GCW Zero - Open Source Gaming Handheld

[Link]

Don't kill me but what's so special about the GCW Zero ?

I think the price point is nice, the lack of a keyboard, a battery life that is decent, and community supported software.  The GP2X is what got me into this community, and this device is not a successor, but a variant that is community driven by those from the Dingoo Community who never were heard by the manufacturers.

 

[Klumpen]

high battery life

What is the battery life at the moment with the current firmware?

This device gets more interesting every day.

 

[elwing]

hum, never heard the battery life was great... but I'm in!

 

[SNESFAN]

What is the battery life on the console?

We have about 30 consoles out with developers and early adopters. The average battery life they report is 7 to 10 hours according to what you are running on the console.

this was from their kickstarter faq

I've heard from people not connected to the project they are getting this type of battery life, it appears to be accurate.

 

[Exophase]

I can believe it, the display is going to be pretty low power compared to something much larger and higher resolution and the CPU is supposed to be exceptionally power efficient.

That said, I don't think anyone has been running anything with 3D at all yet, and if most of the emulators are Dingoo ports they're probably not usually pegging the CPU either. So it might go down if you're running the anticipated N64 or PS1 emulators, whenever those might come..

 

[SNESFAN]

I think they said they have suspend to ram enabled in their 3.7 kernel... I would like to see what the draw is when in suspend.

The Pandora is good but for some reason I find its a higher rate % than say an iPad or other non cellular mobiles that last weeks if not a month+ in instant on standby.

Edit: but the reverse of that, I find the ipod and such tend to draw more juice when say listening to music or other things with the screen off. The active/minimal use of the Pandora is really good compared to others, maybe less overhead causing the CPU to not ramp up as high maybe??

 

[2bit]

Don't kill me but what's so special about the GCW Zero ?

I think the price point is nice, the lack of a keyboard, a battery life that is decent, and community supported software.  The GP2X is what got me into this community, and this device is not a successor, but a variant that is community driven by those from the Dingoo Community who never were heard by the manufacturers.

Ok well in that case for the price point it can't be beat .

 

[ShleeDragon]

I missed the kickstarter because I am an idiot. Can I jump on the "preorder"?

 

[BAFelton]

You'll can buy them here : http://www.gcw-zero.com/store

 

[Fzero]

with the general orders expected for May, do we know when the preorder ones will be shipped out?


expected for around the same time, May?


...not that I'm impatient or anything

 

[EvilDragon]

Or grab them from my shop as soon as they are available

 

[levi]

I think they said they have suspend to ram enabled in their 3.7 kernel... I would like to see what the draw is when in suspend.The Pandora is good but for some reason I find its a higher rate % than say an iPad or other non cellular mobiles that last weeks if not a month+ in instant on standby.


Edit: but the reverse of that, I find the ipod and such tend to draw more juice when say listening to music or other things with the screen off. The active/minimal use of the Pandora is really good compared to others, maybe less overhead causing the CPU to not ramp up as high maybe??

I can't really talk about the iPod but older mobile devices (not running anything as recent as an A8, for the record) were able to pretty much turn off the CPU, and have another low power CPU handling button events and radio etc, which could wake the main CPU using an interrupt.

On the other hand, as I understand it, the Pandora just dials down the clock rate to 125Mhz but lets the OS continue to schedule things as normal. The CPU actually ends up being more used in suspend mode, if the System Info util is anything to go by - I guess that's because when everything takes 10 times as long to do, there's always something for the CPU to be doing.


I'd assume the reason the Pandora uses less percentage battery when playing music is because the Pandora has a much bigger battery.


As I understood it, the Pandora doesn't really dial up and down the CPU clock as required, except for on a much larger scale per application level. I can run the music player for longer if I remember to dial the CPU down to 250Mhz before setting it going.


FWIW, I would have assumed the GCW Zero would run in much the same way as the Pandora, assuming it's built along the same lines as the old GP/GPH devices.

 

[comradekingu]

Please give us notice when they are available ED, or an ETA.

 

[EvilDragon]

Please give us notice when they are available ED, or an ETA.

If you got an account on the shop, you can go to the product page and enable a notification for that

But I'll post here as well as soon as I get them

 

[Saber]

I came up with these concepts for the next GCW handheld over the weekend. I know they are premature to say the least but I felt inspired over the weekend to create them. They're only for fun's sake and not meant to be derisive. Thanks. 

 

[gcw]

Below you will find GCW Weather Proof Carrying Case I've been working on as an accessory for the GCW Zero.

GCW Small Black Weather Proof Carrying Case Closed:

GCW Small Black Weather Proof Carrying Case Open:

GCW Clear Small Unpadded Case Open (The Bottom of this case will be padded with quarter inch foam when it is for sale):

GCW Clear Small Unpadded Case Closed (The Bottom of this case will be padded with quarter inch foam when it is for sale):

GCW Red Clear Medium Unpadded Case Open (The Bottom of this case will be padded foam insert when it is for sale):

GCW Red Clear Medium Unpadded Case Closed (The Bottom of this case will be padded foam insert when it is for sale):

GCW Clear Medium Unpadded Case Open (The Bottom of this case will be padded foam insert when it is for sale):

GCW Clear Medium Unpadded Case Closed (The Bottom of this case will be padded foam insert when it is for sale):

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

the black case looks rugged and tough.

 

[slenkar]

wouldnt it be better to make a case like an iphone protector?

so it doesnt interfere with usage

 

[comradekingu]

That wouldn't be waterproof/tight.

 

[elwing]

that wouldn't be bombproof too...