Which Handheld Should I Get?

[Steph229]

I have been looking around the handheld emulator scene for awhile now and I've read about many consoles but I'm having a hard time deciding what I want. The consoles I'm most interested in are the:

Wiz
Cannoo
Dingoo A320 or Dingoo A330
Yinlips YDPG16, YDPG18A

I've been reading forums about all of them and watching youtube videos and i'm leaning more towards either the cannoo, the Dingoo A320 or the Yinlips YDPG18A. But I still have some questions.

1. Is there any real difference between the Dingoo A320 and A330? If so, which is better overall?

2. Which one can play the most emulators and do the best job at it? I'd mainly like to emulate NES, SNES, GB/GBC, GBA, Megadrive/Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, N-Gage (is there even an emulator for this on handhelds?), Wonderswan, pc, and arcade. I know that's alot but I of course love games and want something that can play pretty much all the emulators that are out there with lots of game compatibility and no slowdown or lag.

3. On top of compatible and reliable console emulators, which one also has good video playback? I'd love to watch some shows/movies on the go.

4. On top of those things, which one has the best comic book reader?

5. Which has the best ps1/n64 emulator? This isn't as important to me as the other emulators I've listed but it'd be pretty cool to play some of these on a hand held as well.

6. Which has the best tv out?

7. Can I use an external controller with any of these? I think I read that the Canoo and the Yinlips consoles have usb ports for external controllers. Could I say, plug in a usb ps2 adapter to plug in a ps2 controller?

I know I've asked alot but I want a thourough opinion on all of this as I don't have lot's of extra money to spend. Any help would be highly appreciated!

 

[LTStone]

I think what you are asking is too broad of a question, there are so many factors... battery life, controls, reliability etc,
dingoo's have no touch screen and I've broke about 5 of them, they are very fragile but are cheap and huge battery life, good support and controls, Yinlips probly have the best compatibility , features and power but low battery life and poor dpad, Cannoo has an analog controler but built like a tank...

 

[DJRoby4]

My reply will always be: Caanoo. Sorry, I'm an old shoold man and these android consoles seem like a chinese piece of crap for me. Waiting for the new JXD series or the GCW Zero.

 

[jmetal88]

I kind of want to get a Caanoo by now. The Dingoo is OK, and the Wiz is pretty good, but both of them suffer from screen tearing on certain programs (the Wiz has a single diagonal line and the Dingoo has two slightly less noticeable diagonal lines on a lot of stuff), and the Dingoo has a pretty poor LCD (black levels are pretty grey, like the contrast is set improperly, but I can't change it). Two things holding me back from the Caanoo: I don't have $150 to spend, and I'm not sure I'd like having to use analog controls on everything.

I'd love to get a Pandora, but price is a huge issue there. I realize the cost is pretty high for an upstart like them, and they have to sell at a profit, but that doesn't make it any easier for me to come up with $500. :lol:

 

[rohezal]

The Caanoo has sout korean quality not chinese quality. If it drops out of your hand on the (carpet) floor it is not broken. The buttons are quite good. But I would wait for GCW Zero. It looks very promising .

 

[Akabei]

If you are not in a hurry, waiting for the Archos 7" Gamepad might be an alternative. http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/29/archos-gamepad-with-physical-controls/

 

[blues2]

The caanoo is not as tough as everyone has mentioned so far. I've had one since launch day and used it very often. It is mention in a couple of threads here that the analog stick will eventually fail on you and permenantly drift off center after extensive use. What's worst is that it is not an easy fix as it requires desoldering the analog component off of the board and replacing it with new one.

But other than that i do think it is an excellent device and sets the standard with its touch screen, extra buttons, ability to be used vertcally, usb host, motion controls, rumble feature and rumble feature. Too bad it that all it was really missing happens to be the most essential, a normal dpad. The analog stick itself is very good and does a nice job of replacing a dpad but it really just isn't the same.

I'm also very interested in the cgw zero will take a wait and see approach before buying since my caanoo already does so many thing very well.

 

[Steph229]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I was sort of on the fence about the cannoo vs the dingoo the most, and now I'm thinking I'll probably get either a caanoo or wait for the GCW Zero that I just found out about yesterday. Overall I think the cannoo has better compatibility and would last longer. The analog stick not working sort of concerns me though. But like I said overall, with the dingoo having screen issues and less compatibility with games, and the wiz being harder to find, I think the caanoo would be the best for me.

 

[erico]

Caanoo is pretty good, I have one for an year already and is perfect, it looks like it is going to last.

GCW zero will be quite similar to the caanoo, won´t have touch screen but it will have more power, wifi inside and a few other good extras.
According to the latest news on the GCW, it seems people are working a lot on the software side of things.
Such active development means GCW will probably have a great support on launch, and hopefully will grown even more from there.

The caanoo software side is left for the users, there is no support from the owners anymore, and the little there was was quite bad.

On the account of future, it may be best you look into GCW.

But don´t get me wrong, I love my caanoo, and the main reason is that it is a portable handheld I can put my own glbasic games into it.

PS:. my atari lynx is going to have his 20th party soon, that is what I call everlasting!

 

[choy.andy]

I recently bought a Caanoo and LOVE it. There used to be a commercially available TV out cable but I couldn't find it available for purchase anymore. Fortunately, there are instructions on how to make your own which was pretty easy if you know how to solder. Once I got all the materials together, it took me less than 10 minutes to build the TV out cable. As far as emulating systems, I haven't really had any major issues with NES, SNES, GB, GBA, Genesis, Neo Geo, and MAME. An important thing to note about MAME is that you have to use 0.37 ROMs instead of 0.149 ROMs.

 

[Slick]

I came here to ask the same thing, but it looks like I made this account 4 years ago, made a thread, and then forgot about it. I'm looking for a nice emulator device. I was learning towards the Caanoo but I just learned about GCW and Archos GamePad so I will consider those too...