New Blue Caanoo

[AJack]

Hi everyone! I'm Paul, an Australian who's Caanoo just turned up in the mail from Play-Asia a few days ago. I figured I'd make a thread basically to say hi, to thank you all for the info you've posted (which was invaluable in deciding to make my purchase) and to post my thoughts on my lovely new Caanoo.

Package
Comes in a nice box, now complete with correct spelling of 'extreme'. Included in the box are the Caanoo itself (securely positioned in a cardboard enclosure), the included stylus, a spare stylus, a wrist-strap, a manual CD and a printed quickstart guide. I'd not expected the spare stylus or wrist-strap, so that's a good deal I think.

Build
Very nice. Solid and weighty without ever feeling bulky. Nice matte finish, and the charcoal/slate colouring looks great. Ports are all well placed and easy to access with nice little tethered covers. Provided wrist strap is a nice touch, too. All round, a lovely piece of gear with a subtly stylish look.

Controls
Analogue stick is unlike any I've used before, but feels great. Very responsive and far more accurate than I'd expected. Other buttons are also good - face buttons are nice and springy, with very even action and the I, II and Home buttons are solid. Shoulder buttons are a little stiff, still fine though.

Screen
Sharp, bright and colourful. Even fast games like Sonic look excellent, with no tearing or ghosting that I could see. Touchscreen functionality works well also. Slight overlapping of the bezel into the screen real-estate is definitely there, but rarely noticeable, let alone distracting.

Sound
Haven't really put it through it's paces yet, but the sound seems pretty good. Megadrive games sound appropriately sharp and clear for sure.

Performance
Bootup time is nice and quick - ten seconds by my count. Emulators released thus far show great promise - PicoDrive (excellent by the way) runs at a blistering pace. Videos seem to play well too. Menus can sometimes be a tad slow, but not annoyingly so.

And for good measure, here's a picture of the cute little guy:

 

[paul3100]

Welcome AJack (paul) my name too

glad you like your new caanoo i got the same one and also from play-asia , i got an invoice for £30 odd from fed-ex a week after my caanoo arrived something to do with import tax! not paying that though lol

Do you have the Gmenu2x installed yet? great alternative to the caanoo's menu and you can self boot straight into it from powering up.

paul3100

 

[AJack]

Welcome AJack (paul) my name too

glad you like your new caanoo i got the same one and also from play-asia , i got an invoice for £30 odd from fed-ex a week after my caanoo arrived something to do with import tax! not paying that though lol

Do you have the Gmenu2x installed yet? great alternative to the caanoo's menu and you can self boot straight into it from powering up.

paul3100

Hi fellow Paul!

Interesting about the import tax... I got mine sent via UPS and had nothing like that.

As for the Gmenu2x, I've not tried it yet but I'll definitely look into it.

 

[Popcorn Dave]

I just got the import tax letter as well. I don't really know what to do about it, I've googled around a bit and I don't think there's any way to legally avoid it. Although it's technically a UK government thing rather than a Fedex thing, 30 quid is a lot of money to hide in the small print; I HATE when companies pull sh!t like this.

 

[EvilDragon]

I just got the import tax letter as well. I don't really know what to do about it, I've googled around a bit and I don't think there's any way to legally avoid it. Although it's technically a UK government thing rather than a Fedex thing, 30 quid is a lot of money to hide in the small print; I HATE when companies pull sh!t like this.

It's nothing the company can do, as the import tax depends on the country you're in.
If you order something outside your country (or in Europe: outside from the EU), you usually ALWAYS have to pay for import tax - unless the package has a low value.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

I would pay the fee because they hounded me until I did. I bought some cowboy boots from america for my GF's christmas present last year. I received the bill after they were delivered, and I initially refused to pay as I was angry that they'd done it this way around. It used to be that you would get a letter informing you that they were holding your items until you paid the customs fees, which gave you a chance to refuse to pay and have them send the item back for a refund, which was useful if you were being hit with a £70 fine for £40 worth of items (it happened!). It makes sense from their point of view to do it his way round, but I took offence to this new system.

Anyway, they stated that they would just suspend any future service to me if I didn't pay, but after a few weeks and a few more letters, they said that they were getting a collection agency involved unless I coughed. So rather than be pestered by bailiffs I decided to give in and just pay the buggers. So, my advice is to pay the fees and be very careful where you order from in the future. I'd go straight to ED if you're ordering one of these from Europe.

 

[paul3100]

i just had my 3d letter from fed-ex yesterday saying if i didn't pay they would take it to court and i would end up paying for court and solicitor fees on top of the £30 odd quid! bla bla bla

So anyway iv been down this road with other company's and they all threaten the same thing but tbh its just all scare mongering , you see court/solicitor and are supposed to get worried and pay .... no way

paul3100 .... stand your ground

 

[mosschops]

i just had my 3d letter from fed-ex yesterday saying if i didn't pay they would take it to court and i would end up paying for court and solicitor fees on top of the £30 odd quid! bla bla bla

So anyway iv been down this road with other company's and they all threaten the same thing but tbh its just all scare mongering , you see court/solicitor and are supposed to get worried and pay .... no way

paul3100 .... stand your ground

i would take this advice at your own risk.

 

[paul3100]

i just had my 3d letter from fed-ex yesterday saying if i didn't pay they would take it to court and i would end up paying for court and solicitor fees on top of the £30 odd quid! bla bla bla

So anyway iv been down this road with other company's and they all threaten the same thing but tbh its just all scare mongering , you see court/solicitor and are supposed to get worried and pay .... no way

paul3100 .... stand your ground

i would take this advice at your own risk.

yeah sorry i probably should not suggest anyone else try this ! i just know the way company's work and try to worry you with threatening letters.