January 26^th, 2006 (6:09am) - After weeks of heavy speculation, today Nintendo officially unveiled the first redesign of the Nintendo DS hardware, the DS Lite. This smaller and more streamlined version of the handheld is designed to look like its home console brethren, the Nintendo Revolution, mimicking an iPod-ish style, and is set to hit Japanese retail shelves on March 2nd, the same day which the hotly anticipated Children of Mana sees a release for Nintendo’s wildly popular handheld.

DS Lite will come in at 133mm wide, 73.9mm high and 21.5mm deep, as compared to the proportions of the original DS which was 148.7mm wide, 84.7mm high and 28.9mm deep - which in real terms, means that it’s 42 per cent smaller than the original DS. The weight of the console has also been reduced, from 275g in the original model down to 215g in the new DS Lite, representing a drop of almost 21 per cent.

The handheld features a few functionality changes over the current DS model. For one, the screens are now brighter, even better quality than those featured in the current GBA models, and now the handheld features four different levels of brightness. Additionally, the power button is no longer visible on the face of the handheld, as it has been moved to the side, and the microphone has now been moved to the center of the console, in between the handhelds two screens.

The redesigned version of the Nintendo DS will retail at 16,800 Yen, which is just marginally higher than the current price of the handheld. No word on a North American release at the moment but we expect an official announcement later in the day.