All white – either really cool, really dull, or sometimes both at once depending on what type of mood you are in. The all white era of technology seemed to start with the introduction of the iPod, as it made pure white shiny and hot. However, sometimes white is a primer and a base coat, meant to ready it for something more. In the case of the Nintendo DS Lite, along comes Red Beard's Nintendo DS Lite skins to give that white a kick in the pants.

I've always marveled at those people who can go out and mod their systems, replacing the cases with clear, see through plastic so you can see the guts working, but I'm a wuss when it comes to that – you just don't open a system and fiddle around in there! Therefore, I thought myself doomed to never change if I wanted, but then Red Beard's Nintendo DS Lite skins presented themselves before me, and now you too can do modding, only at half the price and half the effort.

Red Beard's skins come in a cardboard case/box with three individual sheets of skins placed in a plastic tray. The three skins include one that goes on the top screen of the DS when it is closed (the outside), a sticker that goes around the top screen when the system is open, and one that goes around the bottom screen when the system is open. Also worth mentioning is the skins come with a free Red Beard branded DS screen cleaner so you can wipe any dust or hairs off your screens. Red Beard – as stated on the box – also proudly donates a portion of all sales to Prevent Child Abuse Rhode Island, so there is a good cause as well. The skins for the DS are 100% reusable, 100% removable, and they are coated with a re-enforced thick layer of epoxy and printed on a metallic sticker substance.

The first skin we applied was the bottom skin, which goes around the screen, the directional pad, and the buttons. The bottom skin was perhaps the second easiest to apply, because not having to place a part of it above the screen meant there was less chance of the sticker rolling up to form little lumps since we could stretch it out easier and place it down more carefully. However, we did run into a problem with the bottom skin, as the edges, which go around the left side of the directional pad, and directly to the right of the A-button, were pretty narrow, and it did suffer a tiny bit of damage because of the narrowness of them, and we also worried it would tear on us as well. However, once it was down, it looked pretty good. Thankfully, the skins are reusable, so we didn't have to worry about screwing up too much and wasting the sticky, making the skin worthless, because we pulled it up a good many times trying to get the look just right.

The top screen skin when open was a bit harder to apply, mainly because the top skin does have a top and bottom that goes around the screen, which means you need to lay the skin flatter or else wreak the wrath of bunching which can be frustrating. It was also a bit harder to line this skin up, because you have to center the skins around the speakers and screen almost perfectly. While trying the second skin on, for example, we had to settle because we didn’t' want to keep fiddling with the more flimsy top screen of the DS.

The skin that goes on the outside of the DS was the easiest to apply, mainly because it's one single skin, and you only have to worry about lining it up and not framing it around anything.

Removing the skins was also pretty easy, as the bottom skin came off really easy, as did the top screen once we got a bit of leverage on it and managed to lift a corner up. The case screen, however, was hard to remove, mainly because the skin is one big mass, and it really, really wanted to stay stuck to our system and required a bit more pulling. However, once we removed the skins, we ran our fingers over all the previously covered surfaces, looked them over, and there wasn't a single sticky spot piece of glue gunk left anywhere on the surface. We don't know if this is a problem with the skins, or rather just our hesitancy with our babies (DS), but we got a bit worried while fiddling with the skins and removing them from the top screen (both inside and out) because we were constantly afraid of ripping the skin off and there goes the hinge. Thankfully, we're happy to report the hinge is still secured tightly to the system.

Right now, there are a total of 18 different skins you can get for your DS Lite from Red Beard, but for review purposes we had the Green Lightning and Blue Crystal skins. It was a little jarring getting used to the newly skinned DS Lite, but not because it looked bad or anything, we were just so used to seeing it plain. However, the people we showed the newly skinned DS to were impressed and actually thought them quite cool. So hey, if it makes us cooler, who are we to say otherwise.

If you want your DS Lite to cease being solely a piece of tech, and become more an outside visual representation of yourself or a piece of fashion, then Red Beard's Nintendo DS Lite skins might be the answer you are looking for. It was a bit hard at times to center the skins perfectly like I wanted them, but hey, I'm a perfectionist; to the skin's credit though, the reusableness of it meant I could keep pulling it up and reapply, and I didn't have to worry about it losing that grip. Removal issues for the top screen and case I won't chalk up to the skins themselves all that much, because that could just be me being overprotective. The only real issue we had was the thinner parts of the bottom skin, but as long as you aren't overly harsh with the product, it shouldn't cause you many problems. Overall, in the end, a solid alternatives for those looking to spice up the look of their DS Lite.

Rating:
Our Scoring System

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