eXtremeRate Clear Replacement Full Housing Shell
eXtremeRate Clear Replacement Full Housing Shell for Nintendo DS Lite, Custom Handheld Console Case Cover with Buttons, Screen Lens for Nintendo DS Lite NDSL – Console NOT Included
- Made of durable non-toxic ABS plastic. Odor free.
- Completely fits flush on all sides; Sit properly on all the clips
- Personalize your handheld game console.
- Several transparent colors as you can choose.
| Dimensions: | 13.5 x 7.5 x 2 cm; 50 Grams |
| Model: | DSLM5001 |
| Manufacture: | Extremerate |
| Dimensions: | 13.5 x 7.5 x 2 cm; 50 Grams |
| Origin: | China |
extremerate really makes some of the best aftermarket products there are. My DS had a broken hinge so I reshelled it with this and it feels like new. Its a complicated swap so give yourself lots of time and step away for a bit if you get frustrated, breathe and watch the video closely. You’ll be ok 🙂
Bought a couple of these shells to turn old dirty lites into brand new Gameboy macros and for that these shells are amazing. Will probably get more to make more.
First of all, this shell was an absolute pain to install. It was tedious and challenging. It literally took me 2.5 hours to change the shell from the original to the new one. I had to do it though, as the original shell was damaged. The finished results aren’t perfect, as I didn’t have a heat gun, which is used twice in the install video to remove bezels from the screens. I just had to carefully pry the bezels off by hand. Fortunately, my DS Lite was old and falling apart, so I didn’t damage anything terribly by doing so.
My main complaint is that the screw for the battery door absolutely refused to screw into the little metal nut that the tutorial video had me install at the beginning of the process. Fortunately, I was able to extract the screw from the original battery door, which screwed right in with no trouble.
My other complaint is that the top screen doesn’t have the two little raised squares molded into the back of the lid that is signature of the DS Lite. That’s not a deal breaker, though.
If you’re new to console customization, I cannot recommend you try this. It was quite challenging for me, and I’ve done many similar modifications and repairs to multiple handheld consoles. If you decide to buy this anyways, my number one recommendation is to *take your time*. If you rush, you *will* break something.
Now that I’ve listed my concerns, let me explain why I love this shell. The quality of the plastic is quite nice. Not as nice as the original shell, but better than I expected. It doesn’t feel brittle, and it’s got a nice smooth finish that isn’t slippery. I love the translucent purple look, though as other reviews mention, most of the circuit boards are covered by the screen, battery, and other components. That said, I still very much like the translucent purple look. It’s very retro. The shell feels solid, looks great, and there’s not much else to say about it.
This is the best NDSL shell I’ve installed so far. I’ve done a couple of shell replacements for this console before, and none has had such an excellent fit. Now, be mindful of the instructions: some of the other reviews say that the shell doesn’t fit well, but if you read them closely, you’ll find out the problem they had was not taking the bottom screen frame off, which is necessary, as the shell itself has this border molded in; you’ll end up having a crapy-feeling NDS if you don’t follow the instructions correctly.
It would be best if you also were careful when taking the screen frame off, as you could damage the digitizer.
I’m still waiting to take my donor DS apart which has a destroyed upper and lower case. From inspecting this atomic purple replacement shell I think its going to go well.
The edges are smooth and won’t cut up your hands like some others I’ve seen. Once I manage to find the time to extract the board and screens from my original I’ll update the post, but from the quality and included parts I don’t expect there will be any problems assembling it.
I couldn’t be happier with this shell. I have been searching for a purple shell for my DS Lite for ages. The only one I could find was an ugly shade and the shell felt awful. I’ve bought several Extreme Rate products over the past few years, and their quality keeps getting better. The color on this shell is perfect, it feels great, and it doesn’t have any of the issues that cheaper third party shells have (battery compartment not fitting, extra plastic needing trimming, etc.). If you have a beat up old shell, and have the skills to swap shells, you won’t be disappointed with this.
This makes my ds look so much better. Its cool to see what’s inside
I love the look of the see-through shell, it really shows off the interior (And all the work you had to do to replace the shell!) It took me, someone who has never replaced a shell before, about 4.5 hours. I wouldn’t say you should do it as your first swap, since it has some pretty delicate cables, but if you go slow and follow their (very detailed) video guide, it’s clear what you need to do.
I was really happy to see that it included replacement screws for every screw you use, and replacement rubber pads that match the colour you choose! Overall, I do love the look of the DS afterwards. My only wish is that the replacement screws for the Nintendo Original Tritip screws could of instead been cross tip, I would love to remove the stupid screws that never really were needed. I can understand why people would prefer trying to keep the screws as close to the original Nintendo style, though.
This kit does include: A Stylus, A new Serial Number Sticker, and the Dust Blocker for the Gameboy Slot. I’m not sure if all kits typically do, but I was afraid of those possibly not being included, but this one had it all!
Note: In my photos, I didn’t add multiple rubber feet, as I preferred the look of the raw screws, since I felt it matched the see-through look of the rest of the shell.
I’ve had a spare DS Lite that has been broken near the right hinge for about a decade that I’ve just never gotten around to fixing until now.
I decided that since I didn’t want to go through the hassle of dealing with ribbon cables and how delicate they are, I was going to do a GBA Macro conversion.
This is basically consists of removing the upper portion of the DS and using the bottom screen solely to play GBA games on.
While it will likely hurt some of you to read this, I took the easy option of just tearing the upper portion off entirely instead of going through the entire disassembly process.
All I needed to do afterwards was take the remaining portion of the original shell apart (which was missing a sizeable piece near the right hinge) and follow the guide I’d used to take it apart in reverse with the new shell.
While it doesn’t have the same branding as the original shell, I actually like this one better as it brings me a bit of nostalgia of back when controllers and consoles used to be see through.
Another eXtremeRate shell, another perfect fit – their attention to detail and small things like spares for some tiny parts is so wholesome!
Does not have any DS images on top shell mold. It’s smooth, it’s very well built. But I’d just wish it had the basic top mold style vs nothing.
Great Shell! This fit nicely on my Nintendo DS Lite. I use extremerate for my PS5 controllers so when I saw this I wanted to check it out and was not disappointed
This is a great quality shell replacement. It came with a ton of extra screws, rubber pads, new top screen layer, and tools. The bottom piece has corners built in for the screen, and a threaded piece of metal you have to install for the battery plate. Don’t forget to install the adhesive it comes with for the top screen while assembling. Overall really happy with how it came out, it didn’t come with instructions and I never opened a DS before so I’m glad it came together smooth. I didn’t put the correct screws on some parts, but it all worked out at the end. It also fixed my broken hinge that was completely loose, now it snaps into the proper positions.
I’ve been using eXtremeRate shells for quite a while and the quality is incredible. Great to finally have excellent aftermarket shells for the DS Lite. Shipping was fast as well. Highly recommend!
Great packaging, came with a link to an assembly instruction video! Great produc
Excellent shell replacement. Everything fits fine as I followed a video on youtube.
The screws you have to figure it out by yourself by comparing them with the original shell if you still have it.
It does not come with the hinge mechanism, so keep the original one.
The only thing I did not like but I can live without is the lack of Nintendo branding. It can be a real hassle for someone who wants as close to the original as possible since the lid does not come with the raised logo and there is absolutely no print whatsoever in the back. No Nintendo logo or regulatory info. It’s good looking but you can tell it’s a re-shell because there is no product information printed in it.
Overall it’s fine and the clear blue is beautiful.
I have purchased a few shell replacements from eXtremeRate in the past and have always been satisfied with the quality and price of thier products, so I was very excited to see that they were going to offer DS Lite shells. I bought one immediately and installed it.
Now DS Lites are very fiddly to work with, and I hope that future reviews will rate this product through that lens. The whole process is frustrating and it is very easy to ruin your device if you go in blind. eXtremerate posted an install video and I recommend watching it in full BEFORE you attempt this yourself, if you don’t know what you’re doing. I have reshelled 10s of DS Lites and it is still a frustrating experience evern when you know the tricks.
That being said, these are the best after market shells currently available. The molds and buttons are very accurate and no trimming or filing is required. I personally think the color options are cool, and hope to see more of them in the future. You also get servicable tools and spare parts of almost anything you may reasonably lose.
So why 4 stars? Although these are the best shells currently available, there is still room for improvement. Probably the biggest issue is the screws. This kit comes with 7 different, very similar types of screws. Even if you sort out the screws and follow along with the video, it is not always clear what screw you are supposed to be using where, and if you use the wrong one you can very easily ruin your shell or cross thread a post. In an ideal world eXtremeRate would standardize on 2-3 screws and adjust thier shells for that. If that isn’t possible, the install video NEEDS to be more clear on what to use where. This is the single biggest problem with the kit. The original DS Lite also had this problem, so its hard to fault eXtremeRate too much for this, but it is still disapointing.
All other issues are minor annoyances (to me).
-There is no DS or nintendo branding anywhere on the shell, for obvious reasons
-There are currently only transparent shell options. I love transparent shells as much as the next guy, but I feel like the DS is one of the consoles that benefits from it the least. The PCB is obscured on both sides of the console by the bottom screen and battery respectively, and the only thing you get a great view of are the mess of wires on the top screen for the speakers, wireless card and microphone. still kinda neat, but I feel like this is why nintendo didnt offer transparent shells to begin with. If this is what you like, great, but I would love to see some opaque shells too.
-Shell not compatible with original parts. I was hoping to keep my black buttons and shoulder buttons, but had issues with both and had to use the provided parts. The provided parts are of high quality so this is more of a matter of taste (and a nudge to sell different compatible button sets if you want more of my money)
TL;DR: If you need an aftermarket DS Lite shell, these are the best you can get. Make sure to watch the install video. Pay CLOSE attention to what screws to use where. Thank you eXtremeRate for filling this niche. Please make me a Sega Nomad Shell.