Many people are doubtful towards the R4i / R4 cards for Nintendo DS. I've seen countless threads asking about the R4i SDHC / R4 SDHC flash cards, and whether they genuinely work or not. When it comes to electronics produced in China, people are generally skeptical towards them. It's natural, of course. In this article, I will try to explain what R4i / R4 cards are, and attempt to dispel some rumours about them that have been floating around on the web.
A DS R4 / R4i card is a storage device that enables you to store and view data such as images, text files, videos, sound files or homebrew games. The R4 / R4i card bypasses the encryption on the Nintendo DS, enabling files to be run straight from a storage medium such as a Micro SD card. Second generation flash cards such as the R4 / R4i make use of the DS game card slot (SLOT-1), instead of the GBA game card slot (SLOT-2), making them easier to use.
In a nutshell, the R4 / R4i is just a card which enables you to run multimedia files or game files on your DS. No editing of the system files is required; it is strictly a 'soft mod' that does not affect your NDS in any way. You just insert the R4i / R4 card into the game slot, and the R4 / R4i software will run.
Now, a lot of people ask why there are so many variations of the R4 / R4i flash card out there. This happens because there are many producers out there who make dupes of the original {R4i|R4 SDHC} card. A lot of these cards, particularly the ones that provide links to Taiwanese websites may damage your DS. Make sure to always do research online before buying your R4 / R4i card.
