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Product of the Day: Nintendo DS Tekcase
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Posted on Friday, May 15 @ 17:07:25 Eastern by Chris_Hudak
When I saw the packaging for Teknocreations' DS Lite/DSi TekCase two weeks ago, I automatically thought: Okay, here's another one for the 'What Were You Thinking?" file. I mean, even us early-adapters, fanboys, and/or materialist zombie suckers have only had Nintendo's sleek new DSi for a month or so... and now, somebody already wants us to clap it inside some widgety shell, to make it bulkier than the original DS Lite? Really? The notion seemed so insulting that it was a full week before I could be bothered to even extract the damned thing from the plastic it shipped in and have a quick, judgmental look.
And now it's a week later... and you will take my DSi TekCase when you pry it from my cold, battery-dead DSi.
The TekCase (it comes in gloss-black or pink... you know who you are) is a polycarbonate shell that fits very snugly and securely around your DSi or DS Lite. It serves two functions: to protect your system, obviously, and to serve as a life-extending backup battery.
I have an automatic, fundamental distaste for and distrust of such wraparound cases or similar accessories; it seems like there's always some boneheaded conceptual oversight or careless manufacturing flaw that obviates any potential usefulness by fugging up the overall feel of the game unit, or access to the ports or controls, or something. The TekCase, however, conforms faithfully to the contours of your DS, providing perfectly-placed access to, and adequate clearance around, the shoulder buttons and various, um, orifices—the cartridge slot, the little stylus ejector, the DSi's SDI card slot, etc.
 Naturally, the DSi TekCase has an extra circular aperture for the DSi's outward-facing camera. If anything, the DSi version of the TekCase may be a little too faithfully-molded. I find the DSi's “Hey, you're on camera!” attention-light to be another needless, irritating, won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children Nintendo-ism, and I would have been perfectly happy if the TekCase's camera-hole had covered that shit up... but I'm probably alone in this. Oh well.
“Protection”, however, is the secondary draw here. The TekCase's main benefit is the USB interface that slides into the casing and hooks up with your AC adaptor port—which provides your unit with the extra battery power of the charged TekCase. When your DS charge goes balls-up, you just hit the reserve switch on the TekCase to start recharging your DS's battery; in all, you're good to go for about triple your regular playtime, and you can keep your screen brightness up higher and longer without sweating the battery drain.
Designed for USB interface, the TekCase can draw charge from either the included AC adapter or from whatever computer you happen to be traveling with (which means you can leave your regular charger at home... if you can be arsed to take your DS Lite/DSi out of the TekCase ever again, that is). Further, the whole setup charges your DS battery first, then the TekCase backup which also has its own independent display, indicating the charge levels of the case and battery.
On top of all of that, the TekCase looks kinda cool, in a chunky, functional, knockaround, Christian-Bale's-Batmobile kind of way.
 The are two arguable downsides to the TekCase (and it's really more like one and a half depending upon your portable-gaming style): 1) If you're the kind of gamer who uses the little notch behind the hinge to adorn your DS with little dangling Pokémon or Katamari or Hello Kitties or whateverthehell, you'll need to snap your unit into the TekCase before looping in that little addition; and 2) the material of the case is much more akin to the glossy look of the DS Lite—as opposed to the flat, matte appearance of the newer DSi's casing. If Teknocreations made a matte-surface case available today, I would switch, eventually—but that's my only gripe of any substance.
The TekCase for DS Lite is available for $29.99 and will be available for the DSi for $29.99 in June... but this is Game Revolution, and we're going to take care of at least a few of our more attentive comrades. Watch for one of our next contests for a chance at one of these neato little cases... and we'll see you in first class, gaming on for hours after the non-TekCase-owning folks have had to switch back to reading the Sky Mall catalog or the barf-bag instructions.
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jwrebholz
Joined: Jul 19, 2006
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| Posted: May 15th, 2009 at 8:10 pm |
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| When I get a DS, I'm getting one of these. |
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Squiggy
Joined: Nov 10, 2005
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| Posted: May 15th, 2009 at 9:07 pm |
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Oh man I could use one those for my DS Lite. The battery can barely go a day of gameplay with the brightness set on high (and I hate playing with a lower light setting).
Also, my huge hands would appreciate the added grippable surface. |
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Tyrranis
Joined: Nov 10, 2005
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| Posted: May 16th, 2009 at 3:33 am |
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| Will the competition have other goodies too? Games, styluses, the DSi perhaps? |
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Briggsred
Joined: Feb 12, 2008
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| Posted: May 16th, 2009 at 7:30 am |
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| I'm currently using a leather case for my DSi, it is very good for 15 bucks, forgot what it was called. But it I just feel the leather case looks more professional and modern than this case, and it is really protective, I mean it absorbs all the shock when I: drop it on floors sometimes. However, the battery back-up for this one is really cool, so I think i'm interested in getting one of these soon! |
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ein311
Joined: Aug 14, 2006
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| Posted: May 16th, 2009 at 10:50 am |
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but what about us with the blue DSi? =[
I'm so aesthitically picky about my accessories that I'll have to convince myself black is good enough. |
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Squiggy
Joined: Nov 10, 2005
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| Posted: May 16th, 2009 at 12:28 pm |
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1. buy a black one.
2. spray paint it blue
3. ???
4.Profit! |
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ramekins
Joined: May 16, 2009
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| Posted: May 16th, 2009 at 3:48 pm |
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are you guys still doing haiku fridays?
i love hot Cheetos
my new dsi hates them
help us get along
:) |
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ramekins
Joined: May 16, 2009
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| Posted: May 16th, 2009 at 3:57 pm |
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are you guys still doing haiku fridays?
i love hot Cheetos
my new dsi hates them
help us get along
:) |
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ein311
Joined: Aug 14, 2006
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| Posted: May 17th, 2009 at 12:54 am |
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1. buy a black one.
2. spray paint it blue
3. ???
4.Profit!
But my skillz in spraypaint would hardly result in profit.
=[ |
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Odbarc
Joined: Apr 3, 2007
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| Posted: May 18th, 2009 at 5:07 pm |
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| Step #3 is put it on ebay. |
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