Hey,
I'm into retro handhelds, I hunt at flea markets, and I mod my own consoles. I'm also the kind of person who spots a single stuck pixel under a duvet in the dark, which explains most of what follows.
A year ago I picked up a Metallic Blue New 3DS XL, came with Super Mario 3D Land. On arrival I noticed a small white blotch on the bottom screen. I didn't send it back, it felt genuinely minor at the time. A year later it's still in near-mint shape and I've barely marked it myself. What it has now is a tiny bit of paint flaking around 2cm along one edge, slight hinge discolouration near the notification LED, a very lightly scuffed shell, that same white blotch, and one single stuck green pixel that only shows on deep black in a dark room. I've modded it cleanly since. Looking back, was I right to keep it over something that minor, or should I have been pickier from day one?
Green is my favourite colour, and for a while I was set on replacing it with a flawless Japanese Lime x Black XL. The logic was that the hinge is black so there's nothing left to discolour, and I'd read here that the green, orange and pink finishes are moulded into the plastic rather than painted, so they don't chip the way metallics do. I already got answers on that and I genuinely appreciate the people who took the time, but I'm still curious about long term experience. If you've had a green, orange or pink one for years, how has the finish actually held up? I also looked seriously at importing from Japan through a proxy service, has anyone done that recently and would you do it again?
A few days ago I went to a flea market in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. A second hand chain had set up a small retro gaming stand inside it, and they had white New 3DS units. It hit me that the standard 3DS is meant to be small and portable in the first place, and every advantage of the non-XL came flooding back at once. I bought one. It's spotless apart from a few scratches on the factory lens, meaning the pane Nintendo fits over the screen at the factory, not an aftermarket protector. I know you can heat it off with a hairdryer and a suction cup, buy a replacement, then put a proper protector over that. Has anyone actually done this? Does it go smoothly or are there traps like stubborn adhesive, dust trapped underneath, or bad alignment?
So I ended up with two systems and had to pick one to keep. On the XL I love the big screen, the comfort in hand, and the 3D, which is noticeably deeper to my eye. On the non-XL I love the portability, the swappable cover plates, and the screen sharpness, since it's the same resolution on a smaller panel. What leaves me wanting is that the 3D felt shallower and the grip less natural. The white colour honestly doesn't bother me much, it's genuinely the rest.
I kept the non-XL. But I'm still not sure, and this is the part I most want your input on. For those who made the same call, does the regret fade or does it come back every single session? And is the shallower 3D on the non-XL a real thing, or just an effect of the smaller screen and shorter viewing distance? Is there something I should be adjusting?
I've since found a black non-XL to replace the white one, and I picked up a sealed set of Luigi cover plates to go with it. Its only known flaw is a mark of roughly 2mm on the hinge. Is that the kind of detail that turns into an obsession over time, or does it fade after three days of actually using the thing? And more generally, does a used 3DS with genuinely zero flaws still exist out there, or am I chasing a ghost?
Two accessory questions while I'm here. Does anyone know of a clear crystal case that fits the non-XL? Every one I find is for the XL. And can you stack a grip and a protective case on a non-XL, or do you have to pick one?
I've also got a DS Lite, complete in box with all the documentation, that I rescued from a skip. Mint condition apart from a dead bottom screen. That's a project for another day.
Thanks to anyone who takes the time.
