– 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? 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