Will the production of the new Nintendo DSi LL (Dubbed DSi XL in Europe) provide a more comfortable gaming experience for the larger DS gamer? Stageselect.com wrote a review titled "Dsi LL - Does Size Matter" as a means of investigating the differences and enhancements of the new DS. With the Dsi being under a year old, does the production of this system indicate some sort of pressure felt by Nintendo? Will this pressure mean poor craftsmenship of the console? With it's Japanese release on November on the 21st and predicted Q1, 2010 for Euorpean players, Nintendo fans will just have to wait that little longer because this new console hits the shelves.

The primary difference in the new DSi, named the LL in Japan, is it's overall larger design. For users, this means a nearly 20% fuller pocket. But the benefit can be seen, literally, in the significantly larger dual screen displays, which each measure 4.25 inches diagonally. This is no doubt an upgrade that tries to compete with Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) by providing gamers with a larger, more comfortable gaming experience. One thing we'd like to know is if the larger touch screen comes with a finer degree of control and sensitvity when using the stylus, or if it is simply a magnification of the current DSi model.

From these initial images (courtesy of Nintendo Japan) it is clear that there are several other design alterations to the Nintendo DSi LL. The second most prominent, next to the larger dual screens, is the choice of a more "pen-like" stylus, complete with pocket clip. This will hopefully provide a more comfortable game play experience especially when enjoying games like Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, which is controlled exclusively by the DSi stylus. Clearly, should the LL become scheduled for an American release, we would expect this design to most likely be altered based on the region.

Additional design changes in the Nintendo DSi LL include reorganized speaker outputs, which leaves us hoping that improved speakers might be engineered into the unit. The Dsi LL adopts the same designs as the original DSi when it comes to button layouts with the only difference being their proximity due to the larger 4.25" screens.

Dragoon via stageselect.com »