Fresh from the Land of the Rising Sun comes the long-awaited Nintendo 3DS! It's a great little device, and it feels high-quality when you get your hands on it.

New additions to the exterior of the latest unit in the DS line include:

• 3D top screen (duh)
• Dual cameras for 3D pictures/gaming
• "Circle Pad" joystick
• IR port
• Metal stylus
• Revised Start/Select buttons and a new Home button

Here's how it stacks up to the Nintendo DSi XL. Note that it trades a smaller footprint for a bit of a thicker casing.

Nintendo has changed up the layout on the top side of the 3DS when compared to the DSi XL.

• The charging port has been moved to the right side and contacts have been added presumably for the charging cradle, the stylus hole is now next to the game cartridge slot, an IR sensor window has been added, and holes for a strap have been nixed.

The 3D-adjustometer. You can select how deep of a 3D field of view you'd like by adjusting this slider up or down.

The top display of the 3DS reportedly produces 3D images through the use of parallax. A layer in the top LCD responds to adjustments in the 3D slider and changes the image slightly between each of your two eyes. When it is viewed from the recommended distance, the image appears to be 3D.

Nintendo is no stranger to 3D gaming, considering its past experience with the ridiculously cool and underrated Virtual Boy that uses slightly different means to achieve a similar 3D effect.

The 3D view *should* work for most people, but one iFixit employee (out of about 10 that tried it) had trouble viewing it. To him the screen looked different, but not "3D" like.

We found an interesting little feature of the 3DS by accident while blowing away some dust with canned air.

External mics on the 3DS pick up the characteristic noise of wind blowing by the device and spin the live icons in the background of each menu as if they were in a tornado.

It turns out 3D doesn't show up very well when you try to take a picture of it. You can still get a good view of the touch-sensitive lower screen and the newly designed metal stylus, though.

Since none of us in the office are fluent in Japanese, we'll have to wait until later this month to get a 3DS that we can fully enjoy.

A couple of Phillips screws are all that stand in the way of us and the precious.

Unlike previous DS consoles, the entire back cover of the 3DS comes off as one piece rather than having a small door to access the battery. This makes for a cleaner look, but also means that replacing the battery will take a little longer.

The 3.7V 1300mAh 5Wh Li-Ion battery provides a measly 3-5 hours of battery life. The sweet 3D action comes at a price. Even when playing original DS games, the 3DS lasts only 5-8 hours on a single charge.

• The battery life is most likely diminished by the reported faster processor, dual LCD elements in the top display (to control the parallax effect), and more hardware intensive programs.

With the short battery life in mind, Nintendo ships the 3DS with a charging cradle for convenient charging. According to them, a full charge takes 3.5 hours.

A cool telescoping stylus is stored in a slot to the left of the game cartridge slot.

Its metal construction makes it feel higher quality than the single piece injection molded stylus found on earlier DS revisions.