PSPCRazY Reviews the GamePark GP2X
GP2X Technical Specifications
General
CPU: Dual cores, ARM940T at 200Mhz + ARM920T at 200Mhz
Dimensions: 143.6mm* 82.9mm*34mm
Mass (w/o batteries): 161g/5.68oz (GP32 NLU: 163g/5.74oz)
RAM: 64Mb
Storage: SD Card
Connection: USB 2.0
O/S: Linux
Power supply: 2xAA Batteries
Display: 3.5" TFT LCD (260,000 colors)
Resolution: 320*240(QVGA)
Video
Video Codec support: MPEG 1, 2, 3, 4, DivX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x and higher, XviD, WMV (7, 8, 9 possible future support)
Format support: AVI, MPG, MPEG
Audio Formats: MP3, OGG, WMA (possible future support)
Resolution: MAX 720*480
Frame Rate: Max 30 fps
Bit Rate: Video Max: 2500Kbps, Audio Max: 384Kbps
Caption: SMI
Audio
No. Channels: Stereo(L+R)
Frequency Rate: 20Hz~20KHz
File: WMA,OGG,MP3
Bit rate sampling: 16bit/8~48KHz
Equalizer: Normal, Classic, Rock, Jazz, Pop
Additional Functions
e-book, game, e-Dictionary (planned for later release)
Image Viewer
Image Formats: JPG, BMP, PCX, GIF, PNG
Controls
Eight way digital joystick
Four main face buttons plus joystick clicks in for additional button
Start and select
L + R shoulder buttons
Digital +/- volume control
I/O Ports
Headphones
USB 2.0 (not powered)
EXT port
DC port
SDIO hardware support
The Arrival
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PSP Crazy finally got our hands on a GP2X. After the first unit was unfortunately dead on arrival, Play-Asia was extremely quick and very helpful in providing us with a new unit. As mentioned, the GP2X was imported through the online import store Play-Asia (www.play-asia.com). The service was first class and the unit arrived in just two days by EMS. It was as simple as choosing the item for purchase, filling in my details and preferred postal method and than the item was sent within 12 hours! All status and shipment details are emailed to you and are stored in your account. The amount of payment methods available by Play-Asia should allow anyone to purchase with no hassles.
Some advice for importers if you want to avoid being taxed is to use “POST” services and not couriers. These have lower thresholds for tax. EMS and the airmail services would not have me incur tax but using a courier such as UPS, DHL or FedEx would have. However, it still depends on your country and the amount you import. Check your countries importing website for more details.
Play-Asia packed the GP2X very well and it arrived in perfect condition. They also put in a gift (Japanese candy) and a sticker as well as a 5% discount on your next purchase. After having purchased many things online, the service quality still managed to impress.
Let’s start with a little information on the GP2X for those unfamiliar with it (most of us). The GP2X is an open-source handheld running on a Linux-based operating system by GamePark Holdings located in South Korea. Open-source means that anyone with a bit of programming skill can create programs for the handheld, which makes the GP2X completely homebrew friendly. All programs and media are stored on SD (Secure Digital) cards with support up to 4GB (through firmware upgrades). The SD card is placed at the top of the unit and pops out easily.
What’s inside the box?
Upon opening the stylish looking box you will find the following items:
GP2X Unit
USB Cable
Screen Protector
2 x AA Alkaline Batteries
Manual (If you can call it that)
What I recommend you to buy additionally:
TV-Out cable (If you want to use your GP2X on your TV)
Some good AA NiMH rechargeables (More on this later)
SD Card (Pretty useless without one)
SD Card Reader for PC (Will make life much easier for you)
The GP2X comes without the plastic screen attached, allowing you to put it on yourself. The process is simple. Simply remove the protective plastic on the screen and apply the protector. It comes with a manual but it defines the word “useless”. However the manual can always come in handy if you run out of toilet paper. It’s full of “Engrish” and explains nothing really. The only thing to note from the manual is that GamePark Holdings has the same stance on “dead” or “lit” pixels on the screen as Sony. In other words, you’ll have to accept them and can’t claim it as a defect for a return or exchange. The PSP Crazy GP2X unit had a perfect screen with no pixel problems whatsoever.
The GP2X packs a pair of processors and a bright screen making it a power hungry unit for just 2xAA batteries. It’s unfortunate that the handheld uses old battery technology instead of say a Li-Ion battery such as in the PSP or DS. We only achieved about one hour of play time with the alkaline batteries provided, which was very disappointing. You’ll need to buy a good pair of rechargeable NiMH batteries for the GP2X with a high mAh capacity. We recommend 2500mAh or higher if you want to get a few hours game time (around four hours). Battery life depends on what you’re doing, and video playback seemed to drain the batteries the most. However, GP2X enthusiasts and GamePark Holdings say that battery life on the GP2X can be improved with firmware updates as currently it’s not very efficient.
GamePark Holdings has dubbed the GP2X as a “Personal Entertainment Player” and supports DivX and Xvid video files as well as MP3 and Ogg Vorbis audio files straight out of the box. Of course it also has an image viewer, ebook reader, USB mode and a few other not-so-interesting features in the Linux OS as well.
Aesthetics and Build Quality
When purchasing a GP2X one must remember that this is not a Sony or Nintendo product. Indeed, it is a handheld from a fairly small company in Korea and not by a global corporation. While the GP2X has had its fair share of problems and some do still remain (especially from the first batch) - the words “Microsoft Xbox 360” seem to come to mind – give it a chance before judging it too harshly. If Microsoft can’t get it right during its flagship launch, it’s not surprising that there can be some problems with most new electronic devices.
As mentioned before, the first unit that arrived from the early batch was dead on arrival and like the first batch of Sony PSP’s didn’t feel like it was built very well. The new unit however feels much better in terms of build quality and there were no problems with buttons or anything of the sort.
The GP2X does look fairly nice but pales in comparison to the PSP’s slickness. The plastic that makes up the bottom of the unit which has the “Power” light is quite ugly and it would have looked better without it, but overall it’s not something you’ll be embarrassed to have out in public. It just doesn’t have the “wow” or “cool” factor going for it.
Buttons on the unit are responsive and we have no complaints with them. Sure, you can put your thumb on all four buttons but the proximity of the buttons was not a problem with our tests. Each unit comes with four face buttons, a start and select button, two shoulder buttons and a digital volume button which is quite handy.
The speakers are fairly loud and acceptable quality with various applications we tested and finally the battery cover is easy to take off and put back on and is unlikely to break because it just slides on and off easily.
Joystick and Scanlines
One thing to complain about is the GP2X’s joystick. While being digital, it is still fairly unresponsive and unintuitive. The problem seems to be that you are required to push the joystick in the direction further than necessary for it to be registered. This takes some time to get used to but we still managed to play some fairly difficult games with the joystick without too many problems. But you’ll wish that GamePark had put in a D-Pad or at least something more responsive. GP2X enthusiasts have already started to mod their joysticks to their liking. It is a problem but it is useable. I’m sure there will be fewer complaints about the analogue nub on the PSP after gamers have tried the GP2X’s joystick.
While playing games or watching video on the unit, you can clearly see what appear to be scanlines. Why these scanlines are on an LCD screen we do not know. Some GP2X users say it is a software problem but it hopefully isn’t a hardware problem. There is an LCD utility made by the GP2X community to fix the issue but it only looked slightly better on our unit. This is unfortunate but it is still viewable - just not as nice as it should be. Sometimes the screen seems to be too bright and the contrast was not as sharp as it should be. There is no brightness switch for the backlight and battery power can not be conserved in this way.
Linux load times?
Turning on the GP2X will first show you a grey logo screen (as below) followed by a loading screen. It takes around 20 seconds to boot from the green OS loading screen and in total it takes around 25 seconds to finally start using the GP2X’s OS. The slow loading time of the OS is disappointing especially since the GP2X has no sleep mode and you will have to wait every time you turn the unit.
There has been talk of plans for creating a non-Linux boot mode called “HH” which would allow applications to boot immediately after switching on the unit. Something else that needs to be mentioned is that sometimes but very rarely, the GP2X would get stuck on the OS loading screen. Powering on the unit again always resulted in a successful boot. We are not certain if this is a hardware or software problem but it seems it would most likely be a software problem.
The OS is simple and easy to use but not so easy to navigate with the GP2X’s unresponsive joystick. After having already prepared the SD card with some of the popular homebrew releases we were watching Divx videos and playing Duke Nukem 3D and Mega Drive (Genesis) games in no time.
Handheld Duke Nukem 3D and the Sega Scream
Installing the freely available software is easy as long as you can follow instructions and have some basic computer skills. You’ll need an SD card and a card reader for ease of use. While the USB mode worked fine for us on the GP2X, it’s much easier to buy a card reader and do everything that way. For our testing purposes we used a 512mb SD Card and we decided to give Duke2X (Duke Nukem 3D port by Woogal) a test run.
Within a minute we were playing Duke Nukem 3D full speed with sound on a handheld. This was all good fun, and it was hard to move on and try the other freeware software available.
After finishing the first level of Duke Nukem 3D we decided to try another popular GP2X called DrMDx (Mega Drive/Genesis Emulator by Reesy). For Sega fanboys this really is a dream come true. Practically all games run full speed with sound and it is one of the most polished emulators around. Basically it turns your GP2X into a Sega Nomad (minus six button support) and you can save anywhere you want in any game and have dozens of games on your SD card at any one time. Plus, while the battery life is about the same as a Nomad’s, you only need two instead of six AA batteries.
We were using 1700mAh NiMH batteries and after about two hours of playing some Sega classics on the GP2X it finally gave out. It was great fun while it lasted and the only thing to complain about was the screen not looking as sharp as it should and the joystick being a bit of a pain.
Video/Music Playback and TV-Out
The GP2X handled all the video files we could throw at it without any problems. It is quite powerful in this regard and you can see what the max bit rates the GP2X can handle in the specification chart. It can also output video to a TV (S-Video only) with the optional TV-Out cable and can show a max resolution of 720x480 pixels which is fantastic. Using the TV-Out cable drains the batteries even more and we recommend you purchase an AC adapter if you wish to use this feature. TV-Out also works for homebrew but currently does not work with all homebrew programs.
When the batteries started to just under half power while in video playback, the unit would lock up. It seems the battery drain was too much because we were able to use other applications for another half hour. You can conserve battery power by lowering the CPU clock speed of the GP2X while in video playback but it depends on the quality of your video file. Lowering the CPU speed too much will result in frames being skipped.
Overall, the video playback is quite good and will hopefully be improved upon with every firmware release to provide more battery life.
Music playback on the GP2X is easy to use and has support for both OGG and MP3. Luckily the screen can be turned off while in music playback allowing you to conserve a lot of battery power.
Missing Multiplayer and Commercial Games
Unlike current generation handhelds such as the DS or PSP, the GP2X does not have wireless built in. There currently isn’t a way to play multiplayer or browse the Internet if that is something you are interested in doing with the GP2X. Due to the nature of the handheld focusing on the homebrew community, this is unlikely to change.
There will be a few commercial releases for the GP2X but don’t expect anything to spectacular. While the GP2X seems to pack more power than the Nintendo DS it is unlikely to ever gather much commercial game support due to lack of interest not only from game companies in Korea, but from the outside as well.
Conclusions
Within just a couple of months there is already a large amount of free games, emulators, interpreters and programs. There’s even a PlayStation, Neo Geo and Amiga emulators. While these don’t necessarily run games full speed it just shows how active the community really is. This thriving community is one of the biggest strengths of the GP2X because there will always be a heap of free software for you to enjoy.
While there are a lot of problems with the GP2X, most can be fixed with software updates and this review has pointed out the main issues at the moment (battery life, the screen and joystick). Updating the systems firmware is not as simple or idiot proof as on the PSP and can be risky for those who don’t know what they’re doing. If the power cuts out or there is something wrong with your SD card, you will end up with a brick. It is recommended that some precautions and knowledge about firmware updates is taken before doing any updates. Just ask the GP2X community - they’re very friendly and helpful.
For those wanting a PSP rival in commercial games, you won’t find it here. The GP2X is purely a niche gadget for a much smaller market catering for retro gaming, homebrew developers and multimedia use.
To buy or not to buy
Is the GP2X worth the $169.90 USD Play-Asia.com asking price? For those interested in using a handheld with no restrictions for homebrew and retro gaming, the answer is a resounding “yes”. With a fantastic Mega Drive/Genesis emulator already out, it is possible to look past most of the faults of the GP2X and justify its asking price. For us, being able to play portable Duke Nukem 3D and Mega Drive as well as Divx/Xvid movies was worth every single dollar.
However, the average gamer will probably need more convincing to delve into the GP2X. If you’re not into homebrew, emulators and retro gaming than the GP2X is basically just a video and music player. As a result, those wanting commercial games and ease of use might prefer to get a PSP.
