Preface:

A few years ago, Nintendo reported the development of a new console to replace the then-aging Game Boy, which had mades its debut in 1988/1989.  The year is now 2001- and a lot has changed.  Many variations of GB hardware have been developed since then- the GB pocket, the GB light, and the GB Color.  While each of those systems had interesting features, they still were working off the now-20+-year-old architecture (the Z80- older than most of the people reading this, and older than me).  Anywho, after 12 years of waiting, we finally have a completely new portable, which looks to have a very promising future.
 

What's in the box:

Inside the GBA box, you will find a GBA (in assorted colors), various manuals and Nintendo Power garbage, as well as 2 maxell batteries.  No game, no link cable, nothin' else.
 

Design:

Finally, those of us with man-hands have a horizontally mounted console.  This makes for easier button presses (repeated button presses) and less wrist cramping.  However, the shoulder buttons are a little awkwardly placed for people with aforementioned man-hands.  This is something that just needs the user to be adjust to.  Sleek, sexy, and overall stylish..... but old cartridges (GB/GBC) stick out about an inch from the top.  No big deal, just a little bit of an eyesore.  Gives you a reason to keep the old GBC.
 
 

Video:

The video on the GBA is crisp and clear in the right lighting.  More onscreen colors than any handheld, higher resolution than any current handheld.  Old games look pretty dark on the screen though.  Thank goodness I've got a couple different lights :)  Anyways, the technical details about the video is in the FAQ, so I won't rehash them here.  Most GB/GBC games look just dandy in widescreen, much more playable in most cases, if not a little harder to see.  True color TFT screen- no more washed out colors that developers need to compensate for.  Old games really do look nice for the most part- the dithering in widescreen makes most of them look just stellar, with exceptions of some GBC games like DKC.

No more 10-sprite-per-line bug.  That sucked.  128 sprites of size larger than 8x8 per line is much more acceptable.  Once again I am pleased.

Overall, I really don't have too many complaints except for the dark screen.  However, playing with natural light (in a car, outdoors, by a window, etc...) really does look crisp.  I didn't realize it at the time, but the horizontal resolution is that of the NES, SNES, and many arcade machines, so look out for ports.
 
 

Audio:

TThe GBA supports dual PCM channels as well as the 4 GB sound channels.  When the GBA is used right, it can sound just excellent, when it isn't, it can sound like the old GB.  Using both can yield interesting results, but with such advanced synthesis tools like MusyX and the Shin'en tools, why use 8-bit?  Once again, the resources are in the hardware- it's up to the developers to make use of it.  Most of the time I play with sound low or off anyways, so I think it is thoroughly suitable.
 
 

Functionality:

Great little unit.  Speedy processor provides enough oomph to do a variety of console-quality games.  Development can be done in C++ which is very good for the homebrew scene, as well as professional developers (many claim it is the easiest platform they've ever coded for) .  While no 3D monolith, the GBA is a powerhouse in its own right, with an already established library and dedicated first and thrid-party developers.
 
 

The Bottom Line:

The GBA is a great little system, which met all- and exceeded many -my expectations.  The quality of most of the release titles is a testiment to where the system is going-  look at how far they've pushed the GBC in the course of under three years!  It's only a matter of time before talented programmers are able to tap the full potential of the little system.

Buy this system.  There's no doubt in my mind that there's a bright future ahead for our favorite little lifestyle accessory.