Hasta La Gadget!

Editors’ Note: Since the DSi Shop has not gone live yet–and it’s a major selling point for the product–we’re holding off on giving the DSi a final rating. Once we’ve had some time with the online functionality of the DSi (after its official launch on April 5), we’ll be able to appropriately assign a rating.

Just four and a half years after its initial release, the Nintendo DS has sold more than 100 million units worldwide, solidifying itself as the best-selling portable video game console of all time. By comparison, the competing Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) has sold about half as many units.

The Nintendo DSi is the third iteration of the DS, which originally released in November of 2004. In June of 2006, the company refreshed the system in the form of the DS Lite, which dramatically changed the device’s overall form factor and vastly improved screen performance.

Rumors of a second redesign proved to be a reality when Nintendo announced the most recent–and what we believe to be the final–rehash of the system, the Nintendo DSi. This upgrade adds two small-resolution cameras to the portable, slightly larger screens, and an SD card slot. The Game Boy Advance slot found in both previous versions has been removed.

While current DS Lite owners may want to think twice about upgrading, the DSi’s innovative media features and online functionality (the DSi Shop) may warrant a purchase. But if you’ve been holding out on a DS purchase up until now and you don’t need backwards compatibility with Game Boy Advance cartridges, the DSi is certainly the way go.

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