Okay... Ill bite. I personally own a DSi and and the old Phat and 3 different DSi flash carts. I would recommend getting getting a DSi cart cause it does the same thing and if you ever get a DSi you can still use it, as well as the fact that they are ~24 US dollars depending on where you get it.
Anyway... on to the point.
R4i SDHC (Revolution as gbg lists it) -
I personally would NOT recommend this at all. The R4i SDHC that I got (red box) isn't necessarily bad, its just slow and awkward. The kernel I used on it last had a cool concept for the GUI (offering both a list view and a grid view) but with even just a 8gig SD card it was super slow in list view and you had no idea wtf game it was in grid view. That and seemed like the game compat was far inferior to the AK2i and EZflash. That and I am almost positive its just a terrible clone with a website that has several typos (even for me) and no way of communicating with anyone developing the kernel (that I have found).
AceKard2i -
Would highly recommend to the basic users who just want to play backups and homebrew, as its cheap (24 to 25 US$) and has very good compatibility. No Real Time Save or "In-game walk-thru". The GUI is simple, so that's a plus. Another feature some might like its the built in rom trimming which would be nice for some people, but I personally don't use since it seems it doesn't take too much off anyway (also i heard some games stash some WIFI data after the blank space it trims, so im not sure how that works out). Also I believe AKAIO or w/e is based off Moonshell as well for whatever media it plays. And on to my personal fav...
EZ-Flash Vi (not 6 )
I still use the AK2i for my phat sometimes, but I cant stop using the EZ-Flash. Has Real time Save, GameGuide which is pointless but "nice" considering its just bland text anyway. All the features of Ak2i sans rom trim as well as Moonshell (but that's a download away if its needed). Plus its the same price as the AK as well. Now i will say if you use pre 2.0 RC3 (something like 1.90 beta something) its pretty clunky and slow. But since they release the 2.0RC with all the old features back its nice. Vastly improved boot times and save creation. Also the English forums have some sweet moderator and usually answer an intelligently worded question that hasnt been asked 50 times
.
To break it down to just 1 I would have to
+1 the AK2i just for its ease of use and the fact that they seems to use just the right save "format". To clarify since I'm not sure of the specifics - is that when i transferred my AK2i SD card and put EZ-Flash on it I don't think the EZ-Flash had a prob reading the AK2i saved as (same with the crap r4i). But trying to go back to AK2i from EZ-Flash save didn't work IIRC. All in all the Acekard has almost all that you'll need from a flash cart.
Personally I'm just waiting for the first DS game that comes out with a "DSi Only" version, not just the DSi enchanced. Then we'll see what we can really do with the DS.
