This variant had interchangeable faceplates in an array of colors and custom designs, but dropped the earlier models' backward compatibility to achieve its size and could only play GBA games. In 2005, Nintendo issued a second GBA redesign in an ultracompact form factor, the Game Boy Micro, the last model in the Game Boy line. At its launch, Nintendo claimed the SP's battery life as being 10 hours with the backlight on, or 18 with it off. The GBA SP was also Nintendo's first handheld with an integrated rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, replacing the alkaline batteries used in prior Game Boy models.
In 2005, the AGS-101 model of the SP featured a backlit screen, the first such feature for a Nintendo handheld in worldwide release. In 2003, a redesigned version was released under the name Game Boy Advance SP ( Special ) The SP was designed to fold and when collapsed, it was roughly half the size of the original Game Boy Advance. GBA units used shorter cartridges with more capacity than either the Game Boy or Game Boy Color, but most hardware designs were compatible with both prior units. The original Game Boy Advance was released in 2001 as a 32-bit handheld belonging to the sixth-generation era. The Game Boy Advance family of video game systems (abbreviated as GBA) was a line of handheld systems manufactured by Nintendo, and the descendant of the original Game Boy line.
