Nintendo Co said on Friday it plans to launch its 3DS LL handheld game console on July 28, with a 4.88-inch display and a 4.18-inch touch panel, both nearly double the size of the current DS model.

Nintendo, which is fighting increasing competition from games on mobile devices such as Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads, set an asking price of 18,900 yen ($240)for the new handheld. ($1 = 80.2750 Japanese yen).

The 3DS, which has a touch panel and delivers 3-D imagery without special glasses, has two screens — one is 3.53 inches and the other is 3.02 inches. The LL or XL version's screens are 4.88 inches and 4.18 inches according to the company. Screen inches refer to the diagonal measurement so LL screens are 1.9 times bigger.

Nintendo has sold 17 million 3DS machines worldwide so far. Sony has sold 1.8 million of its PS Vita machines.