - I can never adjust the volume to a level that I like.

Looks like I'm replacing my bulky NDS afterall.