3DS stolen from Chinese manufacturing plant

Now that the holiday season has settled down, it looks like Nintendo is gearing up to chat about the 3DS, whether they like it or not, it seems. As the 3DS is coming out in Japan in February, and North America supposedly in March, of course the company will making fresh 3DSs to sell in literally a few weeks. Seems Nintendo is feeling the brunt of leaks like Sony and Apple, as one of the employees from a Chinese manufacturing plant has stolen a 3DS and snapped pics and video of the device. Check them out here.

So yeah. It’s the black 3DS that has no software or OS running the thing, so it can’t even turn on properly. While it’s cool that we get to see some comparison shots of how big the device is in relation to other DS consoles, it’s a shame that there is actually nothing really new to see here. It looks like there has been some final hardware design changes, with the home row buttons now flush with the rest of the screen. Personally, I think it cleans things up nicely, but doesn’t change much of what is a pretty snazzy looking device. I’ve played with these things, and it feels great.

However, one new little tidbit about the hardware is the battery and RAM. The 3DS has a 1300 mAh battery, compared to the DS Lite’s 1000 mAh and the DSi’s 840 mAh. That’s a particularly big jump, probably compensating for the higher energy consumption to do 3D. Additionally, the internal memory is at 96 Mb. That’s pretty substantial too! All in all, these are just some screenshots of a leaked device, and while it makes me all that much more stoked for the handheld, I’m going to wait until January 19 for Nintendo’s big unveiling.