Nintendo finally let us have a good look at the 3DS hardware. The reps working the floor at a New York press event said the consoles were in their final version, and they looked and felt good—we found the 3D wasn't disorienting or painful in short stints. But some of the other specs like battery life, reasonable playtimes, and camera resolution seemed to be sensitive subjects.

No brand reps would speak on the subject of battery life, instead pointing us toward the fact sheet given to the press. The sheet states that players will get 3-5 hours out of the battery when playing 3DS software, and 5-8 hours when playing Nintendo DS software. They note that the figures will differ depending on screen brightness and "what functions of the Nintendo 3DS system are used." So a game that doesn't use the bottom screen much, for example, may get you longer playtimes. Unfortunately, the battery takes as long to charge in its cradle or through an AC adapter as it does to run out: about 3.5 hours, Nintendo says. It seems like five hours for 3D play is a hard limit, but we'll be sure to do extensive testing once our review hardware arrives.

We played around with both the front and back cameras, and at 640x480 pixels, they don't compare too favorably in picture quality to what we're used to seeing from most cell phones today. The two cameras on the back of the console can put together a 3D image, which is pretty cool to see, but it's of course only viewable on the 3DS.

Nintendo hasn't made any details of the operating system available, though in our experience it's very similar to what you see on the Wii—big, friendly-looking buttons that you can scroll through to get to settings and other locations. Options were pretty sparse on the demo models, but it was easy enough to navigate.

True to Nintendo's promises, pressing the Home button took us right out of the game and pulled up the menus on the lower screen. Selecting the current game's button allowed us to pick up right where we left off.

The gyroscope worked well enough during our time with Steel Diver, a game that turns the 3DS's screen into a periscope for targeting maritime enemies. Turning around in space let us get a full 360-degree view of the ocean so we could see different ships and submarines to torpedo. The coordination between the gyroscope and the screen was very smooth, though it would be a hard feature to use without standing up or sitting in a swivel chair.

We were really interested in finding out how uncomfortable it would be to play 3D games for an extended amount of time, but all of the games were limited to short demo sessions, so we didn't get much of a chance to put our eyes through their paces. After about five minutes, a screen would pop up reading "Thanks for playing!" and we had to either leave the console or surreptitiously restart the demo.

As long as we were able to keep ourselves in the 3D viewing angle, we were fine, even after a few hours of play (with somewhat frequent breaks). But if we were playing games that required us to move the console around, like the augmented reality one, or if we moved the console accidentally, it threw us for a bit of a loop. Turning down the 3D depth with the slider on the side of the screen seemed to make popping out of the viewing angle less jarring, and might turn out to be the best solution for games that require too much movement.

Many things work very well for the 3DS: the 3D effect is great, and not needing 3D glasses is awesome. The 3D-to-2D slider seems like a necessary feature for times when you just can't keep the console still, or need the battery to last longer than an afternoon. As one of the keystones of "non-gamer" appeal, it doesn't seem like the camera will be a big draw, but we're going to reserve final judgment on these features until we get to do some real field testing.