Let There Be Light
Two years after the Game Boy Advance launched, Nintendo fixed the thing everyone complained about. The Game Boy Advance SP arrived in Japan in February 2003 and in the West that March, and the first time you flipped open the lid and saw a lit screen, the original felt like a relic.
The SP is a clamshell about the size of a coaster when it's closed. Open it and you get the full Game Boy Advance experience, with the same 240×160 screen, the same processor and the same cartridge slot. The difference is a light you can switch on and off and a built-in rechargeable battery. It also plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, so one small console covered more than a decade of Nintendo handheld history.
Front-Lit, Then Backlit
There are two versions, and the difference matters. The original model, AGS-001, uses a front light that shines across the screen from the edge. It was a huge improvement, but blacks look washed out and the colours a little flat. In 2005 Nintendo quietly released the AGS-101, with a true backlit screen that's dramatically brighter and more vivid. Check the sticker on the bottom of the console: the model number is printed there, and the 101 is the one collectors want.
The clamshell design solved another old problem, too. Closing the lid protects the screen, so an SP can live in a bag or a pocket without picking up the scratches that plague older Game Boys.
The Missing Headphone Jack
The SP's famous flaw is that it has no headphone jack. Nintendo expected you to buy an adapter that plugs into the charging port, which means you can't charge and use headphones at the same time. It's a strange omission on a machine that otherwise thought of everything, and the adapters are now harder to find than the consoles.
Battery life was a big step forward. The built-in lithium-ion battery lasts around ten hours with the light on and longer with it off, and it charges in a few hours. After twenty years most original batteries have faded, but replacements are cheap and easy to fit with a small screwdriver.
The Best Way to Play the Library
The Game Boy Advance library is one of Nintendo's finest, and the SP is the most comfortable original way to play it. Metroid Fusion, Advance Wars, Golden Sun, The Minish Cap and Pokémon Emerald all look fantastic on the backlit model. Its sales were rolled into the Game Boy Advance family, which passed 80 million units. For the history of the console it improved, see The Game Boy Advance: Nintendo's Awkward Middle Child.
Buying One Today
Check the hinge first: cracks around it are common and can spread. Look at the screen for scratches and dead pixels, test the light, and make sure the charger is included or easy to replace. Special editions like the NES Classic Edition, styled like an NES controller, are the collector's picks.
If you can only own one Game Boy Advance, make it an AGS-101 SP. Close the lid, drop it in your pocket, and take the whole library with you.