Game:

Unbox (2016)

Duration: 9:40

4,703 views

74

Welcome to another episode of Hardware P*rn, where hardware has all its box taken off, body shown off, getting turned on and played with infront of a camera. Brought to you by... well... me.

This episode features the Nintendo 3DS XL, note that in Japan, similar to other sizing products such as clothing it is called the LL instead. I'm not entirely sure why (comment below if you wish), perhaps "extra large" didn't sound very appealing and Japan instead wanted "large large". Double the Large!

I was going to do a voice-over for this as well but by the time I had completed the cut and reviewed it, I felt that annotations and/or a text description would suit this more.

Note that Europe and Japan 3DS XL do not come with a charger (sold seperately), you can use the same charger as those supplied with the DSi, DSi XL or 3DS tho.
I believe America and Australia/New Zealand will have an AC adapter included.

So what are my initial impressions?
Unit:
Physically its heavier and hence more solid in the hand to play, the matte finish is my personal preference in terms of feel and hopefully doesn't require as much maintenance to keep looking this sexy, I am a bit more conscious of sweating while holding this one tho, one would imagine that would look quite gross.

The Hinge has three stop positions instead of two now. It still wobbles but overall is a lot stronger than the original 3DS making gyroscope style games a little bit friendlier to play.

There is no 3D availability notification LED anymore, this kinda makes the top screen / slider area look a little cheaper at first but when gaming its actually VERY welcomed not having this green dot glaring at you 99% of the time.

Screen:
There is NO extra resolution so its not like you can fit more graphics onto the screen. Everything you see is just bigger. Those pixels (little squares) and those scan-lines you can see if you look close enough on the 3DS are all just bigger.

The 3DS XL is WARMER in colour than the 3DS, you might be able to see this when I compare the 3DS with XL side by side in this video. As a long time user of the original 3DS I found at first the game screen on the XL felt a bit muddy because of this, but after time the reduced glare and overall size increase makes the experience feel just that much more epic. It feels like an unwanted layer taken away between you, the screen and the game world.

Plugging in the AC Adapter will not increase the brightness of the screen on brightness levels 4 and 5 like the original 3DS does.

Without charger plugged in, having both of these side by side at brightness 4 or 5 seems to pick up the same level of detail from cameras suggesting the actual brightness output is much the same. I'm guessing when people said it looks darker is mostly because its just warmer and possibly the pixel separation is more noticeable up close. Tho I personally feel the XL is a tiny bit brighter, but this is probably because you just have more light, bigger screen.

I'll try brightness 5 and edit this part of the description tomorrow.

Buttons:
I'm shit at comparing the feel between buttons. Well, the click sound is lower in pitch for the ABXY, but the D Pad is quite a bit louder. Some people prefer the more tactile feedback of "clickier" buttons tho. The slide pad feels much the same tho the design is a tiny bit different (rouder around the edges). The L/R buttons are bigger and feel easier to press. I hope the L/R buttons wont play up on me over time like my DSi did, only time will tell on this one.

3D:
Ghosting is still there, although I will need to get back to you on if it has been improved, I've been busy putting this video together to play a lot of games in 3D to have reached a conclusion on that just yet.

The 3D sweet spot is easier to find, for the first time I've really noticed that effect where the image seems to move when you move your head side to side just like while watching a 3D movie at the cinema. Now I've got people wondering why I'm acting like Stevie Wonder while playing this XD.

Gameplay footage at the end is colder in colour than in person.
Please enjoy this unbox and brief set of gaming vid!

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Filming, gaming and editing all done by me.

Song Choice:
Title: Guitar Sounds
Album: Disorganised Fun
Artist: Ronald Jenkees
www.ronaldjenkees.com
Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ronaldjenkees
Like the song? Don't put up with compressed audio! Purchase the LOSSLESS digital copy here: http://ronaldjenkees.bandcamp.com/

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