I bought an Onyx one in October 2007, and it's fine. I'm pretty pickey about these things, and I didn't find any defects. Please note: I'm in the US, so other areas' results will vary.

 

i actually spent all last night comparing and contrasting between 2 blue ones and two crimson ones and the blue ones did not have the same problems. while the yellow tint is difficult for some people to see there are very clear differences between the two and it was driving me nuts last night as i couldn't decide which one to keep (i really wanted the red because the blue one looks more purple than blue and i hate purple).

anyway, the crimson one has a semi-matte finish on the touch screen and it's a bit milky making a glistening effect when it is on which makes it appear a little less sharp. the blue one has a glossy finish with no milkiness and appears sharper but it does have a gold-ish reflection - i am not sure if it's just my screen protector now because i didn't notice it yesterday without it but i'm almost certain it's not. but it is reflected color so only noticeable when bright light is hitting the surface of the screen but doesn't look overall yellow like the crimson.

lastly the dot spacer matrix on the blue one is a lot smaller, there is a noticeable difference in the amount of these little dots. because of that alone you can be certain that they do not use the same touch screens as the crimson.

hope that was helpful - i almost want to get a new batch and compare all over again.

 

the new batch is what i was comparing. i had in my possession 2 new crimsons and 2 cobalts and one old crimson. the new crimsons aren't as bad as the old ones. it is a beautiful color i must say and it was very difficult for me to choose the blue one - but in the end, i'll be staring more at the screen than the shell, plus changing the top shell is very easy.

the cobalt one has it's beautiful moments tho- under some lights, it really sparkles a true blue, very metallic.

 

I bought my onyx DSL last year in May. It's still fine, and no problems with the hinges or anything.

 

So if I buy a Black DS Lite now, there will be no cracked hinges, no dead pixels, no buttons that don't work anymore, ...?

 

Whoa, I never noticed a yellow tint on my Crimson/Black DS screen. I guess since I never noticed then it isn't really a problem? xD

 

yes it's safe, only a small percentage have the hingeproblem and it's regionfree

 

I just got my silver one and its perfectly fine. Perfect screen too.