Up close with the Nintendo DSi

The Nintendo DSi will cost $170 and go on sale in North America on April 4. But it's already available in Japan, where our colleages at Gamespot obtained one to do a head-to-head comparison with the existing DS Lite.

Here you can see the DSi is missing a Game Boy Advance slot, a feature that was dropped for the new hand-held.

The power switch has been moved in favor of an SD card slot which allows for expandable memory and storage of items downloaded from the DSi store.

It appears the power adapter will have a new interface which means you won't be able to use your old DS charger.

The new DSi volume adjuster is button controlled as opposed to the DS Lite's volume slider.

Here's an up-close shot of the DSi D-pad. No big changes here.

Here we see an up-close shot of the DSi buttons along with a clearer view of the SD card slot.

The DSi features two larger screens. The portable console's speaker locations have also changed and there's also more indicator lights on the left side.

The power button has been moved below the D-pad. It's also a simple button unlike the previous version's slider toggle.

A close-up of the inner 0.3-megapixel camera. The microphone's location remains unchanged.

Here we have a better view of the three indicator lights we mentioned earlier.

The outer 0.3-megapixel camera is placed in the bottom corner of the device.

The DSi will feature an online store supplying downloadable content and add-ons.

You'll be able to play music on your DSi in addition to taking and editing photos.

The new DSi menu lets you access and organize all of the contents on your SD card.

The voice recorder software also lets you change the pitch and speed of anything you've recorded. For an in-depth comparison, check out the Gamespot hands-on with the DSi.