Gadgetory

what's going on everyone I'm Jeff Bakalar for cnet.com and today we are taking a first look at the Nintendo 3ds XL now just about a year and a half after the 3ds is launched Nintendo is releasing a super-sized version of the 3ds called the 3ds XL most noticeable are the screen improvements you're getting 90 percent larger screens on the top and bottom with the 3ds XL unfortunately though Nintendo didn't use this opportunity to fix a bunch of Miss steps that happen the first time around most obvious of all of them is a right circle pad which is not here on the device I don't know if you remember but they released an attachment for the original 3ds called the circle pad pro that made it really bulky I can only imagine how ridiculous the 3ds XL is going to look like when that attachment comes out for this which it will supposedly come out later this year other than that functionally the two are exactly identical games look really good on this screen on the XL and it's actually only a few millimeters smaller than what the PlayStation Vita has right now now because the screens are bigger that doesn't mean the resolution is any bigger so there's the same amount of pixels when you blow up that image it's going to look a little more pixelated and sometimes a little more blurry than how sharp the original 3ds looked that aside the battery life is a lot better they made some improvements with the bottom row three buttons which is definitely a step up from the past they include a four gigabyte card in this model as opposed to the old 2 gigabyte card and other than that you're getting the same identical version the 3ds was sort of glossy and for the XL Nintendo chose a much more matted look definitely feels heavier but that's a good thing because the 3ds was almost too small didn't feel right in your hands the XL is much more ergonomically friendly overall if you're going to choose between the two obviously the XL is the way to go this is really the unit Nintendo should have shipped from the gecko this is going to go for $30 more than what the current 3ds is now so the 3ds is 170 the new one is at 200 it comes in red and black and blue and black to start and that's going to do it for this first look I'm Jeff Bakalar taking a look at the new Nintendo 3ds XL thanks for watching