Should I pour some love onto those dodgy Chinese Android handhelds [JXD]

[speedlolita]

When the PSP exists I fail to see the appeal of these Android devices. That Pandora thing looks like an abortion too, but whatever floats your boat.

[VR46]

The "d-pad" on the Archos is indeed four separate buttons yes.

[25.05.2005]

When the PSP exists I fail to see the appeal of these Android devices. That Pandora thing looks like an abortion too, but whatever floats your boat.

I was really into the GP32 scene back in the day and when I 1st heard about the Pandora, it sounded amazing.

Then I saw it.

Then I saw the price they wanted.

...and came to more or less the conclusion you have there in your post.

[capcom_suicide]

You're all wrong! Pandora is the best most comfortable handheld ever!

[bash]

A lot of people do praise the d-pad on the Pandora.

Like many here I always get confused as to why makers of such devices always F-that part up. I HATE crappy d-pads! HATE THEM!

[Colin]

I think I'll take a punt on one of those JXD's after watching some vids, I'll report back on how **** great it is once I get it.

[replicashooter]

I think I'll take a punt on one of those JXD's after watching some vids, I'll report back on how **** great it is once I get it.

Woot! Are you getting the new model? If so please note there are two different specs and the meaty one is the S7800b.

[Colin]

Yeah, I ordered the S7800b. Should take about a week to get here.

[replicashooter]

I think I'm more excited than you are at the prospect

[25.05.2005]

Yeah, let us know how it all goes.

[VR46]

Just remembered, weren't those Dingoo handheld things from a couple of years back supposed to be good for retro stuffs?

[replicashooter]

Just remembered, weren't those Dingoo handheld things from a couple of years back supposed to be good for retro stuffs?

Not in my experience, I picked up a Caanoo - which was supposed to be the more powerful version - and was quite disappointed by the quality of the emulation. It all comes down to grunt and the other handhelds didn't have enough of it, here's hoping the new generation do.

[VR46]

Ah fair enough, maybe they went down well(ish) at the time as there wasn't much else on the market to cater to the Retro scene. Sure they were priced pretty low too.

[replicashooter]

I think I'll take a punt on one of those JXD's after watching some vids, I'll report back on how **** great it is once I get it.

Been nearly a month there Colin, has it arrived yet?

Cheers

[DiabolicalPugMan]

Ok to answer your question, there are a lot of us who do freaking love these things (we just aren't on this particular forum site). Also, Pandora is WAY too expensive (and I say that as an educated middle class guy in the US). The consensus right now is pretty strong around GPD making the best non-US devices (though JXD should be making a new one again soon). The Nvidia Shield outclasses everything but is also way too high in price (the Chinese devices release about two new models a year so they jump ahead of competition like the shield or Wikipad pretty quick, but if price is not an issue whatsoever, get a shield).

Most of us use "Willgoo" as they are a reliable Chinese distributor with decent prices. Honestly though the storefronts becoming more friendly to Westerners as well as the distribution chains and companies themselves directly marketing to us is pretty new. The earlier JXD and Yinlips models did not give the impression they were designed for export but the newer models are pretty impressive.

My latest purchase was a GPD G5A which I am absolutely thrilled with. It is an EXTREMELY friendly device to those of us who don't speak any Chinese and works right out of the box without any issues.

The most common complaint you will see about current GPD devices is a crappy d-pad that is way too stiff, but the joysicks feel like they were lifted right off of an Xbox 360 controller (silky smooth). My GPD can easily run Dreamcast, PSP, NDS, SNES, NES, Genesis, GBA, GBC, Game Gear/Master System, Virtual Boy, PS1, N64, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari Lynx, Wonderswan, NeoGeo, and MAME as well as any higher end device (I also grabbed the android port of soul calibur because the dreamcast one still has annoying texture glitches in the background). I have a 32GB card and my last count said I had around 5,132 unique games. The more expensive devices are just pointless at this time and the price means that you can just plan on upgrading in a year or two anyway (if you order direct from willgoo or a similar site you will get almost all your money back when you upgrade by selling it on amazon anyway).

So grab a GPD G5A would be the current consensus on most of the sites I traffic. The JXD s7800b is too much trouble and yinlips has really fallen behind recently (and archos is just... well they are archos. I know several people have the units but I don't think anyone would argue the value for the price is really that great).

GPD G5A will play most dreamcast games fine and is under $110 (the sale price has been there for a few weeks at least so it is unlikely to end soon. They tend to clear stock with sale prices until the new GPD releases this summer, but there may be a new top dog by then, these things change FAST).

http://www.willgoo.com/gpd-g5a-android-gaming-tablet-hand-grip-design-quad-core-5-8gb-p-539.html