I've owned most versions of the Nintendo DS, bar the Nintendo DSi or the original 2DS. Thankfully, I'm able to say that this handheld definitely adds some improvements onto the normal 3DS I had prior to purchasing this one.I bought this mainly because I was looking forward to getting rid of the finicky and ineffective 3D feature, not to mention that when turned on made the system run much worse than normal. Also, the trade for a larger screen size versus quality was perfectly fine for me, as the actual drop in picture quality is noticeable, but certainly not terrible.The swap from the glossy black texture to the matte material was also very nice, because the 3DS got smudgy and dirty rather quickly, however this was hardly a deal breaker for me.Now, the major changes between the 3DS and the 2DS XL are the game cartridge and SD card slot, the stylus, the headphone jack placement, the speakers, the design (shape) of the handheld, and the power button. First the power button is now located under the battery light, and its less than nice to press to turn off the system. It doesn't provide any sort of audible click or tactile feeling to let you know it's been pressed, which definitely doesn't help its relatively slow response time. Its not anything to complain over, its just a little odd. Secondly, and this will cause issues for anyone who uses a form of DS case, the game cartridge slot and the SD card slot are next each other on the bottom left of the system, and have a covering that needs to be opened to insert cards. This won't be possible if using some sort of case, as you will have to take the case off to switch SD cards or games. With a case or without, it's sort of a hassle to switch games with the it being where it is, along with the cover. However, I will point out that the shape of this handheld is much more rounded and much less "sharp" so it fits more comfortably in your hands. The speakers are in the back of the handheld, so if you're not using headphones, you'll feel vibrations in your hands. I do happen to use headphones, so this isn't a problem for me, but some may need to take note of this. Also, it takes MICRO SD cards, not normal ones, so keep that in mind.A couple things I can say that are inherently bad about the handheld are the stylus and its location along with the headphone jack location. They are right next to each other, to the right of the game cartridge slot, and the stylus is no longer the hand-friendly telescoping kind. It's now a much shorter, and is a bit larger in diameter. This is not at all good, as someone with large hands won't be able to hold onto it comfortably (I can barely hold it, photo attached), and if you do wear headphones, it wouldn't surprise me if the jack got damaged due to the placement of the stylus.Overall, the 2DS XL is a welcome upgrade, however the stylus length might turn people off from it. They could make a telescoping variant of the stylus, and that would be enough for me to raise my rating to five stars. The card slot is also slightly annoying to deal with. And something I forgot to mention...the C-stick that was added onto the 3DS XL and 2DS XL is very static, however it does work. I haven't had to use it yet, but I'll update the review if I find any problems with it. As it stands though, I believe the 2DS XL is a good member in the 3/2DS family.