- Hey guys, this is Austin.
It has been nearly four years since
the original Nintendo 2DS came out.
But today there's an upgrade.
Big shout out to Nintendo for hooking us up with the
2DS XL a little bit early.
So, the 2DS has always been a little bit of a weird product.
When the 3DS came out the big feature was the new 3D screen.
And of course that's exactly what the 2DS takes away.
So, if we open up the box the first thing we see
is the power adapter.
So, this doesn't seem like something that should be all
that impressive, but the new 3DS XL doesn't even actually
come with one.
You know I actually kind of like the look of this.
So, with the blue accents
and the kind of textured black finish it,
oh, it looks really nice.
One thing I will say though is it feels very lightweight.
It doesn't feel like there's a lot of sort of heft to it,
but to be fair it's all plastic
and it feels pretty well put together.
I mean...
So, the first thing that I noticed is
that there's some weird quirks with the design.
So, the hinge itself actually kind of sticks out
a little bit and because of that the front facing camera
is actually exposed even when the 2DS is closed.
So, when you open it up it makes sense,
you can see it pretty well there,
but when you close it it's actually kind of exposed.
Something else that's kind of weird is that there's no
obvious way to put the games in besides what I assume
is behind this flap.
Yeah, so inside here we can put in a 3DS game, a DS game.
We also have what looks like a micro SD card,
which is going to be four gigabytes.
So, right here beside the headphone jack there's,
oh, the stylus.
That is the smallest stylus I've ever seen!
What?
Hold on.
So this is what the normal 2DS stylus looks like.
You know, it's meant for human hands.
Whereas this is the 2DS XL.
It is a lot smaller.
Like, I don't even...
How is that even supposed to make sense?
That is...
Comparing the original 2DS with the XL,
the first thing you'll notice is that the XL is a lot bigger
and a big part of that is that
it now has a clam shell design.
So, when you look at the original 2DS something I think
a lot of people make fun of is
the sort of weird flat design.
Now, to be fair, in the hand it actually doesn't feel
too bad depending on how big your hands are.
For me it feels about right.
But, when it comes to actually trying to put this
in your pocket, good luck.
Where something like this, even though it is fairly large,
it folds up nice and neat.
I will say I do like the look of the 2DS XL.
So, as far as I know right now in North America
there's only this black and blue color,
but I think it looks pretty nice.
Something that I really keep coming back to, though,
is that this is really light.
It feels, not cheap, but lighter than you expect.
The real comparison here, though, is with the 3DS XL.
And the first thing I noticed with these two
is they actually have slightly different camera layouts.
So, with the 3DS XL, if I open this guy up,
you'll see that there are two 3D cameras,
or I guess one 3D camera on the back.
So, essentially you can use this for some mini games,
but they actually do take stereoscopic 3D images.
Now, the 2DS XL also has that,
but instead of being on the screen,
they're actually on the back.
Yeah, that's what I said.
Weird, right?
Put them side by side and the biggest difference
that you'll notice between the 2DS XL
and 3DS XL is the lack of 3D screen.
So, with this guy you can turn on the 3D switch
and you can adjust it to the sort of strength
that you like.
And there were some cool things
that they did do with the 3DS XL,
including some eye tracking to sort of customize the screen.
As before with the 3DS if you got a little bit off axis
it could look really weird.
However, for me I just don't really enjoy the 3D.
It's kinda nice, a couple games do it well,
but for the most part that switch is off all the time.
Which essentially means it's the same as the 2DS.
So, this is the new Nintendo 2DS XL
and that new name means that
it has the upgraded specs from the 3DS.
So, while the original hardware came out in 2011,
they have since upgraded and it runs a lot smoother.
When you look at the XL side by side with the original 2DS,
there are a lot of very nice upgrades.
So, some of them are super obvious.
The screens are much larger on the newer unit.
But there are also some more subtle upgrades.
Like the original 2DS only had a fairly small
and weak speaker,
whereas the 2DS XL has dual front firing speakers,
or side-ish firing speakers.
I accidentally opened the camera,
so I guess that means camera time.
First thing I noticed is having the cameras on the back
means I have to really sort of twist it.
So if I try to take a shot of Savage Kenny here,
that's some potato quality.
Again, the angles are super weird.
You actually kind of have to...
So, you might not wanna take your next selfie masterpiece
on it, but for a lot the stuff like games need it for
AR stuff it works.
Of course, as a game console we have to play some games.
So, to start with we have Pokemon Sun.
The Pokemon games, I will be totally honest with you,
are a huge reason why I played the Game Boy, the DS,
and the 3DS, that's really what keeps me coming back
to Nintendo handhelds.
And Sun I think is, well, another one that I've spent
a lot of money on.
Yeah, I've bought a lot of Pokemon games.
It looks good, the screens on the 2DS are not great,
to be totally honest with you,
but it's about the same as every other 3DS,
so there's really not a whole lot to complain about.
Speaker also sounds decent, not great, but decent.
Next we have Super Smash.
This is a game that really impressed me that's even
playable on the 3DS.
Considering this is hardware that originally came out
in 2011, the fact that not only does it look nice
and it's playable, we're getting a full 60FPS is awesome.
Smash is also one of the few games that do support Amiibos.
So, with the 2DS what we're doing is we're actually putting
it in the middle of the screen,
but once we do that it pretty much immediately
loads up the Amiibo.
You can train it, you can do different things.
To be honest, I don't find that there's a ton of games
that really make Amiibos all that useful,
but it's definitely nice to have.
So, one thing I'm noticing the stylus actually
isn't quite as annoying as I thought it would be.
Yes, it is very, very short,
but depending on how you hold it,
it actually doesn't feel that bad.
Now, you do have the option of buying digital games
for the 2DS XL as opposed to buying physical ones,
so most of the titles are available on the eshop,
but generally speaking I'm not a big fan of the way
that Nintendo handles a lot of the account stuff.
And to be honest I prefer having the actual physical games.
What is cool, though,
is that you do have the full virtual console on here.
There aren't a ton of games,
but you do have a fair few options such as the original
Pokemon games, you have some NES titles,
some Super Nintendo games, Game Boy Color.
And there are still more coming,
for example Pokemon Gold and Silver will be available
on the 3DS a little bit later in the year.
So, Nintendo is still making both the 2DS as well as
the New 3DS XL right now.
So, which one should you pick up?
Well, if you wanna be cheap
and you want just a basic Pokemon machine,
it is hard to argue with the 2DS at about $80.
It is definitely not perfect,
it would be nice if it had better speakers
and the design that was a little bit more portable,
but I think a lot of people would
be completely fine with this.
The 3DS XL is definitely the superior console
as far as tech goes.
So, not only does it have all the updated specs,
but you have the additional buttons
and controls, Amiibo support,
and it does have that nicer looking 3D screen.
But for me, I don't ever use the 3D,
so that really is not a big deal.
Which makes the 2DS XL look a lot more appealing.
For $150 the 2DS XL is probably the end of the line
for the 3DS.
Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Well, sure, it's about half the price of the Switch,
but more importantly there are still games
that are coming out for this.
So, stuff like Pokemon Ultra Sun
and Moon will be out a little bit later this year.
And as far as I'm concerned,
this is my favorite 3DS design yet.
So, what do you guys think about the 2DS XL?
Let me know in the comments below
and I will catch you on the next one.