When Nintendo came out with their DS handheld gaming system, the dual-screen (DS), touch screen and microphone were revolutionary. Now Nintendo has introduced a new entry in the DS line – the Nintendo DSi. The “i”  or “eye” represents the addition of two cameras. The Nintendo DS Lite is still available at $129.00. The new DSi is currently selling for $169. We decided check out the advantages of the new Nintendo the DSi to see if it is worth the extra cost.

As shown in Figure 1, the Nintendo DSi comes in an attractive box. As indicated by the red sticker on the box, when we received our DSi, Nintendo had a promotion offering 1,000 points which could be used to purchase games in the Nintendo DSi store. The selection of games is quite limited. At this writing there were only 20 games listed and’’ most of them were not too exciting. However, it is expected that the number and quality of the games in the DSi store will increase rapidly.

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Figure 1: The Nintendo DSi in the box.

At the current time the DSi comes in only two colors, black and bright turquoise blue. We reviewed the blue DSi. As shown in Figure 2, the contents of the box include the DSi, a Quick Start Guide, an Operations Manual, an extra stylus, and a charging cord. The plug on the charging cable folds down nicely. This not only saves space, but makes the charger easier to pack when you want to take it on the road with you. Unfortunately, the charger uses a new connection, so you cannot use the cable from the DS or DS Lite with the DSi. So far, every new version of the DS has used a different charging cable.

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Figure 2: What’s in the box.