Gary_Leeds
Still Fresh
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2007
- Messages
- 4
Having had an F100 for about a year I thought I would upgrade to the F200 mainly due to the larger memory card support and faster processor speed. I have had it for around a week now and thought I would post my comments on it so far.
Cosmetically it looks the same as the F100 except being white and the joystick being replaced by 4 directional keys. This has the problem of the push button being lost. This causes problems on programs that use it but you can emulate it by holding down all 4 direction keys.
The screen seems the same as the F100 but does become unwatchable in direct sunlight which could cause problems if you are in a car or on a train. The touch screen seems nothing more than gimmick at the moment. None of the in built games use it, which to me is a missed oppotunity. Also there is no place to store the stylus like the DS and pdas have so I find myself not even bothering to use it even for the menus. The covers for the ports seem a worse fit than the F100, especially the EXT port cover, it seems as if because the rubber is white and not black its softer than the F100 covers. The low battery light has gone as well. Boot time seems a lot longer than the F100 as well.
So far everything has been negative in this review, time to highlight the positives
The F200 seems to over clock to 280 on my console happy enough, which for some of the more powerful emulators makes a huge difference, frame skips are halved from the F100 settings and FPS seem to show most emulators run at full speed. Payback seems a lot smoother as well. The downside of the speed increase is the battery consumption is a lot more. I have been using 2500 mAh rechargable batteries and getting about an hour out of them, I have some 3800 mAh batteries on order so hopefully they will give a significant increase. As I said at the start one of the main reasons for getting the F200 was the increase in card capacity and processor speed and the support for up to 32gb SD cards is a huge bonus. You could fit most emulators with a complete set of games on a 16gb card (except Playstation of course). I will let you know if my estimates on this is true as I have a 16GB card on order
Over all, despite the flaws, I recommend the F200 but if you have an F100 already it may be worth waiting until more of the programs are updated with F200 features. A lot of emulators lock the max clock speed below the 280 I can get from the F200, also the battery monitor in most emulators seem to read empty on the F200 but that could just be my batteries.
Once people get to grips with using the touch screen in programs then the F200 will take off but for now if you are happy with the F100 then stick with it for now, unless you are a big emulator junkie like me, in which case buy it now
Cosmetically it looks the same as the F100 except being white and the joystick being replaced by 4 directional keys. This has the problem of the push button being lost. This causes problems on programs that use it but you can emulate it by holding down all 4 direction keys.
The screen seems the same as the F100 but does become unwatchable in direct sunlight which could cause problems if you are in a car or on a train. The touch screen seems nothing more than gimmick at the moment. None of the in built games use it, which to me is a missed oppotunity. Also there is no place to store the stylus like the DS and pdas have so I find myself not even bothering to use it even for the menus. The covers for the ports seem a worse fit than the F100, especially the EXT port cover, it seems as if because the rubber is white and not black its softer than the F100 covers. The low battery light has gone as well. Boot time seems a lot longer than the F100 as well.
So far everything has been negative in this review, time to highlight the positives
The F200 seems to over clock to 280 on my console happy enough, which for some of the more powerful emulators makes a huge difference, frame skips are halved from the F100 settings and FPS seem to show most emulators run at full speed. Payback seems a lot smoother as well. The downside of the speed increase is the battery consumption is a lot more. I have been using 2500 mAh rechargable batteries and getting about an hour out of them, I have some 3800 mAh batteries on order so hopefully they will give a significant increase. As I said at the start one of the main reasons for getting the F200 was the increase in card capacity and processor speed and the support for up to 32gb SD cards is a huge bonus. You could fit most emulators with a complete set of games on a 16gb card (except Playstation of course). I will let you know if my estimates on this is true as I have a 16GB card on order
Over all, despite the flaws, I recommend the F200 but if you have an F100 already it may be worth waiting until more of the programs are updated with F200 features. A lot of emulators lock the max clock speed below the 280 I can get from the F200, also the battery monitor in most emulators seem to read empty on the F200 but that could just be my batteries.
Once people get to grips with using the touch screen in programs then the F200 will take off but for now if you are happy with the F100 then stick with it for now, unless you are a big emulator junkie like me, in which case buy it now
