I've been thinking about picking up a 3DS but I have to ask two questions.

1.) Is the battery life really 4 to 5 hours?

2.) I'm not desperate to pick one up right now, so whats the chances that Nintendo at E3 shows off a 3DS Lite/XL/Whatever?

1.) Yes. 
2.) Hard to say, but I imagine they'll be focused on the WiiU.

@TehFlan: Thanks for the info.

The battery life is for continuous playing, I assume. The battery should last a whole day if you only play for an hour or two and sleep mode it the rest of the day?

If that's the case I'll probably get in the same habit, if I do decide to get one, like my phone and charge it every night.

I also imagine that they'll be focusing mainly on the WiiU as the 3DS is just a year old in the US. Just hoping that they'll get to the 2nd Gen 3DS sooner rather than later.

I was so tempted to pick up one after PAX. Everyone seemed to be walking around with one. I just knew the minute I got home to my 360 or PS3 or guitars that I wouldn't use it.

1) Depends. Have the brightness low and 3D off saves the battery a lot. That's what I do and the battery life is much longer.

2) I doubt they will. If they do make a 3DS Lite at some point, they have to figure out how to add the new triggers to the device.

@Faramir82 said:

@TehFlan: Thanks for the info.

The battery life is for continuous playing, I assume. The battery should last a whole day if you only play for an hour or two and sleep mode it the rest of the day?

If that's the case I'll probably get in the same habit, if I do decide to get one, like my phone and charge it every night.

Pretty much. I dropped the screen brightness down to 3 (it starts at 5, the max) and turned on Energy Saver Mode and I can usually get two days on a charge by turning it off at night and mostly keeping it in sleep mode.

1) The battery life is more like 4 to 10 hours, depending on the settings you have.

2) Hard to say.

The battery life is really poor. I've never had too much problems, since I tend to only play at home anyway, but the issues with it are definitely not exaggerated.

I also don't think the thing is particularly well designed, especially when compared to the DSi. I don't want to start any conspiracy theories, but it almost feels as if they intentionally designed the flaws to make the inevitable updates seem more substantial. It's only a matter of time before we see one at this point, and I still don't think there are any real "must have" games.

I find myself playing my 3DS more than my consoles these days and I own a ton of consoles from the past and present including XBOX 360, PS3, and a Wii, but I still spend more time with my handheld than anything else because I love RPG's and those are available in much greater numbers on the 3DS. Between the DS era RPG's that I wasn't able to get to at the time they released to Tales of the Abyss and Devil Survivor: Overclocked it is a great value property. I would recommend the 3DS to anyone.

There is always the possibility of a redesign being announced at E3 this year but I think the current design is great and very comfortable. Full disclosure, I do own the Circle Pad Pro and have enjoyed using that, but if you are wiling to wait then give it through E3 to see if there is an announcement but I don't think that is a huge deal.

If you're not desperate then just wait for E3. I'm willing to bet there's going to be an upgraded model.

@Radar said:

If you're not desperate then just wait for E3. I'm willing to bet there's going to be an upgraded model.

I really hope that the upgraded model won't have a built in circle pad.

The battery life is pretty bad, 5 hours would be lucky. I don't think they will announce a new iteration of the 3DS this E3 but who knows.

I would hold off honestly.
 
I love my 3DS compared to my old Lite, but if my DS Lite hadn't broken I never would have bought a 3DS.
 
There is literally nothing fucking out for the thing right now and all I really play on it now are DS games and the free Ambassador downloads I got.
 
I'd be able to recommend it more if the library was more robust, both retail and downloadable games, but right now that is simply not the case.
 
Then there is the fact Nintendo overall seems to be dissatisfied with how the 3DS has been received and I wouldn't surprise if we see a 3DS with a second analog very soon.

They were selling them at Walmart for $120 the week Icarus came out, and with the $20 Nintendo rebate; $99; damn I was so close to buying one.

personally I think you should go buy one, but if you're worried about a redesign (I think that's not till next year, but at the same time I can see them understanding they may "need" a redesign now) then just wait, it's only a couple months.

Nyko released a battery pack that almost doubles the battery life. It's pretty great.

I don't think you're going to see a revision just yet. Maybe Christmas, but probably some time next year I would guess. Sales are good right now so I don't think they would want to cannibalize, not to mention they are about to try to sell people a totally different piece of hardware.

Dont.

1.Battery is about that long.

2.As for 3DS lite my guess is that if it isn't at E3 it will probably be at TGS and available in Japan by the end of the year with a US release the following year.

If you have any other DS then I say you might as well wait, the library still isn't all that great. However, that is subjective and maybe you are interested in a lot of what they have out. I mostly use the DS Lite and the Vita though, my 3DS eats too much battery.

I would get a 3DS before a Vita, but at this point I say don't get either. You might as well wait for e3.

Save your money.

I've decided to hold off until E3.

I do have a DSLite and have realized I've never played any of the Professor Layton games. So I do believe I should get them.