GPD XD

[Hồng Thất Công]

Thanks SNESFAN. I'm going to stick with NVidia Shield portable for now until XD put X1 SoC in there.

 

[SNESFAN]

Sure, it is more pocket friendly though. But if that's not a requirement then shield would be a better option, has more power and features.

 

[Jumpman]

Sure, it is more pocket friendly though. But if that's not a requirement then shield would be a better option, has more power and features.

Agreed.

I mostly play at home or in my car, so for me, Pandora and Shield Portable meets my classic gaming needs. It's good to see a device like this, and the quality has stepped up, as similar devices in the past felt "cheap" to say the least.

This appears to be focused on the "smaller" needs community that has gone for the Wiz or Dingoo of the past(or just more pocket size in general). If something like this came along with more horse power, I might buy one. Sadly, with the Pyra coming soon, the only other device I'm sure I may buy in the future would be the Shield Portable 2(if it ever arrives of course). Good to devices like this improving, and meeting the needs of those who may not want to spend a ton for more robust devices(an or bigger).

Chris

 

[SNESFAN]

As a note, eventually got retro arch to work. There is a game pad app that allows you to change the default way the controls are reported to the OS. It can be like a six axis controller, and that satisfies retro arch. Performance with shaders is similar to the shield, but again only slightly less powerful.

 

[Chip]

If something like this came along with more horse power, I might buy one.

In all fairness, the RK3288 is one of the beefiest ARM SoCs available right now.  Some benchmarks have it beating the tegra 4, though there has been a lot of talk of rockchip gaming the system to get artificially high scores.  In any event, at full speed, it's roughly on par with the nvidia.

The main problem for the XD is that the chip doesn't run at full speed.  It's downclocked from 1.8GHz to 1.4GHz - almost certainly for heat and battery life reasons.  The cooling situation in the XD is far from ideal, and the chip probably still ends up throttling under heavy load.  That's why the real-world performance lags slightly behind the shield portable.

 

[Jumpman]

If something like this came along with more horse power, I might buy one.

In all fairness, the RK3288 is one of the beefiest ARM SoCs available right now.  Some benchmarks have it beating the tegra 4, though there has been a lot of talk of rockchip gaming the system to get artificially high scores.  In any event, at full speed, it's roughly on par with the nvidia.

The main problem for the XD is that the chip doesn't run at full speed.  It's downclocked from 1.8GHz to 1.4GHz - almost certainly for heat and battery life reasons.  The cooling situation in the XD is far from ideal, and the chip probably still ends up throttling under heavy load.  That's why the real-world performance lags slightly behind the shield portable.

Yeah, that sounds about right, as the Shield Portable has a built in fan, but considering all the dead space in the center of this device, they should have added something to help for cooling, and ramp up the speed.

Chris

 

[Chip]

Unfortunately, they stuck the SoC on the bottom of the board.  There are teardown pics over on the dingoonity forums.  The SoC is sandwiched between the board and the battery, so there is no way to cool it effectively.  They would have been much better served putting it on the top of the board, affixing a proper heat sink, and cutting out the "dead space" between the controls to leave it exposed.

Better yet, they could have stuck the SoC, RAM, and flash behind the display and used an aluminum lid as a heat sink.  You'd probably be able to stably overclock the chip with that much dissipation.

 

[Jumpman]

WOW, that was well though out uh? For every step forward these cheap Android devices take forward, they seem to take 2 back I'm sure by the time they make one I would actually consider buying, the Pyra will be here, and then it will be a non issue. I'm sure over the next few years, these types of devices will continue to improve, and maybe one day, I'll actually buy one, maybe?

Chris

 

[erico]

I doubt they will get any better. They have been out for many years now and all they do is rebrand, reuse certain molds and pieces and add the latest power chip.

They target cheap, so they will never spend money on controls, dacs, design, engeniering, etc. These things cost a lot.

 

[Chip]

It's just a different mentality.  Chinese factories aren't interested in being "the best", they're just interested in being good enough to make a couple bucks.  If they make some money, then their product is successful by their standards.  Sticking the SoC where they did was likely the cheapest and easiest option, and even with the drawbacks, the device still performs "good enough" to be worth the cost for most of the potential customers.

I'd hazard a guess that we (hardcore western gamers) are a tiny fraction of the market for these android handhelds.  Most of their sales almost certainly go to chinese gamers who have entirely different requirements and expectations.  For them, the XD is sufficient as it is.

 

[directive0]

Yeah, that's about what I figured. For all the time waiting and money you save getting this over the pyra it's a net loss when you factor in bloatware software weirdness, waiting for someone to compile custom firmware to fix the gaps in functionality, and working around the poor hardware decisions. And that's assuming you don't get a defective unit like I did. Never again. I will only trust hardware from people I know are passionate, dedicated, and stand by their products from here on in.

 

[Klumpen]

What I really want is an open source handheld with a resolution of at least 640x480 and the form factor of a GameBoy-Micro or at least like a Caanoo (= small and not clamshell).

If ED would make a redesigned Pyra like this with something like the old mini menu and without keyboard, WLAN and some other stuff in the Pyra, I'd be interested if the price was right.

 

[SNESFAN]

Yeah, that's about what I figured. For all the time waiting and money you save getting this over the pyra it's a net loss when you factor in bloatware software weirdness, waiting for someone to compile custom firmware to fix the gaps in functionality, and working around the poor hardware decisions. And that's assuming you don't get a defective unit like I did. Never again. I will only trust hardware from people I know are passionate, dedicated, and stand by their products from here on in.

I wouldn't go that far, the pyra will be less than perfect out of the box at first, of that, I am certain. What you lose in the wait for others to fix your minor niggles with a firmware, you gain in not having to wait to run things people haven't cross compiled yet for your specific device or made accessible by a compatibility layer that would also need to be made. But the thing is, i'm sure you'll have similar problems with the firmware's quirks with the pyra's OS as well. There is no magic wand of operating system development, it takes lots of hard work, just in some cases, people get paid and others do not. Both communities rely on themselves to make the devices better. Having floated back and forth for many years between the linux and android communities has shown the two communities are extremely similar in almost every aspect. The one exception, is android people seem to be a little more accepting in the linux counterparts.

The bloat is not only easy to remove on these devices, but also exists on the pandora. True the bloat may not take up as much space on the pandora, but there's also less space to work with. There are plenty of utilities and applications that come preinstalled on the pandora I have not once used, or some I very rarely use (minimenu) I'm sure others find them useful, but no baseline operating system image is without it's uneeded features by at least some percentage of it's userbase. It's all about what you have room for, what your userbase will want, and how much it will improve the functionality. I work in OSD (operating system development) in my real life job.

Lastly from the last I heard, we don't even know the actual thermal envelope of the pyra is yet, I can only assume it's not going to be a pretty situation. The pyra is doing a design that shares a lot of the same characteristics. CPU is on the battery side of the PCB as well rather than the control facing side or the LCD portion. And there's a good chance there won't be any active cooling solutions as the mold is supposedly finished. There is no magic wand of thermal dynamics either, that heat has to go somewhere. Underclock, throttle or deal with it appear to be the choices presented to both devices.

 

[directive0]

Fair enough, I just have been burnt too many times. Your expertise serves you well but to me the differences between things like the XD and the Pyra are non-trivial. If you get the XD and enjoy it then more power to you, but I'm going to wait I think.

 

[Jumpman]

Fair enough, I just have been burnt too many times. Your expertise serves you well but to me the differences between things like the XD and the Pyra are non-trivial. If you get the XD and enjoy it then more power to you, but I'm going to wait I think.

Yeah, when the Pandora came out, I couldn't understand the want or needs for the Wiz and Dingoo of the time, but those devices meet a need and demand the same as the Pandora and Pyra do. For me personally, I would rather spend the extra and get a Shield, Pyra, or whatever robust emu machine is around at the time. Ultimately, it's about choices.

Chris

 

[FaeMinx]

I must admit the XD got me interested... but if the logic is simply


"Something to tide me over untill the Pyra" then it is pointless to me... I literally have no spare time on my hands that can't be put to more productive use.


Disclaimer folks: Running your own bussiness does not mean freedom from slavery... Working at a 9 - 5 means your evenings, your weekends, and your holidays are truely yours to do whatever you like.


Working for yourself means that your workday has no beginning and no end... weekends no longer exists, and holidays become myth.


Working for yourself isn't freedom from slavery, it's just freedom to manage your slavery... and you get a much bigger cut from your efforts than if you slaved for a different entity.


I have a choice... if I want more free time, I have to aquire underlings.


I've had underlings before and it was a mixed blessing... especially as my bussiness revolves around craft. Though to be honest, with functional underlings, I'm likely to expand my bussiness further rather than take time off.


*sigh*


*IF* the Pyra turns out to have crummy Android support, then something like the XD might be worthwhile... I can game on my tablet (Note 8.0), but the battery life is so shocking when doing that I never do.... it is so bad that even plugged in, certain games will drain the battery faster than it can charge. * fail*


The XD for casual android gaming for a few stolen minutes here and there would be nice.


However... there is no lasting appeal to most Android games for me, and if I am going to steal a few minutes here and there... I would rather it be on the Pyra and doing a bit of Python tinkering.

 

[Jumpman]

FaeMinx, you are so right in regards to running your own business. One of my closest and longest friends has owned his own business for years, and in the last few years opened a second business, and he works from sun up, to sun down, and every place inbetween. Things got so bad, that he closed his first business, as it was to much to try and run both.

Now he's finally gotten some decent staff for the second business, but that just happened recently. For almost the last year, he was mostly by himself.  I don't think he would ever go back to a 9-5, but I'm sure he thinks about it from time to time. LOL

Chris

 

[FaeMinx]

Yeah... I think about it too... but then I remember all the perks of being BOSS.

 

[jonlad1]

Unfortunately, they stuck the SoC on the bottom of the board.  There are teardown pics over on the dingoonity forums.  The SoC is sandwiched between the board and the battery, so there is no way to cool it effectively.  They would have been much better served putting it on the top of the board, affixing a proper heat sink, and cutting out the "dead space" between the controls to leave it exposed.

Better yet, they could have stuck the SoC, RAM, and flash behind the display and used an aluminum lid as a heat sink.  You'd probably be able to stably overclock the chip with that much dissipati

If something like this came along with more horse power, I might buy one.

In all fairness, the RK3288 is one of the beefiest ARM SoCs available right now.  Some benchmarks have it beating the tegra 4, though there has been a lot of talk of rockchip gaming the system to get artificially high scores.  In any event, at full speed, it's roughly on par with the nvidia.

The main problem for the XD is that the chip doesn't run at full speed.  It's downclocked from 1.8GHz to 1.4GHz - almost certainly for heat and battery life reasons.  The cooling situation in the XD is far from ideal, and the chip probably still ends up throttling under heavy load.  That's why the real-world performance lags slightly behind the shield portable.

The RK3288 SoC is better than the Pyra OMAP5?

 

[WizardStan]

The RK3288 SoC is better than the Pyra OMAP5?

It is more powerful. That doesn't make it strictly better, just more performant. Linux support for the RK3288 is almost nonexistent (or was when the Pyra was being designed, it may have changed in the intervening months) so would have been a terrible choice for us.