3DS XL First Impressions/Previews

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So a buddy of mine is manager at a gamestore in Holland (Nedgame), and he had to open up 5 (!) different 3DS XL's to find one that wasn't damaged. Two of them had loose hinges and the other two had the scratches on the screen.

I'm going to wait until Nintendo fixes their shit.

Mine has a loose hinge.
It isn't a fault but rather a feature to alleviate the hinges cracking (as was prominent on the DS Lite) apparently.....
 
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Shitty iPhone pics ahoy!
Damn that's a sexy beast, feels great as well.

please report how comfortable kid icarus is on XL
 
I think the marks is something that happens during the manufacturing. The bottom screen won't leave marks like that, it would leave a straight line; like it did on the 3DS.
The dots are vertically aligned as a line, there are merely 4 of them on each side, so it's not really noticeable if you don't pay attention, but that's also how it started on my 3DS. It could have been there from the start, you are right. I closely checked only after reading about the scratching issue few pages earlier in this thread.
 
Bought a red one this morning. for 179 EUR at Toys'R'Us.

Immediately opened it in my car to check if it's somehow damaged.
Luckily, the hinges are fine, there are no dead or faulty pixels, and the screens aren't scratched.

So far I'm very pleased!

Hopefully, there will be Hori Screen Protectors and a Circle Pad Pro XL available soon...
 
This thread just keeps getting bumped and bumped and the desire to get an XL is getting unbearable~!

I had a Cobalt Red/Cobalt Blue combo for me and my brother back in the DSL days... little guys gave me the best of times, sadly they went away. Seeing the XL launching in pretty much exactly the same color scheme just speaks to my soul!
 
Picked up a red one this morning.

Looking at the XL and my old 3DS side by side it seems the XL's screens are quite a bit warmer. The low DPI is mostly noticeable in menu's and such, games look great.

1:1 mode for old DS games looks amazing, really crisp and unlike on the old 3DS it's displayed at a playable size now. Stretched mode looks terrible, I wish there was a way to set 1:1 as the default mode.

I hoped the system was more comfortable to hold. While it's a vast improvement over the original 3DS it's still not quite as good as it should be.

Overall I'm glad I upgraded.
 
Am I the only one without any scratches on their 3DS? I've been carrying mine in my bag, which is filled with loads of different stuff, I guess about 2kgs, basically everyday for about eight months. So there's always a lot of pressure on it, yet there's not a single scratch on my unit, not even on the screen...
 
The pixel density is definitely a bit jarring at first, I guess I'll get used to it, the d-pad is infinity better, feels a lot more comfortable to hold, speakers are pretty quiet but have a nice warmth to them for their size like the original 3DS.
 
The pixel density is definitely a bit jarring at first, I guess I'll get used to it, the d-pad is infinity better, feels a lot more comfortable to hold, speakers are pretty quiet but have a nice warmth to them for their size like the original 3DS.

Have you tried turning it to stereo? I think someone in here said it had low volume until he turned off surround mode.
 
Am I the only one without any scratches on their 3DS? I've been carrying mine in my bag, which is filled with loads of different stuff, I guess about 2kgs, basically everyday for about eight months. So there's always a lot of pressure on it, yet there's not a single scratch on my unit, not even on the screen...

It's not like every 3DS is prone to scratches. It depends on if the rubber pads are too small or not.
 
If screen scratching really is a problem, I have two extra X360 pads I can use, so I'll just use them.

Hopefully they realize the issue and fix it by the time I get one... :/
 
It's a nice system, looks and feels so much nicer than my old 3DS. I love the big screens too, but...

The speakers are a disaster. Just awful compared to the old ones. Quieter, even less bass, the sound is lo-fi and tinny, reminiscent of the wiimote speaker. The new speakers also got a jarring high-frequency boost (> ~8 khz); aggresive highs are now drowning out the already quiet mids. The result is a cheap, uneven sound. Such a shame.
 
It's a nice system, looks and feels so much nicer than my old 3DS. I love the big screens too, but...

The speakers are a disaster. Just awful compared to the old ones. Quieter, even less bass, the sound is lo-fi and tinny, reminiscent of the wiimote speaker. The new speakers also got a jarring high-frequency boost (> ~8 khz), aggresive highs are now drowning out the already quiet mids. The result is a cheap, uneven sound. Such a shame.

I agree. The speakers are pretty damn bad.
 
The speakers are a disaster. Just awful compared to the old ones. Quieter, even less bass, the sound is lo-fi and tinny, reminiscent of the wiimote speaker. The new speakers also got a jarring high-frequency boost (> ~8 khz); aggresive highs are now drowning out the already quiet mids. The result is a cheap, uneven sound. Such a shame.

How about headphone sound? This may make it or break it for me.
 
The speakers are a disaster. Just awful compared to the old ones. Quieter, even less bass, the sound is lo-fi and tinny, reminiscent of the wiimote speaker. The new speakers also got a jarring high-frequency boost (> ~8 khz); aggresive highs are now drowning out the already quiet mids. The result is a cheap, uneven sound. Such a shame.

Are you on surround sound mode? People have said that stereo mode produces louder sounds, I believe
 
Are you on surround sound mode? People have said that stereo mode produces louder sounds, I believe

I've tried both. It's not much better in stereo mode. Still very quiet compared to the original system.

The sound just lacks punch, which is mostly a result of the lacking mids though and not the poor bass, which can be forgiven on such small speakers. Considering that they had to shrink down the speakers for this iteration, it's no surprise that, in order to compensate for the lacking volume, the boost they received practically only affects the very highest frequencies. At their loudest I've even found them to have a somewhat clangy sound now, for example in SM3DL.
 
So after seeing my new XL had pixel issues, I returned it to Gamestop for a replacement. Originally I chose the blue one, thinking "hey, why not try some color for once!" But after seeing the blue IRL I must say.. it was kinda tacky. The shiny faux metallic finish just doesn't work for me. So I exchanged for the more discreet silver XL (still somewhat tacky :P )

Anyway, new unit is perfect and all is well. I really like it so far.
 
You might not think it but virtual Gameboy games especially using the virtual Gameboy frame is much much better on the XL, makes this system a perfect Gameboy emulator.
 
Bought my Silver today. Sat in its box waiting for screen protectors. :(

I've owned every kind of DS since the Phat and never once used screen protectors. I also never once scratched a screen. My kids have never scratched theirs either. I'm surprised that so many people use the protectors.
 
I've got some initial impressions for you guys, owned the red model for about 6 hours or so now.

In terms of build quality, the unit feels weighty in a good way. It's pretty much the same weight as the DSI XL, which as we know, is one of the best handhelds of all time. It is pretty easy to unclip the shell, presumably so Nintendo can sell special/alternative colour shells in the future. It will be interesting to see how they handle limited edition systems though, if I can just unclip and replace the colour then it makes them less unique .

In terms of size, the 3DS XL is actually a little smaller in width than the DSI XL. It feels good to hold, the slightly curved design feels better on the hands and in general the unit is so much better than the original 3DS for people like me with large hands. My one gripe is that the underside when you place your hands is shiny, and provides less grip than the matte finish I'm used to with the DSI XL. It's not great news for those of us with sweaty palms (like me).

When I first turned the XL on, I was a little disappointed with the max brightness, and the yellow/piss hue that the screens seem to have. The DPI is also jarring, and the main menu in particular doesn't look very good when compared to the orignal 3DS in terms of image clarity and jaggies. Thankfully when playing games, the yellow hue is negligible, or at least to me was pretty much unnoticable. Games look great and vibrant.

3DS Games in general look far more impressive on the 3DS XL, mainly because of the screen size. It's so much more satisfying to play on the larger screen compared to the pitifully small ones of the original 3DS. However, be warned that jaggies are way more noticeable when playing with 3D on. This is just a trade off you have to be willing to make with the DPI. I think it's something I'll adjust to over time just as I did with the DSI XL.

In terms of sound, the speakers just don't seem loud enough. I've not experienced the crackle that others have, and I've not changed it to stereo yet, but in general they don't seem to be particularly high quality.

Overall, in the short time I've handled the system, I'd say the is 3DS XL is a 100% neccessary upgrade if you own an original 3DS. It's better in every way, but it does take a little getting used to. However, I'm not sure its beaten the DSI XL in terms of greatness just yet.
 
It kind of bothers me that the lettering on the outside of some units (silver and red) is dark gray yet light gray on the buttons/d-pad inside, while the white and blue XLs have light gray print for both the inside and outside.

I'm not sure which is the best, either. White is the most uniform in this regard. Silver is still neutral enough to look fine with the flip. Red probably looks more cohesive while the unit is closed, but its overall consistency is sacrificed compared to the blue once you open them.

White and blue probably match most with 3DS carts (and silver and red with regular DS games). But since blue's spine is also black like silver and red, it'd look good with DS carts, too, regardless of its lighter lettering.

Okay. Blue is scientifically the best one.
 
I think for the next year revision the 3DSi will be in same size as the OG 3DS but with a bigger 3D screen

I don't expect another revision until 2015, 2014 the earliest. I remember the DS lite came out in 2006 and DSi didn't come until 2009 (NA/EU/AUS) if I remember correctly.

I don't really see what they could truly revise aside from 3D tech, cameras, and a second nub. We already have big and small
 
anyone take a guess about when the first Screen protectors and cases will be out on Amazon or something? :(

I had a look on Google today and spotted some on Ebay.

£2.99 for two screen protectors: http://tinyurl.com/csj8usk

£4.59 for four screen protectors: http://tinyurl.com/czopzxg

I think i'm going to go for the four screen protectors. I really want to use mine. I've put it away in a draw. Hopefully i'll forget about it (doubt it though). :(
 
I don't expect another revision until 2015, 2014 the earliest. I remember the DS lite came out in 2006 and DSi didn't come until 2009 (NA/EU/AUS) if I remember correctly.

I don't really see what they could truly revise aside from 3D tech, cameras, and a second nub. We already have big and small

I wasn't suggesting adding anything, I was meaning as an excersize in cost saving. The original DS stopped manufacture around the time the lite came out. Obviously this time they're not going to stop selling small ones, so maybe a slight reworking of a small version could happen.
 
I've owned every kind of DS since the Phat and never once used screen protectors. I also never once scratched a screen. My kids have never scratched theirs either. I'm surprised that so many people use the protectors.

I've never outright scratched a screen, but after a few years of heavy use, my DS Lite's lower screen had a significantly rougher texture, and looked "cloudy" towards the middle. I don't think screen protectors are a necessity unless you plan on owning a system for more than two years, and even then it's only really needed on the lower screen.
 
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