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Most of you will have heard of this new, updated verison by now, but for those who haven't been keeping up lately I've wrote a little topic about the newest handheld from Nintendo: The Nintendo DSi!

So far there are two versions of the DS. The [url]http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/1161-closedrear.jpg]original version[/url] and the Lite. It was announced near the end of 08 that the DSi is due to be released in Spring.

In each of these seperate words there is a link to a different image.

Wow, took a while to type that sentence...

The DSi features a built in cameras on the outer shell and hinge, 12% smaller handheld with larger and brighter screens and enhanced speakers (Louder, clearer), 4 x as much memory as the original DS and Lite, new matte finish to get rid of "those unslightly fingerprint marks". (Quoted from ONM.) As well as the new DSi Shop, SD card slot, ability to play music on your console, and much, much more.

Release dates

(Taken from Wikipedia.)

The system was first released in Japan on November 1, 2008 for ¥18,900 (tax included; ¥18,000 before tax)[13] in matte black and matte white.[8] In Japan, Nintendo had shipped 200,000 DSi units for its launch.[14][15] During its first two days on sale in Japan, the DSi sold 170,779 units according to Enterbrain;[16][17] or 171,925 units according to Media Create.[18][19] In its first month on sale, the DSi sold 535,379 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain;[20] in comparison to 550,000 DS Lites sold in its launch month.[21] In its first two months of availability, the DSi has sold 1,280,000 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain.[5]

The DSi will be available in Australia on April 2, 2009 for AUD$300 and in Europe on April 3, 2009 for £149.99 in matte black and matte white.[2][3] It will be released in the United States on April 5, 2009 and will be available in matte black and matte blue, for US$169.99[4] and CAD$199.95 in Canada.[22]


Like I said, there's much more to the console. Too much for me to type. xD I'd like to hear your views and opinions on the DSi? I know I'll be begging for one for my birthday.

hmmm...my brother just got a plain DS
he's going to be mad about this

I've been following this since before the system released in Japan. I'm excited for the system to reach the US. I just hope Nintendo doesn't shoot itself in the foot like it had done in the past.

I find it odd that the Americas are the only ones not getting the original white color, but instead get black and sky blue colors.

Overall, I see the system as a big plus.
I had a DS but upgraded to DSLite. When I did I found myself not using the GBA slot all that much. I much rather have an SD Card slot, built-in memory, and DSiWare instead of a GBA slot.

The cameras are completely random but I'm interested in their use when it comes to games.

Yeah, the cameras are random. Though I hear there is going to be a small image editing software, similar to the one in the Photo channel on the Wii. So maybe that'll be entertaining for a few..minutes.

Also I agree about the GBA slot thing. I'd also rather have what you mentioned, however I'm a fan of the older Pokemon games and it would be nice to be able to play one of my favourites like Emerald on the new handheld. Ah well.

That's pretty much what Nintendo is doing with the DSi instead of making a brand new system: Remaking the DS to be very similar to the Wii. In a general sense, the DSi took the Wii's Photo Channel and turned it into two different features. One is the Photo taking and editing feature, and the other is a music player (the Wii's Photo Channel is able to play ACC music files during slide shows).
And now the DSi has its own Shop Channel to buy DSiWare (WiiWare, see the resemblance?). The one thing I really hope Nintendo does is release the DSi's version of the Wii's Virtual Console. I would so love to buy old Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and maybe even Game Boy Advance games and play them off of the DSi.
However, nothing about such feature has been said... yet.

The DS Lite was an improvement.

This is just milking people for money. Some of those improvements are nice, but there's always a drawback to smaller hardware - it breaks more easily than the version it replaced. The Wii's features are cool, but to port them to a handheld is a little overkill in my opinion. But that's just me.

I'm not sure weather I'm pulling this out of thin air but i seem to recall somewhere someone saying both screens are touch screens. That would be interesting, but one question whats the I in DSI stand for anyway.

That was just a rumor. It up before when the DSLite was coming out. It was wrong that time, too.

Nintendo had said that the 'i' has two meanings: 'i' as in the cameras are like eyes for the DS. Or 'i' as in the personal aspect of the system (the new ability to theme and personalize the system to your liking).



Actually, it's right around the same size as a Lite. It is slightly thinner, but a bit longer (wider screens).
I think the DSi is the true DS system. My reasoning:take a look at the release of the first DS and the GBA slot. The GBA slot was pretty just Nintendo's fallback plan in case the DS system and games didn't sell all that well (one wouldn't feel too bad for buying such a system because he could still play GBA games on it). We've well passed that scenario.

How can I convert the new Nintendo DSi from Japanese to English? I just recently bought a Nintendo DSi from a store where they receive merchandise right from Japan. The man at the register said that there IS a way to convert it, but to look online for help. Unfortunately, the sites I'm looking at are just announcements and/or are in Japanese. Any thing in English?

There is no way to convert a Japanese DSi to be English on par with the actual English systems. Though still able to play any DS game on the market, the DSi system is region locked with any DSi specific applications, games, ect.

If there happens to truly be a way to unlock the system, it will have no place here. Such modifications will void the warranty on the system.

Have you ever taken time to consider that the man you bought it from used that false, if not illegal, reference just to make a sale; a sale that was probably far too expensive when your region's DSi system was only a little wait away?

That would be a neat feature. However, I'm content with my DS Lite, so I don't think I will get a DSi.

Being a Platinum Club Nintendo member, I was invited to try out the DSi this Sunday, weeks before the April 5th release of the system in America. If thing's go as planned, I'll go to the event and then post what I think of it here.

Alright, so there was a mix up and I was actually signed for the event on the 29th of March, not the 22nd.

Anyways, the event was held at a local Gamestop past their Sunday closing hours. The Nintendo rep running the show had six black DSi systems and a copy of the yet-to-be-released game Rhythm Heaven. Before we could get our hands on the new system, the rep had us all pose for a series of pictures taken with the DSi camera to be printed at the end of the show. After that, it was on to gaming!

The first things worth of note will be the outside (Note: all of this is coming purely from memory so excuse any inconsistency and I apologize for anything I miss):

Top
+ New matte finish replaces the glossy finish of the DSLite; no more fingerprints!
+ System indicator lights, now three, have moved to the left hinge
--- Later found out what they mean: Right light, shines Blue and Red, indicates battery life; Center light, unknown color, indicates the system is charging; Left light, shines an yellow-orange color, indicates that the DSi is in WiFi mode (new system changes now allow the option to have the DSi constantly on the lookout for WiFi internet access)
+ New camera cannot be missed in the lower right corner. Has a tiny light near the lens that indicates that the outside camera is currently being used when on.

Back
+ DS Card slot in the same place as before.
+ The two hole for a wrist strap or other similar accessory still there, located on the back of the system next to the DS Card slot.
+ New charger plug for the new charger, same location as before.

Right
+ Power Slide (DSLite) replaced by the new SD Card slot
--- Found out that the system is able to use HCSD cards! (means up to the current size of SD Cards can be used, 32GB, and even bigger)
--- Rep said 215MB inboard memory is mainly used for DSi save data while SD cards are used to save DSi applications and games from the DSiShop; it's able to run them off the SD card, as well as moving ACC music files to use with the DSi's new music and sound feature. Both SD Cards and the internal memory can be used to save photos taken with the DSi cameras (able to plug in the SD Card into a Wii to mess around with the picture on the Wii's Photo Channel as well)
+ Stylus compartment located in the same spot as the DSLite
--- New stylus is thinker and longer

Front
+ Area where the GBA slot use to be now solid.
+ Headphones and mic input in the same location.

Left
+ New volume controls located right around the same location as the DSLite's power slider, but on the left side of the system.
--- Replaced slider with '+' and '-' buttons.

Inside: Hinge
+ Mic slightly shifted over to the right of the center to make room for the inside camera.

Inside: Top
+ Larger ratio screen.
+ Speakers located slightly lower than the older systems. Now one small oval hole on each side instead of a series of holes.
--- DSi has best speaker tech than the older systems.

Inside: Bottom
+ Face buttons (A, B, X, Y), directional pad, and 'Start' & 'Select' buttons in the same general area as in the DSLite but around a larger ratio touch screen.
+ New Power Button located on the left of the screen, under the directional pad, and about the same height as the 'Start' & 'Select' buttons on the other side.

External Interface
+ All button (A, B, X, Y, R, L, Start, Select, Power) and directional pad now use similar mechanics that were used with the Game Boy Advance SP; button are less squishy and almost instantly click when pressed.

Turning on the system by holding the power button down greets you to the very familiar but somewhat new looking Health and Safety Warning screen. *Touch the Touch Screen to continue*

Whole new interface. Basically, take the channels from the Wii and put them all in one horizontal line on the bottom screen. Top screen is black or can be set to show off a random photo or a selected one. There is an on-screen slider on the bottom that is used to navigate through the line of channels.

The courser starts on the DS Card slot icon to start playing the game that is inserted into the DS Card slot. The the one and only box to the left of this starting location is the System Options, which has an identical look to that of the Wii's System Options. The boxes to the right of the starting location are as followed: Photo & Camera Channel (referring to the applications as channels is easier), Music Channel, DSiShop, Pictochat, Download Play, then a large number of empty boxes that will be filled when you buy other applications and games from the DSiShop.

Tapping on any of the icons will bring a quick animation and start the application.

*Found out that the Power button has a new feature: a soft reset. While in any location within the DSi, be it a game, application, or System Options, tapping the Power Button will automatically bring you back to the Home screen.

System Options
+ Not much can be remembered as far as what is in the options.
+ Found out that you can exit out of all of the System Options and into the Home screen without having to power down and restart the system.

DS Card Slot
+ Works just like the DS Card slot on the DS and DSLite.
+ A new feature allows the DSi to be able to hot swap games; you can change games out while the power is on without worry of damaging the card as long as you're in the Home screen.

Photo & Camera Channel
+ Spotty Memory about this one...
+ When using the camera, the top screen shows the last picture you've taken and the bottom screen shows what the current camera being used is seeing as well as a row of different and unique 'lenses' on the top and some control like "Shoot" (takes the picture), "Switch" (switches to the other camera), and "Back" (pulls back to the previous screen and eventually back to the Home screen).
+ Forgot what A, B, and Y buttons do, but the X button switches cameras, R and L buttons both shoot the camera, and left and right on the directional pad changes lenses.
+ There is an on-screen button somewhere that strings your photos into a slideshow (similar to the Photo Channel on Wii)
+ With the on-board memory alone (around 215MB) you can save about 430 pictures with the cameras.
+ Able to chose where to save the photos, to the on-board memory or SD Card.

Music Channel
+ Spotty Memory about this one...
+ Able to record and play back your own sound files with the mic.
+ Able to play back and mess around with ACC music files. You can play them while the DSi is closed and it'll still play through headphones.

DSiShop
+ The shop wasn't online. It will launch for testing a day or two in advance of the April 5th release date.
+ Signing onto the DSiShop with your DSi between the launch date and mid October will net you 1,000 free Nintendo points to use in the DSiShop.
+ You'll be able to buy Nintendo Points cards from stores (previously called Wii Point cards) and input the code into either the Wii or the DSi to use in the respected Shops. Once a card is used with a system, you won't be able to send those points to the other system.
+ You'll be able to buy Nintendo Points with a credit card through the DSi.
+ Reps know what will be on the DSiShop near the launch but do not know what will be available from the start.
+ I asked about a Game Boy VC for the DSi: Is considered a myth. He said it would be really cool to see.

Pictochat
+ Same thing as the Picochat on DS and DSLite.
+ No WiFi support.
+There is new pen to go with the black and eraser, rainbow. Didn't find out how to use it; there didn't seem to be an icon for it.

Download Play
+ Same as on the DS and DSLite.