Questions Before Buying Wiz

[madtwinz]

Hi, I'm new here and would like to ask some questions about current WIZ and Dingoo situation before buying one. I've read opinions and reviews about both handhelds, but they were mainly from like May-August 2009... I need opinions about the situation today.

[1.] What's the status of emulation on Wiz and Dingoo? I see that Dingoo emulates about everything WIZ can emulate... or not? And what about speed? Dingoo has slower CPU than WIZ (especially overclocked), but maybe emus for Dingoo are better optimised? Let's make a short list and share opinions:

NES
SNES
SMS
Genesis
Amiga (curious especially about this after Dingoo got it's port...)
C64
GBA
GB/GBC
NeoGeo
Mame
CPS1/CPS2
PC-Engine
PSX
ScummVM

[2.] I couldn't find any photos or opinions about WIZ's Comic Viewer and I'm wondering how it looks like in action - does it use touchcreen? Is it any good? (does Dingoo have some comic viewer app too?)

[3.] Is there a chance that tv-out cables for WIZ will be made using those DIY tutorial and available to buy?

[4.] What about flash games? Wiz supports Flash 8 (Dingoo - Flash 6), so it should work nice on WIZ (overclocked if needed).

[5.] Are there any DivX players for WIZ/Dingoo supporting external subtitles?

[6.] It seems to me that Dingoo gets better dev support and WIZ is still overshadowed by waiting for Pandora... About six months ago most ppl thought that Dingoo is too slow for Amiga or PSX emulation and now we have emulators developed. 3D chip in Wiz is still unused and it seems that we won't get emulators using touchscreen...

I can't decide which handheld is better for me. These are my thoughts so far about both systems:

WIZ
+ pretty good Amiga emulation (especially when overclocked)
+ comic viewer
+ OLED display
+ touchscreen
+ unused 3D chip, maybe something will show up soon...

- tearing (from what I found it's fixed in some emus)
- no TV-Out
- price
- unused 3D chip...


Dingoo
+ price
+ controls (I'm used to GBA)
+ TV-Out

 

[Tunee]

you cannot really compare dingoo and wiz imo,
wiz is a far superior machine in almost every aspect let alone for the oled display.

the comic viewer and flash game support suck though.

 

[fett42]

Well I've never tried a Dingoo. So I can't comment much on that. The only thing I will say is I did a lot of research before buying a Wiz, and the Wiz seemed like the superior choice to me.

SNES emulation has been reported as being slow for some games. There are two versions of the emulator, a normal emulator and a fast emulator. While I haven't tried out a ton of games on the SNES emulator, I will say that the games I tried worked flawlessly. I overclocked my Wiz at 700 mhz when playing. If there is a specific game you're wondering about just ask me. I will try the game out on the SNES emulator to see how it runs, well that is if I have it.

CPS1/CPS2 works well on the Wiz, which is nice because those are some of my favorite games.

PC-Engine runs fast and smooth so far. I actually just downloaded it today because I wanted something new to try. I am very pleased with how well it works on the Wiz.

ScummVM is another good one. I made it all of the way through Sam & Max. My only complaint is some of the games I tried didn't seem to work right. I can't remember which games though.

 

[christo930]

I was weighing that purchase a few months ago and I came to the conclusion that the wiz was the better system. Ultimately I didn't get ether one because I felt it didn't offer enough over the GP2X to warrant the purchase.
What it came down to was this:
If you want a media player that can play games and emulators, get the dingoo
But if you want an emulation and game machine with decent media capabilities, get the Wiz. The emulators for the Wiz seem to be more polished and will probaby be supported longer and better than the Dingoo. The Pandora really isn't competing against the Wiz because for one, it's so much more expensive and it really isn't being manufactured in any kind of numbers even in the context of open source sized markets. GamePark sold over 50k GP2Xs!

Chris

 

[mystique]

I'd say go ahead and buy a Wiz .. we have two. Yes my BF is waiting waiting waiting for another Pandora allotment to be made but has been for a long time. The dingoo is not a bad machine but I think it has alot to be left desired compared to the Wiz.

Nothing is perfect but the Wiz is a very nice device and people here and elsewhere keep porting more and more for it. I've found many of the nice guys on this forum who develop and port the emulators are more than willing to port their or other peoples stuff to the Wiz and they work very nice even on the first attempt.

If you live in the US I suggest buying it from the gp2x store as they have the lowest price:

http://www.gp2xstore.com/gp2x-wiz-handheld-linux-game-console.html

 

[hardyx]

The decision is very simple: if you have the money, buy a Wiz. If you can't afford a Wiz, buy a Dingoo.
But they are not the same, Dingoo has less app memory. Look the specifications:

GP2X Wiz
533 to 800 Mhz ARM
64 Mb of memory
SDHC cards to 32 Gb
3D accelerator processor

Dingoo
336 Mhz MIPS clone
32 Mb of memory
miniSD to 16 Gb(?)
FM Radio

 

[brummy76]

Ive had both handhelds now for about 6 months and i love them both, i feel that the dingoo is a very underated system the emu ports are very good, tv out is a bit fuzzy(Think vhs quality, looks bad on a 42 inch plasma!)
The screen on the dingoo is very sharp and clear ive not noticed any screen blurring at all with any games including sonic!
also the dpad and buttons are very well made and comfortable.(feels like a smoother nes pad)
I know a lot of emus are ported to dingux and not the native firmware which bothers me as dingux causes alot of sd card corruption which is a pain if youve got a 16gb sd card full of stuff on it and need to format.
There are alot more emus for the dingoo/dingux.

Now onto the wiz, i bought this mainly for picodrive and temper as they are my favorite emus!
Alot if not all the emus on the wiz are gp2x ports.
The screen is amazing pin sharp, mame looks stunning on it.
The controls on the wiz are good but the dpad does hurt my thumb after a while!
Picodrive,Temper,mame4all,Pocketsnes and Uae4all are the stand out emus on the wiz that perform almost flawlessly, alot better than the dingoo variations.
The battery life on both are very good but the dingoo just edges it by a couple of hours
Here are my emu ratings out of 10.

NES=dingoo 10/wiz 6
SNES=dingoo 6/wiz 8
SMS=dingoo 8/wiz 6
Genesis=dingoo 8/wiz 10
Amiga=dingoo 4/wiz 8
C64=dingoo 7/wiz 8
GBA=dingoo 9/wiz 9
GB/GBC=dingoo 9/wiz 9
NeoGeo=dingoo 8/wiz 8
Mame=dingoo 8/wiz 10
CPS1/CPS2=dingoo 9/wiz 10
PC-Engine=dingoo 7/wiz 10
PSX(not tried as its too slow on both)
ScummVM=dingoo 6/wiz 9 (curse of monkey island is playable on wiz!)

Its a tough one as they both are very good, i do seem to keep going back to the dingoo alot more though....
I know buy both!!!

 

[DaveC]

- tearing (from what I found it's fixed in some emus)
- no TV-Out
- price
- unused 3D chip...


Dingoo
+ price
+ controls (I'm used to GBA)
+ TV-Out

BTW the Dingoo has tearing too so that one is a wash..

 

[Reo]

Its a tough one as they both are very good, i do seem to keep going back to the dingoo alot mor e though....
I know buy both!!!

I kind of wish I hadn't bought both. I should have sticked with the Dingoo. Now that I have both, I don't know which one to use. Wiz is more powerful but lacks good 8-bit system emulation.

 

[jarek72]

I have Wiz and Dingoo.My impressions are:
item: Dingoo/Wiz
Battery : 10/7
Controls : 10/7
Lcd : 5/10
Speakers 6/9
Appearence, weight (My impression) : 10/8
---
Emu:
Snes 7/9
Sega genesis 8/10
PCE 8/10
GB/GBC 7/9
GBA 9/8
C64 10/7
MAME 8/10
PSX 8/5
CPS1,CPS2,NeoGeo 9/9

Wiz has a better front end for some emulators.
gmenu2x is dingoo better.
GMU to dingoo auto-off but wiz go to menu.

 

[raindog]

In Wiz Win2x is much better than gmenu2x, a must have for the Wiz. This alternative frontend includes auto-off and low battery warning.

 

[madtwinz]

Thank you for all opinions, waiting for more.

After reading that nice emulation status list for both handhelds made by jarek72, it makes me wonder why for example PSX emu (I know that both are in early stages) runs better on Dingoo than on Wiz (especially overclocked)? Does Dingoo version have better optimisation or is it something else?


Also, could someone post a few screenshots (or maybe even short video...) of comic book reader from Wiz? I've searched everywhere and watched dozens of Wiz review videos at YouTube but there's nothing about that app...

 

[juanvvc]

I'm a big fan of comics, and I find a the 6' screen of my e-book too small to read most of them. I just can't imagine how a 2.8' screen could be used to read a single page of a standard comic. The only possibilities are webcomics, that weird comic designed for the psp screen and those old comics that have a fixed frame size.

I won't bet for a usable, general comic reader on Wiz, Pandora, iPod or any device with a screen smaller than 8'.

 

[madtwinz]

I'm a big fan of comics, and I find a the 6' screen of my e-book too small to read most of them. I just can't imagine how a 2.8' screen could be used to read a single page of a standard comic. The only possibilities are webcomics, that weird comic designed for the psp screen and those old comics that have a fixed frame size.

I won't bet for a usable, general comic reader on Wiz, Pandora, iPod or any device with a screen smaller than 8'.

Using something smaller than 17 inches without pivot option for comic reading is unacceptable for some ppl... I'm not one of them. I think it's just a question of fast zoom option and reading of comics could be quite comfortable - we're talking here about simple jpg/png viewing. Using the touchscreen should make it easier to navigate and zoom in/out.

That's why I'm asking for some screens/videos/opinions about native comic reader, there's no info about it...

 

[klikklak]

I tried the comic reader and well.. First off all I've got an 8" ebook reader and I read my comics on that, thank you very much. Also, and this is what killed it for me, it doesn't support cbr/cbz's. Only a list of images! So you'd have to go to the trouble of unpacking and organizing your comics and it's just not worth it..

 

[mystique]

I tried the comic reader and well.. First off all I've got an 8" ebook reader and I read my comics on that, thank you very much. Also, and this is what killed it for me, it doesn't support cbr/cbz's. Only a list of images! So you'd have to go to the trouble of unpacking and organizing your comics and it's just not worth it..

From responses in another thread and advice of other people I think I'm going to go with a refurbished Kindle for my daughters needs with ebooks etc. I like the screen better than the other ones and I can get one at half the price of a new one that was returned and repaired. She doesn't need fancy features etc but a nice clear large screen for reading.

 

[madtwinz]

I ordered WIZ but have to wait over a week because of that Chinese New Year thing... I've bought it at ishopvideogame.com with a $8 discount (coupon code: Valentine - expires on 24th February).

I'm starting to collect roms for my new SD card