If you've been paying attention to the sales in Japan lately, you'll notice that the Nintendo DS Lite is selling about the same as every other console combined. Well, the truth is that those numbers are nowhere near what they could be. The DS Lite is actually suffering from shortages, much like the Xbox 360 in the west, and not all customers are getting what they want. As a result, import sites like Play-Asia and Lik-Sang jacked up the price and closed off orders until new shipments arrived.

Good news! Play-Asia says they have new shipments of the Enamel Navy and Ice Blue DS Lites (the Crystal White ones, though, are still out of stock). The bad news is that they're still at $199.90 US. However, if you want your DS Lite now, you likely don't care.

While the average PSP owner might not even know what the word firmware means, the average QJ.net reader knows it's one of the most important pieces of information to look at when buying a PSP. Version 1.5 is the most sought after and RenChi has some for sale. If you need a system with the widest variety of homebrew available, you might want to look into this. Be warned, though, that the price is a bit steep.

Nintendo DS Lite
Sony PSP 1.5

Both the DS and PSP are region-free. This means they can play games from any region. However, the PSP can only play UMD movies from Region 1 (N. America).