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Review: Nintendo DS Lite

Nintendo DS Lite 8/10 Learn How We Rate Wired Best games. Most creative interface. 19-hour battery life. WiFi multiplayer action is easy to set up. Tired Web browser is available only on a cartridge — sold separately. No multimedia playback. Buy It Now | Nintendo How We Rate 1/10A complete failure in every way 2/10Sad, really […]
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Rating:

8/10

WIRED
Best games. Most creative interface. 19-hour battery life. WiFi multiplayer action is easy to set up.
TIRED
Web browser is available only on a cartridge — sold separately. No multimedia playback.

Others Tested
Sony PSP-3000 $170
It may look like it hasn't been refreshed in four years, but the new PSP-3000 has a brighter screen and is 33 percent lighter and 19 percent thinner than the original model. You can download and play classic titles from your PS3, browse the Web over Wi-Fi, and play back media off a Memory Stick. Pity that the PS2-like game lineup is still so weak.

After more than two years of Moore's law, the DS Lite seems hopelessly outclassed: two smallish screens and, other than gaming, no native multimedia or computing functions — no match for its oft-refreshed rival, right? But that's all it needs to be arguably the best handheld ever made. Its touchscreen continues to impress, allowing Nintendo's fun masters to come up with crazy new ideas, make puzzle games more intuitive, and add new challenges to old favorites. Ultimately, it's impossible to get bored with the DS Lite, considering the insanely large catalog of titles.