"New 3DS" is the latest 3DS console from Nintendo, 3DS and XL models of this will be available. It will launch on October 11th in Japan, 2015 for EUR/USA. It was announced on 29 of August 2014. It will feature "New 3DS"-specific titles that are not playable on older 3DS models, which may imply new encryption keys(though blocking title-launch of those titles on old hw could be done other ways too as well).
According to official sources, the following changes have been made hardware-wise:
- Faster CPU
- Better 3D screen technology (including head-tracking via camera for the stereoscopy)
- IR LED next to the the camera above the top-screen, used with the above head-tracking for better camera-video brightness.
- MicroSD-slot instead of normal-sized SD-slot, moved under the bottom cover(which covers the battery as well)
- Easily removable plates for 3DS bottom(same cover mentioned above) / back of top-screen (for the regular New 3DS at least)
- NFC support
- Two circle-pads instead of one (new one is a small pad)
- New buttons ZR and ZL
- Automatic screen brightness adjustment "depending on the surroundings"
Based on disassembly of certain sysmodules for code added/changed with in the 8.0.0-18 update, it appears that the "New 3DS" has the following changes:
- They extended FCRAM from 128MB to 256MB.
- They added another memory-block with size 4MB.
See hardware specs here also.
The "New 3DS" uses system-titles based on as the original hardware system-titles. The JPN launch-day New3DS ships with 8.1.0-0_New3DS. Also see here and here.
New3DS has dedicated FIRM titles, separate from the old3DS FIRM titles. The New3DS FIRM pm-module will always set the New3DS TIDLow bitmask(old3DS pm-module uses the input TIDLow directly without changing it) when launching FIRM, therefore New3DS can't boot old3DS FIRM this way. This also means that old3DS applications on New3DS run under the New3DS FIRM, with the default New3DS FCRAM mem-region settings.
The product code of the New 3DS is KTR, while the product code of the New 3DS XL is RED. Going by strings in various system titles, the New3DS codename is likely "SNAKE".
JPN launch system
The following titles might be pre-installed on regular 3DS systems from JPN already. But regardless, the following titles are pre-installed on launch-day JPN New3DS on the microSD: Flipnote Studio 3D, JPN video app(video is just paper-airplanes), update title for flipnote(v1.3), and update title for StreetPass Mii Plaza.
Home Menu extdata already exists on the microSD before first booting it up with system-setup.