The last couple of days have seen the confirmation of two new Windows based handhelds due to be released soon. GPD return with their highly anticipated Win 3, whereas newcomers to the game AYA are set to release the AYA NEO in China very soon.

These aren’t run of the mill handhelds for us mere mortals. Both of these machines are packing powerful PC based hardware and run an OS to match, with both devices running on Windows 10. GPD have opted for an as yet unconfirmed Tiger Lake U CPU from Intel, whereas the AYA NEO will contain AMD’s Ryzen 5 4500U.

AYA NEO AND GPD WIN 3 SPECS COMPARISON

One of the biggest differences between these devices is the presence of a keyboard on the GPD device. The LCD slides vertically to reveal a small but functional looking keyboard underneath. Both devices contain a multi-touch capacitive touch screen but the AYA NEO doesn’t have a built in keyboard.

The AYA NEO “Founders Edition” is currently available for pre-order but only to Chinese residents. The Founders Edition is selling to those eager buyers for $600. It’s not yet known if it will make it’s way to the West but it’s likely to cost a lot more if it does. The maker has stated that the $600 early backers price was an under estimate of the costs, and further batches will cost more. If the maker decides to release the AYA NEO to us Westerners, he has said it will likely be via a crowd funding site such as IndieGoGo.

The price of the Win 3 is not yet known, but we can perhaps expect to see a couple of variants to cater for different budgets. This machine will be widely available worldwide and will very likely cost a lot more than the AYA NEO.

YOUTUBE DEBUTS

The latest GPD Win 3 info was recently leaked on a Chinese forum, which prompted the video below. The Phawx has gone over all of the leaked info in this video, and shows how the device has evolved since its inception.

Likewise, the AYA NEO made its official debut on YouTube recently with the maker discussing the route he took to get the device in to mass production.

It’ll be interesting to see what impact these handhelds have on the market, if any. Their price makes them rather exclusive and they cater to a different type of gamer compared to the cheaper Chinese handhelds. Obviously emulation on these handhelds is going to be exceptionally good, but I feel that most buyers will be more interested in the performance of AAA PC titles. That’s what they’re really designed for, after all.

The post Battle of the Giants – GPD Win 3 and Aya Neo on the horizon appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

We’ve all become quite used to a bit of a fanfare when a new handheld gets announced. Promo videos, pre-orders, even the occasional countdown. But sometimes one just appears out of nowhere, and in those cases they’re usually not worth the plastic they’re made from. But not always! Let’s have a look at the Family Pocket FC3000.

As time goes by the word “obscure” in our context becomes less and less accurate. “Mainstream” is pushing it, but the member count of the various reddit subs, discord servers, youtube channels and facebook groups must be well into the tens or even hundreds of thousands now.

When this site first started it was fairly common that the coolest, most recent handheld was one that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I kind of miss that a bit. So there was definitely a little bit of intrigue and nostalgia involved in my purchase of the Family Pocket FC3000!

WHAT IS THE FC3000?

Variants of this form factor have been around a while now. Some of the earlier ones looked a little different and came pre-loaded with Famicom era games, hacks and clones.

The FC3000 is different in that it has a selection of emulators built in, as well as a cartridge full of other, stranger games. The cartridge is hidden underneath a removable cover on the back of the device, and you’d be hard pushed to find it unless you knew.

There are 130 games installed on that tiny cartridge. They’re definitely Famicom/NES era games, but I am unfamiliar with any of them. Doing a bit of googling, it turns out that they’re all developed by a Chinese studio called “Nice Code Software”. I found a list of all the games they’ve developed on this great site. With the cartridge installed you can only boot up to the list of the Nice Code games on the cartridge. It’s not possible as far as I can tell to boot to the emulators menu without first removing the cartridge.

With the cartridge removed you boot up to a well presented menu showing all the systems that the FC3000 can emulate. The obvious absentees from the list are GBA and SNES. That gives us some idea of how powerful the FC3000 is I suppose.

FC3000 SPECIFICATIONS

• LCD: 320×240 3″ Non-IPS
• Buttons: D-pad, ABXY, L1, R2, Start, Select
• Volume control: Analog wheel
• Storage: 2GB / 4GB (variable)
• CPU: Unknown “M800” CPU
• OS: Unknown (Java based?)
• Battery: 3x AAA or included 1800mAh BL-5C clone
• Play time: Around 3 hours from BL-5C
• Charge port: MicroSD
• TV Output: Composite

FC3000 BUILD QUALITY AND CONTROLS

Let’s not set expectations too high, the FC3000 costs about $20 shipped after all. The handheld is fairly light and plasticy, but at the same time it is very sturdy in the hand. It doesn’t creak or flex, but it does have a kind of hollow feel to it. Part of that is probably due to the addition of the clip on back cover which hides the battery and cartridge.

The D-pad is decent enough whilst being a bit mushy, certainly not something to complain about on a handheld this cheap. The ABXY buttons are mushier, and they have a little too much travel. Their positioning is also a bit odd. Obviously they’ve been modelled on the NES alignment, but have had another 2 buttons tacked on.

On the top edge are 2 shoulder buttons, which are hard to make out in most of the AliExpress listings. They are there though, and they’re independent of the other buttons. The only system that would make use of them though is CPS1, for a small selection of Capcom fighting games (I think?). I’m not really all that familiar with Street Fighter 2, but it does appear that each button has been mapped to a different action. So they all appear to be functional, rather than just replicating the inputs from A/B or something.

The 320×240 LCD is acceptable for a $20 handheld. The colours wash out or invert if you don’t look at it more or less straight on, but otherwise it’s pretty good. It’s colourful, crisp and bright without any ghosting or tearing to speak of. There is a little light bleed from the left and right sides, but it’s not too bad. There’s a plastic screen lens built in to the fascia that protects the LCD too.

FC3000 EMULATORS

The built in emulators on the FC3000 are:

• Nintendo NES
• Capcom Play System 1
• Sega Mega Drive (Genesis)
• Game Boy Color
• Sega SG-1000
• Game Boy
• Sega Master System
• Sega Game Gear

For the most part each emulator works well. There is no option for a fps counter, so it’s hard to see which are running at full speed. From what I’ve played, a lot of them are either full or close to full speed. In every emulator, the Player 1 button in the top left corner brings up a menu of options. From here you can resume the game, save state, load state or quit the game. There are 5 save state slots for each game, and a little thumbnail is saved alongside each slot.

Those are your only customisations. There are no options for frame skip, button mapping, aspect ratio or anything else you might wish for. It keeps things simple, but would be a huge improvement if implemented.

FC3000 HARDWARE VARIANTS / LOADING ROMS

As is often the case with these fly-by-night manufacturers, there appears to be a few different variants of this handheld. The one I wished I’d been sent contains a microSD card inside the shell. A guy on YouTube has this version, and you can see the SD slot in his disassembly video. Unfortunately on my version that microSD is not present, and there’s a 2GB WinBond branded flash memory ship soldered to the mainboard instead. I have also read comments that say some versions do not have the save/load state function in the emulator menus – but they may be confusing the Family Pocket FC3000 with one of the older versions above.

The Family Pocket FC3000 is not recognised as a mass storage device when plugged in to a Windows PC. I’ve tried every combination of buttons and power I can think of, but nothing allows it to be recognised by Windows as far as I can tell. The only “Easter Egg” I’ve found is if you boot up with D-pad down it boots into an input tester for all of the buttons. This test software is probably made for a few other systems too. Notice it has a test for a digital volume control, whereas the FC3000 has analog volume.

The chip on the Family Pocket FC3000 is listed as an M800. I have no idea what this is. There may be a small clue as to software this handheld runs if anyone can identify this logo. Before a ROM is loaded, this displays on the screen momentarily. Is it a java logo, or something else? (Sorry for the bad pic).

For what it’s worth, if you’ve got an SD version and want to add ROMs, you might want to watch this (Spanish) video that shows you how to include artwork and stuff for each game.

SHOULD YOU BUY IT?

If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably got some kind of interest in this weird little handheld! But I’m also going to guess you’ve already got something far more capable too. There are a few reasons I can think of to buy one of these.

• It makes a (very) cheap and fairly capable handheld to throw in your bag.
• As a gift for a youngster who can’t yet be trusted with more expensive handhelds.
• To try and figure out exactly what it is, and potentially hack it.

I really like this little thing, I just wish it could be a bit better. If they all had an accessible microSD card, aspect ratio adjustments and GBA/SNES support it would be a definite recommendation. As it stands, it is far from perfect, but it’s also only about $20 which is quite incredible for what you get.

The post The Value Proposition? A Look At The Family Pocket FC3000 appeared first on OBSCURE HANDHELDS.

If the likes of the RG280V and GKD Mini aren’t quite small enough for you, get your magnifying glass out because there’s a few even tinier handhelds on their way. The FunKey S retro handheld is first up, but there may be a couple of others on their way too.

FUNKEY S

The originators of this strange phenomenon are the FunKey Project, and they successfully crowd funded their own dinky little clamshell handheld back in Summer. In fact they raised the required €30k in about 3 hours, which is pretty impressive.

You might think that a handheld measuring a tiny 4x4cm when closed would probably not be up to much. But don’t be fooled by its size! The FunKey S retro handheld manages to cram a 1.2GhZ ARM CPU and 64MB of RAM inside that shell. That’s more than enough to emulate most machines up to and including the PlayStation 1. The chip powering the FunKey S is the AllWinner V3S, you can read more about it here if you’re interested.

The 1.54″ IPS display runs at 240×240, so it is a perfect square. The GBAs 240×160 resolution should look great on this LCD, with small black borders across the top and bottom. It’ll be interesting to see how other machines with a native resolution greater than 240px look on this display.

One of things I like best about the FunKey S is the pick up and and play approach they’ve taken. Their website states that the handheld takes a mere 5 seconds to boot. Even better, once you’re done you can simply shut the lid and it’ll save your current game before shutting down. This lends itself really nicely to the scenarios I imagine using this handheld, namely to kill some time on the bus or train, or on a lunch break at work.

The other awesome thing about the FunKey S is that it is truly Open Source. You can find everything from drivers and OS source code, launchers, emulators and even 3D print files over on their github. I wish more companies would adopt this approach! It means developers and tinkerers can bring all manner of software and mods to the device – hopefully keeping it alive and interesting for many years to come.

The FunKey S retro handheld runs on Linux, with the RetroFE front end by default. You can probably expect to see alternative front ends and launchers developed by the community given time.

The FunKey S is due to start shipping out to backers this month, with pre-orders via their website to arrive sometime in December.

DARK CAT GAME

If I was being cynical I’d say that the Dark Cat Game is just a cash in on the success of the FunKey S project. But aspersions aside, it does at least look like they’ve innovated their own design.

The Dark Cat Game popped up on the Chinese forums a couple of days ago, and we don’t really know much about it yet. We do know that the 2″ IPS display runs at a more common 320×240 resolution though. And it looks as though they either haven’t decided on the CPU yet, or it’ll come in a few variants.

Listed on the image are the AllWinner F1C200S (same family as the PocketGo v1 and PowKiddy V90), the AllWInner B300 and an unknown X3 processor. Given the stated price range of $15-$60, it’s reasonable to assume there will be three different variants, with different prices.

There is no release date for this handheld yet, and their website currently displays nothing but ten second countdown.

One thing is probable, the makers of this device won’t be sharing their source code with the world on github. Although the device may get some support from community developers, don’t bank on it.

GBA NANO?

What the hell is going on. I’ve no idea if this is real or a homemade project, but to me the shell doesn’t look 3D printed. If this microscopic GBA ever makes it to market, the world has officially gone mad. I kinda want one though still.

WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU GET?

If you fancy a tiny handheld to stick on your keychain, the FunKey S is the most promising looking gadget. It’s obvious the developers have invested a lot into the design and functionality of this machine, and with its Open Source design it’s almost certainly going to outlive the competition in this niche.

I look forward to seeing where the community takes this gadget in the coming months!

The post Smaller is Better? A Swarm of Tiny Handhelds is Coming appeared first on OBSCURE HANDHELDS.

Hot off the press comes another handheld from the makers of the PocketGo series, the PocketGo SN30. If the SN30 name seems familiar, it’s because there’s a line of controllers from 8BitDo with the same name. Word is that the designer of those controllers was also involved in the design of this handheld.

I’ve known about this handheld for a while now, but until today I hadn’t seen the final renders and videos of it in action. The specs of the PocketGo SN30 are a little different to other recent handhelds too. Let’s have a look at what we know so far.

POCKETGO SN30 SPECS

Whilst the final specs are still unconfirmed, it is probable that the SN30 will be powered by an AllWinner A33 (aka R16). In fact the prototype units are running on this CPU already, and is the same chip found in the NES Classic. The A33 is an efficient ARM Cortex-A7 chip from 2014 with four 1.2Ghz cores and a Mali400 MP2 GPU. Whilst this chip is leaps and bounds faster than the JZ4770 found in the RG350 and its kin, I believe it doesn’t perform quite as well as the RK3326 in handhelds such as the RG351P. The device is currently configured with 512MB of RAM.

We don’t have confirmation on the LCD yet, but from the renders it looks to be 3″ or 3.5″. Resolution is yet unknown.

The PocketGo SN30 handheld runs an OS we haven’t seen before, or so I’ve been told. Apparently it’s a proprietary OS designed to be as simple to use as possible for the end user. I am sceptical that the OS is brand new, I’m sure it’ll turn out to be a fancy front end on something we’re already aware of. I’ll try to confirm and update with more info later.

For anyone not keen on EmuELEC or OpenDingux, this handheld might be for you. You can apparently easily load ROMs to the device either by sticking the SD card in to your PC, or by connecting the device with a USB cable. No special software is required to access the contents of the SD card, it is read natively by Windows. I guess this either means there’s an NTFS partition on the card, or the OS has been built with this in mind. There is also what looks to be a single settings menu with apparently unifies all settings throughout the device.

POCKETGO SN30 CONTROLS

Stacked shoulder buttons are something that people have been asking for a long while. Just like the SN30 controller on which it is based, you can see that the L2/R2 buttons sit neatly underneath L1/R1.

This is a really nice design, although it does seem that the secondary buttons are a little wobbly on the prototype video. Hopefully this will be remedied before mass production.

The front of the device contains a SNES like D-Pad, ABXY and Start/Select buttons. The single analog stick on the left might raise some eyebrows, as the current trend seems to be for two. Up on top there’s a USB-C charge and data port, a digital volume rocker and a Power button. The bottom of the unit houses the microSD card, a headphone socket and what looks like three LEDs.

EMULATORS ON THE POCKETGO SN30

Confirmed systems/emulators on the stock system include:

• NES
• SNES
• GBA
• GB
• GBC
• PS1
• PSP
• Master System
• Mega Drive (Genesis)
• Dreamcast
• Neo Geo
• MAME

The video also shows N64, although this wasn’t mentioned. Whether it’s in testing, or they simply forgot to mention it I’m not sure.

BUT IS IT MADE BY MIYOO?

Yes. The Miyoo factory doesn’t have the best track record, but supposedly things have been done differently this time. The proof will be in the pudding as they say, but I am open minded. I will hopefully be getting my hands on a PocketGo SN30 handheld in the next few weeks and will share my honest opinions then.

ALTERNATIVE OPERATING SYSTEMS?

You might be aware that there are a lot of AllWinner A33 devices (not handhelds) already available with Android running on them. The manufacturer is considering the possibility of adding more RAM and giving the option to run Android too, though it may be limited to an older version. The current configuration is 512MB RAM, but it may be possible to bump it to 2GB at an extra cost. With that in mind, would you be interested in running Android on this handheld? It would likely mean a bump in price to accommodate more RAM.

The results of this poll will probably have no effect whatsoever on what the factory will actually do. It’s just for fun. We also don’t know what the RRP will be, but you can expect it to be inline with other similar offerings.

The PocketGO SN30 handheld will probably be available to order at retromimi.com in the coming weeks. I’ll update this post with more info as it emerges.

The post The PocketGo SN30 Handheld Looks Like An 8BitDo Controller appeared first on OBSCURE HANDHELDS.

The onslaught of new handhelds never ends. The Trimui Model S is doing the rounds on the Chinese forums, and it seems to be from a manufacturer we’ve not seen before.

Trying to pin down the maker of this handheld has been unfruitful so far. PowKiddy would have you believe it’s a device by them, but they’re just a reseller. In this case, it doesn’t seem as though they’ve even put their brand on it.

Looking around the web there are often references to a company called MacroKinetic associated with wholesale purchases of the Trimui. Looking at the MacroKinetic website though, they’re an automation, signage and lighting firm. It seems unlikely that they’ve got anything to do with its manufacture.

There is a Trimui website. It’s very much half finished, with mostly broken menus and image links pointing to localhost. A lookup of the domain shows it was registered in Guangdong in around 2012.

One thing I did learn from their very broken website is the pronunciation. In some of their branding, the Trim-UI name is split with a hyphen. So with the emphasis on UI, it stands to reason that some care has been taken in this area. I was able to find a few screengrabs of the UI, and whilst it looks a little dated it’s certainly better than the majority of proprietary interfaces. Whether TRIM-UI have also designed the hardware I don’t know.

WHAT IS THE TRIMUI MODEL S?

At first I assumed this would be a DIY handheld kit. There’s something about the varied colour combinations and overall assembly that looks like you should be putting it together yourself. But aside from a few exploded views, there’s nothing in any listings I can find that hints at it being a kit.

The Trimui is a small plastic and aluminium handheld that comes pre-loaded with a few ports and some emulators too. The listings describe it coming pre-loaded with OpenTyrian, Cave Story and the top down shooter C-Dogs. Supported emulators include the following:

• NES
• Mega Drive
• Game Boy
• Super Nintendo
• Game Gear
• Master System
• PC Engine
• PlayStation 1
• Game Boy Advance
• Arcade
• Game Boy Color
• Neo Geo

Given the emulators list, it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the device isn’t a powerhouse by any means.

TRIMUI MODEL S SPECS

• CPU: Unknown 628Mhz ARM
• LCD: 2″ 320×240 IPS
• Battery: 600mAh / 3.5 hours play time
• Ports: 1x USB-C (for charging, external controllers, headphones, mass storage)
• Storage: Either 64MB or 4/8GB depending on model
• Additional storage: Up to 32GB MicroSD (listing comes with 16GB)
• Weight: 80 grams
• Dimensions: 106 x 56 x 10mm

Yes, that’s right – the screen is 2 inches. That’s about the same size as the LCD in the GB Micro, albeit with a higher resolution. When you consider that, and then look at the dimensions you soon realise that the Trimui is quite tiny. Not as tiny as these, but pretty tiny never the less.

There’s no analog stick on this thing, but we do get a full complement of ABXY buttons, a D-pad and L/R shoulder buttons. There are also Start and Select buttons, and a dedicated Menu button underneath the LCD.

As far as the OS goes, information is lacking. I have contacted the Trimui team through their site, if they get back to me I’ll be sure to update.

TRIMUI MODEL S COLOURS

Whilst the official PowKiddy AliExpress store currently only shows the transparent/black Trimui, there is another store with the full range of colours.

The PCB comes in Black, Blue or Green and the aluminium back plates come in five colours including an additional Silver and Red.

And that’s all we really know. If anyone has any info on the provenance of Trimui I’d be really interested. Whilst hugely underpowered compared to a lot of current handhelds, it’s obvious that some thought has gone into the design of both the hardware and the UI.

TRIMUI MODEL S AVAILABILITY

The PowKiddy store on AliExpress is selling it for $50, and there’s another AliExpress store without the Trimui name in the listing selling it for $40. I did also find this website selling it, but I have no idea who they are or if they’re trustworthy.

The Trimui handheld is available for between $40-$50 shipped, I think that’s a little expensive for what it is. Some wholesale sites have it listed for as low as $20 if you buy enough of them, so I expect the price might drop if more retailers stock it.

The post The Trimui Model S Is An Unusual Little Gadget appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

Anbernic’s latest handheld is the same old hardware in a shiny new shell. The original LDK first pushed this design style, but Anbernic have improved and polished it. The dinky little Anbernic RG280V is cute as a button, but do we need it?

Every time Anbernic announce another handheld with the same ancient Ingenic CPU I roll my eyes, grit my teeth, and place my order. It’s embarrassing. The truth is that as far as functionality goes, almost nobody needs to buy the RG280V. It contains the same chip and runs the same OS as a mountain of other Chinese handhelds. The RG350, RG350M, RG350P, RG280M, RG280V, GCW Zero and PocketGo V2 are all pretty much the same machine in a different shell.

RG280V AESTHETICS AND BUILD QUALITY

In fact compared to most of those others, the Anbernic RG280V is lacking in that it’s missing any form of analog input. But something is gained in the loss of all that weight. Whilst none of Anbernic’s handhelds are particularly big, the RG280V measures in at just 87x78mm and 16mm thick. It’s pretty much the exact same size as the less powerful LDK.

Anbernic have done an amazing job with the design and build quality of the RG280V. Their devices have always felt good, but as their portfolio has grown and they’ve gained more experience they’ve gotten even better. Everything about the Anbernic RG280V feels premium. In fact there is very little to set it apart from a Sony or Nintendo built handheld.

The brushed metal face plate is the perfect trade off between an all plastic device and their more expensive metal models. The slightly raised LCD lens is gently domed at the edges, bringing it neatly and smoothly towards the face of the handheld. The screen is also OCA laminated, meaning there is no air gap between the lens and the LCD itself. This improves clarity and contrast, whilst also eliminating the possibility of any dust getting in there.

The plastic moulding is exceptionally high quality and has a very fine matte finish to it. There’s very little button rattle, it doesn’t creak or flex and the software is excellent (although that’s thanks to community developers rather than Anbernic).

RG280V CONTROLS

Perhaps the biggest innovation in this model is the layout of the shoulder buttons. The R2/L2 buttons are nestled right in to the R1/L1, and raised a millimetre or two higher up. By resting your index finger on each corner, you can very easily detect and press any of them. They are easily clicked in from almost any angle, and the difference in height leaves you with no doubt of which one you’re hitting. It’s much more comfortable to play than the original LDK, but for larger hands it can become uncomfortable after a while. In between the shoulder buttons sits the USB-C charge port, the 3.5mm headphone jack and a status LED.

The D-Pad and ABXY buttons are usual Anbernic quality. That is to say there’s no real improvements that could be made. If I was to pick fault I’d say the D-Pad is perhaps a little stiff. I expect it’ll loosen up over time as the membrane softens.

The RG280V has a digital volume rocker that sits flush on the left hand side, and below that you’ll find two microSD card slots. On the right side is a power button and a reset button. The power button sits flush, and the reset button is recessed by about a millimetre.

RG280V LCD SCREEN

As previously mentioned, the LCD is OCA (Optically Clear Adhesive) laminated, which gives excellent clarity. The 2.8″ IPS display itself is bright and colourful, with perfect viewing angles all the way down in every direction.

I should note here that some people have reported the screen lens not being properly adhered to the shell. I’ve seen some pictures of the lens lifting off in the top corner on some devices. I don’t know whether this was a teething problem early on in manufacture or not. For what it’s worth, there is no sign of any peeling on mine and I waited a week or two before ordering.

For all intents and purposes the resolution of this screen is 320×240, but you’ll often see it described as 320×480. The LCD has a non-standard pixel structure. What that means for us laymen is that if you really look closely you’ll see that every vertical straight line is slightly jagged, because the pixels aren’t square. On a screen this size it’s hard to make out. Some people argue that it gives a more authentic look, others prefer square pixels. For scaling non-integer resolutions like the GBA’s 240×160, I think it looks better than a standard 320×240 display.

The below image shows the difference in pixel grid between the RG280V and RG350M. It’s most obvious in the text at the top. On a side note, you can also see that the RG280V LCD is a lot colder than the RG350M.

I wish they’d just gone for a 640×480 display like they did for the RG350M, though. That higher resolution in such a small LCD would have looked amazing. It is telling that this is my biggest gripe with the system, and it’s really not that big a deal.

RG280V EMULATORS

Most of you will know the drill by now, this is an Ingenic JZ4770 handheld. It’s a MIPS based CPU from around 2012 which runs at 1Ghz. The stock system includes many emulators that have had many years of optimisation for this CPU. As such, for the consoles it supports you can expect very good performance. There are emulators for the following systems included on the device:

• NES
• SNES
• Mega Drive
• Game Boy / Colour
• Neo Geo Pocket Color
• Wonder Swan
• PS1
• Game Boy Advance
• MAME
• Final Burn Alpha
• DosBox

There are tons more emulators, ports and applications available for OpenDingux. Some of the emulators included in the stock image are a little out of date now, and it can be difficult to find the latest compatible versions. The best place to start if you’re looking for something in particular is probably this repository. There is also a new version of ReGBA that adds a really nice 2x Hardware scaler which is available here. I’ve tested it on the Anbernic RG280V and it works.

To add them to your handheld, just plug it in to your Windows PC with the supplied USB-C cable and launch the Network application in settings. Select login without password, then open IP address 10.1.1.2 with username “root” in WinSCP or Filezilla. Add the *.opk file you downloaded to the /media/data/apps location, and it’ll show up in the menu automatically.

Alternatively, you can just create a folder calls apps on a secondary SD card, and put your *.opk files there. They’ll show up in the menu automatically too.

RG280V SPEAKER

The speaker on the RG280V is mono which isn’t really surprising on a device this size. It’s not bad, not as good as the RG350M but perfectly passable and quite loud. I do kind of wish that the lowest volume was a little bit lower, but it’s pretty quiet and may be fixed in software at a later date. The speaker is located on the back of the device, and it’s high enough up that you won’t cover it up with your hands whilst playing.

While on the subject of sound quality, you might notice that when you load a game the speaker emits a singular “pop” before the game launches. It doesn’t happen during gameplay, only when a game is first launched. The RG350M and RG280M also have the same bug. It’s mildly irritating at worst.

SHOULD YOU BUY AN RG280V?

Well it depends. If you must have N64, Dreamcast, PSP etc then this class of handheld isn’t for you. Check out the RG351P, or any other of the RK3326 handhelds instead. If you don’t care about size or emulating more recent devices you might be better off with an RG350P, especially if you have larger hands. For those that already own an RG350M, you’ve already got what I reckon is the cream of the crop in this CPU category. If you like the metal shell but the RG350M is too big, check out the RG280M. It’s a bit cheaper than the RG350M too.

If you want an extremely portable handheld and don’t mind the lack of analog input, the RG280V is probably the best in its class. With the aforementioned caveats in mind, the RG280V is an awesome little handheld.

P.S. Apologies for the poor quality photos. I have to rely on natural light to get half decent shots, and here in the UK we’ve had very little of that in the past few days!

P.P.S In the past couple of days Ninoh-Fox has released the Rogue OS for this handheld. You can find the image here. If you’re interested in trying it but are cautious of breaking something, flash it to a spare SD card first. You can always revert if necessary. The Stock OS can also be found here, minus any ROMs.

The post Do We Need The Anbernic RG280V? appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

In January it’ll be a year since HardKernel surprised us all with their DIY handheld based on the RockChip RK3326. Since then we’ve been inundated with Chinese versions which in most cases make very little improvements to HK’s original design. 2021 will see the release of the HardKernel Odroid-Go Super (OGS) which promises some real improvements, though maybe not the ones we were hoping for.

If you were hoping for a bump in specs, I’m sorry to disappoint you. The OGS will contain the same CPU/RAM config as its predecessor. The RockChip RK3326 was first used in the OGA back in January 2020, and since then it’s been used in a whole load of Chinese machines including Anbernic’s RG351P.

OGS LCD DISPLAY

But raw power aside, the OGS does include some decent upgrades compared to all prior machines. First and foremost, that dinky 3.5″ display has been replaced for a 5″ widescreen LCD with a resolultion of 854×480. Unless that’s a typo, it’s a rather unusual choice of resolution. It results in a screen with a ratio a smidge wider than 7:4.

For classic systems such as the N64, PS1, SNES and Mega Drive it means we’ll be able to use 2x integer scaling and utilise almost the full height of the display. It will of course mean that there will be large black borders on the left and right hand side though. GBA will integer scale 3x and look great. Dreamcast has a 480px vertical resolution so should also look awesome. For systems such as PSP (272 vertical) and GBA (160 vertical) other non-integer scaling methods will need to be used for a full height image.

OGS CONTROLS AND I/O

HardKernel have also addressed some issues with the control scheme of the original OGA. The inclusion of dual analog sticks this time is likely to keep people happy, and a dedicated volume rocker has also been included.

Real L2/R2 buttons have also been added, and the device comes with USB-C charging by default this time. The USB host port has been kept, as has the expansion port.

The top edge of the OGS also contains a standard 3.5mm headphone port.

OGS WIFI AND BATTERY

The battery in the Hardkernel Odroid-Go Super will be increased by 1000mAh to 4000mAh. Aside from the fact there is more space in this case for a battery, the increase in capacity is probably required to accommodate the larger LCD. Oh, and to power an external WiFi / Bluetooth dongle.

Yes, unfortunately the OGS does not come equipped with WiFi or Bluetooth onboard. You’ll have to use the USB host port if you want to add it yourself. According to the release notes, the battery will allow for a vague “several hours” of playtime dependent on backlight brightness.

RELEASE DATE AND OTHER BITS

Unlike the original OGA, the HardKernel Odroid-Go Super will not be shipped in a kit. The OGS will ship out pre-assembled in a choice of two colours – transparent and grey. You can expect the first shipments in January next year, almost exactly a year since their original handheld.

Whilst it’s great to see HardKernel return to the handheld arena, it’s a real shame that they haven’t pushed the capability of the device with a new, faster processor. On a positive note, it looks as though they might be in to handheld manufacturing long term now. Perhaps this time next year we’ll be seeing them announce another new device with better performance. In the mean time, brace yourselves for another year of Chinese clones with 5 inch screens in them.

More info can be found at the official forums.

The post The HardKernel Odroid-Go Super Promises Big Improvements appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

Occasionally something comes along that shakes things up a bit. HardKernel did it at the start of 2020, but it looks as though there might be a new benchmark soon. The KT R1 handheld promises a lot, and could be the one that a lot of people have been waiting for.

It started a back in November over on the Chinese forums. A user named niluanxy posted a long preamble about a device he was working on called the R1. Over the course of a few posts, we learned that this handheld is going to be quite different from anything currently available.

It is actually planned that there will be at least two versions of the R1. As far as I can tell the majority of the configuration is the same between both, with the main difference being onboard RAM and a sim card slot. For now we’ll talk about the premium version, as I expect most people will be interested in having more memory.

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

This will be the first handheld available with the AmLogic S922X on board. The S922X was released last year and is a hexa core CPU made up of a quad core ARM Cortex A73 and a dual core A53 processor. I believe each core is capable of running up to around 1.8Ghz. Graphics are powered by a Mali-G52 GPU. The premium version will be configured with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM.

There are a few Android TV boxes already available with this CPU. ETA Prime (among others) has done some YouTube videos showcasing its performance.

The KT R1 handheld contains a 4″ 800×600 touchscreen display. This 4:3 aspect ratio will be excellent for older systems, providing a nearly full screen visual experience with no side borders. Niluanxy also suggested that the LCD will have a minimal 3mm border around the edge.

The internal storage is taken care of via an EMMC of varying sizes. There will be a microSD card inside on the motherboard, as well as a secondary one available externally. There will be WiFi and Bluetooth onboard, a 5000mAh battery with 25w fast charging and rumble motors too.

CONTROLS AND I/O

There are various renders doing the rounds with the positioning of the left analog stick and d-pad in switched positions. It seems to be that the final design will have the d-pad at the top which is likely to cause the least amount of complaints. However it’s also been said by niluanxy that the left side of the device will be modular. After market custom face plates may allow customers to swap out the configuration.

The bottom edge of the device has a headphone jack, USB-C charge port and a mini HDMI output. Somewhere on the device there will also be a tray for a sim and MicroSD card.

The R1 contains dual analog sticks with R3/L3 support, d-pad, ABXY and an extra four face buttons. On the top edge of the device you’ll see stacked shoulder buttons for R1/R2/L1/L2. This is also where the volume rocker and power button can be found.

OPERATING SYSTEM

The KT R1 handheld will run Android 9 out of the box, which is the same as many TV boxes with the same chip. I believe it has been heavily customised for the handheld form factor. Niluanxy has stated that he’s pretty much finished with the OS already, but there aren’t any videos of it in action yet.

The bootloader is unlocked, and the device will support different OSs depending on what devs decide to port to it. Secondary systems can be installed to a seperate microSD card. There will be a hardware switch on the shell which tells the machine which system to boot from when turned on.

PERFORMANCE

The S922X is a very powerful chip, and we can expect to see much better performance in the systems already supported by RK3326 handhelds. Hard to emulate games such as God of War (PSP) apparently run at 60fps with x2 rendering on this chip. The redream Dreamcast emulator can run Shenmue 2 at 60fps, and N64 emulation will be amazing even with upscaling enabled. We can also expect to see very good Sega Saturn emulation. PS2 is where the capabilities of this chip end, with niluanxy stating that it’s only possible to get a dozen or so fps from that system.

To get a better idea, have a look at some of the TV box reviews on YouTube, it’s quite clear that this chip is leaps and bounds ahead of the RK3326.

AVAILABILITY AND PRICE

It seems that the KT R1 handheld is the dream of one talented man working with a factory in China to get this device brought to life. Although this is his first foray into handheld manufacture, he does have a project under his belt already. The GPD Win2 aftermarket cooler was engineered and manufactured by him, and successfully funded on IndieGoGo last year.

Niluanxy has stated that he will receive a real protoype of the R1 in January, after which time an IndieGoGo campaign will be started. Shipping of the final devices is due to begin in Q1 2021.

There are going to be various hardware configurations of this handheld, and the pricing hasn’t been finalised. It’s been said that $200 will be the maximum, but it’s possible that it’ll be less. There will also be an option for a metal shell, but that may be outside of the $200 budget. I believe the standard colours will be white, grey and yellow plastic.

THOUGHTS

It seems strange to me that it takes a one-man-band operation like niluanxy’s to bring real innovation to this market. We have companies like Anbernic, Bittboy and Retroid who must already have stacks of cash behind them. I do wonder why are they not already leading the way. Obviously GPD are doing their thing, but their machines are out of reach for most folk.

I think the $150 – $200 price range is a good sweet spot. OK it’s 2 or 3 times the price of most handhelds, but from what I see online a lot of people have 2 or 3 of those cheaper devices already.

The KT R1 moniker may not be final, and could change before it goes up for pre-order. I wish niluanxy all the best with his endeavour, and I’ll be keeping my eyes open for the IndieGoGo campaign next year.

The post The KT R1 Could Be The One You’re Waiting For appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

When rumblings of the PocketGo S30 first started it was due to be another RK3326 OGA clone device. They even went with the same 3:2 ratio 480×320 display in preparation. But I know from speaking to the BittBoy/PocketGo team that they’re not keen on EmuELEC as it can be difficult to get to grips with. At some point they decided to try and keep things simple by going a different direction, whilst for whatever reason (possibly price) also going with different hardware.

There’s definitely a balance to be struck. Looking in the Facebook groups you’ll often come across people who are frustrated with the difficulty of setting up EmuELEC or getting various ported games running on OpenDingux. I can only imagine the volume of emails that vendors must get demanding to know how to get their game running. It’s easy to see why some vendors prefer straight forward “pick up and play” devices for their customers. I must admit, I am one of those users. I don’t mind some setup and customisation, but endless meddling with config files reminds me of being at work.

The S30 is a sort of middle ground between those simpler machines, and more complex and powerful handhelds that offer more customisation. Did the team achieve their goal though?

BUILD QUALITY

As mentioned in the previous post about the S30, the design is heavily borrowed from that of the 8BitDo SN30 controller. In fact the same design company (GWOWO) are behind the design of the S30. (I wish I could share the other designs they came up with for this thing, one of them is awesome). From what I gather 8BitDo weren’t very happy when they caught wind of this handheld going by the SN30 name, hence why it was changed to S30 before release.

There isn’t much to complain about in its construction. The plastic feels fairly thick and has a nice matte textured finish. The shell is very well moulded and all edges sit flush together perfectly.

Overall the quality of construction is probably the best that the BittBoy/PocketGo team have released.

CONTROLS

The d-pad and buttons feel OK. The d-pad definitely takes some breaking in, and mine seems prone to registering down when hitting left or right, at least initially. With time it smooths out a bit, or maybe I adjusted to compensate. Either way it’s not bad now but I prefer Anbernic’s d-pad.

The lower shoulder buttons feel a bit strange, they sort of pivot on the vertical axis rather than pressing in to device. When pushed in they expose a gap in the shell that means you can see right inside. A really strange design, but it works I suppose.

The rubber start and select buttons stick a little far out of the shell compared to ABXY, but in all honesty they don’t really get in the way and they’re quite stiff so you probably won’t accidentally press them.

The single analog stick sits neatly under the d-pad and is nice enough. It’s not mapped to the d-pad or anything silly and it does click when pushed straight down. There’s a rubber cap on top, which I guess can be changed out for Switch ones as the design is the same.

The device isn’t all that comfortable for large hands, you can’t wrap your fingers around it because your finger tips will overshoot the shoulder buttons by miles. I have to arch my fingers to hit the shoulder buttons, which is quite uncomfortable.

LCD

IPS displays with wide viewing angles and a vibrant, colourful image are run of the mill these days, and the S30 has just such a display. Having said that, laminated displays are also becoming the norm thanks to Anbernic, but the S30 doesn’t have that luxury. My unit does have a small amount of light leak around some edges, but it is very faint. Slightly more concerning is that if you apply any twisting pressure to the device, the light leak intensifies tenfold until you let go. Don’t twist it, would be my advice!

As with the majority of current RK3326 handhelds, the S30 has a 480×320 3:2 aspect ratio display. If GBA is your favourite handheld you should be happy because it is a perfect match. It is an awkward resolution for many other systems though, and actually they messed up the scaling for GBA despite having the perfect LCD. More about that later.

PERFORMANCE

The PocketGo S30 houses the AllWinner A33 quad core CPU at 1.3Ghz, and 512MB RAM. It’s an old chip from around 2014 and you can still find cheap tablets and TV sticks running Android 4.4 on the same hardware. Its performance is much better than the JZ4770 (think RG350 etc) but not quite as good as the RK3326 (OGA, RG351P etc). It’s an awkward middle ground that we should really be leaving behind now, but it’s a cheap chip and is capable enough to comfortably run a lot of older systems, as well as some newer ones.

Compared to the Ingenic JZ4770 it opens the door to some Dreamcast, N64 and PSP emulation. A more accurate analogy might be that it cracks the door and peeks in. You’re going to need to be very open to the idea that your favourite game won’t run well or at all. Performance of those systems is touch and go. In fact, despite N64 being shown as an option in some promo videos, the emulator is absent from the stock firmware apparently due to performance issues.

The battery life of the PocketGo S30 is very good, better than any of the RK3326 handhelds I’ve tested. Of course it depends in which emulators you spend most of your time, but you won’t be disappointed. I’d say 4-6 hours depending on usage.

STOCK OPERATING SYSTEM

The stock firmware and the way it’s configured speaks to the simplicity that the PocketGo team wanted from this handheld. Given that the S30 OS is based on Linux and contains a microSD card, you’d be forgiven for expecting it to be setup the same way as our other Linux based handhelds. Actually it’s not the same. The kernel is contained on a chip soldered to the mainboard, rather than on the SD card itself. It’s currently inaccessible to us as users.

That means that the microSD card is fully readable in Windows, with no hidden partitions. Unfortunately it also means that the kernel and its configuration isn’t easily accessed or re-flashed yet. The SD card contains the emulators and cores, the GUI and the ROMs, along with some other bits and pieces. You can also access all of this content just by plugging the device into your PC. It makes life very easy. Unfortunately there are some issues with the way the stock system is set up though.

Some of the emulators are ones we know quite well already. One of the two included GBA emulators is gpSP, but it’s been ported to the system in such a way that the scaling is totally messed up. Bear in mind that the aspect ratio and resolution of the S30 is literally perfect for 4x integer scaling of GBA. They really messed that up. SNES and Mega Drive are also scaled incorrectly. It’s like they’ve taken emulators for a 320×240 screen and just stretched them to fit 480×320. It’s very obvious and looks horrendous. Check the text at the bottom of the screen. The top S30 is running gpSP stock, and the second machine is running the mGBA core in RetroArch.

The stock emulators are as follows. Bear in mind my scribblings in the notes column are not related to performance. They only relate to scaling methods and emulator options.

You’ll notice that some emulators are running on RetroArch cores. These have very basic in game menus that only allow for save/load states and are commented with “No settings”. It’s possible that you can make tweaks to these by editing config files on the SD card. I am really not interested in going down that rabbit hole though.

NEW OPERATING SYSTEM

All that aside, it hasn’t taken long for community developers to start fixing these issues and adding more functionality to the machine. And because all the Linuxy bits are tucked away on an internal flash memory chip, you can simply drag and drop any new OS onto your FAT32 formatted card. Don’t forget to backup your ROMs and BIOS first!

The version of RetroArch has been updated from a 2017 build on stock, to version 1.9.0 which was released this year. The updated software for the PocketGo S30 also replaces all the stock emulators with (mostly) properly configured RetroArch cores instead. In some cases these are more up to date and will give you better performance, but don’t expect miracles. In all cases tapping the power button now brings up RetroArch settings for each core, which you can configure as you wish without editing text files on your PC.

Oh, and N64 has been added back in though it’s very hit and miss right now. For example Mario Kart seems to run OK ish, but the analog stick is really unresponsive even with deadzone and sensitivity settings updated. In RR64 the analog stick works just fine though. :shrug:

You can find the replacement software for the PocketGo S30 here. We have onionsaregross from retrogamecorps and slaminger from techtoytinker as well as Bkacjios to thank for these improvements.

CONCLUSION

Sometimes it’s hard to predict which handhelds will take off, but in almost all cases it’s those where the community developers manage to make improvements over the stock system. The PocketGo S30 is no exception. The stock system might be OK for some, but most people just wouldn’t put up with it. On the flip side, the RetroArch based OS is much better, but there’s no denying that it’s a faff to configure.

With both RK3326 and AllWinner A33, a lot of 5th and 6th generation games still pose a problem due to lack of power. If decent SNES and PS1 emulation and a handful of playable N64, Dreamcast and PSP games is all you want then you have the choice. RK3326 will give you slightly better performance, at a higher price. AllWinner A33 will touch the same systems, but at a slightly lower compatibility and for a lesser price (in the case of the S30 at least). There is also the personal preference of OS to consider. We are spoiled for choice right now.

The PocketGo S30 is a well built and iconic looking handheld with a bright future ahead. It’s no powerhouse but it does have a price to match. Unfortunately the “keep it simple” approach didn’t really work out in this case, but if you’re willing to get your hands dirty you might find the S30 a worthy choice. As long as you can live without HDMI output and WiFi that is. I would recommend investing in a larger SD card than the 16GB one provided. If you’re very selective about the larger games you copy over you might get away with it, but the new OS occupies over 2GB of that space alone.

Thank you to retromimi for donating this PocketGo S30 for review. If you’re after one, you can check the affiliated link below. It’s also available at many other retailers, so go where the price is best.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for the nice comments in the “we’re back” post.

The post The PocketGo S30 Tries To Keep Things Simple appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

This year should see two devices released with a chip we’ve never seen in gaming handhelds before. The Unisoc Tiger T618 looks to be notably more powerful than the RockChip RK3326 found in the OGA and clones. Let’s take a look at two handhelds due to debut this year powered by the Unisoc T618.

POWKIDDY X18S

The X18S is an upgraded version of the PowKiddy X18 released early last year. Aesthetically it looks like it’ll be very similar if not the same, but potentially with a white/grey shell this time. The PowKiddy X18 received mixed reviews and whilst the clamshell, controls and LCD were mostly OK, the build of Android that it came with was a mess. Not only that but some 32GB models had bricking issues due to the choice of eMMC onboard.

Of course, the X18S will be completely different hardware internally so it’s not necessarily going to suffer the same problems. It’s quite possible that it’s a different factory manufacturing the device too I suppose. But knowing PowKiddy’s temperamental track record it might be wise to wait for some early adopter reports before diving in.

The PowKiddy X18S is due to be released around March. It will apparently run on Android 10 and will cost around $150. The PowKiddy store on AliExpress is already promoting this handheld ahead of release.

KT R1

The R1 is a project by one man in China. Niluanxy is the guy running the show and you might’ve read an article about his handheld on this site already. The R1 was initially due to run on the AmLogic S922X but he has had to redesign the internals due to difficulty in sourcing those chips.

The S922X has been swapped out for the T618, which seems to be roughly the same in performance. The KT R1 is due to be launched on IndieGoGo or similar pretty soon. The price will be $160-$180 depending on early bird pricing and the last we heard it will start shipping around April.

The R1 was due to run Android 9 out of the box with the possibility of flipping a hardware switch that allows it to boot from a secondary OS on a microSD card. Whether this is still the case with the internal redesign we don’t yet know.

THE UNISOC TIGER T618 SOC

To be perfectly honest Unisoc is not a manufacturer I’d ever heard of before. Minimal research (Wikipedia) reveals they’re a Chinese state owned company that until 2018 were known as Spreadtrum Communications. A series of acquisitions and mergers resulted in the creation of the Unisoc company that exists today. They’re primarily involved in manufacturing SOCs for smartphones and modems, and some of their recent flagship offerings look quite competitive.

The Tiger T618 isn’t a flagship product, having been released in 2019 as a mid-level SoC for tablets and the like. But that’s not to say it’s not a capable chip, in fact the specs are pretty impressive compared to what we’re used to.

It’s built on the big.LITTLE architecture with two 2.0Ghz A75 cores and six 1.8Ghz low power A55 cores, coupled with a Mali G52 MP2 GPU. I believe the SoC can accommodate anything from 4-8GB RAM.

There are some videos on YouTube courtesy of Sonic Love showing off the emulation capabilities of this SoC in the Teclast M40 tablet.

This is progress in a market that’s too happy to keep churning out the same machines over and over again. It’s a step in the right direction and will hopefully force other manufacturers to follow suit. Whilst Android is not everybody’s cup of tea, there’s no denying that emulator performance in Android is very good and the system as a whole is very user friendly.

Whilst I doubt I’ll be an early adopter of either of these systems, they’re definitely on my list of handhelds to keep an eye on this year.

The post The Unisoc T618 Will Debut In Two New Handhelds appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

Another day, another RK3326 handheld. The GameForce RK3326 is gearing up for release, and it has at least one feature that sets it apart from the rest.

The Gameforce is currently in mass production but the software is still being tweaked. You can see from this older video that there were some rotation and scaling problems to overcome initially. However, those rotational issues hint towards the reason this thing is different from the others.

The Gameforce RK3326 has a 4:3 640×480 display, which is a first for any of the RK3326 machines currently available (although the upcoming RG351V will also have this resolution). The Odroid-Go Advance and all the other RK3326 handhelds have a 3:2 480×320 LCD. Whilst those screens are great for GBA and PSP emulators, for others you get odd scaling issues. A higher resolution LCD has been on many people’s wish list for these handhelds.

I’m sure the look of the Gameforce is going to be polarising to a lot of people, it reminds me of a GBA mixed with a Neo Geo Pocket Color. The aesthetic is straight out of the mid 2000s, for better or worse.

Here are the things we know about the Gameforce RK3326 so far:

• 640×480 4:3 IPS display
• Dual analog sticks (or maybe sliders)
• Dedicated hardware buttons for volume
• Dedicated Start and Select buttons
• Dual front facing stereo speakers
• R1/L1 as well as R2/L2 triggers
• Dedicated Home button
• Currently runs either EmuELEC or Retrobox.
• Built in WiFi
• RGB LEDs behind the buttons

It looks as though the GameForce will be released in a choice of 3 colours.

I must admit the design of this handheld has grown on me since we first saw it. It’s unashamedly chunky and retro looking. Those strange looking nipples on the back appear to serve a purpose too, at least in as far as comfort is concerned.

The GameForce is apparently in mass production now, and the OS is currently being smoothed out ready for launch. We can expect to see this device for sale sometime next month. I’ll be updating this post as more info comes in and you can get back to it quickly via the “Forthcoming Handhelds” menu.

In the meantime, there are a couple of new videos on YouTube of the prototype units.

The post The Gameforce RK3326 Handheld Looks Like A GBA Descendant appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

In the never ending barrage of incremental upgrades, Anbernic are the latest team to release a portrait mode handheld based on the RK3326 chip. Aside from the change in orientation, the Anbernic RG351V does offer a couple of other nice features.

By my reckoning, the RG351V will be the ninth handheld released based on the RK3326. Whilst many of these handhelds are just clones of one another, this time we have a few nice additions.

Aesthetically the RG351V is reminiscent of the RG300 from 2019, but there have been some changes to the shell to accommodate new control scheme needed for these more advanced machines. As well as an added analog stick, the shoulder buttons on the back have also been split to allow for L2/R2.

RG351V STORAGE

The main differences between the RG351V and its rivals start at the way the OS and storage is configured. Whilst pretty much every other RK3326 handheld has relied on a single microSD slot, the RG351V has adopted the dual slot config. This is a setup we got used to on the older Ingenic based machines. It means that once you have your OS set up you can leave that card alone, and load up another microSD card with all your ROMs.

This is preferable setup, not least because it means the secondary SD card is fully readable and writable in Windows. Having said that, it remains to be seen how Anbernic have implemented this into the OS. It’ll also mean that our devs might have a little bit of work to do when porting over the myriad of other operating systems.

RG351V LCD

The biggest improvement in this device over previous machines is in the LCD. The 3:2 aspect ratio of most other current RK3326 machines is awkward for many systems. People have been asking for a more compatible ratio/resolution since the Odroid-GO was released. The RG351V delivers a bona fide 4:3 640×480 IPS display, which should make a big improvement to image scaling.

Again, it remains to be seen how Anbernic have accounted for this change in resolution. I have faith that they didn’t tackle the problem in the same way that the PocketGo team did with the S30 though. It will also require some work on the community devs behalf to implement this change in to new OS builds.

WOOD GRAIN?

In a move that is sure to please LGR, it looks like there may be a woodgrain effect version of this machine. The Anbernic website currently shows woodgrain, smokey transparent and light gray models. We’ll have to wait and see what’s available to order on Monday.

Lastly, the RG351V incorporates WiFi this time. WiFi was initially present in the first RG351P, but Anbernic removed it last minute citing interference issues. They re-added it into the RG351M, and it looks as though it’ll be present in this RG351V too. Their promo material boasts of multiplayer, so it’ll be interesting to see how that’s been implemented.

Pricing starts at $108. As usual with these devices, the launch day price will probably drop over the coming weeks. The RG351V will be available at the official Anbernic website as well as their shop on AliExpress.

The post The new portrait mode Anbernic RG351V is released on Monday appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

After a lengthy and slightly worrisome stint at the sorting office in Heathrow, my GPD XD Plus finally arrived on a warm morning back in April 2018. I used it on the stock firmware for nearly 3 years before reading an interesting update regarding Android 10. At this point I decided it might be time to revisit the GPD XD Plus.

This is a revisit of an article I wrote back in 2018. I have updated it whilst keeping some of the original content where relevant.

I bought the XD+ way back on February 18th 2018 when Fasttech had their 15% discount for CNY. It came out to $168 shipped, which was about £124 with PayPal’s exchange rate. I picked up the package from the local depot the following April. It took 64 days to arrive, that’s a long time to wait – but it was a pre-order.

The device came in a similar box to 2016’s model, and Fasttech wrapped it in cling film as they seem to do with most expensive electronics. I guess to protect it from any potential disasters involving water! No pictures from inside the box, but it comes with all the usual stuff plus a screen protector which I never fitted. With a clamshell form factor such as this, it’s not really necessary.

When the device is closed it’s very reminiscent of a 3DS XL, which is no bad thing. As noted by others on the dingoonity boards, it seems that the top half of the unit is finished in a very glossy, slightly sparkly paint, whilst the bottom half is simply dark grey. I imagined this would look strange, but it’s barely noticeable. The entire thing is a massive fingerprint magnet though, I had to polish it with a cloth before taking any pictures.

I’d previously written that the build quality of the GPD XD Plus was unsurpassed by any other of the Chinese handheld manufacturers. At the time GPD were setting the standard for build quality with their handhelds. Even compared to their old G5A the build quality was a massive step up. The seams where 2 halves of a case come together are fractions of a millimetre wide, and completely even all the way around. It’s beautifully put together. However, things have come a long way and although the build quality is good, companies like Anbernic have matched or even surpassed this quality of manufacture in 2021.

The device weighs more than I expected, and overall feels almost like the quality you’d expect from something like a 3DS. I say almost, but there are some giveaways. The first thing is the hinge, it’s not Nintendo quality. The screen locks back in 2 positions – the usual playing position, and completely flat. In the 45 degree playing position there is a very slight wobble to the hinge. Once locked at 180 degrees it’s tight. The hinge is very stiff and it’s common knowledge that with the 2018 version of the XD+ the hinges can crack over time. They apparently fixed this with a 2019 version of the same handheld, which contains identical hardware but makes some changes to the hinge and paint job. For what it’s worth, my hinge hasn’t cracked but if I’m honest it’s collected dust for quite a while now.

GPD XD PLUS CONTROLS

Once I’d finished drooling over the gapless seams and frowning at the waggly hinge I had a look at the controls. First of all, the analog sticks feel wonderful. With a rubberised finish and a silky frictionless glide they feel exceptionally well made. If I was going to criticise them I’d have to say that in some N64 games it feels as though they need to have more travel. It’s difficult to find the sweet spot between no movement and full movement in games like Ridge Racer and Mario Kart 64. This might be something that can be configured in software though. I should say at this point that the switch like Analog sticks we get on devices such as the RG351P are better than these. More travel, a taller stem, better grip and clickable too unlike the GPD XD Plus ones.

The d-pad is a bit of a concern, it doesn’t really feel like any d-pad I’ve used before. It feels like the central pivot is too broad and shallow . There’s a lot of thumb movement needed to go from one direction to the opposite, and tactile feedback is lacking. It’s not a deal breaker, and other people may disagree – but I’m not keen on it. In recent years other manufacturers have pretty much perfected the d-pad, and those are a lot better than the one found here.

The 4 shoulder buttons are both perfectly placed and perfectly made. They are very light to press and respond with a delightful and positive click once pressed. L2 and R2 sit proud of L1/R1 which makes it super easy to blindly hit any of them. The only improvement would mean a complete redesign to make them analog, but you can’t have it all.

On the back of the device you have a microSD slot (to expand the 32GB on board storage), a microUSB port for charging and data transfer, a Mini HDMI port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The face buttons all feel OK too. ABXY are within easy reach and easy to push, but they could do with a bit more tactile feedback. They’re quite mushy feeling. The remaining face buttons require a slightly harder push and respond with a dull click. There is zero rattle to the unit – with all those buttons you might expect a few to move about and make a racket, but they don’t. Overall the design and execution is fantastic in some areas and acceptable in others.

GPD XD PLUS SOFTWARE

The GPD XD Plus comes with Android 7 pre-installed, and has been given a custom launcher by the GPD devs. I’m not a fan of the launcher, and swapped it out almost straight away.

I was able to uninstall a few of the unnecessary apps that came pre-installed, including the “happy chick” emulator frontend. The built in “Emulator” program is baked in but swapping to another launcher basically hides it.

I never noticed any issues with the UI as far as stability or speed goes on stock firmware. The ROMs that came preinstalled seem to work very well for every system, and my brother installed PUBG which plays great albeit on lowered graphics settings.

Screen on time is very good as well, battery life on full brightness is better than any phone I’ve had in the past. This is to be expected considering the 6000mah battery is about twice the size of most phones. After reading some complaints about the WiFi in the original GPD XD, I also ran the speedtest on both my phone and on the XD+ (sequentially of course). Results are from the 5GHz network in my house, and I have no concerns about the WiFi on the XD+.

The screen is also very nice. Although only 720p, the colours are very vivid and viewing angles are exceptional in every direction. There is no blueish hue to the screen either, which is something I’ve noticed in cheaper panels.

CLEANROM / LINEAGE OS 17.1

It’s safe to say that GPD did wash their hands of the XD+ eventually. They could have had some engineers working on newer versions of Android for it, but at the time they were focussing their efforts on their new Windows machines. If you consider the hardware, many current Android handhelds are far less powerful than the XD+. Even the forthcoming ones are only a few steps ahead, and the XD+ was released 3 years ago! I can’t help thinking that if GPD had supported the machine for longer, it would still be somewhat in the limelight now. You never know, maybe it would have spurred on the other manufacturers to bring more powerful machines to market sooner. The machine is no slouch, with specs that we still get excited about in new handhelds today.

As is often the way though, the talented dev community stepped in. Black-seraph is the guy, and he has pretty much single handedly brought 8.1, 9 and now Android 10 to the GPD XD Plus. The Android 10 build is still in beta, with issues around Vulkan being broken and HDMI not transmitting audio. If you’re wondering whether or not to bother, gpdcentral put together a very good list of reasons to choose CleanROM.

But be aware that until Vulkan is fixed you will have to use OpenGL. This makes the majority of the already small playable GameCube library, and some PSP titles unplayable in 9 and 10 right now. If you want to upgrade the OS and don’t want to live without Vulkan support, go for 8.1 for now. Black-Seraph operates a patreon for followers wanting the latest builds. 8.1 is freely available, but for 10 you need to become a patron of his (for now – eventually it will be openly distributed).

The GPD XD+ is available everywhere, and can usually be found for around $230. That was the main problem with this handheld I think, it was too expensive – and still is. Whether or not the XD+ is a good buy in 2021 is up for debate. On one hand, it is dated and will soon be superseded by more powerful Android devices at a lower cost. On the other hand, it’s unlikely those other devices will get the same level of support that the XD+ is enjoying. Black-Seraph is hell bent on fixing the current issues, and will apparently be bringing Android 11 to the device at some point too.

Personally I would probably wait and see how the KT R1 and PowKiddy X18S end up. But, if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket then affiliate links are provided below

The post The GPD XD Plus Gets A New Lease Of Life With Android 10 appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

Raise your hands if you didn’t see this coming. No-one? Yep thought so! So in case you missed it, HardKernel released their updated Odroid-Go Super at the beginning of this year. It’s the same hardware as their previous device in a larger shell with a 5 inch screen and a higher resolution. The PowKiddy RGB10 MAX looks to be a very similar handheld, with some improvements.

It doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that the Chinese manufacturers would follow HardKernel’s lead again, and in all honesty I’m surprised that it took this long. This image has popped up on baidu this morning and although there’s nothing official from PowKiddy yet, it’s not really surprising to see.

The rumoured PowKiddy RGB10 MAX actually makes some improvements over HardKernel’s offering though. Here’s some leaked specs that should currently be taken with a grain of salt!

POWKIDDY RGB MAX SPECS

What HD means is anyone’s guess. I would assume that the LCD will be the same 854×480 resolution as the OGS because it makes PowKiddy’s life easier – but we’ll have to wait and see. The WiFi toggle on the top of the unit is a very nice touch, and alongside built in Bluetooth the RGB10 MAX offers two things that the OGS missed. The dual analog sticks also function as R3/L3 buttons unlike those on the OGS.

The PowKiddy RGB10 was one of the cheapest RK3326 handhelds to hit the market last year, so it’ll be interesting to see if they’ve managed to keep the price down on this version too.

The post The PowKiddy RGB10 MAX Could Be The First OGS Clone appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

The TrimUI Model S is one of those handhelds that just appeared out of nowhere at the end of last year. Not much was known about the company behind it or the device itself. Now that it’s been available for a few months and the software has matured a little, let’s take a proper look at the little gadget.

Thank you to the Keep Game Store for sending me a unit for review.

SPECS

The TrimUI Model S belongs in the same family of handhelds as the Bittboy, PocketGo v1 and the PowKiddy V90. That is to say that it’s powered by the same AllWinner F1C200S SoC with 64MB RAM. It’s at the lower end of the performance scale, sitting somewhere around the JZ4760 (LDK, RG300 etc) and RG350 series (JZ4770).

This level of hardware allows for decent SNES emulation with exceptions for games such as Yoshi’s Island in which I am only able to achieve 14 FPS. Many PS1 games run at an acceptable speed as long as you’re not too sensitive to frameskip. For most systems below these you’re good, and both GBA and Mega Drive are great on this hardware.

BUILD QUALITY AND CONTROLS

The TrimUI Model S is a small, slim and light little handheld that can happily be carried around in a pocket. The construction consists of a metal back plate (available in a few different colours) and a transparent plastic face plate that also serves as the lens for the LCD. For its size and weight, the construction and build quality is perfectly fine. Compared to other handhelds in the same category, the construction and plastics are much higher quality than those of the PowKiddy V90 and similar to the PocketGo V1. The entire device certainly has a kit feel about it. It reminds me of the first Odroid-Go in that regard, but that doesn’t detract from it at all in my eyes.

TrimUI seem to be a previously unknown brand related somehow to MacroKinetic, and who possibly don’t have prior experience designing handhelds. There are some strange design choices that I don’t recall seeing on any previous machines, namely in the way the d-pad and ABXY buttons are made. Instead of using conductive silicon pads to bridge contacts on the mainboard, both the d-pad and ABXY buttons are made up of clicky circular switches. Surprisingly though, this doesn’t actually make for bad controls at all. The d-pad itself is a circular drop in with a raised and textured cross piece, whereas the ABXY buttons are smooth, slightly domed and unlabelled.

Because of the nature of switches, both sets of controls are rather loud and clicky. Personally I don’t mind the noise, and I actually quite like the tactile feedback that registers when each switch is clicked.

The shoulder buttons are small rectangles that sit roughly 1.5cm in from the edges of the shell. They only protrude a millimetre or so from the casing, and also click when pressed. On a device so small you might imagine they’re difficult to reach with larger hands, but because they’re set in from the edge of the shell they’re not actually that bad. It would have been better if they were bigger, but they’re serviceable.

LCD

Given the overall size of this handheld it’s not surprising to discover that the LCD is also tiny. Measuring just 2 inches from corner to corner, it’s the same size as the one found in the GB Micro and also the RS-90 Retromini. Unlike both of those screens though, this one has a resolution of 320×240. That resolution plays nicely with a large selection of older systems, but for GBA you’ll have to use non-integer scaling for a full width image. On larger screens this makes for blurry pixels and whilst it’s noticeable on the Model S too, the small screen size definitely helps to reduce the blurriness a bit.

I do think though that they could have possibly squeezed in a slightly larger screen if they’d redesigned the shell a bit. The current LCD has a 3 or 4mm bezel around each edge, if they’d rejigged the design a bit they could have potentially got a borderless 2.4″ screen in there.

Don’t expect a laminated display on this thing either. As mentioned previously, the LCD screen lens is just made up of the clear plastic face plate that covers the whole of the front of the device. Visibility is fine and the IPS display itself is crisp and bright enough with no ghosting as far as I can tell. The original stock firmware does suffer from the same screen tearing effects as other AllWinner F1C200S handhelds, but thankfully a firmware update from TrimUI and subsequent custom launchers has remedied this.

STOCK FIRMWARE

The way the Model S is setup is similar to PocketGo S30 in that the Linux portion of the OS is located on an internal NAND chip, rather than a microSD card. The microSD card itself is reserved for your choice of UI, emulators, games and ROMs. The stock UI is contained within the NAND, but it can be bypassed by loading either the GmenuNX or MinUI launchers to an SD card.

The first thing you should do is check which firmware version is currently flashed to the NAND. The latest version available from TrimUI is v0.105 as of today. In order to flash it you’ll need to head to the TrimUI site and follow the instructions under “Factory Recovery” and use the provided PhoenixSuit application to do it.

If the software doesn’t recognise that your device is connected and ready to be flashed, you will need to install the driver for it manually. To do this, open Device Manager on a Windows machine and look for the “Unknown Device” in the list. Right click, update driver and point Windows to the folder that you downloaded and unzipped from the TrimUI website.

Once the driver is installed, you should be able to flash v0.105 using PhoenixSuit and then install the newest firmware for it. From here you have three options. Option one is use the stock firmware, which works OK and has a clean, simple UI. If you like the simple theme but want to try out one of the custom front ends with support for more efficient emulators, take a look at MinUI.

TRIMUI FIRMWARE DOWNLOAD

MINUI

MinUI is the work of developer shauninman. It takes the stock front end aesthetic and cleans it up a bit, adds updated emulators and re-enables the settings menus for each emulator. Some useful features such as sleep (menu button in the main menu) have been added too. To a large extent the UI mirrors the file structure on the SD card, meaning that you can tailor and rename each system as you wish.

Systems are populated in the menu once you have added ROMs to each directory. You can swap back to the stock UI from MinUI at any time, and revert back again if you wish. Be aware that the stock UI uses different folder names for ROMs than MinUI. This is also the case in GmenuNX as GmenuNX uses standardised folder names for ROMs. This means that ROMs visible in stock and GmenuNX aren’t visible in MinUI as it is looking in a different location. It’s only really an issue if you plan to keep swapping between launchers. My advice would be to choose your favourite launcher and stick with it.

MINUI DOWNLOAD

GMENUNX

This one might be familiar to more of you as it is available for the other AllWinner F1C200S handhelds too. It offers a grid like menu system with a high level of customisation options available. Once installed you’ll see separate sections for new emulators and stock emulators and you can add and remove them as you see fit. There are currently 3 SNES emulators for this firmware, so perhaps choose your favourite and remove the others.

eggs aka gameblabla is responsible for bringing GmenuNX to the TrimUI Model S.

GMENUNX DOWNLOAD

There is also a tool developed by eggs to flash a new boot-up logo to the NAND. You must make sure that the image you create is compatible, and I found the easiest way to create it was in GIMP. Your image must be encoded as below, and the export menu on Gimp allows you to choose the correct format.

• 320×240 resolution
• Saved as 16 bit bitmap (.bmp)
• Be less than 512k
• Be saved as R5 G6 B5

You can find the boot logo change script here. Simply give the image files and the script the same name, stick them both on your SD card and run the script from Commander.

You can use either of the scripts as far as I can tell (I’m not sure why there are two to be honest, they both do the same thing I think).

FINAL THOUGHTS

The TrimUI Model S is an interesting handheld and probably my favourite in this category. It’s very compact and portable and it has an interesting design style too. I am pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it is for my larger hands, and that’s definitely due in part to the shoulder buttons not being right at the edge of the shell. My main gripes would be that the screen is just too small for many people. My eyesight is OK so 2″ is just about acceptable, but even a 2.4″ screen would have been noticeably easier on the eyes. The device lasts about 3 hours on a charge, which is OK but shorter than I’m used to.

The TrimUI Model S comes at a difficult time for this type of handheld. Whilst it’s cheap enough to warrant its limitations, we’re at a stage where the emphasis is finally on more powerful devices. More power is the direction we should be headed, but with more power comes bigger handhelds and a higher cost. There’s still something to be said for neat little handhelds like these that can be tucked away in your pocket before heading out. Additionally, the development of MinUI brings an alternative launcher for those that don’t have time to tinker. It’s a neat and smart looking launcher that “just works” and will definitely find fans amongst the kind of people that just want to pick up and play.

Thanks to the folk at Keep Game Store for sending me over a unit to review. You can purchase this device from them on AliExpress, as various other stores.

The post The TrimUI Model S Review appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

As the sun begins to set on RK3326 powered devices, the GameForce handheld sets out to buck the trend of straight OGA clones with the inclusion of some cool features. It’s been a long time in the making, but the GameForce is finally here.

Rumblings of the GameForce first appeared back in July last year, and its creator Gao Feng has been active on the RG Handhelds discord server since then. The GameForce is not made by a large established team like Anbernic or GPD, it’s mostly the vision of one man. This fact, along with the ongoing chip shortages go some way to explain why it took longer than expected to be released. I’ve had a retail unit for a couple of weeks now, so let’s have a look at it.

When the GameForce was first announced it attracted a lot of attention, not only because of its striking looks, but also because it was to be the first RK3326 device with a 4:3 ratio 640×480 display. When HardKernel released their Odroid-Go Advance, the easiest course of action for other manufacturers wanting to jump on the bandwagon was to mirror the hardware as closely as possible. HardKernel chose an unconventional screen ratio and resolution for the OGA, and all of the “cloned” devices followed suit. One of Gao Feng’s goals was to develop a device with a better suited display, bucking the trend for out and out hardware clones. Of course, Anbernic eventually beat him to it with their RG351V – but credit where credit is due, Gao was probably first to start work.

FEATURES

RGB

Aside from the choice of LCD, compared to many other RK3326 devices the GameForce has some nice additions. For the first time in any handheld that I’m aware of, all of the controls are backlit with RGB LEDs. The stock OS has the ability to change the backlight colours, or to turn them off entirely. From what I gather, the backlights were more of a headache than anticipated to implement – but they’re there and they work.

Depending on the colour of your device, some colours do bleed through the plastic. Red looks great on the green unit, whereas blue apparently works best on the milky coloured version. If it bothers you, some tape inside the shell would likely fix it.

There is also an orange charge light bottom right of the d-pad and a status LED bottom left of ABXY. I’m not sure of the purpose of that status LED, and by default it flashes in “heartbeat” mode. The EmuELEC settings allow you to configure this to always on, heartbeat or always off.

WIFI / BLUETOOTH

The inclusion of working WiFi is also another welcome feature of the GameForce. Whilst it’s limited to 2.4Ghz networks only, it is stable and quick with a decent range. It doesn’t suffer from any of the interference issues that plagued some of Anbernic’s devices in the past either. The WiFi allows you to use Retro Achievements if you’re into that, and to easily transfer ROMs from your PC wirelessly via WinSCP or FileZilla. Just get your device connected to WiFi and use root/emuelec as the username and password for the SFTP connection. From there you can drag and drop to your heart’s content. The wireless chip inside the GameForce is also Bluetooth enabled, but as yet there isn’t a working driver for it. If this is implemented it should be possible to pair external controllers to the device for multi-player games.

SPEAKERS

The GameForce has two front facing speakers placed each side of the LCD at the top. This placement makes more sense than on the back or the bottom, and in normal gaming conditions you would never accidentally cover them up. They’re not massively loud, but they’re loud enough and the sound quality is good for their size.

BATTERY

A 3000mAh battery provides between 3 and 4 hours gameplay depending on usage. The charge current does seem slow, but apparently the power management is the same on all RK3326 devices so maybe I’m just impatient. There are 2 rumble motors inside the GameForce, but I’m yet to find a game that actually supports them. It could be that the driver isn’t implemented, or maybe I’m choosing the wrong games.

STORAGE

All storage is taken care of via a single microSD card. It’s worth noting that you’ll be supplying your own, as it doesn’t ship with one. I can see why they’ve gone this route, it seems that most people replace them for their own cards anyway. The GameForce can apparently support up to a 512GB card, but I don’t have one anywhere near that size.

EMUELEC OS

EmuELEC is the system of choice for the GameForce, and another massive bonus for this device is that it has official support directly from EmuELEC dev shanti. Shanti is the developer also supporting the Odroid-Go Advance, and if you check his github you will find builds made specifically for the GameForce now too. One of the biggest complaints with the Anbernic devices is the poorly implemented stock EmuELEC build, so to have official support for this handheld is a great benefit to us.

A dedicated home button sits bottom middle of the device, and provides an easily identifiable hotkey for a multitude of shortcuts within the OS. Used in combination with the Home button, these are the following shortcuts I have found. I should say that these shortcuts do different things when in the menus. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell both functions are triggered when you use the shortcuts in game. For example, Home+R1 is mute, but it is also save state. In game, Home+R1 will save state and mute the audio. Saving state again re-enables the audio. I’m not all that familiar with this OS, so it’s possible I got something set up wrong. If not then presumably it will be ironed out in good time. Oh, the GameForce supports OTA updates too. I’ve used it once to update from the test version, and it worked a treat.

BUILD QUALITY

Manufacturers such as Anbernic and GPD are now creating devices that almost rival the likes of Nintendo in terms of build quality. But if you think back to some of their devices from a few of years ago (RG300, RS-97, GPD G5A for example), this is about the quality of manufacture that the Gao Feng has achieved with the GameForce. There’s nothing in particular that’s wrong with it, but it doesn’t quite have the same level of finesse that you might be used to.

To be clear, the device is solid and the plastic moulding boasts perfectly flush seams. There are some tell tale signs that this is Gao’s first device though – and that’s fine. For example the finish on my green unit is very matte. That’s great in some ways, because it’s almost impossible to leave a greasy marks on it. Nothing shows up, it actively rejects fingerprints. But on the other hand it feels kind of unusual, almost chalky to the touch. I’ve gotten used to it in the few weeks I’ve had it, but it’s something to be aware of.

CONTROLS

D-PAD

The d-pad has had a couple of revisions since the early prototype units were sent out. I never had one of those, so I can’t compare directly but it does feel different to Anbernic’s d-pad implementation. It’s not as stiff, and has a shallower pivot. It’s responsive, and hasn’t mis-fired on me but initially it took a little getting used to. The d-pad is a good size and is domed upwards towards each edge which makes it pretty comfy to use. Travel is just enough that it sits slightly proud of the case when pressed in any direction. It feels a little squishier than my preference, but overall it’s OK.

ANALOG STICKS

The analogs are generic ALPS branded sticks with slightly rubberised concave caps on them. They do the job and they’re nice and smooth, but physical range of movement could do with being a little wider. There’s no L3/R3 function on these sticks. It is possible to do a drop in replacement for PS Vita sticks, and Jutleys from rghandhelds.com has done just that on his unit (image). Personally I’m happy enough with the supplied analog sticks, but tinkerers might have some fun replacing them.

ABXY

ABXY buttons are smaller than we’re used to, and they protrude a little far from the shell for my taste. They’re OK but feel a bit mushy. They could do with being recessed about a millimetre further into the shell too. I haven’t had any problems with responsiveness from them. I would usually take this for granted, but some previous handhelds from other manufacturers have taught me not to.

SHOULDER BUTTONS

The shoulder buttons are some of the most comfortable I have ever used on a handheld. Shoulder buttons are usually the reason I get cramp, but these are set up perfectly. L1 and R1 can be reliably pushed anywhere from the rounded corners all the way to the inside edge, using the middle of your index finger. The tips of your fingers naturally rest on L2/R2, which are purposefully set around a millimetre higher than L1/R1. Overall the GameForce is really comfortable to play for extended periods, and we’ll talk more about that shortly.

LCD

For me the LCD is the main reason to choose the GameForce over most other RK3326 devices. The 4:3 aspect ratio is far more sensible for the majority of systems that it can emulate. It provides an almost full-screen integer scaled image for a large selection of systems. Whilst it’s not great for GBA, having a resolution of 640×480 looks much better than 320×240 on screens of the same size. There isn’t really a perfect solution to cater for every system, but in a device of this price I am convinced that 4:3 640×480 is the best choice.

There is no OCA lamination on the GameForce, and you can see that it is recessed a couple of millimetres below the glass lens. Clarity and viewing angles are excellent however, and the LCD itself is plenty bright enough. There’s no noticeable light leak on this device either.

The text on the screen lens is intentionally made to resemble that of the Neo Geo Pocket Color. A conscious decision based on the designers love for the system. I like it, but I know some people get distracted by text bezels. I always found it puzzling that so many people hated the orange Anbernic logo on the RG350.

DESIGN

Brash and ugly to some, pleasingly chunky and nostalgic looking to others, opinions on its design are certainly polarised. I find it fondly reminiscent of the NGPC and GBA era, so you can put me in the latter camp.

The GameForce design is big, chunky and has a decidedly early 2000s aesthetic. It comes in a choice of two unashamedly bright colours, and a “milky” version too if you’re into that. I must admit I do think a black one might have been a good idea. Whilst some of its competitors take a more serious approach to their design, there is something to be said for the almost cartoon like look of the GameForce.

The unusual “nipples” on the bottom provide a super comfortable resting place for your middle finger. Those nipples were a bold design choice, and have been called out for looking silly. But there’s a reason they’re there and that’s long term comfort. For me there hasn’t been a handheld as comfortable to play for prolonged periods of time since the GPD G5A. Whether you love or hate the design, you won’t hate your hands after a couple of hours of game play. I do think some rubber bungs to fill those holes might have made it look less odd mind you.

WRAP UP

The RK3326 made it’s way into affordable handhelds at the beginning of 2020, and since then there have been bloody loads of them. The best of the bunch prior to the GameForce all lack at least one thing that the GameForce has got. Working WiFi, a sensible LCD, dual analog sticks and official EmuELEC support. The RG351V is the closest competitor in this group, and if you’re after a RK3326 powered handheld today my choice would definitely be either that or the GameForce. If dual analogs and official support is important to you, it’s the GameForce.

We might be on the cusp of more powerful handhelds entering the market, but right now the GameForce is a very decent choice if you can look past the slightly less than perfect execution and throwback design. My unit was sent to me free for review by the folks at gameforce.fun. You can purchase the GameForce at the affiliated link below for $95 plus postage right now.

If you’re interested, you can use the code OBSCURE to get a few dollars off.

The above link helps the upkeep of this site. This link supports the EmuELEC devs instead, and helps fund continued development of the OS.

The post The Chunky GameForce Handheld Is Now Available appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

Although we still don’t have any renders of the upcoming Anbernic RG552, pieces of information are leaking out slowly. The RG552 appears to be a way off yet, but lets have a look at what we might expect in this new handheld.

Firstly, the model number of this device tells us some things. A year or so ago a chart was posted on Tieba Baidu that attempted to explain the naming convention for Anbernic’s handhelds. Not everything from that lines up with the leaks about the RG552 though. Whilst the 5.5″ display has been confirmed, it doesn’t look as though the chip will be made by MediaTek – but it won’t be JZ4770 or RK3326 either.

LCD

The LCD is said to be a 5.5″ HD display with a ratio of 5:3. That’s somewhere between 4:3 and 16:9 in terms of width. We don’t know the resolution, but it has been referenced as being an High Definition display, and Max Zhou claims it has a resolution “over 1000”. Whether that’s height or width is unknown as yet.

The image below was posted on Tieba Baidu and is purportedly the LCD that will be used in the RG552.

Max has also said that it’s a cell phone display.

Since it’s a cell phone display and we know the aspect ratio, we can take a guess at the resolution based on this list of mobile screens that it might be 1280×768. That page is out of date, so it could be that there are common screens with a higher resolution and the same AR now. Given this info, it’s also possible that it’s a touchscreen, but no-one has confirmed it yet to my knowledge.

CHIPSET

Despite the buzz around RockChip’s new RK3566, the RG552 will apparently contain a much older chip known as the RK3399. First released back in 2013, the RK3399 is actually a more capable chip than the RK3566 but is more power hungry and runs hotter. A comparison below courtesy of gadgetversus.com.

It has been rumoured that designing a console around this chip was first on the cards in 2020, but heat dissipation was an issue. It’s probable that the RG552 will require a fan to aid cooling.

There was a video released God of War for PSP running on this hardware at around 30FPS back in April. Up until now, this game hasn’t been possible on any Anbernic’s machines, or indeed any other budget devices.

There’s potential for some Gamecube emulation on this chip too. There is a single board computer named the Rock Pi 4 that contains this same chip and there are videos of Dolphin running some games at an acceptable speed on it. Of course, a lot depends on which OS Anbernic decide to use and how it is implemented.

OS

Whilst there is one shot of the UI doing the rounds, we don’t know yet what OS Anbernic intend to use on the RG552. It is speculated that it’ll either be Android, Batocera or RecalBox since all are available for this chip. If it’s Android, it’s possible Anbernic are developing their own launcher for it.

OTHER BITS

It has been said that the RG552 will have HDMI output, stereo speakers, dual analog sticks and dual MicroSD card slots. There are still many things we don’t know yet, including but not limited to the below:

• Price
• Release date
• Form factor
• Cell size / battery life
• OS
• RAM

I really wanted to wait until there were some renders of this device doing the rounds before posting it. The Anbernic RG552 looks to be a long way off yet, and the current chip shortages presumably aren’t helping either. However, the hype around this one is so strong I thought I might as well post about it. I’ll update this post as and when new info comes in.

The post What We Know About The Anbernic RG552 appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

The KT R1 handheld is one in a long line of upcoming devices that promise to break through the performance barriers imposed by the RK3326. It’s been a very rocky road for the KT R1, and it’s certainly not out of the woods yet. But the specs have changed, and they’re apparently finalised now. So let’s have a look at what we’re being promised.

It started back in November over on the Chinese forums. A user named niluanxy posted a long preamble about a device he was working on called the R1. Over the course of a few posts, we learned that this handheld is going to be quite different from anything currently available.

It’s planned that there will be a few versions of the R1 to cater for different budgets. As far as I can tell the majority of the configuration is the same between them, with the main differences being RAM and storage size. It was once due to have an optional sim card slot too, but that is missing from the latest specs released today.

HARDWARE

Unfortunately niluanxy has had some serious obstacles to overcome in the development of this machine. Originally intended to contain an AmLogic S922X, this was later switched out for the UniSoc T618 due to availability issues. The latest update from the man himself has this chip switched out yet again for a Snapdragon 845. According to his one of his recent posts, he was actually working with multiple chip suppliers simultaneously, hoping one would pay off. It looks as though the Snapdragon solution is the one that found its feet.

The Snapdragon 845 is an octa-core processor from the start of 2018. It featuring 4x Kryo 385 Gold CPUs at 2.8GHz and 4x Kryo 385 Silver CPUs at 1.8GHz. A 650MHz Adreno 630 GPU takes care of the graphics acceleration, and for what it’s worth this chip overall is more powerful than either of the two prior considerations.

LCD

The original choice of LCD has also had to be swapped out. Originally a 4″ 800×600 display, testing in January apparently revealed poor viewing angles and a high defective rate. The LCD is now a 3:2 4.5″ OCA panel with a resolution of 1620×1080. This panel has the same unfortunate aspect ratio as the Odroid-Go and clones. The super high resolution will help massivelyt with any scaling issues apparent on lower resolution screens though.

CONTROLS AND I/O

There are various renders doing the rounds with the positioning of the left analog stick and d-pad in switched positions. It seems to be that the final design will have the d-pad at the top which is likely to cause the least amount of complaints. However it was once said by niluanxy that the left side of the device may be modular. After market custom face plates may allow customers to swap out the configuration. Whether this is still the plan seems unlikely, but I haven’t seen anything to the contrary yet.

Video output will be taken care of via a USB-C port. The R1 contains dual analog sticks, D-Pad, ABXY and an extra four face buttons. On the top edge of the device you’ll see stacked shoulder buttons for R1/R2/L1/L2. This is also where the volume rocker and power button can be found. Bear in mind though that these renders are now a few months old and lots has changed in the meantime. It’s possible that the design has also been updated, but as yet there are no new renders available.

The internal storage is taken care of via a UFS 2.1 enabled NAND with a choice of 64, 128 and 256GB potentially being available. Additional storage is taken care of via a microSD card slot. There will be WiFi5 and Bluetooth 5.0 onboard, a 5000-6000mAh battery with 9v 3a fast charge and dual rumble motors too.

OPERATING SYSTEM

The KT R1 handheld will run Android 10 out of the box. I believe it has been heavily customised for the handheld form factor, however the R1 does also have a touchscreen.

Previously it was stated that the bootloader will be unlocked, and the device will support different OSs depending on what devs decide to port to it. There was also due to be an option to boot from the MicroSD card, with a hardware switch on the shell which tells the machine which system to boot from when turned on. Whether this is still the case is unclear at this point.

PERFORMANCE

The SD845 is a fairly powerful chip, and we can expect to see much better performance in the systems already supported by RK3326 handhelds. In addition, it’s possible we’ll see some Saturn, GameCube and Wii emulation made possible too.

To get an idea of performance, take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S9 or another mobile phone that contains this chip. It’s possible that this chip will be overlocked to 3GHz in the KT R1 handheld. Niluanxy is also considering whether or not active cooling may be required.

AVAILABILITY AND PRICE

It seems that the KT R1 handheld is the dream of one talented man working with a factory in China to get this device brought to life. Although this is his first foray into handheld manufacture, he does have a project under his belt already. The GPD Win2 aftermarket cooler was engineered and manufactured by him, and successfully funded on IndieGoGo last year.

Niluanxy has stated that he will receive a real protoype of the R1 in January, after which time an IndieGoGo campaign will be started. Shipping of the final devices is due to begin in Q1 2021.

There are going to be various hardware configurations of this handheld, and the pricing hasn’t been finalised. It’s been said that $200 will be the maximum, but things have changed so it could be higher. Colours are due to be Retro Grey, Pikachu Yellow, Plain White and Pink.

THOUGHTS

It seems strange to me that it takes a one-man-band operation like niluanxy’s to bring real innovation to this market. We have companies like Anbernic, Bittboy and Retroid who must already have stacks of cash behind them. I do wonder why are they not already blazing the trail with cutting edge devices. Obviously GPD are doing their thing, but their machines are out of reach for a lot of folk.

But before we get too carried away, this device doesn’t appear to be much closer to market than it was months ago. I understand it must be incredibly difficult to do this almost on your own, so I’m definitely willing to cut him slack. But at the same time, I’m not holding my breath.

The KT R1 moniker may not be final, and could change before it goes up for pre-order. I wish niluanxy all the best with his endeavour, and I’ll be keeping my eyes open for the IndieGoGo campaign next year.

Full specs below.

The post What We Know About the KT R1 appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

You’re probably well aware of this handheld by now. Taki has been teasing it for months via discord and more recently his YouTube channel. Initially known as the “199” handheld based on its rumoured price tag, the device went on to be named Project Valhalla before being given it’s official name of “Odin”.

Whilst there has been much talk and some videos of prototype units, things have become a little more official in the past few days. Let’s have a look at what the Odin promises.

ODIN SPECS

The Odin is set to be a true next generation handheld in terms of raw power and performance. Alongside such devices as the KT R1, PowKiddy X18S and RG552 the Odin promises breakthroughs in mid-budget emulation capability.

All but confirmed is the inclusion of a Snapdragon 855+ SoC with 4-8GB of RAM. The octacore CPU found here contains four 1.8Ghz, three 2.4Ghz and one 2.9Ghz cores, and is backed up by the Adreno 640 GPU. This chip can be found in phones such as the Galaxy Z Flip, OnePlus 7T and the Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro. The choice of this SoC is strongly rumoured, but as yet unconfirmed. What is confirmed is the inclusion of both passive and active cooling solutions. It has been said that at least one version of the machine will also be heavily overclocked.

If these specs are realised, we can expect to be adding GameCube and Wii to the list of emulators with a high compatibility level. Vast performance improvements will also be made for emulators currently available on RK3326 machines too, such as PSP and Dreamcast.

Full specs for this device and many others can be found here. This spreadsheet is pain stakingly maintained by timeisart over on the discord server. Kudos to him for such a useful resource.

FORM FACTOR AND FEATURES

On paper the Odin does a lot right. Stand out features include a 6″ 1080P display, Analog R2/L2 shoulder buttons, dual analogs with R3/L3 support and two programmable paddle like buttons on the rear of the device. The analog sticks and sides of the device appear to be lit with LEDs too.

There are also rumours of a dock, and photos appear to show it having USB and GameCube ports on the front. Whether this will be available at launch, or at all, is unknown. It’s unlikely to come bundled with any of the cheapest funding options though.

The Odin will run on Android 10 out of the box and renders show a wide choice of colours available. The device itself is said to be roughly the size of the Switch Lite, and <300 grams in weight.

Whilst the $199 price tag might stand true, this will likely be for early backers of the Standard model. From what I understand there will be a Standard and Pro version of the Odin. The way they’re differentiated seems a little strange too.

I have read that the base model will not only NOT be overclocked, but it will not be possible to overclock it yourself either. How much truth there is in that I don’t know. I would guess that for most people the Pro version is going to be the preference. If the price difference is kept small enough I can’t see the Standard model selling too many units.

INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN

The Odin is due to be launched on IndieGoGo soon. The holding page is up, and you can register now to be notified once the campaign is live. I really like the look of this handheld, and I’m also really thankful that someone is finally grabbing the bull by the horns and delivering an ambitious and powerful handheld.

What I’m not so keen on is funding the project through IndieGoGo. You’re not pre-ordering a product when you back a campaign through there, you are helping the company to deliver a product. Things can still go wrong, and often you’re out of luck if they do. I have great faith that Ayn will deliver the Odin. Having seen Taki’s videos it’s obvious they’ve already invested a lot of time and effort into the device. The Odin handheld appears to be on the final stretch already, and I look forward to picking one up from a retailer once they’re widely available.

INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN
MANUFACTURER WEBSITE

The post God Tier Handheld? The Odin Handheld From Ayn Is Coming appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.

While we wait for this promised influx of powerful new handhelds to arrive, the drip feed of machines powered by relics of the past continues. One of these new offerings is the Anbernic RG300X and takes the form of a scaled up Game Boy Micro. Once rumoured to be using a newer and more powerful Ingenic chip, the latest leaks about this handheld suggest otherwise.

With the announcement of the Anbernic RG552, we’ve all been waiting with bated breath for any smidgen of news. Whether it’s still chip shortages causing delays or something else, here we are with yet another JZ4770* device.

^*probably

RG300X SPECS AND DESIGN

The Anbernic RG300X is modelled very closely on a scaled up version of the Game Boy Micro. Differences in the design include the addition of two extra face buttons and two more shoulder buttons. The RG300X is basically an RG350M with the analog sticks removed, a smaller LCD and the clothes of a Game Boy Micro. The RG300X has a 3″ LCD at 640×480, the same resolution as the RG350M.

The below images taken from the promo video shows dual microSD slots, dual USB-C ports and a HDMI on top too.

The RG300X is rather a lot bigger than a Game Boy Micro, as you’ve likely guessed based on the 3″ LCD. Here’s a comparison courtesy of NOirBRight.

The shell actually looks very similar to the Raspberry Pi powered Waveshare GPM280. There are many differences around ports and button placements though, so it’s unlikely to be using the same shell. And of course, the internals of the RG300X are vastly different.

The trusty old JZ4770 CPU seems to be filling a gap here while the delays around Anbernic’s RG552 are ironed out. It’ll of course run OpenDingux, just like all other JZ4770 devices. The RG300X is due to come in 2 colours. Maroon/gold and silver/black.

No word on release date, but I’m sure they can knock these out blindfolded by now. It won’t be long.

The post The Anbernic RG300X Pokes At Your Game Boy Micro Nostalgia appeared first on Obscure Handhelds.