DS Lite Price, Launch Date Announced

Kotaku has word on the launch date and price point for the DS Lite, the second version of Nintendo's popular handheld console. From the article: "Nintendo today launched a thousand smiles when they finally confirmed that the DS Lite, svelte brother to the bulky, yet handsome DS, will indeed be coming to the States. The DS Lite will officially go on sale here on June 11 for a mere $130. The only official color announced thus far is that finger print ready white that seems so popular among the iPod set."

Comments

Form and Function

[dancingmad]

The DS Lite is an amazing little machine. It combines the sexiness of Apples machines along with the sturdiness of Nintendo's.

I have a white I bought here in Japan (it matches my cell phone, iBook, and iPod), but the Navy Blue seems to be far and away the most popular color. However, I keep the white one in a case and while it does get a little smudgy, it hasn't got really dirty by any stretch of the imagination. And while it sees far more physical use than my iPod (which is in a pretty sturdy case) or my iBook (which is not moved very often and hooked up to an external keyboard and mouse) it is scratch free.

Compared to the phat DS it's amazing (I had one of those before selling it on Yahoo Japan's auction site shortly before the Lite came out) and while the former felt like a hand abortion, this one is light and absouletely a blast to use.

I have no doubt that at least Navy Blue is coming out in the U.S.; it's far too popular not to. The only issue is that when the Lite launched here, the two blue models were delayed by a week or two, because of manufacturing errors, so they launched later than the white machine.

Moreover, the brighter screens are great. Games that I only played on the phat DS, like Kirby, Jump Superstars, and Dragonquest Slime look really vibrant on the new screen(s).

Anyone looking to get one should defintely invest in a semi-decent case and screen protectors (especially for the bottom touch screen).