French site Puissance Nintendo has managed to take an early look at the 3DS XL, announced by Nintendo last week and coming to the US on August 19. The extra-large handheld is reportedly much more comfortable than the previous model, and surprisingly light despite the inflated size. The site also says that the larger screen gives an improved 3D experience with the effect being less stressful on the eyes. The one drawback appears to be a lack of power in the speakers, though the viewing did take place in a noisy room.

Now, the 3DS XL's screen is roughly 90 percent larger than the original 3DS' while maintaining the same resolution, so you might be wondering what effect that has on the image quality. Well, according to Puissance Nintendo there's not much of a problem — the 3DS XL apparently renders images quite softly, and the site speculates that some sort of "filter" is in use. That would be quite surprising if true, but we'll have to wait until we have a unit in our own hands to know for sure.