Should you buy a DSi?

Keeping abreast of modern technology is a constant battle with your conscience. Each month seems to bring a new gadget that does something ever so slightly better than a gadget you already own, and it's all too easy to get swept along with the hype and make purchases that aren't strictly necessary, only to rue your hasty choice when your credit card statement arrives some days later.

Nintendo's forthcoming DSi is a case in point. While it's far from being an all-new console, it does offer some tangible improvements (and, some might argue, drawbacks) on the existing DS Lite hardware.

But is it worth picking one up?

Allow us to put your mind at rest by briefly skimming through the various positive and negative aspects of this new machine. Hopefully by the time you've digested this feature, you'll be better placed to decide if the DSi is the machine for you, or if you're happy to stick with what you know and hold onto your trusty DS Lite (or, if you're a stubborn traditionalist, your aging DS 'phat').

Aesthetic appeal

Let's be honest here, the original DS 'phat' looked like it had fallen out of the ugly tree and sustained disfiguring injuries on every branch on the way down. The DS Lite proved to be a facelift of truly epic proportions, granting fans the machine they probably should have gotten from day one.

The DSi isn't quite as drastic a design change, but it does look (and feel) more agreeable. The matt surface ensures that nightmarish smudgy finger marks will be a thing of the past and the slimmer frame (12 per cent thinner, fact fans) makes the system even more portable.

Technological advances

The most striking improvement in terms of hardware is the presence of larger screens - 3.25 inches in size, up from 3 inches on the DS Lite.

These displays now accommodate five brightness settings (the DS Lite had four) but it's worth noting that thanks to all this technological tomfoolery battery life is approximately 9 to 14 hours on the lowest brightness setting - a drop from the 15 to 19 hours of its ancestor. This is because the DSi uses a 840mAh battery instead of a 1000mAh variant, as was the case with the DS Lite.

Elsewhere, Nintendo has included the ability to 'hot swap' games, which means you no longer have to power down the system to load up a fresh title. Under the bonnet there's more RAM and the CPU is also more powerful, which logically means that the machine is capable of hosting more advanced software.

Nintendo has hinted that DSi-specific games will make an appearance, but common sense would suggest that developers will ignore the additional power and continue to cater mainly for the existing DS Lite hardware - at least until the DSi gains a significant foothold, anyway. In short, don't expect to see a dazzling standard of graphical opulence from day one.

Import fanatics might also want to note that DSi software is likely to be region-locked, meaning that US and Japanese games won't function on a UK DSi.

Read the full article here: Should you buy a DSi?