Toys and Games

We have the DSi and I wish that we would have gotten the ds lite to save the money. We don't use the internet for it but my daughter does have a ton of fun with the camera on it. She's 9 and has had it since her 8th b-day. It's a great game system and I am very happy with it. We have had not one single issue with it since we got it. It has been dropped, thrown (by my 2 year old) and it still works just as well as the day we got it.

Only difference between the DSi and the DSi XL I believe is the screen size. The XL is much larger. They both have internext and camera. You need to configure the internet feature so if you don't want her to have that you can control it. I have one daughter that as the DS and one the DSi. If camera not needed, save the money and get the DS but my oldest (turning 10) loves using the camera on hers. The screen on the XL is really nice and makes game playing a little easier.

If you have any older Gameboy Advance games they can only be played on the DS Lite. I believe the DSi and DSi XL have internet capabilities and at least one of those has a built in camera (if not both).

Someone at GameStop explained the differences to me so you might want to ask someplace like that to determine what is right for you.

I think the big question is do you want your daughter to have internet access and photo capabilities. Do you feel she is ready for that? It actually makes me nervous that my 14-year-old has an ipod with internet capabilities whenever he is somewhere with WiFi. I didn't fully think that through when he got the ipod. My 11-year-old loves his DS Lite although he does talk about upgrading to the DSi.

After much discussion we recently purchased a DSi XL for our 5 year old boy. He's happy to play games with it and we don't use it to take pictures or for anything else. The XL screen size is nice and I think it maybe (maybe???) helps reduce eye strain?