Hands-on and ridiculously in-depth with the Nintendo DSi

DSi is, as you have likely heard, very slightly longer and very slightly thinner than the DS Lite. What you may not have heard much about is how it feels, though. Its actual weight is negligibly lighter than DS Lite (less than 2% lighter, actually) but it feels reassuringly solid when hefted. Cory and I had been talking yesterday about how much we appreciate the solidness of the Game Boy Advance SP; the DSi feels like a step back in this welcome direction.

Likewise, its hinge opens and closes with a nice, smooth motion, docking in the normal open position softly but firmly, and snaps shut reassuringly. It's not quite as solid in its closing and docking as the SP was, but it's certainly an improvement over the Lite, which had a hinge motion that seemed tight in all the wrong places as well as snapping into place when opened.

Nintendo has opted to do away with the glossy finishes with the DSi, which should be great news for fingerprint and microscratch worriers everywhere. The new finish is pretty close to godly, actually; in addition to looking great and refusing to show all but the oiliest of fingerprints, it feels tremendous too... just the right amount of grip without actually being rough.

While we're on the subject of feel, special attention must be paid to the system's d-pad and buttons. Continuing with the theme of going back to the good old days, DSi eschews the rubber-dome switches of the Lite and goes back to the clicky buttons and d-pad that the first DS as well as the GBA SP had—albeit with slightly more keytravel than those models, which is definitely a good thing. The L and R buttons take the cake entirely; they're the best I've ever felt on any Nintendo handheld—still clicky, with great travel and a definitive feel to them.

The sound quality through speakers is markedly improved over both the Lite and even the original DS. Full volume is just under the threshhold where it can become painful, and is fuller—sporting slightly more bass and a much more well-rounded sound, though it's still far from the point where it could be mistaken for a good set of speakers. Headphones work pretty much just as well as they have on any DS prior—at least with DS games; DSi games may achieve a new level of fidelity, but we're not able to check that just yet. Volume is now controlled by digital controls on the side of the unit instead of via sliders. I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of this design choice, primarily because it provides just seven levels of volume in addition to mute, half of which are too quiet. I need more control here.

But it does provide one other thing I am absolutely a fan of: in-game brightness control, at last. By holding SELECT and pressing the + and - buttons on the side of the unit, you can adjust the screens' brightness, in any game. Now, there is one tiny catch: whatever game you play is going to see you pressing SELECT, which may cause some problems. While it would have been nice to have a dedicated button for this, I haven't actually had any trouble with it in the games I've tested thus far.


The levels of brightness themselves have been a bit confusing for people, I think—especially given that Nintendo themselves are noting a sharp drop in battery life at the DSi's highest brightness setting. I compared my Lite and the DSi side-by-side, with roughly equivalent displays, and while there were slight differences, it seems that both system's lowest level is equivalent (for the sake of clarity, we'll call this "level 1"); level 4 is also roughly equivalent, though levels 2 and 3 seem a bit staggered—in both cases, the DSi's level seems slightly darker than the Lite's.

Of course, making this judgment could be complicated by what appears to be an even better screen on the DSi. The color temperature is a bit cooler and colors more saturated than they were on the Lite, as I was particularly delighted to note when I loaded up Avalon Code in the ice cave and marvelled at the deep blue ice, markedly more saturated than it appeared on the Lite. It's not as dramatic a difference as we got out of the Lite vs. the classic DS, but it's still noticeable. And regardless, the DSi's level 5 brightness is definitely brighter than anything the Lite can achieve.

Still, brightness isn't the only reason that the DSi might run its batteries low a little faster than its predecessor. Underneath the battery door is an 840 mAh battery—it has 16% less capacity than the DS Lite with its 1000 mAh battery. It's definitely smaller than the Lite's battery; it's probably sized this way to keep the system light and lean. The difference is probably going to be negligible in the long run, but I've not had the system long enough to say one way or the other (and in any event, my DS Lite is much older, and lithium ion batteries don't hold quite the charge they originally did after a few years.)

If you're familiar with the bright red light from the original DS that told you it was time to save, now, the DSi's power indicator will make you feel right at home. Although the power light is now blue and not green, it'll turn red when the battery is low, then start blinking when it's critically low. There's also now a third dedicated light for the wireless connection; typically, it'll be on solid, indicating wireless is enabled (but not active), but it can be disabled in the System Settings. When blinking, it's active.

The charge light works the same as every rechargeable system from Nintendo thus far; it's orange when charging and goes out when complete. The charger that comes with the system is a new design, with a new plug. It's a bit bulkier but still has the swing-out prongs, but it also puts out twice the current as the Lite's charger—900 mA rather than 450 mA—so you can expect a DSi to charge in much less time.

There's no more SLOT-2 for Game Boy Advance games or DS Option Paks (such as the Rumble Pak or the Guitar Hero controller), but there is now an SD Card slot that can be used for a number of things, including storage of photos from the built-in camera and music files for the Sound application as well as software and save data moved off the DSi's internal memory.

And that's as good a segue as any into the system software...