The DSi XL I bought today (my review, of sorts)

delorean_2

Got mine today at Asda. 135 pounds total.

I got the dark brown one after I tried both colours at a Game store earlier this morning. The dark brown is more or less black and the light brown offset-tone is more like a bronze colour.

When you see both colours in person they both look very different to the marketing photos.

As for wondering if it was worth buying? Well, that was my pondering point too. Here's what I think, hope this debunks a few of the rumours going round online about the device from folk that 99.9% probably don't even own one.

1. The dark brown colour does not resemble the tone of post-Pepto faecal matter. If anything, personal preference of course, I think the wine colour makes the device resemble the old Oil Factory Game & Watch handheld.
2. This is the important part, the screens. I'll just say it right now, THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY FLIPPIN' ENOURMOUS. Seriously. No exaggeration needed.
3. Do the HUGE screens equal blocky graphics? Actually no they do not. I'm not 94 years old, and ran a few games on the DSi XL this evening and noticed no problems with the display resolution at all. However you will notice some stretching on the inital DSi XL health warning screen, but that's fairly throwaway. In the games themselves I noticed no issues. If anything, games look better on the DSi XL. FACT.
4. The sound quality is vastly improved, especially over the DS Lite, which is what I was upgrading from today. Very loud, very clear. Job done.
5. Why Nintendo felt the need to load a DUTCH version of Brain Training on the DSi XL along with a separate English version is beyond me. Cost cutting across the two markets perhaps? Either way, it's no issue, essentially it's a bonus (if you speak and read Dutch).
6. THE DSi XL IS NOT HEAVY! IT'S MASSIVE, YES, BUT IT IS NOT HEAVY AT ALL. DON'T KNOCK THIS FACT UNTIL YOU'VE HELD ONE YOURSELF!
7. Certain games really are much aided by the larger screens. Especially FIFA 10 which I tried today. The larger display just makes you feel a bit more immersed in the action.

To summarise, don't listen to the negative rumour mill. Make up your own mind up if you think it's worth the upgrade. I certainly think it is, I'm delighted with my DSi XL. As stated earlier I was concerned that the screen size upgrade was not enough to sway me.

It's only when you actually SEE and FEEL and USE the device that you realize just what an upgrade this is. The bonus for me, upgrading from a DS Lite, is I get to hold on to my GBA games, my Rumble Pack and should I decide to buy Guitar Hero, the guitar grip.

If you own a DSi already I'd have a think long and hard before you decide to upgrade. Especially because you will lose all your DSiWare and points. Choose wisely. Personally if I had a DSi already I would not upgrade.

But by God, those screens... :eek:

I'm a happy customer, but I do strongly recommend before buying one that you go see one in the [STRIKE]flesh[/STRIKE] plastic first. For me, as aforementioned, when I saw the screens in person, that was the 'find cashier, throw money at them as fast as you can and, once purchased, run out the store and run, all the way home, and don't stop until you get there to hastily unbox it' moment.

THE BOTTOM LINE? Don't knock the DSi XL until you've tried it.

ARTHUR

I haven’t seen the tech details of the dsi xl but I always thought removing the gba port in the dsi version was a BIG mistake as you lose all the gba+colour back catalogue of games which makes people less eager to upgrade if they know they will no longer be able to play all their old games

bob_man_uk

i never really bought into the DS thing, im not even a big console fans, but when i saw it i was really interested by the size of the screen, mokingly joking that i hope the adverts i saw around the westfield were life size representations :P saying that, i would love to see the thing in real life before i make a decision, like the latest psp that was released, the flip one, looks good, but since i never saw one irl, its not really done much to entice me.

delorean_2

If you are keen on the PSP Go! I would hold on a bit longer, you could be able to get one for a rock bottom price. Apparently sales of the PSP GO! worldwide have been absolutely abysmal.

Maybe a price drop soon?

As for the DSi XL, I'd definitely stress again that you really do need to see it in real life to understand just how big those screens are and how surprisingly lightweight it is.

For example I was playing Space Invaders Extreme 2 for quite some time on the XL. I switched back to the DS Lite to carry on from a save game. Even playing an RPG is greatly improved. The difference is quite staggering once you are used to the XL displays.

Sure, I'm championing what some may see as a money-milker, but I guess a similar elation was felt by buyers of the DS Lite who upgraded from the original 'Phat' model.

sickparrot

My daughter has just jumped from the DS lite to one of these, it seems to be pretty good, nice large clear displays, i never have the sound on so I can't comment on that.

My only moans are, the browser is very slow, even on a 10mbit broadband link that my laptop spanks all over, even mostly text based pages take an age to load. The other dissapointment is it won't work as a picture viewer for jpegs on an SD card, haw hard would that have been nintendo?

kirkeastment

Does the DSi XL have a matte finish(no fingerprints), or is it glossy like the DSlite.(fingerprints everywhere)

fatgit

do you have a dog?

jamespir

fatgit wrote: »

do you have a dog?

no do you ?

poppy10_2

delorean wrote: »

If you own a DSi already I'd have a think long and hard before you decide to upgrade.

I don't think the XL was intended to be an 'upgrade' to the original DSi - it's more for the oldies who could not use a normal DSi because their eyes are too feeble to see the smaller screen and their hands too arthritic to press the smaller buttons. Really, by the time you get to that age you should be planning your funeral rather than playing space invaders

fatgit

:mad::mad:

jamespir wrote: »

no do you ?

no....

:eek:


:A

kirkeastment

The DSi XL was made to be more family/viewer friendly, so that others around you can see what your playing and see what sort of game it is.

In a way you could say its Ninty's form of product placement.

Your there on a bus/train/plane, playing Mario Kart on your DSi XL, and some kid in the next aisle can see what your playing, due to the larger screens.

He/She then asks what game your playing, kid then begs mum/dad for the game/maybe even console if he doesn't have one, and bam, Ninty makes another sale, and all due to the fact that this kid could see from 2 meters away what game you were playing.

Ingenious.