Current Ramblings
Saturday, January 31, 2004
I don't spend nearly enough time appreciating my Game Boy Advance SP. Sure, I gazed at it with big, adoring eyes when I first bought it, but within minutes I had put in Pokemon Sapphire and proceeded to ignore the design altogether. It's usually either in a very tasteful leather case or being played, and neither lends itself to a proper appreciation of the design. It's only when it's being charged or I've neglectfully left it on the coffee table that I glance over and realize just how nice it is. The GBA SP is an absolutely beautiful device. Folded, it's tiny and almost featureless, with only a seam around the middle and a small, silver Nintendo logo. It fits easily into my palm, and it weighs just enough to let me know it's there. At the back are two ports large enough to let you know this is a serious device. Open it up via a spring-loaded hinge with precicely the right tension, and you have a classic Game Boy layout, but simpler. Admittedly, I've always veered toward the translucent Game Boys, so the simplicity of the opaque SP is very striking to me. The buttons have a very satisfying clickiness to them. The flat design of the control surface, with depressions for the thin buttons so it can fold properly, is almost elegant. The tension in the buttons themselves is evocative of a folding cell phone, with a satisfying clickiness. Closed, the SP is as thick as the original GBA, but opened up it's evident just how much compacting had to be done for this design. A proprietary lithium-ion battery had to be used not just to provide enough power for the backlighting, but also because no half of the SP is thick enough to accept common AA batteries. Overall, it feels much more like an "important" device like a cell phone than it does a portable game console. I am still smitten.
posted@3:57 PM by:Trixter: 0 comments