Any Device Worth Buying

[sebt3]

Hi there,

I was waiting on the wikipad to show up to jump in Android gaming. But the release date is not yet set even if the device have been annonced at CES... Sound like the pandora to me (and I already burned out my patience on this one)

So I'm wondering if there is an android gaming device that's worth buying.
Price tag is not a real issue, but 4 buttons instead of a real dpad is a no-go for me. I'm also expecting a device with a good 3d chip (as in: way faster than the pandora's one).

Cheers
Seb

 

[Orion4874]

Unfortunately, all the Android handhelds out right now have the four button dpad as far as I know. I'd really like a proper dpad as well but these Chinese companies just don't seem to get it..... and probably never will.
The best you could probably do is get an Android TV box and use a good bluetooth controller with it. But I'm assuming you're looking for a handheld, right?

 

[sebt3]

The best you could probably do is get an Android TV box and use a good bluetooth controller with it. But I'm assuming you're looking for a handheld, right?

right.
We only have a TV. If i'm using it to test while coding, I'll have a revolution at home...
Also I'm playing games in the bus mostly (not that I was planning to use the wikipad in the bus)

EDIT: I guess I'm back to the waiting game

 

[Hooka]

I thoroughly enjoy my xperia play, although it's getting a bit old now and getting less and less support. In general though I've mucked around with it to the point where I've learnt that installing maybe more than a handful of games at a time is stupid (android chokes on that kinda shit) but have found a healthy balance between performance and having what I want and will use. Although the analog touchpads can be tricky to get used to they work quite well and the dpad and buttons are great!

The only drawback with it from your point of view is that it's not overwhelmingly faster than the pandora... just a step or two. If they release a new version with a tegra 3 or something better... *drools*

I too was looking at the wikipad for awhile there, but once they decided to jump to the $500 price range and drop the 3d screen I went with a gadmei 3d tablet (mistake, the 3d although cool is very touchy about viewing angle, distance, etc.) and have come to find that the g-sensor is great, but the touchscreen has a horrendous lag to it that makes playing anything that needs fast reflexes a no-go (might be due to ICS issues though).

 

[computarman]

I thoroughly enjoy my xperia play, although it's getting a bit old now and getting less and less support. In general though I've mucked around with it to the point where I've learnt that installing maybe more than a handful of games at a time is stupid (android chokes on that kinda shit) but have found a healthy balance between performance and having what I want and will use. Although the analog touchpads can be tricky to get used to they work quite well and the dpad and buttons are great!

The only drawback with it from your point of view is that it's not overwhelmingly faster than the pandora... just a step or two. If they release a new version with a tegra 3 or something better... *drools*

I too was looking at the wikipad for awhile there, but once they decided to jump to the $500 price range and drop the 3d screen I went with a gadmei 3d tablet (mistake, the 3d although cool is very touchy about viewing angle, distance, etc.) and have come to find that the g-sensor is great, but the touchscreen has a horrendous lag to it that makes playing anything that needs fast reflexes a no-go (might be due to ICS issues though).

I just got an Xperia Play and I think it is the best emulation device for the price anywhere and a very nice phone to boot. The Xperia Play is such a nice device with a killer screen and controls and it does not have that el cheapo feel of Chinese junk. When you consider that even if you only use the device for gaming, it is better than anything out there for the money with a lot of power and the best of both worlds with all the Android games and emulators. I'm seeing the Verizon model for $85 shipped on Ebay.

 

[coldfish]

The glut of cheap Chinese Android handhelds hasn't really produced "one device to rule them all". Yet.
 
I bought a YDPG16 a while back and first impressions were the hardware is pretty good but the stock rom was mostly worthless; full of Chinese cruft and the "game manager" is just annoying. The Dpad is the usual 4 button job and the controls suffer from occasional key clash (pressing 2 or 3 buttons at the same time causes the key encoder to cancel one of the presses). This last issue can be a show stopper in emulated games that require multi key presses. PS1 emulation is patchy - the Caanoo can do better with notaz's excellent pcsx_rearmed_r17
 
The latest skelrom fixed many of the software issues but the system is far from perfect. It's a bit frustrating as the hardware is probably many times more powerful than my Caanoo but because of the various limitations, the system isnt that much more usable, certainly not a clear replacement for the Caanoo.
 
And anyway now Yinlips have obsoleted the g16 with the g17 which is more of the same but with a less hackable chipset.
 
I'm holding off on any more Android handhelds until a "holy grail" turns up.