JOEyGADGET

First impressions of the Nintendo DS Lite, after the initial disarming experience of opening the (self-contained-disco-ball-in-a-box) in which it arrived.

The DS Lite is:

• wonderfully brighter than the original DS
• pleasantly smaller than the original DS
• has a glossy white finish that looks and feels like an iBook
• fixes the original’s too-easy-to-shut-off-by-accident power button with a slider switch like the PSPs
• moves the original’s built-in mic front and center, below the top screen
• has a pop-out dummy card to protect the lower, front GBA cart slot
• is so much smaller than the original, GBA carts plugged in stick out like an ugly tongue
• and lastly, requires me, when playing the excellent shooter Metroid Prime: Hunters, to poise my left pinky in a way that’s similar to how I sometimes oh-so-naturally hold a martini glass, and is necessary here to balance the DS Lite in order to shoot

As for whether I’ll suffer the hand and wrist numbing affliction I get when I play my PSP (pinkies thankfully curled under in a manly fashion), I haven’t played the DS Lite enough yet to say.