I went completely blank about when I bought the New 3DS XL lol, I knew it was sometime last year but that was it. Luckily I posted about it here -
http://www.belltreeforums.com/showt...-is-your-3DS&p=6879493&highlight=#post6879493 - so I know I bought it sometime in August/first half of September. I've had it at least 7 months now, and I still haven't adjusted to the different design. I don't think I ever will, now. Too bad :/
I'm happy using the external NFC reader - well, happier to use that than I am the in-built one in the console I find so frustrating to use. If my old 3DS XL starts wearing out or something then I'll probably use the New one more. But unless or until then, it's going to sit there mostly as decoration lol.
I think the different stylus position probably has some reasoning behind it - whether the internals needed to be laid out in a way that meant the old length + placement of the stylus couldn't fit, or their research suggested people would prefer the new placement. I obviously don't like the change, and I really hope they revert future designs to more user-friendly ones. But a change like this isn't usually made just for the sake of change, there's some logic for it (it may not be *good* logic, but that's a different problem!).
Anyway. I hope you don't find using the New 3DS XL as tough as I have. I think you'll adjust to it in time, especially as you're not left handed (I assume, as you'd have probably mentioned that in reply).