Nintendo has recently released in Japan the new generation of its portable console: the DSi.

From ads in trains and on TV, the main novelties of the DSi were cameras, more native software (browser, music player and picture viewer), slightly larger screens and slimmer size. It sounded very good on paper, and I was thinking about getting myself one for Christmas.

A recent review, though, made me reconsider that. The music player only plays AAC format, not MP3, which is a big letdown. There is an SD reader, but you cannot upload images from your computer into the SD card, and then view them in the DS, for some reason the DSi won’t recognize them. You cannot use R4 anymore, and every time you try to download content, they request that you upgrade your firmware – certainly in order to remove any hack holes that are certainly going to be found. The AC adapter is bigger.

Now, there are certainly a lot of good things in the new DS (Finally, the power button is in the INSIDE of the DS!), but the restrictions mentioned in the article made me realize that my current DS is good enough for what I want to do (I can use the R4 to hear MP3s and view text/images, browse the net) – so I’ll probably not going to get myself a DSi in the near future.

— on the other hand, I am toying with the idea of buying myself the new Disgaea DS game – Yodobashi Camera has it at 3000 yens (against the usual 4000-4500 yens for popular DS games).