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Nintendo DSi XL Teardown
Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
Featured Guide
This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.
Oh Happy Joy! It's here! The Nintendo DSi XL for all to see! Whoopee! Join us for an exciting teardown into the innards of this behemoth of a DSi.
Also check out the video slideshow of the teardown!
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Edit Step 1
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Nintendo DSi XL Teardown
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The Nintendo DSi XL is the latest iteration of Nintendo's ever-popular handheld gaming console, the Nintendo DS.
Along with fancy new packaging, the new features include:
Two screens that are 93% proportionally bigger than those found in the DS Lite.
A new full size stylus for added precision on larger screens.

Edit Step 3 ¶
The DSi XL measures in at 161 x 91.4 x 21.2 mm and weighs in at a whopping 314 g. That's 45% heavier than the 217 g DSi.
Side by side comparison of the DSi (left) and DSi XL (right).
The featured specs of the DSi XL are the twin 4.2" LCD panels.
The back side of the DSi XL. What a surprise! It's made in China.

Edit Step 6 ¶
Nintendo provided quite a hefty upgrade in battery size from 840 mAh in the DSi (Right) to 1050 mAh in the DSi XL (Left).
For all you math haters out there, that's 25% more capacity!
Larger capacity comes with the cost of more weight. The XL's battery weighs 23 g compared to the 19 g DSi battery.

Edit Step 9 ¶
Pry the following connectors straight up using the flat end of a spudger:
SD board cable connector
Volume control cable connector
The lower case should now be completely detachable from the upper case of the DSi XL.
Thankfully, Nintendo designed the DSi XL to eliminate a long ribbon cable spanning the width of the old DSi.

Edit Step 11 ¶
Removing the main board is a piece of cake:
Remove the five Phillips screws.
Disconnect the six connectors on the front side, flip the board over and remove the one last connector hiding on the back.
Whenever unlocking flat ribbon cable sockets, use your fingernail to flip up the small retaining flap.

Edit Step 12 ¶
The lower display is held in place by the pressure of the board secured over it. No screws!
After freeing it from the light adhesive around its perimeter, lift the lower display out of the DSi XL.
The displays on the DSi XL conveniently integrate the digitizer, LCD, and backlight into one package.

Edit Step 15 ¶
Use a spudger to pry the outward facing camera from its resting place on the top outer case.
Remove the single Phillips screw securing the inward facing camera's bracket to the top inner case.
Carefully pull the camera ribbon cable through the hollow right hinge, being careful not to rip it or the display ribbon cable.
The DSi XL has two digital cameras; one on the internal hinge pointed toward the user and the other pointed away from the top outer case.

Edit Step 19 ¶
Remove the seven Phillips screws securing the left trigger, right trigger, and the stylus holder to the bottom outer case.
Lift the SD board and the stylus holder out of the case.
The electronic right trigger button is integrated into the SD board.
Reassembling the triggers is quite difficult. Take them apart if you dare.

Edit Step 20 ¶
Samsung and Fujitsu chips are identical to the DSi:
Samsung 1st generation MoviNAND KMAPF0000M: 256 MB NAND Flash and MMC controller. The integrated MMC controller allows the CPU to offload the complex work of directly talking to the flash memory.
82DBS08164D-70L: Fujitsu Ltd 128-bit FCRAM (fast-cycle RAM) chip.
TI (TXN) 72071B0 power managing and charging circuit. This used to be a Mitsumi chip in the smaller DSi.
PAIC3005B: We assume it stands for Primary Antenna Interface Controller, given that it's located right by the antenna.
Primary Nintendo ARM CPU, manufactured the last week of 2009. This chip's markings are identical to the DSi. It's definitely not the Tegra chip that had been rumored.
Here's a couple of large photos of the front and back of the logic board. Warning for 56K users: we mean large.
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