When the DS lite costed 130 dollars, and the DS phat costed 150, i know which one i went for. And dead pixels, would they be by any chance pixels that are just like other colors, and dont help with picture quality at all? since when i got my DSL, it had one pixel colored red, and its not a big deal, though i will ask for it fixed once something goes wrong with my DSL in about 5 years. As for smudges and other things, i am a total neat freak when it comes to new, exspensive things, and it has never lost its shine ^ ^.