Originally Posted by
frankmu
Don't forget the new 3DS has only a 3-5 hour battery life compared to 10 hours for the iPod Touch and 4-14 hours on the DS (depending on screen brightness). I like the ability to store games on a big SD card for the PSP... It's a real pain in the behind sometimes searching for the DS carts the kids always seem to squirrel away. Downloadable games are easier to recover.
I'd go with the DSi. They are build to survive the beatings children will inflict upon it. Our original DS is still going despite 5 years of abuse. I did get the kids the 3DS though, with appropriate USB and auto chargers (I'm a hopeless early adopter
)
10 hours on the IPT battery dang
, I've seen nothing close to that on my son's IPT.
As the OP is well aware, there are powerports on most planes so battery life is seldom an issue any more for us on almost any flight. Either the battery lasts long enough or the plane has the power ports (at least on AA) and pretty much all the premium cabins have power as well.
I have car chargers for everything as well just to cover road trips.
as for the concern about the small (1 1/4" X 1 1/4") size, small size also means that you can carry a lot of them and not take up much space or weight. We use two things to carry them. 1. A very small tupperware container or 2. my son also has a DS carrying case that has a slot on the inside pocket almost like you would have for Credit Cards in a mans wallet except they are DS game sized.
According to my kids, the 3DS is really cool but there just are not many 3DS games that they want. Luckily it also plays in 2D and plays regular games. The 3DS also has and two cameras I believe vs. 1 on the DSi.
I've found the PSP games the most fragile as they break the most often.
PSGo is great b/c they are all downloaded but overall they are the priciest to buy too
My kids know that they can only have one game out at a time (on the plane, in the car etc) and the rest must be stored. I always start the clean up process with them about 45 minutes before landing making sure all games are accounted for. Once off the plane but just outside the jetway we do a final inventory just to make sure. Only once did I have to go back on the plane to get something and boy did they hear it after that, its only happened that one time (knock on wood)
Yes I agree, that Nintendo DS/DSi system is built to withstand the beatdown of a kid, they are well built