Several French gaming sites have published the first hands-on impressions. Thanks to Google Translate and friendly NeoGAF Posters, it would appear that the French demonstrators are quite impressed with the new, bigger handheld.
From a hands-on posted to the site Puissance Nintendo come the following impressions, along with the above video and image below (Google Translated via GAF):
Huge screen
Better viewing angle
3D effect looks better/more effective/more natural
2D mode looks better than regular 3DS
Image looks better/softer (they assume there might be some filter but not sure)
The grip (round corners) fit nicely
Unit fits better in hands (they wonder if it should’ve been the main design in first place)
Unit is lighter than they expected
There’s a coat in the unit (not fully matte) that gives it a “deluxe plastic imitating metal” look
Not sure at the sound as the room was quite noisy
A second preview at Bamar En Live has a similar takeaway, with the translation saying that, vitally, the games don’t look degraded on the 3DS XL’s bigger screen. “While the image looked worse on a DSiXL than on a DSi, it’s not the case here. 3DSXL pixels look as defined as on 3DS.”
Sounds good to me. I really just may have to upgrade my 3DS. And by “upgrade” I mean “replace entirely.” Oh, well…
J’ai testé la future Nintendo 3DS XL [Bamar En Live via NeoGAF]
EXCLU – On a testé la 3DS XL! [Puissance Nintendo via NeoGAF]
