Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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136 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful But Limited, June 11, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally i can surf the internet on my DS, something that the Japanese have been able to do for a while. You'll need a wireless hot spot to connect, just as you would with a laptop. There are some downsides such as no video or sound, but if you need information or want to read some news on the web, this browser will be perfect. It has several standard features such as bookmarks and a history of sites you've recently visited. You can disable pictures for faster loading times, search for specific words on a web site, zoom in or out, and more. You can switch between two display modes- one mode simply displays the web page on both the top and bottom screen. The other mode shows a zoomed out overview of the web page on one screen, with the other screen zoomed in to show the text and links. Obviously the touch screen comes in very handy for browsing the web, as it replaces the functionality of the mouse. Overall this is a very useful web browsing program for your ds, even if it's limited. It can be a little slow when viewing pages with lots to load, but you can always turn the pictures off to improve the speed. I have a laptop but hardly take it out with me, and i don't browse the web on my cell phone (which costs money anyway), so this little program will really come in handy for me. I live in NYC where there are lots of internet hot spots, so if i'm out and need to know when a movie is playing or i want to read my email, this is just perfect for that.
Presentation - 8
Good simple presentation, easy to use.
Graphics - 7
Displays pictures very nicely, have to take a couple points off for no video/flash.
Sound - 4
No sound is supported from the web. There are some simple sounds when you click, scroll, etc.
Gameplay/Functionality - 8
The touch screen control makes this browser work well. Although slow, this is a very nice program for your ds.
Lasting Appeal - 9
The lasting appeal and usefulness of this browser is great. Just remember what it's best at- when you're out and need some quick info.
Warning- There are 2 version of this broswer, 1 for the DS Lite and 1 for the DS Fat.
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64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
met my expectations, very convenient, use it every day, June 19, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
After reading many of the reviews of this device, I was very skeptical about it being usable, but being a big geek I could not resist the idea of checking my gmail and ebay auctions on my DS Lite. So is it nearly as bad as some of the 1 star reviewers say? No. Is it super fast and can you use it for anything that you would on your PC? No. In reality its somewhere in between. I read in another post that it is comparable to 56K dial-up speeds and that is fairly close to the mark, a bit faster in most cases.
It basically comes down to what you want to use it for and your expectations. If you intend to surf alot of media/flash heavy sites (eg. gamespot, etc....), than this is not the device for you. Those types of sites will take forever to load and render. However, if you are like myself and want to check your email, the weather, ebay, google, wikipedia, news type sites, and other sites that have a mobile version, than the DS browser is very handy and very fast. I've never had any issues with logging into my online accounts or with submitting various forms. The convenience of being able to check my email from bed or out on the deck in the backyard is well worth the 40 bucks (cdn). I can basically turn the device on, connect, check my email, and turn it off before my PC is even booted.
I think the number of bad reviews are due to ignorance, don't let them scare you if you are thinking of taking a pass on this thing. Some reviewer on this site complained that he got the wrong version, not sure how that is nintendo's fault when it is cleary marked for the lite version.
Some complain that it doesn't support flash or other plugins, obvious limitations that are well known before the purchase, so why did they bother buying it?
Others say that even for news sites that are mainly text, its slow (eg. 8 seconds) compared to the instant loading time of their PC. These geniuses are probably the same ones that stick a big muffler on their civic and are disappointed that it can't go as fast as a corvette.
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72 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Would... you... like... to... surf... the... internet... ?, June 10, 2007
Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars
If so, be prepared to do a bit of tap, tap, tapping of the fingers. I love my DS, and around 5 years ago, this would have been a decent mobile browser. But today even the most minor websites have lots of data and images to load, all of which will bring your surfing experience to a near standstill. I don't think this is the result of too-high expectations, either. After all, the very first page that you'll see when starting the browser lists Nintendo's home page as a suggested link; but that site is almost completely unusable using this platform, something I think is a little embarrassing for Opera and Nintendo.
Bottom line, the only practical use for this is checking e-mail and perhaps a few blogs, and that's really all there is. The next DS should be a bit more powerful and hopefully that'll bring a truly great mobile net surfing experience to the masses. Wait till then.
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