Smartq 5 Mid

[palmertech]

Known specs (For sure):
PRICE: 899 Yuan/$131 USD for no internal memory model.
4.3" 800x480 capacitive touch screen
SDHC support
Wifi A/B/G/N
Bluetooth with phone tethering support
USB 2.0 host with full OTG driver stack and support for USB ethernet, 3g modems, and GPS. USB gamepads, as well

Wolfson DAC
Linux OS with support for "massive library of games and applications from homebrew community"
Hi-Def video hardware decoding

Speculative/not for sure/unable to decipher bad engrish translation specs:
Dual core Blackfin at 800mhz (Mostly speculation, it seems)
2d accelerator (I think this is correct, almost certainly no 3d, though)
Flash 9 support
Capacitive stylus (This is probably true, I have made one myself, very easy)
Bittorrent client

A bunch of other stuff that is either pure speculation, or I do just not understand. :huh:

Check it!

Translated product link:
http://74.125.19.132/translate_c?hl=EN&amp...wY9D4CXwcr__otg

Original link: http://www.smartdevices.com.cn/information...902/12-190.html


I love SmartQ products, they are very well built and continue to improve the firmware of their devices significantly, even 6 months after launch, and even after discontinuing the device! I have no doubt this will be a well built, solid product, if previous items are any indication.

USB host! Look at that border! The rep I talked to says they are porting all the old "smartq" (mostly stolen PSP/GP2X stuff) emulators to this, which means up to SNES/GBA for sure, and possibly PSX!

With my modding skillz, I could make a USB gamepad cradle with a spare 60gb 1.8" ipod HDD (Or skip that part) and have an uber emulator/MID device fir under $150!

I will need to think this through, and find out exactly what brand of CPU/Linux they are using before I decide, but if this has an already built homebrew library (N8X0 series compatible, for example), it is a no brainer. If this thing gets PSX emulation, the pandora is dead to me. Well, maybe. They are both damn sexy.

 

[klikklak]

Looks sweet and the price is right. I'm on the market for a cheap MID and this might fit the bill. I might note that you'll get a dozen angry 'but it doesn't have game controls' replies, and it doesn't. But a MID for 140$ is a good deal. Hopefully some shop with decent shipping rates will pick this up. Then again, my gadget shopping list might be growing a bit too large again.

Maybe this would be ok for gaming with one of those one handed bluetooth cellphone game accessories, I can't really imagine busting this out in a bus and hooking up a full pad to it. I mean how would you hold the screen if you have a pad in your hands?

 

[Orange Pumpkin]

Really Interesting but I personally prefer the Dingoo

By the way everything announces great but Whats the battery capability/life without CPU underclocking
And to be honest I don't know anything about blackfin but I think that the TI CPU + 3D is way better I think

 

[palmertech]

I mean how would you hold the screen if you have a pad in your hands?

Modding skillz. It is far within my abilities to make a custom wing grip attachment with a USB controller inside, and even with that, it will be smaller than a PSP.

 

[Username]

Game pad does really matter when it comes to games. I hate playing games on a touch screen that deserve buttons.

 

[cherrycyanide]

At that price I would swoop on this!

 

[lulzfish]

No keyboard, though?
And capacitive touchscreen?
And it's a candy bar form factor like it thinks it's an iPhone or something?

I still totally want a Pandora.

 

[palmertech]

No keyboard, but it has USB host.

Capacitive is scratch resistant, and this thing has a capacitive stylus.

Yep, like an iPhone.

 

[craigix]

The price is amazing, I'd love to see the inside of that thing. I cannot see how they have made it so cheap - unless it's because it is cheap of course.

The parts alone add up to more than $131.

 

[palmertech]

SmartQ makes a PMP called that is pretty much that thing, but without the Wifi, bluetooth, USB host, and all that software. I imagine that because they have all production set up for it, and likely a lot of the same parts, they can make them both at the same time for pretty cheap.

The easier explanation is that the price that is going around on a few chinese forums and tech news site (899 Yuan) is wrong. Personally, I may be going with that idea.

I will try and get more out of a SmartQ rep tonight.

 

[palmertech]

Double post, I know.

I just got off AIM with a SmartQ rep, and he says:

1. It will indeed have a stylus that works with capacitive screen

2. The linux environment is LXDE (Search on youtube for some videos of it)

3. The price is indeed 899 Yuan, but that is the China store price. Shipping to US will cost more, and will be slightly under $200 for the unit, shipping, accessories, and a 1 year direct swap warranty for any defects.

I will be buying one for sure, I will post pictures when I do.

 

[palmertech]

Yes, triple post, kill me.

New specs I just got:

Samsung 6410 core at 667mhz, we have ARM to work with! Apparently, the ADI core was considered, but rejected.

We also have full TV out! This means we can browse the net on our TVs.

In addition, it will have an "emulator mode", with emulators for all the usual suspects up to SNES/GBA, and possibly PSX as well!

It also has 3D acceleration (4M triangles/sec) with OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 support!

Specs on the CPU:

• ARM1176ZJF 533/667MHz
• 65nm low-power process
• DVFS power management
• mDDR/DDR and mSDR/SDR
• WVGA or higher display resolution
• Hard-wired 3D GFX accelerator
? – OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0
• Hard-wired multimedia (>WVGA)
? – MPEG-4 SP codec
? – H.264/263 BP codec
? – VC-1 (WMV9) decoder
? – JPEG/2D hardware
? – Hardware rotator & post processor
? – TV encoder
• DMA
• Security hardware: DES/3DES, AES, SHA-1
• High-speed connectivity
? – UART
? – High-speed SPI
? – USB 2.0 OTG
? – High-speed MMC
? – MMC+/eMMC
? – SDHC 4-bit
? – SD cards/iNAND 2.0
? – I2S
• Pin compatible with S3C6400 & S3C6430
• Package: 424 pins, 13x13, 0.5mm pitch FBGA

 

[Consequence_9]

wow! & here I was ready to bust out my 'FAIL' stamp. At that price this thing isn't lookin too shabby. I dunno 'bout it bein a panda killer tho ;]

Game pad does really matter when it comes to games. I hate playing games on a touch screen that deserve buttons.

exactly why iphone games = FAIL. I can't understand for the life of me all those predictions that apple was somehow going to get a serious gaming market-share. 'Cause, you know, when you think of games the first thing you think of is apple :rolleyes:

 

[davy313]

wow! & here I was ready to bust out my 'FAIL' stamp. At that price this thing isn't lookin too shabby. I dunno 'bout it bein a panda killer tho ;]

Game pad does really matter when it comes to games. I hate playing games on a touch screen that deserve buttons.

exactly why iphone games = FAIL. I can't understand for the life of me all those predictions that apple was somehow going to get a serious gaming market-share. 'Cause, you know, when you think of games the first thing you think of is apple :rolleyes:

U are right,

 

[Nova]

wow! & here I was ready to bust out my 'FAIL' stamp. At that price this thing isn't lookin too shabby. I dunno 'bout it bein a panda killer tho ;]

Game pad does really matter when it comes to games. I hate playing games on a touch screen that deserve buttons.

exactly why iphone games = FAIL. I can't understand for the life of me all those predictions that apple was somehow going to get a serious gaming market-share. 'Cause, you know, when you think of games the first thing you think of is apple :rolleyes:

U are right,



No, he's not. Right now, the iPhone and iPod Touch are both selling better than the DS and the PSP put together. Developers like Konami are putting their games on them, and I wonder why? The iPod is doing well as a portable gaming device.

 

[Chip]

No, he's not. Right now, the iPhone and iPod Touch are both selling better than the DS and the PSP put together. Developers like Konami are putting their games on them, and I wonder why? The iPod is doing well as a portable gaming device.
Big Macs sell better than Quakerstate 10w30 motor oil. Both are greasy. Therefore Big Macs are a better lubricant.

The iPhone is a smart(ish)phone / PMP. The iTouch is a PMP. they sell like mad because they're pretty good at performing those tasks, not because they're excellent game systems. They're NOT excellent game systems. They are incredibly limited by their lack of proper controls. A touchscreen and tilt are fine for casual games, but traditional platformer / action / racing / FPS / fighter games are a chore to play without buttons.

I'm not saying there isn't a market for games on the iPhone, but it's nothing like the market for games on real gaming handhelds. Nobody is going to pay $30+ for games on their iPhone.

 

[Nova]

I'm not saying there isn't a market for games on the iPhone, but it's nothing like the market for games on real gaming handhelds. Nobody is going to pay $30+ for games on their iPhone.





No, because games are at most, about $5. Casual gamers are picking up the iPod and iPhone because they don't have to lug around a games console and games, when they can just use their PMP.



And The Gadget Show, a TV series in the UK also came to this conclusion.



So no, in my opinion, Ipod games do not "= FAIL"

 

[PoisonedV]

oh cool its like an iphone, but with no developers. how quaint.

 

[palmertech]

oh cool its like an iphone, but with no developers. how quaint.

Oh cool, its a troll with no intelligence. How quaint.

For your information, it runs anything in the ARM Ubuntu repository, with only... a few thousand applications or so, and a full time paid team porting stuff over, not to mention that it has an SDK available in Chinese (The english one is coming soon).

So yes, like an iPhone, but with no service plan, USB EDGE and 3G modem support out of the box, full USB OTG support and USB Host support with drivers for keyboards, storage devices, and gamepads, along with modems and TV tuner cards. Not to mention built in, hardware optimized GBA, NEOGEO, SNES, and other emulators. Not to mention expandable storage.

Oh, and only $132 USD in China, and about $160 shipped to the US with 1 to 1 swap warranty.

This thing is using the same CPU family as the iPhone, btw, just way, WAY faster, with a bigger screen.

 

[femngi]

The iPhone may be growing a large game library but most of it is shovelware, eventually people will get bored of popping bubbles by touching the screen in the same way Snake II amused the world for 5 minutes.