3DS screens almost twice the price of DSi XL
Less is more
While the official price of the 3DS won’t be announced for a while yet, some estimates have started to emerge on the cost to Nintendo of making the machines based on the technology it's purported to be using.
As reported by CNET, the fancy-sounding ‘parallex barrier LCD’ screens the 3DS uses only cost around $20-30 each, which sounds very cheap considering how few other devices use them.
However, when compared to the cost of the (larger) DSi XL screens, things become a little murkier.
The cost of XL's bog-standard LCD screens is around $10-20 each - about half the price of the 3DS ($15 compared to $25.)
While it’s doubtful Nintendo will try and market the 3DS for twice the price of the DSi XL at retail, it does suggest that the new portable will be more expensive at launch than the £149.99 XL, possibly pushing close to the £199 barrier due to the cost of the screens alone.
