SlashGear

We’ve marvelled at the prodigious size of the Nintendo DSi LL, freshly released in Japan this past weekend, but PC Watch took things one step further and broke open their gaming handheld.  Their teardown does sadly confirm that Nintendo didn’t take advantage of the extra room to squeeze in anything especially exciting.

Instead there’s a custom mainboard specially shaped to fit into the casing, together with a particularly sturdy set of controllers and buttons that should hold up to some serious elderly-gamer hammering.  The downside is that there are copious screws involved in holding everything together, though given Nintendo aren’t exactly encouraging owners crack open their DSi LLs that’s probably not too much of a concern for most people.

The DSi LL goes on sale in the US and across Europe in Q1 2010, as the Nintendo DSi XL, though pricing is yet to be finalized.  It has dual 4.25-inch displays – the lower one being a touchscreen – together with the same twin-cameras as the DSi Lite.