In case you haven’t heard, Nintendo isn’t including a charger with the new 3DS. That means that unless you have an old charger lying around, you’ll be totally out of luck the first time the battery dies without buying extra accessories.
If that weren’t enough, consider that Nintendo’s official charger is tough to find at any retail outlet other than Nintendo.com. There you can find an AC adapter and car adapter for $10, or a refurbished model for $5, but you’ll be paying a minimum of $5 for shipping, and even then you won’t get it for 5-11 business days.
Amazon is, of course, littered with third party power adapters, but most of them have pretty iffy reviews. My advice is to completely eschew the AC adapter, and just use a 3DS USB cable instead. They’re plentiful, cheap, and most are pretty well reviewed, especially compared to third party AC adapters. This one is only $5 with Prime shipping, for example, and has a 4.3 star review average. I use one with my 3DS XL, and have never had an issue.
Besides the money you save, the biggest advantage of going this route is the ability to power your console from any number of inexpensive and versatile USB chargers, rather than being tethered to wall outlets. You’ll even be able to power your 3DS with an inexpensive USB battery pack, which is a boon for long plane rides. We’ve included a couple of charger deals below to get you started, but we usually post a ton of these on Kinja Deals every day, so keep checking back for more.