The Wand makes a few alterations to the Wii-mote's design like bigger D-pad, (A), (1) and (2) buttons and a softer grip over the battery case, but for the most part, the device behaves just like a standard Wii-mote.
Another slight alteration, that while subtle seemed pretty effective, was the fact that the controller's Home button was actually recessed, making it harder to accidentally tap that button while reaching for the (+) and (-) ones and breaking any flow you might have while in the middle of a fight or otherwise intense part of a game.
There is another benefit to the Wand besides the lower price point and bigger buttons, and that is the promise of Trans-Port Technology. While there have been a wide variety of shells and cradles to slip your Wii-mote into since the system's release, they pretty much all fall into one category. They hold the Wii-mote in place and either use the port at the bottom of the controller to send Nunchuck-like signals to the game, or they simply expose the buttons but allow you to easily hold the controller in whatever manner is best for the game (i.e. a steering wheel, a tennis racket). Nyko's Trans-Port Technology seems to take things a bit farther by using some extra contacts built into the Wand to digitally send various Wii-mote signals. A good example of this is the gun attachment that doesn't just expose the (B) button as the trigger, but provides a real-feeling trigger that sends the (B) signal to the controller and the game... theoretically this will make the gameplay feel much better, but since we don't have any Trans-Port accessories as yet, we can't really report on the quality of this feature.
