www.aerdan.org

Pre-Review Notes

My first experience with Nintendo’s DS platform was through a blue DS-fat given to me by my boyfriend at the time for my birthday, and up until April 2, 2009 I had not turned it in for anything, nor have I acquired a DS Lite. As a result, any comparisons I may make will be restricted solely to the DS-fat vs. the DSi.

At the time of writing, I don’t have a functional card reader, so I regrettably can’t tell you how DSi Sound works as far as playback goes. However, a review of that feature will be provided by Phantasia Knights once he gets his own DSi.

What It Is

The Nintendo DSi is the latest iteration of Nintendo’s dual-screen portable console, featuring two cameras (inner and outer), the standard mic, a somewhat larger screen, and more. Built-in software includes DSi Camera and DSi Sound. Additionally, the DSi includes parental controls for all features.

Appearance and Specifications

The Nintendo DSi is 5.4 inches wide, 0.8 inches long, and 2.9 inches high, or 74.9 mm high × 137 mm wide × 18.9 mm in metric units, when closed. It has a matte finish to prevent fingerprints from showing up. The power button is located near the bottom-left side of the lower touchscreen. The stylus and SD card slots are on the right-hand side of the case, opposite the volume buttons, which are now on the left-hand side.

The cameras are positioned on the hinge and on the outside edge of the top screen’s case, and are 0.3 megapixels. This means that the pictures it takes are 640×480 at most. The built-in system memory is 256MB, allowing the DSi to take 412 pictures by default.

Software

The Nintendo DSi comes with two programs onboard and the capacity to buy more through the DSiWare shop, as well as region-specific parental controls. Additionally, you may access the system settings, DS Download Play, and PictoChat.

The parental controls are easy to use and to set up, with a simple step-by-step wizard provided by Nintendo for configuring it during the configuration process. With it, you can restrict access to all features via a 4-digit PIN as well as a security question in case you forgot your PIN. Unfortunately, the security questions are built-in and not user-selectable.

The first program, DSi Camera, allows you to take pictures using the DSi’s built-in cameras, as well as organize the pictures you took. Additionally, it comes with ten filters, all of which can be used both while taking pictures and when browsing the album. Its tutorial introduces you to all of the features of the program and two filters, the Distortion filter and the Mirror filter.

The DSi Shop is pretty spiffy; you can choose from four tiers what software to look through: Free, 200 Points, 500 Points, and 800+ Points. You can also purchase more DSi Points [the DSi comes with 1000 free points when you first access it]. There are six DSiWare launch titles, of which one is free [the DSi Browser]. It’s somewhat slow-going, however, but your patience will be rewarded.

The system settings are greatly revised from the configuration system provided on the original DS and notably different in colour from the other applications provided. Additionally, unlike in the original DS, you can configure the DSi’s wifi directly, rather than needing a wifi-enabled cartridge and configuring it through there.