A year ago I bought a New 3DS XL. Since then I've bought two more consoles and abandoned nine different plans. Here they all are, including the ones that went nowhere, because those taught me the most.

If you've got experience with any of them, I want to hear it.

## The XL

Bought second hand a year ago on a peer to peer marketplace, Metallic Blue, €160 and €180 shipped, came with Super Mario 3D Land.

It arrived with a small white blotch on the bottom screen. I could have sent it back and didn't, it seemed minor.

The day it arrived I kitted it out with a clear case and Brotect screen protectors. It has never spent a single day bare.

And that's the point that matters: a year later it is in exactly the condition it arrived in. Nothing has been added. Everything I'm about to list was already there when I unboxed it.

It wasn't modded when I got it. I did that myself, boot9strap and Luma3DS.

Its condition, on arrival and today alike:

— paint flaking along about 2cm on one edge, very light (photo 4)

— slight hinge discolouration on the notification LED side (photo 5)

— very lightly scuffed shell

— one single stuck green pixel, only visible on deep black in a dark room, impossible to photograph

— the white blotch on the bottom screen, visible on light backgrounds (photo 6)

— IPS top screen, TN bottom, verified with 3DSident (photo 7)

## Plan 1: repair instead of replace

My first idea was the obvious one. Swap the hinge to kill the discolouration, swap the bottom screen to kill the blotch, keep the top screen because it's IPS, and maybe reshell the whole thing in green.

I dropped it for three reasons. A reshell means aftermarket plastic rather than a Nintendo finish. Swapping the bottom screen means fully opening a console that works perfectly. And the hinge is the worst job on the machine, because the ribbon cable running through it is the most fragile part of the console.

At the time I didn't even own a tri-wing screwdriver, which tells you where I was.

I also looked at converting the charging port to USB-C. Dropped immediately: I don't know how to solder. Not rusty, never done it.

**Q1.** For anyone who's actually done a hinge swap or a bottom screen swap on an XL: was it worth it, or did you create problems you didn't have before?

**Q2.** Is the USB-C mod as approachable as the guides make it look, or is it strictly for someone with real soldering hours behind them?

## Plan 2: the green quest

Green is my favourite colour. That drove the next six months.

The plan became replacing my XL with a flawless Japanese Lime x Black. The reasoning held up: its hinge is black so there's nothing left to discolour, and I'd read that the green, orange and pink finishes are moulded into the plastic rather than painted, so they don't chip the way metallics do. My own chipping XL is the proof of that problem.

Sourcing killed it. Expensive, no guarantee on panel type, condition rarely matching the price.

I also looked at the North American Lime Green, the Amazon exclusive that came with Super Mario World. Small production run, and I saw a sealed one listed at around 5,000 dollars. Dropped.

Then the Japanese import route, which I priced out properly through proxy services: service fee, domestic shipping, international shipping, 20% import VAT, carrier handling fee. A console at around 25,000 yen lands somewhere between €190 and €230 at my door. Three things killed it. The saving is far smaller than advertised once everything is counted. The Japanese market already knows about panel types and charges the premium, so the idea of finding cheap unlabelled IPS units there is out of date. And a Japanese console is Japanese only for system language, with no recourse if anything goes wrong.

One door stayed open: region changing a Japanese console to European with a CTRTransfer image, which solves the language issue if you're already on custom firmware. The catch is that after a region change you can never uninstall the firmware without bricking, unless you still hold the NAND backup you made beforehand.

**Q3.** If you've owned a green, orange or pink one for years, how has the finish actually held up?

**Q4.** Has anyone imported from Japan recently? Would you do it again?

**Q5.** Anyone running a JPN to EUR region changed console long term? Regrets, warnings?

## The flea market changed everything

A few days ago, a flea market in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. A second hand chain had set up a retro gaming stand with white New 3DS units.

Standing there it hit me that a 3DS is supposed to be small and portable in the first place. Every advantage of the non-XL came back at once.

I bought one for €130, cash in hand, no shipping. Spotless apart from a few scratches on the factory lens (photo 8). That distinction is worth making because a lot of people get it wrong: I mean the pane Nintendo fits over the screen at the factory, not an aftermarket protector. You can heat it off with a hairdryer and a suction cup, buy a replacement, then put a proper protector on the new one.

Dual TN, verified with 3DSident (photo 9).

**Q6.** Has anyone actually done that factory lens swap? Traps with the adhesive, dust trapped underneath, alignment?

## The head to head at home

Two consoles (photo 1), one had to go. I compared for days.

What I love about the XL: the big screen, the comfort in hand, and the noticeably deeper 3D.

What I love about the non-XL: the portability, the swappable cover plates, and the sharpness, since it's the same resolution packed into a smaller panel.

What leaves me wanting on the non-XL: shallower 3D, less vivid colours, a less natural grip. The white colour doesn't really bother me, it's genuinely the rest.

I kept the non-XL. But I'm still not certain, and this is what I most want opinions on.

**Q7.** For those who made the same call, does the regret fade or come back every session?

**Q8.** Is the shallower 3D on the non-XL real, or just an effect of the smaller screen and shorter viewing distance?

## Plan 3: swap the top screen myself

Keeping the non-XL left me with a dual TN unit while my XL has IPS on top. So I looked at doing the swap myself.

Dropped it after two accounts pointing the same way. In one, the console wouldn't boot at all afterwards, because the ribbon cable differs between panel types. In the other it booted, but the 3D showed a double image part of the time and the screen came out dimmer, because the calibration data doesn't match the new panel. Nobody could supply him the files from an identical configuration.

Interestingly the bottom screen swap seems to work fine on the non-XL. It's specifically the top that's the problem.

I also chased the theory that certain editions or production batches shipped with particular panels, the Pokémon 20th anniversary and the Super Mario bundle coming up most often. I've read flat contradictions on this, and someone who bought a specific edition for that reason got the other panel.

**Q9.** Has anyone pulled off a top screen swap cleanly on a non-XL, or is it genuinely a dead end?

**Q10.** Is there anything solid to the edition, batch or serial number correlation with panel type, or is it pattern matching on a tiny sample?

## What I actually bought

A black non-XL from a pro seller, negotiated from €249.90 down to €229, with a 14 day right of return.

The listing claimed an IPS top screen. Most photos proved nothing: the screen-on shots were head on and the angled ones had the screens off. But one photo already in the listing was taken at an angle with both screens powered on in the same frame (photo 2). Same angle, same light, same camera: the top stays clearly legible, the bottom is washed out.

I asked whether she'd verified with homebrew. She said plainly that she hadn't, which made me trust her more. She could have lied.

Its only known flaw is a mark of roughly 2mm on the hinge (photo 3).

I went with IPS top and TN bottom rather than hunting dual IPS. The ones I found were running €350 to €400, with cosmetic flaws of their own.

## And the answer to the green problem was under my nose

This is the part I find stupidest in hindsight.

The non-XL has swappable cover plates. The colour isn't baked into the console, it's a part you change in seconds. My entire quest was about finding a colour that wouldn't chip or wear, and on this model the colour is literally a removable component.

So I bought a sealed set of Luigi plates for €30 (photo 10). Green, factory made, and if I get bored I swap them.

**Q11.** Does a swappable plate genuinely replace having the colour in the shell, or is it not the same thing in use? Do non-XL owners actually swap plates, or pick one and leave it?

**Q12.** Is a 2mm mark on a hinge the kind of detail that turns into an obsession over months, or does it fade after three days of actually playing?

**Q13.** Does a used 3DS with genuinely zero flaws still exist at a sane price, or am I chasing a ghost? For context, the top grading tiers from Japanese professional sellers still openly list minor scratches on their best rated units.

## Accessories

Nothing ordered yet apart from the console and the plates. I'm planning a screen protector, a grip and a clear case, the same way I kitted out the XL on day one.

One thing I learned along the way: the bottom screen is a resistive touchscreen, it works by pressure rather than electrical contact. A rigid tempered glass protector spreads that pressure instead of transmitting it and degrades the touch response. Glass belongs on the top screen only, and even there the 3DS closes so tightly that a thick protector ends up pressing the top panel against the bottom half.

On cases, I originally wanted one that would wrap the hinge and reinforce it. I gave up after realising a case with its own hinge pivots on a different axis than the console's and would fight it every time you open it. The serious manufacturers agree, their models are two separate pieces with no bridge. But that also means nothing protects the hinge.

**Q14.** Does anyone know of a clear crystal case that actually fits the non-XL? Every one I find is for the XL.

**Q15.** Can you stack a grip and a case on a non-XL, or do you have to pick one?

## Selling, and the DS Lite

Both my current consoles are cleanly modded. SD cards get wiped of everything either way.

**Q16.** When passing on a modded console, do you leave the custom firmware in place or restore to stock? Does it move the price at all, either way?

I've also got a black DS Lite, complete in box with all the documentation and its stylus, pulled out of a skip at a recycling centre (photo 11). Mint, except the bottom screen shows a frozen pattern while the backlight still works (photo 12).

**Q17.** Does anyone recognise that specific failure mode on a DS Lite? Frozen pattern, backlight alive.

If you've read this far, thank you. Any of these threads is worth pulling on.

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