When it comes to Nintendo handhelds, it's standard for the first iteration to get the job done just sufficiently to sell the idea, but by the end of the system's lifecycle there are several upgrades available that, by comparison, make the original feel like a dev unit or pre-release prototype.
We love the original DMG-01 Game Boy, for instance, but there's no denying that the GB Pocket was sleeker and more practical, and the GBC brought back curves while adding colour. The original DS has its fans, but anybody who claims to prefer the ‘Phat’ to the Lite or the DSi is surely trying a little too hard, no? Again, we love the original and the era it represents, but as a console to play for hundreds of hours? The DSi XL is a much better machine.
Sometimes Nintendo takes things too far, though, (*cough Game Boy Micro) and we'd argue that the finest 3DS is not the final iteration — the New 2DS XL — but the New Nintendo 3DS (the smaller one with the faceplates), which launched in Japan a decade ago on 11th October 2014.
The release of this upgrade was staggered across regions, with Australia catching a lucky break for once and getting it in November, while Europe and North America had to wait until February, with one big caveat. While other territories got both the regular and XL-sized 'New' variants, North Americans would have to wait until September 2015 to get their hands on the smaller version (without resorting to importing), and even then it was only available in bundles.
Reggie Fils-Aimé and the US team decided that muddying the waters with two new entrants in the ever-growing 3DS family was potentially confusing, so while it did eventually get a limited release, many North Americans who might have been tempted by the smaller model — with its unreasonably attractive, Super Famicom-inspired buttons — had probably already picked up the XL already.