Monday, April 27, 2009

GP2X Wiz Has Arrived

A new pre-sale test GP2X Wiz unit just arrived. I took some quick pictures and videos of it in action right after I opened the box. I haven't even taken off the screen's protective film, yet.

On the left, you can see the Wiz as compared to my 3rd gen iPod Nano. Even though I've seen pictures of the GP2X Wiz compared to other devices, I was surprised how small it is. It also seems very light, yet very sturdy. In fact, it really doesn't seem to weight much more than that iPod.

I will be posting more first impressions and reviews of the Wiz as soon as I can. Please leave comments on my Wiz posts if you have any specific questions about the device. I will try to answer them in upcoming posts. For now, though, I will leave you with my initial pictures and videos.


This is not the boxed retail version, so I can not show you the packaging or anything like that. What you see here is exactly what I received. If you have any questions about it, please comment here and I will try to address them in an upcoming post.

I know that these pictures and videos are not the highest quality. I wanted to get something posted here ASAP, and quality suffered in my haste. I want to get this posted as quickly as possible so I can get some questions and see what people are interested in knowing about the Wiz.


11 comments:

Nick said...

What are your impressions of the D-pad? How is the battery?

Anonymous said...

Hi Flavor,

Here are some questions I have about the Wiz:

1) Does the dpad have a pivot? In other words, when you press left, dooes the right side pivot upward, or can you press all directions at once? Some people on gp32x.com seem to have a pivoting dpad, and some don't. Very weird.

2) How is the dpad in gameplay? Especially, how is it for diagonals in SHMUPs and QC moves in fighters?

3) Does your battery hold its charge well?

4) Are there screws holding the battery cover in place?

5) Any dead pixels on your screen?

6) How bad is the infamous diagonal tearing? Supposedly this will be sorted out via software techniques - I sure hope so.

7) Are you going to port RACE to the Wiz? :-)

Thanks.
-Prophet

Flavor said...

Thanks for the quick comments guys. I can't really do any real testing at the moment. I will try to get some sort of playing/testing done, so I can make a proper post and address some of your questions ASAP (probably tonight or tomorrow morning).

I will respond to the easy stuff, though.

I'm charging the battery, now. It had some life in it when it arrived (from traveling across the globe for days). That means that it didn't die when turned off.

The middle of the dpad can be pushed down, but when it's down you can still rock it up/dn/l/r. I'm not sure exactly what that means yet, but there is some sort of pivot.

I didn't notice any dead pixels, but the videos you saw are about the extent of my usage. I'll let you know if there are any problems there.

I plan to port RACE. Of course, plans change, and maybe someone will beat me to it. Hooka has worked on the GP2X version more recently than I have, so there's a chance he'll work on it. I have a higher-priority porting project that I want to be ready before the Wiz's launch. If you've been following my previous posts, maybe you could guess what it is. Here's a hint, the main character is someone's sister.

Nick said...

Thanks for the news, man. I hope that, as some have guessed, the push/pivot dpad will function as another button. Good to hear about the battery as well.

Flavor said...

I guess it's okay for me to tell you about the porting project, so here's a little treat for those that are reading this far down.

Video of INITIAL UNOPTIMIZED GP2x Wiz Port!

Anonymous said...

What about pre-orders at Play-Asia, when they are sent?

matthew! said...

Do you need to unscrew the battery cover to charge the battery?

Flavor said...

Hey matthew!,

No, it came with a USB cable (which you can see in the first picture). You plug it into your PC and it charges over that (like an iPod or whatnot).

FAB said...

@ alsimoes.net

GPH just postponed the release of the first retail units from April 30 to May 12, so currently we hope for a shipment arround May 15.

Anonymous said...

is the old GP2x f200 tv out Cable compatible with WIZZ?

Flavor said...

Anonymous: I think it's not compatible, but I'm not 100% sure.