New DS Model Announced
As many have been predicting, Nintendo has announced a new model of their handheld, the DS. It’s called the DSi and the model features a larger screen, despite its overall smaller size, 12% smaller than the standard DS.
Nintendo has done away with the GBA cartridge slot and added an SD card slot for downloadable games. There’ll be a DSWare store where you can purchase titles for 200, 500 and 800 points. There will also be free titles available, including an internet browser and a program that’ll allow you to create moving comics.
Early reports suggested that there would be music support and this is true. Unfortunately although the DSi will have a built-in media player it will only support AAC files and not MP3s.
With the larger screen and smaller overall size it’s no surprise that the battery life is going to be shorter. At the lowest brightness setting the DSi lasts 9-14 hours while the standard DS lasts for 15-19. At the highest screen setting the DSi lasts 3-4 hours while the DS lasts 5-8.
It will feature a 0.3 megapixel camera, which takes pictures at a 640×480 resolution although with no flash the pictures will definitely be of dubious quality without excellent lighting.
The system is currently only planned for release in Japan starting November 1st with a price tag of about $180.