The Nintendo DS is a well designed portable game system, nothing more nothing less, unless you use hombrew flash carts to extend its capabilities. It has dual screens, while the lower display is a touch screen. The touch screen in some games are used like an analog controller for interacting with games, while the upper part as the main display. The touch screen is a resistive type and made to be used with a stylus, but you may also use your finger or nails, but it won't be that accurate. Why 2 screens? So you may play Super Mario Bros. in the upper screen while playing Tetris in the lower one(as if we can do that haha), actually, from my experience, on fast paced games, if it were using a single display, there would be times, your view on the screen will be obstructed by your fingers/hands. System is well thought of and some games make use of all available interaction features never done even on PC games. It also has a microphone and wifi capability used for internet browsing, game downloads, ad-hoc gaming and some communication use. I find the touch screen a better controller for FPS games against the analog stick on the PSP and because of the 2 screen, view wont be blocked by your appendages. Graphics are ok but not on par with current generation consoles, still game quality and titles make up for its deficiency in the graphics area. For the audio part, well its good enough for portable gaming, sound/music quality is average, while voices are a bit on the rough side. This is the reason that the DS is not a good portable media player, audio quality sampling max out at 32khz only. If you have a homebrew flashcart, you could play video(converted to a specific format) and mp3 audio on the DS. You can't compare the DS against Sony's PSP, because of different gaming libraries, and game play styles/type. But one advantage or major difference of the PSP is it's media playback abilities and for people without ipods, this is a major plus. For now, my PSP is just collecting dust, currently playing Castlevania Order of Ecclesia and just finished Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruins. BTW, games for the DS aren't all for kids, don't believe what you hear until you've actually held one and played different titles. But it's true there are some games designed for children, and some are even educational. If you're planning to buy one, I suggest any Premium shops from Pinoypsp.com except for GoGadgets. Had a bad experience with them, bought my DS from them indirectly, asked a shop from here(province an 8 hour bus ride/6 hrs on private car) to get me a BLACK NDS from GG, only to know they ran out of stock, and they only have silver and zelda limited edition (with 110v charger). We bought 2 units, but problem starts here; Memory card was supposed to be Kingston as per package but, they're out of stock and replaced with sandisk 4gb-class 6, but it had problems with the Castlevania POR, so I test my own original transcend class 6 8gb memory card, and problem was inexistent. I asked the shop here if he replaced the memory card but he said that is what the shop gave with the packaged set, and I believe them because I know them and their trustworthy, besides that, my cousin noticed that the lower screen has a small scratch underneath the touch screen because when he was putting on the screen protection film, he noticed the small scratch. It's more visible when the DS is turned off but when playing, it's not noticeable unless you position the unit on an uncomfortable angle. But I asked the middleman(shop here in our province) if it's possible to replace the unit when he goes to Manila again, only to find out it's not possible. Sadly that's the end, but still I find the games in the DS really fun. Planning on buying new PSP 3k series and Ipod touch from other Premium shop, crossing my fingers hehe. BTW Cellpower is a very good shop too just look for Tomli. My last purchased item from GG was a Skully Headphone, in fairness, it's ok, no problems/defects. But this will be the last item I will get from the shop, because of my experiences with them and I had not much choice, they have the lowest price on that specific skully. Next I'll be sharing my I-Pod ventures.
