consoles

Beautiful, stylish, amazing screen clarity, all wonderfull except for one big problem, the L and R buttons. The system itself is great to hold, nice and light too, but when you try and use those L and R buttons it becomes the worst designed system in the world. The bottom corners dig into your hands, or the system is too clumsy to hold. You say now that you dont use those buttons but youll regret that later (I know I do). Other than that its a great deal, especially with the old gba going for $... still, but to tell you the truth, I MUCH prefer the old GBA with a afterburner modification any day. Same backlighting technology (actually front lighting but thats just a detail), with the added advantage of being able to control brightness and have comfortable buttons.
Oh and by the way, the SP has no headphone port, you need to buy an adaptor for it.
Over all I say three stars, while its beautiful, and the flip version saves the screen from damage, it becomes pretty useless when it hurts to play a game where the L and R buttons are used lightly. I would hate to think about using this to play F-Zero or Castlevania.

Just for everyones knowledge, the battery CAN be replaced. Theres a flap on the back with a screw. If you unscrew it the flap opens and you have a rechargable battery (600 mah Lithium Ion). It is very easiy to take it out and put it back in. You can purchase replacement batteries at stores such as GameStop for 5 dollars. So don't worry about it dying in the long run, because its very easy to replace (and cheap). Also you can buy another battery if your paranoid it will run out on you while your travling. This most likely will never happen, because after around 15 hours of gameboy you'll be tired of it anyways. (15 hours because you probally wont have the light on all the time). And just for the record, the gameboy advance sp is worth the money (can't get enough of that 4-player mario bros battle!).

Brian out.

I've bought every Game Boy that's ever come out, even the Virtual Boy! My only lament was the lack of a backlit screen and the infernal glare you get from everything but the most direct of light sources. The Game Boy Advance SP is very well-done. You can turn the internal light on and off whenever you wish so as to save the battery. The RECHARGEABLE battery, I might add!! That's a really convenient feature. The clamshell design saves the viewscreen from scratches without having to by an aftermarket guard to go over it. The only annoying thing is the fact that you have to have an adapter in order to plug your headphones in, and you cannot have headphones and your AC adapter plugged in at the same time. The unit is made for rather small hands, but if you get a set of grips for it it is just fine. I'm enjoying the SP so much that I don't feel the urge to rush right out and get the next generation Game Boy that's coming out soon with all the new goo-gas on it just yet.