So Why Would Anyone Want The Caanoo?

[LukePounds]

Not trying to bash just curious why anyone would want the Caanoo right now over the Wiz? The Wiz has more software that is stable and is working better right? I'm just curious cause I'm trying to decide what to buy. I just don't get why everyone is so geeked up about a piece of hardware thats software isn't as stable as the one before it at this time.

 

[qbertaddict]

Well speaking as someone with both devices(I have a DINGOO as well but this is a GPH board ) I like the CAANOO much better. First of all the WIZ has the screen rot and burn in problems. I had to send mine back already only to get a refurbished replacement with screen burn. The controls on the WIZ aren't that great either. The screen on the CAANOO is very nice(not as nice as a working wiz screen) and bigger. The controls with the latest firmware update seem to perform much better to me. The system itself just feels very nice and fits in your hands better than the WIZ. The touch screen and motion sensing are great in mame and scummvm. Also the usb keyboard and soon to be joypad support with tv out is going to rule. Oh yeah and network play on doom and quake Software from the WIZ is being ported over everyday it seems and the scene seems to be growing as well. So if someone was to ask me which one they should buy I would say CAANOO without hesitation.

 

[blues2]

the software isn't stable because the device is new. the wiz has been around for over a year already. owning a brand new opensource device is an experience. i for one am always excited about the next release and i enjoy contributing to the stability of a program almost as much as i enjoy using it! but if you don't care about any of that get the wiz and when the caanoo catches up sell that wiz and get a caanoo.

 

[Mega5657]

Even though most people do(comma) comparing the software between the two handhelds is a bit unfair. The Wiz has been out for at least a year already. The CAANOO only for 2-3 months. Although really(comma) it'll be awhile before the systems are on "even grounds." The software made on the CAANOO and Wiz will be made by the same people(more or less). So the software will probably be on "even grounds" in a couple months so to speak.

The Wiz isn't perfect(at least not for everyone but it was pretty good for me). People complained about a grainy screen, volume buttons and dpads were being broken(comma) lousy touch screen, screen burning out(comma) NAND corrupting out of nowhere(comma) SD cards being harmed by the WIZ(comma) uncomfortable to hold after awhile(comma) screen cracking way too easily (my problem)(comma) dead pixels(comma) spread of dead pixels(comma) units bricking through update. I bet if you look more around the forums you can found a couple more things that plagued Wiz users. Although not all these problems occurred at once to one person(comma)so even though I mentioned all these things(comma)your Wiz should be working for a while if you take care of it. When these problems happened to the people here(comma) they posted about it. I'm sure there's a great majority of people of people who are enjoying a long time of fun with their Wiz somewhere out there.

The CAANOO has some of it's own problems too. The bezel obscuring the screen a bit(comma) software not mature as the Wiz's(this problem is gonna disappear soon with the devs we have)(comma)slightly slower overall speed but I read that this problem won't be that noticeable. I can't really think of too many more problems because this thing just came out. I hope I'm wrong but there's bound to be problems down the road for CAANOO.

The deciding factor overall should be mainly aesthetics(comma)screen size and overall size.


I mainly talked about the downsides of both consoles ( I can't think of a bunch for the CAANOO). There're many plus sides to both consoles but that's another post that I'll let someone take care of. I wrote a lot as it is.

 

[LukePounds]

Makes sense. Hows the SNES emulators coming a long? That's what I'm more interested in.

 

[Mega5657]

Ookaay. Unless that post has some deep meaning I warn you to keep your post advertising free and focus on the topic on hand. I don't know what flying spiders and network nodes have to do with the CAANOO(unless that's what its made of)

I can't talk too much about snes emulation because I've only played Super Mario Bros. on Mario All-Stars. It played pretty well, near fullspeed with transparencies on and no frameskip or overclock. Our current snes emulator is a beta and is constantly being improved by SiENcE so I would expect a high quality emulator soon.

EDIT: It seems someone removed the previous post above me so ignore my first paragraph in this post

 

[traylorpark]

I kinda thought the Wiz was ugly. :rolleyes:

 

[Popcorn Dave]

The SNES emu is mostly good, but some games run slow, for example Mario Kart, Kirby Super Star and Yoshi's Island. Those three are too slow to bother with, IMHO (and with Yoshi's Island you might as well use the GBA version instead). A couple of others are variable but playable, and I say that as someone who's pretty damn fussy about games running at the right speed. Starfox is of course a lost cause, but I think that was the same on the Wiz so it's cool. It's not as polished as Picodrive by a long shot, but it's good enough for most games. Only problem is it sometimes loses your most recent save (both SRM and save states), but that usually comes from not exiting the program properly.

Anyway, back to the original question, I went for the Caanoo because it's a much better design that's more comfortable for long sessions. I had faith that it would soon catch up with the Wiz, and I was mainly concerned about the SNES, Megadrive and GBA emulators, which tend to be among the first things that get ported anyway. The Wiz's software advantage probably won't last long.

 

[AJack]

I can only speak for my own reasons, which are:

1) Value for money - $150 is a steal.
2) Analogue stick - I just like em'.
3) Larger hardware than Wiz - I have man-sized hands, and the Wiz is pretty bloody small.
4) Looks nice.

So yeah, I'd probably have been pretty happy with a Wiz too, but the Caanoo edged it out for me.

 

[ruffnutts]

I went for the Caanoo as I never had a wiz to start - nearly bought one but them buttons just put me off lol,
I so agree with Popcorn Dave about the comfort of this console, great size and feel and even look to be honest...
Give it a few more months and you watch the Caanoo grow big time

ruffnutts

P.S where I bought mine - look @ that price for what you get

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CAANOO-WIZ-2-GP2X-Linux-Handheld-Game-Emulator-Console-/120631298834?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item1c162f8b12

enough said...

 

[coldfish]

AJack said it all.

For me it was the price and my old GP2X-f100 is showing its age, I use that thing almost daily so when it dies I'll need a replacement.
While the Caanoo doesn't yet have anything like the same software base it is a very nicely built unit and the price is about $100 less than I paid for my f100.

 

[SolarLune]

I have a GP2X F-200 - the low battery life on that one was the hard deciding point for me, and looking on it with a Caanoo, the D-Pad was kind of poor as well. Also, it doesn't make sense that on two fully charged rechargeable batteries, I'd get around 1.5 - 2 hours before I'd have to swap it out - even when I'd get the batteries straight from the charger, I'd get 2/3 of a battery icon.

A few months ago, I was looking at the Caanoo, but I thought the Caanoo was kind of ugly - I thought the Wiz had a much more professional look with the black and red color scheme. However, I decided to get the Caanoo (I wasn't going to get a Wiz - it's technologically lesser than the Caanoo, as the Caanoo has more features), and I bought it.

Now, I love the look and feel of it, and I think the analog stick is very well made. After the initial charge, I played with it, and after playing it for awhile (like an hour), I fell asleep with it playing music in my hands (I think; maybe it was on hold, but I think the screen was on) for around 1.5 hours. That's around 2.5 hours on. I woke up like, "Wha - Ahh crud, I left it on and... Oh, it's still got half a battery left. WIN!".

Plus, I believe it's got more RAM than the F-200 - it's only a couple months since it came out, but GBA emulates at full-speed (or close to it) for me on the basic Overclock speed (533 or 500 mhz?), excluding Golden Sun, which was slow, but still faster than it on the F-200.

EDIT: Dropped it today from about 3 feet onto hardwood floors. Still works fine, though I'm pretty sure I'll be using the wrist strap from now on.

 

[Ulexes]

I got my caanoo abotu a month ago, and so far i have 16 gig worth of Nes, Snes, Sega Genesis and NeoGeo games packed on there, not to mention DOOM and very Soon Quake... Snes9x runs a little sluggish, but i know the emulator need to mature. The controls are nice and repsonsive, the touch screen is cool, and it has a ton of other uses. which reminds me... I have to go load a few episodes of Dexter onto it so i can watch them at work tomorrow.

All in all... I love it. It's my first open source handheld and It's been awesome fun reliving bits of my childhood.

 

[DaveC]

The CAANOO has some of it's own problems too. The bezel obscuring the screen a bit(comma) software not mature as the Wiz's(this problem is gonna disappear soon with the devs we have)(comma)slightly slower overall speed but I read that this problem won't be that noticeable. I can't really think of too many more problems because this thing just came out. I hope I'm wrong but there's bound to be problems down the road for CAANOO.

I mainly talked about the downsides of both consoles ( I can't think of a bunch for the CAANOO). There're many plus sides to both consoles but that's another post that I'll let someone take care of. I wrote a lot as it is.

I have a Wiz and it is decent. The Caanoo had some things they did which I think were pretty stupid. One being part of the screen being covered, the LCD is pretty un-evenly lit with it being brighter on the bottom, analog sticks for digital games are not too great, and the idiotic placement of the speakers which face your feet instead of your *ears* :rolleyes: killed it for me. I already have a Wiz. I don't think either one is without its quirks. If I didn't there would be so many mods I would have to do to the Caanoo after having that.

 

[SolarLune]

The CAANOO has some of it's own problems too. The bezel obscuring the screen a bit(comma) software not mature as the Wiz's(this problem is gonna disappear soon with the devs we have)(comma)slightly slower overall speed but I read that this problem won't be that noticeable. I can't really think of too many more problems because this thing just came out. I hope I'm wrong but there's bound to be problems down the road for CAANOO.

I mainly talked about the downsides of both consoles ( I can't think of a bunch for the CAANOO). There're many plus sides to both consoles but that's another post that I'll let someone take care of. I wrote a lot as it is.

I have a Wiz and it is decent. The Caanoo had some things they did which I think were pretty stupid. One being part of the screen being covered, the LCD is pretty un-evenly lit with it being brighter on the bottom, analog sticks for digital games are not too great, and the idiotic placement of the speakers which face your feet instead of your *ears* :rolleyes: killed it for me. I already have a Wiz. I don't think either one is without its quirks. If I didn't there would be so many mods I would have to do to the Caanoo after having that.

I don't really find the speakers facing outward that much of a problem - the fact that they are right under your hands is the annoying bit to me. Still, it's not a dealbreaker. I've never had a Wiz - if I did, I probably wouldn't have gotten a Caanoo. At this point, both the Wiz and the Caanoo are $150 from ThinkGeek (that doesn't make a lot of sense) and $134.90 from Play-Asia (still not enough of a price drop to me). If you have to choose between the two, I'd still go with the Caanoo, but if you have a Wiz, there's probably not too much of a reason to go with a Caanoo (I think the Caanoo has more RAM, though).

 

[mghty]

I went for the Caanoo as I never had a wiz to start - nearly bought one but them buttons just put me off lol,
I so agree with Popcorn Dave about the comfort of this console, great size and feel and even look to be honest...
Give it a few more months and you watch the Caanoo grow big time

ruffnutts

P.S where I bought mine - look @ that price for what you get

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CAANOO-WIZ-2-GP2X-Linux-Handheld-Game-Emulator-Console-/120631298834?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item1c162f8b12

enough said...

hey ruffnutts did you get customs charges when you bought from that ebay shop? also was the caanoo factory sealed and is the sd card decent? thinking of buying from that same place and i'm in the uk like you. that's a great price so very tempted

 

[redlemon]

I went for the Caanoo as I never had a wiz to start - nearly bought one but them buttons just put me off lol,
I so agree with Popcorn Dave about the comfort of this console, great size and feel and even look to be honest...
Give it a few more months and you watch the Caanoo grow big time

ruffnutts

P.S where I bought mine - look @ that price for what you get

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CAANOO-WIZ-2-GP2X-Linux-Handheld-Game-Emulator-Console-/120631298834?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item1c162f8b12

enough said...

hey ruffnutts did you get customs charges when you bought from that ebay shop? also was the caanoo factory sealed and is the sd card decent? thinking of buying from that same place and i'm in the uk like you. that's a great price so very tempted

I ordered a caanoo from this place and did indeed get stung by customs. I'm in Ireland though, so I don't know how much you'd get charged. They probably don't declare the actual value on the package since customs asked for my paypal receipt.

 

[Popcorn Dave]

Yes... I ordered from Play-Asia and had to pay £33 import duty, which wasn't mentioned at any point in the transaction (the bastards!). You might find it cheaper to order from the British or German sites even though the price on the website is higher.

 

[BaronVofortVonKermit]

That Caanoo pack is only £83 here in Korea. I might bring one back with me (to flog) when I return to England in January.

 

[ruffnutts]

@ mghty - no I never got any tax or duty's and yes it was sealed SD Card is fine,
I`m from London BTW - I actually paid £119.99 so they have put the price down which is great...

I also just a few days ago ordered the TV-OUT from there for £9.99

I think Ireland are shit hot on the customs - I would say take the chance

ruffnutts...