I Need Help. Should I Buy A Gp32X Wiz Or A Dingoo?

[Terranigma Freak]

Sorry, if this is the wrong place, but I didn't see a forum that covers both devices at once.

I've been looking at the Dingoo and GP32x Wiz and I can't decide on what to buy. I do have 3 VERY IMPORTANT criteria when I choose a portable device such as this. I want to know which one is the best price, emulation/homebrew support, and battery life. Price is for the cheaper device, but I guess that's not the most important. I see the Pandora, but it's a little out of my budget right now. For emulation, I just care about the 2D consoles/arcade. Anything after the 16 bit era doesn't concern me. Battery life is definitely important for a portable device such as this.

I'm hoping I can gather some info to help me decide on what to buy.

 

[glezmen]

Sorry, if this is the wrong place, but I didn't see a forum that covers both devices at once.

I've been looking at the Dingoo and GP32x Wiz and I can't decide on what to buy. I do have 3 VERY IMPORTANT criteria when I choose a portable device such as this. I want to know which one is the best price, emulation/homebrew support, and battery life. Price is for the cheaper device, but I guess that's not the most important. I see the Pandora, but it's a little out of my budget right now. For emulation, I just care about the 2D consoles/arcade. Anything after the 16 bit era doesn't concern me. Battery life is definitely important for a portable device such as this.

I'm hoping I can gather some info to help me decide on what to buy.

someone linked a youtube video about comparing the two mentioned handhelds, search for it, it can help you to decide
in the price the winner is Dingoo, much cheaper (almost half) than the Wiz
but I guess as a developer, your chances are way better on WIZ, I ported one of my games after appr. two weeks, you can find every info you need (what is not much anyway, if you know SDL, OpenGL, you can use them on WIZ)

 

[DaveC]

I wouldn't go by that video, it was a bit biased towards the Dingoo.

 

[carlgeorge]

I sold my Dingoo and kept my Wiz.

 

[klikklak]

I've been playing ScummVM lately, you can't really do that without a touchscreen. So that's a plus for the wiz, also consider amiga and Atari ST emus when they've properly implemented touchscreen controls to them.

 

[Terranigma Freak]

someone linked a youtube video about comparing the two mentioned handhelds, search for it, it can help you to decide
in the price the winner is Dingoo, much cheaper (almost half) than the Wiz
but I guess as a developer, your chances are way better on WIZ, I ported one of my games after appr. two weeks, you can find every info you need (what is not much anyway, if you know SDL, OpenGL, you can use them on WIZ)

I'm not a developer, I have no idea how to program. What I meant by homebrew is that whether it's supported well by the community.

 

[kolibri]

Go for the wiz, you will always have GP2X reompiled games, and also some new homebrews interesting, like monster2 or Noiz2sa

 

[Terranigma Freak]

Oh yeah, between the Dingoo and Wiz, which one has better emulation across the board? I'm talking about the mainstream 2D consoles from the 90's, not the obscure stuff. Well some arcade/neo geo wouldn't hurt.

 

[shinneri]

Honestly, the Dingoo will probably do everything you're looking for if you don't want anything beyond 16-bit -- plus it's cheaper.

 

[Terranigma Freak]

I did some more research on my own and the Dingoo does look to be slightly better, but how's the support from developers? I know neither the Wiz nor the Dingoo can emulate the SNES 100% yet, but are they being supported by developers to further improve their compatibility?

 

[b1ueskycomp1ex]

I did some more research on my own and the Dingoo does look to be slightly better, but how's the support from developers? I know neither the Wiz nor the Dingoo can emulate the SNES 100% yet, but are they being supported by developers to further improve their compatibility?

I think what really matters here is your performance-per-dollar. With the dingoo, you're getting similar emulation performance to the wiz at nearly half the price.

Features Wiz Dingoo

Touchscreen Y N
"standard" buttons* N Y
Fits in your pocket Y Y
Headphones Out Y Y
OLED Screen Y N
TV out** N Y
Standard MiniUSB cable N Y
Audio EQ N Y
3D Audio enhancement N Y
Radio N Y

Meanwhile,

Internal storage:
Wiz - ~1GB
Dingoo - ~4GB

Options for audio recording:
Wiz: none, default.
Dingoo:
-Low: Wav - IMA ADPCM, 16.000kHz, 4bit, Mono
-Middle: mp3 - 64kbit, 16.000kHz, MPEG 2.0 layer 3
-High: mp3 - 64kbit, 16.000kHz, MPEG 2.0 layer 3
-Low: Wav - IMA ADPCM, 16.000kHz, 4bit, Mono
-Middle: mp3 - 64kbit, 16.000kHz, MPEG 2.0 layer 3, Stereo
-High: mp3 - 64kbit, 16.000kHz, MPEG 2.0 layer 3, Stereo

Audio Codecs Supported By default:
Wiz - MP3, WAV, (ogg?)
Dingoo - MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, WAV

Video Codecs Supported By Default:
Wiz - XVID/DIVX (avi), MPEG4 (avi) (Not h263/4)
Dingoo - FLV, WMV, ASF, RM, AVI, MPEG, MP4, RMVB, SWF

Flash Support:
Wiz - Remappable buttons, touchscreen, supports up to flash 8 (or 9? One of those.) Simpler games/apps work.
Dingoo - Plays flash movies, supports flash 6, completely non-interactive.

Emulators installed by default:
Wiz - None, download them yourself.
Dingoo - NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, GBA, Neo-Geo, CPS1 and CPS2

External Storage:
Wiz - up to 32GB SDHC SD cards
Dingoo - Up to 8GB Mini SD Cards (afaik, could be wrong about the capacity.)

With this list, I think the dingoo is the clear winner in most ways. It is a bit more difficult to configure when it comes to getting homebrew and external emulators, as you have to install linux, etc. etc. The wiz has an OLED screen that looks great from any angle, and also has a touchscreen (which is somewhat inaccurate.)

Compare those features with the price tags of ~$180USD for the wiz, ~$100USD for the dingoo, and it's pretty obvious who the clear winner is when compared by features/price. I will note that the wiz is slated for a wifi adaptor of some kind in the future, and does *technically* have the hardware to do TV-Out, while the dingoo doesn't seem to have any wifi capabilities at the moment.

To sum this up with some highlights of both consoles:

Wiz:
Bright screen, works decently in sunlight. Black is black, works/looks great in the dark.
Touchscreen, useful for scummvm, dosbox, homebrew games, etc.
3D processor - At the moment this hasn't seen much action, but might make PSX emulation at playable speeds possible some day.
32GB SDHC compatibility for massive storage. Standard size SD cards are usually cheaper than MiniSD

Dingoo -
Built in Emulators (oh those chinese. =X) that work decently well
Radio (with recording ability)
Supports more Video/Audio Codecs out of the box
Has more options and settings for the music player
TV out
standard USB cable

As far as performance/features per penny is concerned, the dingoo is the clear winner in this argument. I, honestly, would steer clear of both and wait for the pandora if you're looking for a more open, powerful device, as it'll be capable of running all those 16-bit systems with relative ease, and has twice the storage of the wiz, and WIFI/Bluetooth, etc.

Also, I own a wiz and have never used or owned a dingoo. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of the dingoo could make an argument against me, but the performance per penny still stands, and the dingoo is the clear winner. Honestly the biggest feature it has going for it is the TV-out, which was present in the GP2X, and it makes me wonder just WTF GPH is attempting to do with their new handheld. Also, the wiz technically has more power than the dingoo, so it might have some kind of killer app in the near future, hopefully. Otherwise, the dingoo is your best choice for price.

 

[shinneri]

You're really buying potential when you buy a Wiz over the Dingoo. Wiz screen is nice but unnecessary and problematic with its horizontal tearing. However, it's more powerful and will potentially have a capable PSX emulator sometime in the future. They both already have very capable emulators for the 16-bit and below consoles. Dingoo seems to be better media-wise. They both have EXCELLENT battery life.

 

[Terranigma Freak]

I don't care for the PSX, so I think I'll go with Dingoo. I'll probably wait until the Open Pandora's out to hear some reviews first. I want to eventually upgrade to that. If it's not all that, then I'll go with Wiz instead for a more powerful device.