February 10, 2006 - When Nintendo first announced the DS Lite a couple of weeks back, it revealed that the system would be released to Japan in three colors, without going into specifics. Today, the company announced the final color set and shared details on the system's packaging.

DS Lite will, as promised, ship in three color variations on March 2: Crystal White, Ice Blue and Enamel Navy. Each system comes bundled with two touch pens of the same color as the hardware, a strap and an AC adapter with a 1.9 meter cord length. Also included is a GBA connector cover, also the same color as the system, which is used to cover the GBA connection slot when it's not in use.

ICE
BLUE
ENAMEL
NAVY
CRYSTAL
WHITE

There are a few differences in these accessories from their standard DS counterpart. The included touch pen is 1mm thicker and 1cm longer than the original DS pen. As revealed earlier this week, the pen slides into the system horizontally now. The AC adapter is different from past AC adapters and will not work with the standard DS or the Game Boy Micro.

As for that cartridge slot cover, the original DS didn't include a such a device, most likely because Nintendo assumed owners would keep a GBA cartridge plugged into the system at all times. Sadly, with the new redesign, GBA cartridges stick out about a centimeter from the system when inserted, so when you're not playing a GBA game, you'll probably want to use the cover.

Nintendo has also shared final specifications for the DS Lite, including comparisons to the original DS. Here's a look at how things stack up:

PRODUCT NUMBER
DS Lite: USG-001
DS: NTR-001

SIZES WHEN FOLDED
DS Lite: 73.9 x 133.0 x 21.5 mm
DS: 84.7 x 148.7 x 38.9 mm

WEIGHT
DS Lite: 218g
DS: 275g

TOUCH PEN SIZE
DS Lite: 87.5mm x 4.9mm
DS: 75mm x 4.0mm

SCREENS
The DS Lite and DS screens have the same sizes, but the Lite's screen can be adjusted to four levels of brightness.

BATTERY
For the DS, play time was listed as 6 to 10 hours depending on the software, with a full charge taking 4 hours. For the DS Lite, the play time depends on the brightness setting: lowest level (15 to 19 hours), low level (10 to 15 hours), high level (7 to 11 hours) and highest level (5 to 8 hours). A full charge for the DS Lite takes just three hours.

We've uploaded a bunch of pictures of the system from a number of angles. View these pics to get a little closer to the DS Lite before it launches in Japan on 3/2.