Is the DSi worth the dosh?

The Nintendo DSi - successor of sorts to the twin-screened DS Lite - arrives on April 3rd, priced at £149.99. Many retailers are already offering pre-order schemes, anticipating that we’ll be falling over ourselves to obtain one come launch day. So, what does the DSi do and is it worth your money?

From the outside things look remarkably similar. New fingerprint-resisting matte finish aside, the boxy clamshell looks pretty much the same and the choice of black or - ooh! - white colourways does little to distinguish the DSi from its immediate predecessor. However, look a little closer and you’ll spot a handful of key differences.

First size. The DSi is 12% thinner than the previous model, thus sparing you, the shy and retiring consumer, from any unsightly pocket bulge-related embarrassment. It’s a touch lighter too. Does either factor make a sod of difference to functionality? In a word, heck no.

Eagle-eyed users will notice a few more significant disparities from the outside, though. The power button has gone, for starters. It’s now on the inside, apparently because consumer research indicated that we all like it there. Another casualty is the gaping hole that allowed gamers to plug in the old-style GameBoy Advance carts. Instead we find a tidier SD memory card slot - more on that in a moment. Meantime you might feel a little aggrieved that backwards compatibility is now kaput. We surely do…

But onwards and upwards, and another external change is the addition of a 0.3 megapixel camera. Open the unit up and there’s another one on the hinge. The resolution wouldn’t rival even the most rubbish mobile phone. However the new DSi comes preloaded with photo-editing software and users will be able to save images to the SD card, export them to PC or share them using the inbuilt Wi-Fi connectivity. Better still, the cameras are motion-sensing. Thus opening up the intriguing possibility for Wii-style gaming on the go.

Turn the DSi on - having first fumbled for the switch that’s no longer there - and another new feature becomes evident. Nintendo has added a whole quarter inch to the size of the twin-screens. They’re brighter too, albeit at the slight expense of battery life. Reach for the Stylus and you’ll find it around half a centimetre longer. Wahey! And no, we don’t know why Nintendo’s mixing Imperial and Decimal measures either.

Okay. Now for the biggies. The DSi’s processor has been beefed up. The extra power won’t affect back catalogue games, but it does enable the console to manage the new camera/photo editing functions with ease, as well as power the brand new music player that Nintendo’s managed to squeeze in (AAC Audio only, alas). More importantly it means the DSi will be well up to the job of handling future software releases which, technology-allowing and fingers crossed, should be more sophisticated. At least that’s the theory.

A quick, final note on software. Nintendo plans to open up an online DSi Shop channel, where users will be able to use DSi Points to buy assorted games and applications which are then stored on the SD memory card. That’s a neat feature but, disappointingly, many future software releases, whether downloaded or boxed, will be region-locked - meaning no more buying games at foreign airports. And that, coupled with the lack of backwards-compatibility, is a bit of a kick in the teeth for long-term DS fans.

Okay, that’s more or less everything covered. So back to the big questions. The DSi is not the radical next generation of Nintendo handhelds we might have hoped for. Instead it’s an evolutionary step-change that, with a little imagination, may yet take portable gaming in new directions. We'll just have to wait and see about that.

In terms of cost £149.99 is a lot of money. That’s £25 more than the entry-level Xbox 360 ‘Arcade’ and is not very far adrift of the asking price for the Wii. You’d get a game’s worth of change out of £150 if you were buying a PSP 3000 too. If you don’t already own one of the aforementioned you should certainly think carefully before taking the plunge.

In summary, then, the DSi doesn’t (yet) do anything dramatically different or new and it doesn’t stack-up price-wise next to supposedly technically-superior machines. Whether its actually worth the money or not is a different, completely subjective equation, though. Put another way, we know where we’ll be on April 3rd. But will we see you in the queue…?