I happened across a Nintendo DS in stock at Target the other day, so I figured I'd pick it up. I like it overall, but I have a few issues with it that I figured I'd enumerate just because I haven't had anything else to say for awhile:
- The stylus that comes with the DS is really light, so compared to the hefty Palm stylii I'm used to, it doesn't really feel like I'm holding anything. It's also a lot shorter than Palm stylii, so I'm having to grip it differently.
- It's kind of a lot bigger than I expected, almost to the point of not being easily portable. It's almost the size of two GBA SPs put next to each other. It's not much bigger than an original GBA, but the thickness is a bit of a portability stopper.
- Holding the unit and playing a game with the stylus (Mario 64 in my case) can get pretty tiring on both hands in different ways: My left wrist gets sore from supporting the whole unit + the pressure of me styliing, and my right hand gets sore from gripping.
- On the bright side, the dual screens are really nice and bright. A lot brighter and sharper looking than the GBA SPs, in my opinion.
- Unfortunately, my unit has a dead pixel in the lower right corner of the upper screen, so I'm going to have to call Nintendo about that.
One last issue is that I'm not really sure that the DS is actually going to meet my "portable" gaming needs. In particular, I see problems with the following scenarios:
- Lying in bed, usually on my side, with one eye open and peering at the screen.
- The toilet. Dropping that stylus isn't exactly unlikely.
- While playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the drive to work. ;-)