This one is to blame for my recent on-line absence... I love it (repeat this 100 times to get the feel of what I feel about it).

As the new 3DS hit the market and as it recently "suffered" in a price drop so did its predecessor Nintendo DS Lite. I was thinking about getting myself a handheld for quite a while but never, until recently have I gone through with it. Now 3DS did seem appealing but I think it still does not offer as much as I would want from a 3D handheld and games that I was mainly interested in do not need 3D to be awesome so I opted for a DS Lite (since DSi costs almost the same as 3DS). I snatched myself an used and refurbished to mint condition DS Lite for Euro60 from Ebay - if I had more patience or would have settled with a different colour I might have gotten it for even less. This was an amount of money that seemed reasonable for me to spend for a handheld. Surprisingly (for me) these ones still sell like honey.

Did I mention I love it?

Now the screens are quite small, each of them is 3", later DS models feature larger screens - I admit I was a bit afraid these won't do it for me since my phone has a bigger screen but after a few minutes of playing my first DS game (Pokemon Pearl) the size of the screens seems just perfect! The picture is clear, graphics surprisingly good. The lover screen is touch screen and you operate it with a stylus that comes with the console - the screen is really responsive and precise.

You play games with a cross pad, a,b,x,y buttons, start, select buttons and L and R buttons combined with stylus. First I thought that taking the stylus in and out will be a bit of a hassle with games that have combined use but I soon realized that it comes very natural - for example with Pokemon Pearl I can fight battles either with keys only or with combination with stylus and I don't even realise when stylus gets in my hands, it just is there and I just touch, touch and touch.

Love it!

Whenever you play a game and need to finish it up quickly you can just close the console and it goes to sleep mode.

I am surprised at the battery life this console has, at full screen brightness the battery lasted for more than 7 hours! Charging time is 3 hours, a bit long but you can play games while charging.

This console does not have internet browser sadly but a special cartridge for that can be purchased (soon to be in my possession). It does have a wi-fi connection - although it is said that this is unlikely I had to manually set my connection - instructions on Nintendo official page were really clear though and my wi-fee was working fast enough.

It is quite light and sleek, quite handy to carry around to. It feels good in the hands and buttons are really responsive. It has a solid feel to it, I would not exactly be throwing it on the floor but it feels like it would not break.

It also has a slot for GBA games which is good, if you have any.

I personally love this one and do not regret buying it. If you value gameplay more than flashy graphics I would say that buying this DS model would be for you. It certainly was a good decision for me.