chaka chaka

some time ago, aunty nikki was telling me about her friend in beijing who found some awesomely-priced ndsls (nintendo dual screen lites, for the uninitiated). i immediately thought of al, who hasn’t yet succumbed to the mario kart orgies. made a call and asked her if she wanted one for approximately 440, ok, go.

so the thing arrived a couple of weeks ago and i pass it to al. just as she’s about to jizz her pants playing rhythm heaven, the damn screen stops registering and juan notices that the buttons on al’s unit stick out more. uh fucking oh…

my palms started sweating uncontrollably and i gunned it back home with FAKE PIRATED SHIT DS in tow to check.

got chee heng to help snap some photos. and showed al and juan both for comparison. our conclusion? we are impressed. and scared. but very impressed by the uber subtle differences.

the red one is an original; blue’s the A-grade fake.

the casing on the fake one [left] stuck out like killer nips on a cold day.

differences between the printing on the back is the hardest to tell.

the fake printing has a slightly el cheapo feel to it. check out the “Lite” font which, like the rest of the copy,  is slightly thicker. this applies for the logotype on the packaging as well.

the stylus on the counterfeit [bottom] was also harder to remove.

it wasn’t glaringly obvious, though the fake ds didn’t feel as solid or well made. the giveaway wasn’t so much the general detailing as it was the rougher finishing. i was quite blown away that aunty nikki, my dear technologically-impaired aunt, suspected it wasn’t quite *ahem* the real deal.

so baby, aroha and i tagged along with al and juan to digital mall last sunday to pick up real ones which cost only about RM580 these days (excluding the limited edition colours which are still fucking pricey – RM630).

moral of the story? china fucking rocks.