Here’s How New Nintendo 3DS And New Nintendo 3DS XL Compare To Each Other

Ishaan Sahdev

Published: Sep 1, 2014 01:00 pm

This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

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Nintendo recently put up a bunch of specs pertaining to the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL on their website, shedding some light on the subtler differences between the newer devices and the previous 3DS models.

	New Nintendo 3DS XL	New Nintendo 3DS
Size	93.5mm high, 160mm wide, 21.5mm thick (when closed)	80.6mm high, 142mm wide, 21.6mm thick (when closed)
Weight	Approximately 329 grams (including Battery Pak, stylus and Micro SD Memory Card)	Approximately 253 grams (including Battery Pak, stylus and Micro SD Memory Card)
Upper Screen	4.88 inches (diagonal) Wide-screen LCD display showing approximately 16.77 million colors with 800 x 240 pixel resolution 400 pixels are allocated to each eye to enable 3D visuals	3.88 inches (diagonal) Wide-screen LCD display showing approximately 16.77 million colors with 800 x 240 pixel resolution 400 pixels are allocated to each eye to enable 3D visuals
Lower Screen	4.18 inches (diagonal) Touch-screen LCD showing approximately 16.77 million colors with 320 x 240 pixel resolution	3.33 inches (diagonal) Touch-screen LCD showing approximately 16.77 million colors with 320 x 240 pixel resolution
Battery Duration	Approximately 3.5 to 7 hours when using Nintendo 3DS software Approximately 7 to 12 hours when using Nintendo DS software * Depending on the brightness of the screens, the battery duration varies. When the “automatic brightness adjustment” is on, the brightness of the screens changes automatically in accordance with the brightness of the surroundings and, therefore, the battery duration becomes longer in dark places and becomes shorter in bright places. Also, when the “energy saving mode” is on, the battery duration becomes longer. * The above Battery Durations are rough indications and can be shorter depending on the status of use.	Approximately 3.5 to 6 hours when using Nintendo 3DS software Approximately 6.5 to 10.5 hours when using Nintendo DS software * Depending on the brightness of the screens, the battery duration varies. When the “automatic brightness adjustment” is on, the brightness of the screens changes automatically in accordance with the brightness of the surroundings and, therefore, the battery duration becomes longer in dark places and becomes shorter in bright places. Also, when the “energy saving mode” is on, the battery duration becomes longer . * The above Battery Durations are rough indications and can be shorter depending on the status of use.

Notable differences between old and new models:

The screen of the New Nintendo 3DS is slightly larger than the screen of the current Nintendo 3DS model. Meanwhile, the screen of Nintendo 3DS XL is the same size as the current 3DS XL model.

Battery life for both devices is slightly improved over current models.

No Wi-Fi switch any more. Wi-Fi is now turned on/off from the Home menu.

Stereoscopic 3D effect now remains even if you view the system as an angle. This is made possible by the 3DS’ player-facing camera and gyro-sensors working in tandem to track your face.

Only MicroSD cards are supported on the system now.

You can find some other frequently asked questions about the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL in this report.

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Author

Ishaan Sahdev

Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.