A silver brick?
At first glance, the DS looks solid enough and feels fairly hefty. It’s slightly shorter than the PSP at just 15cm long but is slightly wider at 8.5cm and a good deal thicker at just under 3cm. The overall impression is of a chunky looking unit. Pick it up though and you realise the DS is completely plastic, which gives it the feeling of being far more of a toy for youngsters whereas the PSP feels of a higher quality build, the DS just feels ‘plasticy’.
To play, the top half of the DS flips up to reveal the controls and the two screens. The top section contains one screen with a speaker either side, while the thicker bottom section houses the d-pad, on/off button, select and start buttons and the four action buttons. In the centre is the second screen and housed on the outside are two shoulder buttons.
Under the front of the DS is the volume slider, headset jack and a cart clot for GBA games. Round the back is the DS cart slot which is similar in size to those large MMC cards though a bit thicker. Also back here is the charger/cable connection port as well the stylus storage slot.
Stylus storage? What’s all that about? Well, the DS has one unique feature which, for the sake of dramatic effect, I’ve left out until now. That bottom screen is not just a bog standard TFT screen but actually a touch screen, which brings a whole new dimension to not just the games, but the whole unit’s operation. Given that the DS has only two more buttons than a GBA, the touch screen adds another level of functionality to the package, which I’ll cover a little later.