I've upgraded from the original 3DS to the New 3DS XL, and I would highly recommend it. Aps load faster, the screen and 3d seems much better and it's made a massive difference for playing games like smash bros.
I stopped trusting gamespot reviews a LONG time ago. Super Mario 3DS 7.5, Luigi's Mansion 6.5. GS scores for major games repeatedly vary significantly from the metacritic average. This is yet an another example. This is why I tend to visit and trust other sites more than this one.
Intellips' comments