Caanoo Review


WarmFluffyUK

The Big Wad Bolf.
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
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Website
www.retrotech.one
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Well life has been hectic recently and as a pre-production Caanoo arrived on my doorsetp a week or so ago I think it was about time I completed my half finished review, so here we go:

On unpacking the Caanoo I was surprised how larger than the Wiz it was, especially since it’s supposed to be a Wiz with extra bells and whistles. It felt a little more like a cross between the GP32 and the GP2X than an updated Wiz. In the box was the unit itself and a charging cable.

The Caanoo feels very solid, and the casing isn’t shiney like the Wiz so you don’t get any icky finger prints showing up, I was constantly cleaning the Wiz and that drove me crazy.
The buttons all feel nice and none are wobbly like the Wiz buttons. All ports have pull off covers, with the covers on it looks very smart and flush, also the covers cannot be lost as they have a small section which keeps them attached to the console when they are open. I couldn’t help thinking that for a pre-production model this looks and feels like the finished article. Here comes the science stuff:

NAND
From what I can see there is no user accessible NAND, this means you rely totally on SD cards for your games, apps and media. This is a small step backwards for me as I liked having my favourite games on the Wizs NAND. But what the heck, we never had that feature on any previous GP/GPH consoles and I got on perfectly well with them.

SD Cards
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SD cards insert into the top, again behind a cover. I found the card sat a little deep inside the socket and sometimes was annoying to insert and remove, mainly because of my nails. After a while though you get a technique and all seemed fine. You can then close the cover protecting it from elements such as dust and bacon sandwiches.

Volume Control
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This is situated on the top of the Caanoo in the centre. It’s a very interesting design as it looks like an analog slider which directly alters the volume, but in reality the software reads the slider and takes appropriate action depending on where the slider is, it does mean that there is a slight delay in the volume changing when you move the slider, of course the latency may improve in future firmware updates. I also wonder how this style of control will effect legacy software that used VOL+ and VOL- as two extra buttons, only time will tell. I personally like it though as it makes more sense than holding a button to alter the volume, it’s a nice touch.

Power Switch
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The power switch is located on the right hand side of the unit, It’s quite large and very easy to use (Thumbs up there). Pulling it downwards toggles on/off, and clicking it in the up position locks the keys, usual stuff there then. I much prefer this over the Wiz’s power switch as it definitely isn’t as fiddly.

USB Multi connector
This looks identical to the Wiz, the socket is placed in the same position (Bottom Middle). When I plugged this into my PC, Windows saw it instantly, the Caanoo went into USB mode and the battery started to charge without any fuss at all. One thing to note here though is that this connector doesn't appear to be compatible with the charging cables supplied with the Wiz :( .

USB Port
To the left of the Multi connector is a standard USB port, this will be used for the WIFI dongle. I have tried plugging various USB pen drives into the USB socket but none of them were recognized. I'm not sure if it's the make/model of pen drive or if the firmware is not designed to utilize this feature.

Headphone Socket
This is placed to the left of the USB Port. It’s a standard mini jack socket so any of your current headphones will be fine.

Power LED
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On the left hand side is the power LED, which I must say looks quite pretty, it’s quite large and glows with a nice red/blue tone depending on it’s charging state. I like, I like it a lot!

Joystick (nub)
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The Caanoo has lost the D-Pad, returning all the way back to an analogue joystick. But don’t worry, it’s a million times better than the GP2Xs stick. It’s solid, responsive and has a nice centre button (Which the Wiz had lost). I have been playing Pacman on it for ages and so far it’s been perfect! There’s no wobble, and it doesn’t slip from your thumb. I think they must have really thought about what stick to use and came up trumps.

Shoulder Buttons
I’m not sure about these, they feel a little awkward as to press as I have to streach my fingers. I don’t have big hands so for some it may be okay, my boyfriend thought they we’re fine but he had another issue which I will talk about in another section (Speakers). Other than that they were responsive and I am sure I will get used to them.

I and II buttons
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These are basically the start and select buttons, they are placed to the left of the screen below the joystick and are flush with the case. Easy to press and fine. Why call them I and II though? Button I in the launcher is set to bring up Help.
Addition: As RupeeClock pointed out in the next post, the I and II buttons are designed to be used as gaming buttons when you turn the Caanoo upwards (portrait), this is great for games like Pacman!

A, B, X & Y buttons.
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Placed to the right of the screen, they are solid and easy to press, no problems encountered so far.

Home Button
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Placed below the A, B, X & Y buttons. This is like an escape button, it can take you back to the home screen or whatever software desires it to be used for such as menu.

Screen
Nice TFT screen, pretty good in daylight too, my only little niggle is the casing covers the very edges, if you tilt the Caanoo you can see the pixels underneath showing that the screen is indeed extend slightly under the casing. Touch screen is much more responsive than the Wiz and I’m liking it very much. There is also a pen for the touchscreen slotted into the casing of the Caanoo on the right hand side, vary much like the Wizs pen placement.

Speakers
The speakers are pretty loud and as yet I haven’t yet had any distortion. They have a good range and are pretty much what you would expect from good speakers in a handheld console. But, and this is a big but, they are placed on the back of the unit. My boyfriend kept accidentally covering them with his fingers as he was using the shoulder buttons. I think the speaker issue is so far the ONLY big gripe I have on the Caanoo. I have had a word with GPH and they have said the speakers were placed on the back as this was the only place available, and putting them into context, the rest of the unit is good enough for the poor speaker placement to be forgiven. On the subject of audio, I have compared the audio with the same mp3s on my iPhone 3GS, The Caanoo was not as dynamic but otherwise produced excellent quality output.

Something New
GPH have seen fit to add not only a rumble feature, but also accelerometers, I have tested these and they work really well. It's going to bring a whole new set of gaming styles to the Caanoo very similar to the iPhone. Steering driving games by tilting or guiding a ball through a maze by tilting are only two such style of games that will appear.

Software
I remember when I got my original Wiz the launcher was in a very sorry state, it crashed more times than me playing Motorstorm and a lot of the functions just didn’t work. This is definitely not the case with this pre-production unit. The menu is solid, the media software works as intended (the music player even has some themes) and the touch screen calibration is accurate. One bonus is that it boots flipping fast (10 seconds), that it’s almost like having a modern GP32, and I loved how fast the GP32 booted. The Caanoo isn’t quite as fast booting as that but it’s close. I should do a comparison video.

Summary
So all in all the Caanoo is a solid little machine. Although there’s very little software available yet, I can see this changing fast, there’s already a beta version of Buennu floating around so I am hoping Ruckage will recompile at least Ruckman (Pretty please). As stated before, the only faults I can see in the design are the speaker placement and the very edges of the screen being obscured by the case. I’m sure GPH can resolve the screen issue easily enough by shaving about .5 of a mm off the inside of the bezel, simples!!

Any questions are welcomed and if you have any software that needs beta testing then give me a shout.

Take it easy,
Clare.
 
Very nice review, just a couple of things I'd like to say/ask.

First off, how is the analogue for retro games, those using a d-pad? It's my understand that these pre-release units come with some software like Zero Wing.
Secondly, apparently they call it buttons I and II, because they can be used for portrait aspect gameplay. (Hold unit sideways, play Pac-man full screen)
 
WarmFluffyUK said:
Well I have played Pacman to death on it, and the nub handles really well. I don't find I'm missing junctions in the maze at all.

Touché, if there's anything in games where controls matter, it's Pacman's junctions.
How does playing Pacman on the Caanoo compare to the Wiz, and the GP2X F100?
I'm asking those in particular because those are my past systems, and their respective directional controls stopped me from fully enjoying them.
 
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I could never get on with Pacman on the GP2X, drove me absolutely nuts. I would say the Wiz and the Caanoo are pretty close in this respect. My Wiz is on charge at the moment, so I will give that a try directly after playing on the Caanoo and let you know.
 
nice review :)

about the NAND. Surely the OS must reside somewhere thats writable? I was under the impression that they used the NAND for that and the user accessible part is a bonus. Or where does Open2x install on the Wiz (not released yet, I know)? Will shortage of internal memory present any problems for Open2x on the Caanoo in the future?
 
klikklak said:
nice review :)

about the NAND. Surely the OS must reside somewhere thats writable? I was under the impression that they used the NAND for that and the user accessible part is a bonus. Or where does Open2x install on the Wiz (not released yet, I know)? Will shortage of internal memory present any problems for Open2x on the Caanoo in the future?
Of course it has NAND memory but it isn't user accessible like the NAND on the Wiz is. I think it is purely reserved for firmware. I'm not sure about future problems regarding this.
 
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WarmFluffyUK said:
klikklak said:
nice review :)

about the NAND. Surely the OS must reside somewhere thats writable? I was under the impression that they used the NAND for that and the user accessible part is a bonus. Or where does Open2x install on the Wiz (not released yet, I know)? Will shortage of internal memory present any problems for Open2x on the Caanoo in the future?
Of course it has NAND memory but it isn't user accessible like the NAND on the Wiz is. I think it is purely reserved for firmware. I'm not sure about future problems regarding this.

The Caanoo has 128MB space for the OS. Open2x (if it comes) will replace the GPH OS. I don't think there's a problem. But perhaps Orkie or Senor Quack can say more about it...
 
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I don't know much about Open2X but it looks like a OS installed version of Gmenu2X?
I'd rather run Gmenu2x on the caanoo as an autoboot program, but apparently the Caanoo doesn't support autobooting...
 
RupeeClock said:
I don't know much about Open2X but it looks like a OS installed version of Gmenu2X?
I'd rather run Gmenu2x on the caanoo as an autoboot program, but apparently the Caanoo doesn't support autobooting...

Gmenu2x is only the GUI. Open2x is a complete OS replacement.
 
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sbock said:
RupeeClock said:
I don't know much about Open2X but it looks like a OS installed version of Gmenu2X?
I'd rather run Gmenu2x on the caanoo as an autoboot program, but apparently the Caanoo doesn't support autobooting...

Gmenu2x is only the GUI. Open2x is a complete OS replacement.

What advantages does Open2X offer over the GPH official firmware?
 
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On the GP2x you have a significant better boot speed and a lot of usability and performance enhancements.
Look here for datailed information.
 
WarmFluffyUK said:
Isn't the Caanoo boot speed really quick already, it's 10 seconds from clicking the power button to menu.

Yeah, absolutly right. That's not a very important point on the to-do list for Caanoo Open2x ;) I wrote about the GP2x F100 and F200.
 
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Open2x will come for the WIZ and most probably also for the Caanoo.
I sent Senor Quack a WIZ for that a while ago, but he said he's travelling at the moment so they aim for a first release in autumn.

Open2x is supposed to be using EABI, too, so Caanoo software should run there.

@Clare:
Yeah, the delay with the volume slider sure is weird :D
But somehow, I love those little weirdnesses with GPH devices :)
It's no problem using it, is just feels weird :D
 
EvilDragon said:
Open2x will come for the WIZ and most probably also for the Caanoo.
I sent Senor Quack a WIZ for that a while ago, but he said he's travelling at the moment so they aim for a first release in autumn.

Open2x is supposed to be using EABI, too, so Caanoo software should run there.

@Clare:
Yeah, the delay with the volume slider sure is weird :D
But somehow, I love those little weirdnesses with GPH devices :)
It's no problem using it, is just feels weird :D
Cheers ED!
Thanks for the update. Yeah, Senor Quack is on a big hike. Hope he's well rested and full of dynamism when he's back. :)
Flavor noticed this strange volume slider behavior, too. Is it a real analogue potentiometer or some other sort of control?
 
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Having gotten into open source handhelds with the wiz, I feel like I've sort of stumbled upon the Windows ME of the open source handheld world. Whereas the caanoo seems to be the XP. I think I'll keep a lookout for the new consoles from GPH. If you think about it, for the most part they've all improved on each other every time (albeit regressing in some respects...) So I'm really interested in seeing what will come after the caanoo, but I'm not so sure that I'd go for one right now.

Some quick questions though, not sure if you can answer them. Is the stick an actual analogue stick, as in having full range of motion like a more traditional joystick? That could be interesting. At first I was very skeptical about the caanoo since it seemed to be just another wiz, but after looking at the pictures and reading reviews it seems a lot like they've cleared up a considerable amount of issues with their older devices, while simultaneously upgrading and adding features. I like it, and if I can't manage to get myself a pandora or come up with the money, I'll definitely keep my eye on it and see what the community can bring to it. I can already see the extra ram putting a lot of breathing room into some things, like neogeo emulation and some roms that are larger than the 64MB of memory the wiz had could take. And this will most likely be VERY useful for playstation emulation, and will hopefully lead to the creation of some larger or more complex games on the system.

And again I've just gone on rambling.
 
And this will most likely be VERY useful for playstation emulation
No, this will not help Playstation emulation at all. The PSP has only 32MB and excellent PS1 emulation.
Perhaps EABI/better GCC compiler for the Caanoo will give a very little advantage (can an experienced dev confirm this?).
Perhaps the Caanoo has an improved OpenGL library which may be useful when an OpenGL GPU plug in comes into play...
 
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