Welp, I just *repurchased* the GP2X. I had purchased one when it was first released, had some problems, and returned it. I did want to give the unit another chance and heard a new model was released. I ordered it on May 26th, and it arrived today.
What I ordered:
GP2X MK2
Power Supply
Extra Screen Cover
TV Out Cable
All from GP32z.com
Well, first impressions. NICE! The new joystick cap is a work of genius. I feel much more in control with this one. At first, I was kind of worried because the pictures show it has some sort of "spike" in the center. Well, it is not pointy enough to hurt your thumb, but is enough to keep your thumb from sliding off the disc. It is nice and firm, and moves perfectly. I think I will now be able to really get into any game I play on the unit because of this stick. It is just a great improvement over the last version by miles.
The screen no longer displays the lines! YAY! I know it does not bother many people, but it did kind of bother me on the last version. Well, that is all history now. The screen seems just as bright as well, so reports of a dull, washed out screen are really not to be trusted. It honestly looks the same as my last screen, minus those annoying lines.
Another misreport I have been reading is regarding boot time. Some say it is down to 15 seconds. Well, I timed mine from power on to menu, and it is 5 seconds here. There seems to be not much of a wait at all to get to the menu. Just about the same wait that the PSP has from initial turn on to menu. This is a major plus for me as well. My original unit took around 30 seconds to menu.
I have not tried much at all on the unit due to the fact that we are now having an electric storm. I have the ac adapter, but no batteries. So, in an effort to NOT ruin my good luck, I unplugged it shortly after testing the bootup time and playing a few OGG songs (Paul McCartney!)
I was a little worried at first with the music playback. The volume was LOW, I mean MUCH lower than my first model. ALmost to a point that you could barely hear the music at full volume. Luckily, this was due to a default sound control setting that is switched to ON. Turned that off and I can hear the wonderful speakers nice and loudly again.
I am really dying now to play this sucker all night. Hope this storm lets up. I may just have to go buy some batteries for the time being (I do have rechargables ordered and on the way as well)
Overall impression so far is fantastic. I do not see a single thing wrong with the MK2 unit. It is a solid improvement over the last model across the entire board. Now thatthe problems have been pretty much worked out, I think I'll start actually playing some games! More on the new unit after I run some software...
EDIT: Had much more time with the unit since the storm went bye bye
Awesome stuff! I tried playing some of my DivX converted DV home movies, and all is great there. Actually jaw dropping in how perfect the playback is. Music as stated earlier sounds great. I tested Mame (Galaga...my old time fav) and all is good there. DrMD is of course awesome in everything it does. If what I listed were the ONLY things this machine can do, it would be worth it. But, there are many more emulators and apps for me to try. Good thing my vacation starts this weekend. I'm off from 6/3 to 6/11...and this machine came at the absolute perfect time. All I can say is that I am impressed across the board with the new model. Everything is in place, no worries about hardware issues on this end now. Now I have to decide what games/media I am going to waste my time on! I am a very happy camper today.
