I played around with 8 different N3DS XL's today (5 units I bought and 3 store demos), in search of a good unit with the right FW. 7 of them had a noticeable scanline effect, and the one that didn't was unfortunately FW9.4. All of the demo units were affected.

First, I think I should define what I mean by scanlines, since there might be some confusion. I'm not talking about the spacing between horizontal pixel rows, mostly visible in 2D mode. That's something that should be visible to anyone who can see. No, I'm talking about an effect, that's visible in both 2D and 3D mode, that appears as though alternating horizontal rows of pixels are refreshing at different intervals. It very closely resembles an interlaced image, even though the image isn't actually being interlaced, and they're not actually scanlines. It just looks a lot like it, and it looks bad.

If you've never seen it or haven't noticed, count your blessings and don't look for it. Once you see it, it won't go away. They're best visible while physically moving the 3DS slowly up to down, left to right, or back and forth while keeping your eyes on the screen. The most offending color is grey, followed by pastels, followed by reds, greens and blues. It's most visible during smooth motion, and smooth transitions (fade-ins or fade-outs).

My DSlite had it pretty bad back in the day. Fortunately I was able to fix it by tweaking the variable resistor trimmers under the battery cover, as illustrated in this guide: http://blog.xorn.org/2010/12/02/old-nintendo-ds-lite-display-scanlines/

Unfortunately, the N3DS XL doesn't have these, under the battery cover or elsewhere. I'm half tempted to further disassemble one looking to see if they lie deep inside, but as I'm likely to return all of them, I'd rather not break something I can't fix.

What's really disappointing is my 3DS XL has an absolutely gorgeous screen with perfectly matching, pure white color temperatures and saturation that really makes the colors pop, and no scanline effect. Going from it to the N3DS XL (or any that I've tried) seems like a complete and total downgrade at this point, which is a shame since I really wanted to use all of the new features.

Not sure what I intend to accomplish with this thread. Is there anyone out there as picky as I am who's found a unit with a good display? Have you noticed the scanline effect? Have you noticed that generally speaking the screens are much lower quality?

Very disappointed here

Edit: Found an (albeit exaggerated) example of what the interlacing effect looks like

 

I can certainly keep trying units until I (hopefully) find a good one, but statistically the problem seems widespread at least among 9.0 FW N3DSs. I'm not sure how likely it is I'll ever find an unaffected unit.

It's not something easy to perceive. I think most people wouldn't notice it even if theirs had the problem.

 

Well to be fair, my DSlite's case was much worse than this one. This one is still noticeable enough to bother me. I guess I should just try 8 more units... Mostly stores around here are sold out of black now, and all red are 9.4

 

The one I found that was good was a red one too, but it was 9.4. Maybe destiny telling me to abandon Gateway

 

Look at this thread for firmware version based on serial number:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/n3ds-xl-firmware-by-version-number.381479/

 

Found a good animated GIF that illustrates what I'm talking about (I guess this is more accurately interlacing effect rather than scanline effect):



If you're looking at a monitor, take a few steps back from your screen and notice how the further you get away from the image, the less obvious it becomes until you can't tell it's happening at all. This, in my theory, is why some people will not be able to see it

 

Hmmm... yeah... absolutely not having that issue perhaps your systems are somehow damaged, that or you have like super human eagle eyes and can see things no one else can.

Search internet to see if others are having similar issue? Call Nintendo?

 

The eye thing is possible. Nintendo did change how part of the stereoscopic 3D works and it's possible that with that change, your eyes see this. As I mentioned in my previous post, and as Ninty themselves has said, the 3D may not function right for everyone because everyone's eyes are slightly different.

@ Dax_Fame: Love your signature by the way.

 

It's probably related to the backlighting... either marginal to begin with, or manufactured with defects and/or damaged in transit...

 

This is normal and part of the super stable 3D technology. All n3DS devices have this and most of the time you won't see it. I see it when you are looking at dark scenes (like with Fantasy Life at night on the bridge to the main town).

Most people do not see this, but this is just part of the tech, nothing more, nothing less. I do not particularly like it, but if I have to choose between this and the old 3D, I choose this.