While the Wii is the console in Nintendo's lineup that gets most of the attention for its sales, the DS is always #2 on the US sales charts, month after month. In fact, last December, the Nintendo DS was the first system to sell 3 million units of hardware in one month. With the DS, Nintendo has proven itself the undisputed king of portable gaming, and the company's secret to dominance is simple: constant hardware updates.

Look at how many different variants of the GameBoy there were—like the Advance and the micro—well before the DS grabbed the throne. Then there was the DS Lite, and the various special editions. A serious Nintendo fan might purchase and/or trade in multiple units of each piece of hardware, and Nintendo is hoping that trend continues with its newest update. The DSi is the new iteration of the DS that drops the GBA slot, adds stronger wireless functions, and carries a $40 price increase.

This isn't a new system, and DS Lites will still be sold, but Nintendo clearly wants gamers to get used to the idea of the gaming system itself being a one-stop shop for new content. So don't worry about the cameras or the music features: the DSi is all about buying your games online.

Title Nintendo DSi Manufacturer Nintendo Price $169.99 Buy it now Shop.ars

Thinner, blacker, more productive

On pulling the DSi out of the box, the first thing you'll notice (aside from the massive manual), is that the hardware has gone through a number of cosmetic changes. The plastic is now matte, and the whole unit feels much more solid and heavy in your hand. This new handheld feels like a serious piece of equipment and less like a toy than the previous DS Lite hardware. The DSi is now 12 percent thinner as well, and frankly the whole thing just feels better than its predecessor.

The power button has been moved to the face of the DSi, so you have to open the unit to turn it on or off. The DSi's volume control is now two buttons instead of a slider, and you can adjust the brightness on-the-fly by holding down Select and hitting volume up or down at any time, which is perfect for conserving battery life or adjusting to changing conditions.

The DSi's buttons look and feel very similar to those of my older DS system, and any difference could be chalked up to the DSi being new and the older system being broken-in by a few years of play. The DSi's d-pad is much "clickier," and feels very nice. The new unit's screen is a quarter of an inch larger than that of the older DS, but unless you hold the two systems together you likely won't notice any change. The DSi has a light that shows if you're connected to the Internet, and it sports an SD card slot where the power button used to be. Luckily, the door to the SD slot sits perfectly flush with the side of the hardware, so it's not uncomfortable in your hand.

Unlike the Wii, which until recently was limited to 2GB SD cards, the DSi supports SDHC cards out-of-the-box, so you're free to jam in as big a card as you can find. Very good news. But be aware that games backed up on SD cards won't be playable on other systems, nor will save-game files.

The included charging cable has some cosmetic differences from the DS Lite charging cable, and the connection to the system is different; so the two cables are not compatible in any way.

The DSi will take you through the expected menus and screens when you set things up for the first time, and our advice is to get online first to grab the free Web browser—courtesy of Opera—and get your free 1,000 points for being an early adopter.

A few notes on online connectivity: the DSi supports WPA2, which is a very welcome addition, but your old games won't work with the new protocol. So if you want to jump online with an older title, you'll still need to keep that router setup for WEP. Yes, this is a pain in the ass, but hopefully upcoming games won't have this issue.