With all the hardware designs to come out of Nintendo, it's amazing they didn't redesign the Virtual Boy at some point to prevent vision loss. Ironically, that's something the DS Lite has trouble avoiding, blinding anyone dumb enough to turn it up to its brightest setting on its new dual flawless LCD screens. It's an improvement in nearly every way, but it's a shame some complaints from the original DS weren't addressed.

To ensure there's ample time to discuss other things, yes the screens on the DS Lite are some of the best ever made. Compared to the PSP, the DS Lite still has the advantage. The changes don't come from a simple brightness adjustment though. It's the color that truly shines (pun intended) here, somehow kept from bleeding everywhere through some form of space age technology we're not yet aware of.

Their brilliance is one thing, but the amount of them is another. By putting in a game you're familiar with, you'll suddenly realize how many shades you were missing on the older console. Forget the Game Boy Micro or the new SP (especially since the Lite allows for use of the E-Reader). The quality of those screens is similar, though not on par. The DS Lite shows off everything, including details you would have never seen before. Finally, you can also clearly view both screens without one becoming faded.

Cosmetic changes are the next obvious switch, especially in size. It's hard to feel a difference in weight. However, on the Lite, it's distributed throughout the entire console. The shining white plastic is perfect to help make the console fit in with other electronics, and softer plastic used on the inner face is far more comfortable.

The same goes for the buttons, now with a softer, more responsive feel. The d-pad takes some adjusting to as it too has the same softness. It's smaller and raised higher than the one on the first DS. The microphone has shifted to the center of the console (instead of under the bottom screen), the stylus is inarguably positioned better on the right side, and the tiny start/select button combo are shoved just to the lower right of the bottom screen.