The Nintendo DS vs. the Nintendo DS Lite
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The Nintendo DS was released in 2004 and in 2006 the DS Lite was released. What is the difference though? Below are the five changes that were made to the Nintendo DS Lite from the original Nintendo DS.
Before the differences are talked it is important to know that the Nintendo DS Lite is only changed in how it looks, there is no differences between it and the Nintendo DS when it comes to playing games and so forth. The Nintend DS Lite plays all the same games as the Nintendo DS.
1. The most noticeable and big difference between the two systems is the new arrangement of the buttons. The button layout was rearranged for the new Nintendo DS Lite. The microphone on the original DS was at the bottom of the case, just below the touch screen. With the new DS Lite that microphone was moved further up, near the hinges. The power button was also moved from the face of the unit, the original position, to the new position on the side of the system. Also, the start and select buttons were moved from the upper-right hand corner to the lower-right hand corner.
2. The second most noticeable difference between the Nintendo DS Lite and the DS is the size. The original Nintendo DS was 5.9″ x 3.3″ and around 1.13″ thick. The new Nintendo DS Lite is now only 5.2″ x 2.9″ and only .85″ thick! The original DS was 9.7 ounces and somehow Nintendo made it lose weight and is now only 7.7 ounces.
What does all of that mean though? What it means is that the Nintendo DS Lite is 42% smaller than the original Nintendo DS system.
Why is this size so important? Many users complained that the Nintendo DS touch screen was located a little too far from the edge. Users said that games like Golden Eye were to hard to play with the touch screen being so far away. This was the cause of a lot of uncomfortableness as you played games over a long period of time. With the smaller size of the Nintendo DS Lite this problem has now been solved.
3. The Nintendo DS system was definitely shrunk in size. One thing that did not shrink, thankfully, was the screen size. The Nintendo DS and the DS Lite screen size are the exact same size. The thing that did change was the brightness. The Nintendo DS Lite is now much like the Sony PSP. The new Nintendo DS Lite now has four levels of brightness. If you want you are able to dim the screen to save battery life or you can play with bright light and lose battery faster.
4. Just like the new iPod shuffles, the new Nintendo DS Lite comes in multiple colors. You are now able to buy the Nintendo DS Lite in a bright white color, resembling that of the iPod, and both a light and dark blue. These colors are compared to the original Nintendo DS that was launched with only black and steel gray and there was a special blue edition that Pepsi used during promotions. Although this isn’t a very significant change it will allow you to have variety in what you buy.
5. The original Nintendo DS system had a short stylus that was located on the short side of the system. With the new Nintendo DS Lite has changed the system by adding a longer stylus. It is possible for them to make a longer stylus because Nintendo placed it along the long side of the system.
Although there were no changes done to the actual system, just to its appearance, the changes are noticeable and, for extreme gamers, they may just be enough to make you buy the new Nintendo DS Lite.