Gp2X review, special thanks to Adictron.com

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Introduction

My first full console/handheld review; covering the GP2X (F100 and F200). Seeing as people who haven't heard much about the GP2X before will/might read this, I'll briefly write about what the device is.

The GP2X (F100 and F200) is a handheld device made by gamepark holdings. It's the successor of the GP32 (which you may or may not know, you can forget it though). It's from the same era (roughly) as the PSP and nintendo DS. The main difference however is that the GP2X is made running Linux and the SDK is open/free for everyone. Don't let this scare you however, there is no need to ever see anything other then a nice GUI. If you want to however you can get deeper into it. Roughly the F100 and F200 can be called the same. They look very similar, use mainly the same hard and software and differ only slightly (both in hard and software).

The specifications (F100 and F200):

GP2X specifications Discription specification CPU Dual CPU Cores; ARM920T: Host processor ARM940T: Video Coprocessor NAND Flash Memory 64 Mbyte Dimensions 143.6mm 82.9mm 29.6mm Weight 161g (without battery) RAM SDRAM 64 MBytes Storage SD(HC) USB HighSpeed(?) OS Linux Batteru 2 AA batteries Display 3.5" TFT screen 24bit colours, (Touch screen) Resolution 320x240 (QVGA)

The F200 was released in 2007 as a replacement / upgrade for the original F100. The main addition (on user level) is that it has a touchscreen. Also instead of the stick (see the pictures) the F200 has 4 directional keys. Very importantly however, the F200 supports SDHC card (generally SD cards with a size larger then 2gigabytes). For games and etc. that generally isn't needed but when you want to take a lot of video with you it is very nice.

The review

Packaging
I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here, packaging looks are very personal anyway.

As for quality, it will survive rough shipping easily. There is much extra space around the GP2X and the cardboard used is quite thick. The packaging is held closed by a gp2x sticker. Inside you will find:
• The GP2X F200 unit (with a screen protection film over it, though not one you can use as it is quite big) inside a bag
• A CD containing a few games and applications and an introduction/manual
• A quick start guide pamflet about the GP2X
• A stylus, which is very rough and big. I used my fingers until I got a replacement stylus from an NDS lite which works more to my liking.
• A standard USB to USB mini-B cable to connect the GP2X to your PC.


Built-in features / the (main) menu
I'll cover each menu item here; the built in features, in the images the top row is F100, the lower F200. The game menu is exlcuded from the pictures as it is just a file browser:

Explorer (F100 only)
The explorer is a file manager. It lets you do various things: copy, cut, move, paste and delete files or folders from SD, NAND or external USB storage. Though it can be a bit tricky at first to get the control scheme in your head the feature can be very useful. I myself have used it when I went to Japan to backup my pictures from SD to my USB thumbdrive. That way I could keep taking pictures while only taking 1 SD card with me. Sadly this feature is no longer available in the F200. I'm looking into that though ;).
Game
There are several games built in (the F200), but suffice to say the game menu allows you to start games. I'll get back to games a bit further in the review.
Video
Playing videos is one of the things I use the GP2X for the most. I've found that many times videos need to be converted to a format the GP2X understands however. Naturally H264 videos can't be played by the GP2X, it only supports mpeg4. The heaviest file I've played so far without problems was 704x396 mpeg4 (Xvid) at 128kbps 23fp/s with mp3 audio at 128kbps. Reëncoding videos doesn't take long these days though and by doing so you greatly decrease the filesize allowing you to put more videos on your SD card. When you have the proper subtitle format (.sami works, simply give them the same name as the video) the GP2X also supports subtitles very well. They are rendered quite big and are easy to read.

During video playback you can also change the brightness and contrast. On the F200 that can be done from the video player itself, but on the F100 you need to go into the settings menu.
Music
Music playback works pretty good too. MP3 and OGG files are supported (personally only tested and used mp3). I don't use this feature a lot as you can't create playlists so you can only play everything in one folder at best. There is a shuffle option, repeat, ID3tag and lyrics (the latter I have never used).
Ebook
Ebooks are limited to TXT files up to 10 megabytes. There is however a free PDF reader which works okay that you could use instead. That however requires some fidling before it works.
Photo
The photo viewer is a picture viewer. It support JPG, GIF (non animated), BMP, PNG and PCX with a maximum size of 2560x1920. It also has a comic viewer option which allows you to read your Manga. It has a 'comic left view' option (showing the right half of the screen allowing you to scroll up and down) and a 'comic right view' option which is the opposite. You can also zoom in and zoom out additionally. There is also a 'next page' and 'previous page' option.
Settings
USB-host
USB-host mode is something that allows you to attach USB-sticks, keyboards (HID; human interface adapters) or other USB equipment to your GP2X. You can only use it with the USB ports on the cradle or bob though (see further down in the review under accessoiries for more info on the cradle/bob).
TV-out
A very nice feature indeed, TV-out! The TV-out function supports both NTSC and PAL TV's and it allows you to position your screen. One thing that I want to mention however is that the F100's TV-out is slightly broken.




You can activate TV-out and in menu's it works fine however during media playback the video stream isn't played fullscreen. It stays boxed in the top left of the screen. I'm not sure if there is an unofficial fix for the problem, however I believe there isn't. The F200 does not have this problem and videos play fine on TV on it.
System
This setting has many differences between the two GP2X models. Generally you can say that the F100 has more options here. It has USB networking support, a Samba server, a webserver and an FTP&telnet server. The F200 has none of this and only has USB-host as mentioned above. The GP2X F100 also has the option to mount the NAND so you can access it, the F200 also lacks this option making it less attractive for developers.
Touch screen calibration (F200 only)
On my unit I've never used the touch screen calibration option. It came proper right out of the box. When you start the option it presents you with the regular 'hit the white dot on the screen with your stylus or finger' calibration however the messages are in Korean only. It is pretty straitforward though so no worries.
LCD (F100 only)
The LCD submenu allows you to make adjustments to the LCD screen. This to remove (or at least lessen) the scan-line problem on the F100. You can also change the brightness and contrast settings here for video playback (which is rather an annoying place for this setting as you have to stop watching your movie, change the settings and then start your movie again to see the results.
Batteries (F100 only)
Simple menu showing the battery charge, nothing special. Outputs don't tell you very much either: Full, medium, low.

CPU speed
I won't get too technical, but the GP2X uses an Arm processor. Aside from that interesting tidbit, the processor of the GP2X is clocked at 200MHz. However due to the open nature of the system you can manually under- or overclock it (via an external application). Clock frequencies of 270MHz are not uncommon. My own GP2X F100 reaches around 290MHz and my F200 270MHz (the F200's tend to have a slightly lower overclock capability then the F100).

Just for those who do not understand how overclocking can be useful: By overclocking your CPU you can gain better performance from your unit. That means that playing a game that normally doesn't run very fast, can then run at normal (or full) speed. Generally though it does cost more battery power so you run out of batteries faster. That is why underclocking can be useful too, that way you conserve your batteries for when you need them.

However there is one instance (at least) when the CPU clock cannot be changed, during media playback. That means that sadly, there is no way to play other media then that which can run on 200MHz.

As for how to change the clock frequency, some applications/games have the feature built in. The GBA emulator gpsp for example does. However generally I use Gmenu2X which is a menu replacement/alternative which I will get back on ;).

Screen
Back in the day of the first GP2X units the screen had a heavy scan-lines problem. Also the backlight wasn't very great. Something to keep in mind if you are buying a second hand F100. As you know the screen resolution is 320x240, which is a little low but for most applications it's good enough (for viewing movies / anime too). The size of the screen, 3.5” however is quite nice. As for the F200, the screen has much improved. The scanlines are as good as gone and the touch screen part works like a charm. It's quite accurate. It can be operated by fingers but also by a stylus if you wish (I bought one designed for the Nintendo DS lite). As for scratching, I highly recommend a screen protector for both the F100 and the F200. I am unsure whether the unprotected screen scratches quickly because I've never used it without a screen protector though.

As for viewing angle: the horizontal angle is pretty good, the vertical isn't that great as it quickly changes brightness and contrast. Personally I don't have a lot of problems with the relativly bad verticle viewing angle, not sure why but I hardly ever notice it.

Battery (life)
Now this is a problem. The GP2X uses 2 AA batteries however normal batteries will not hold out for more then 15 minutes. Heavy duty recharchable NiMH batteries (2650mA) keep up with the GP2X (at 200MHz) for just over an hour. So if you go traveling wih the GP2X I suggest you take A lot of batteries with you. For example I went to Japan with the F200 and took 12 batteries with me. I also took a charger, and I needed it! When powering the cradle/bob you have a lot less time from your batteries. It is really isn't very great on batteries, but it is something you can overcome.

Another thing I'd like to mention about using batteries: The battery compartment (springs) are very tight and tend to bend. Although not a big problem it can be very annoying because it means that when you have used relativly big batteries the smaller batteries are in there very loosly. You can bend the pins/springs back or just leave them. If you use similar batteries all the time it isn't a problem though. Regardless it can be quite hard to insert some batteries (generally those with a higher mA rating as those tend to be bigger).

Lastly on the F200 they've added a cloth band that goes underneath the batteries with one end stuck onto the back of the GP2X. That way you can pull that band and easily remove the batteries (which can be quite tricky on the F100). A great addition which I would have liked to see on the F100.

Controls
I created this control section mainly for covering the touchscreen, the difference between the F100 and the F200 but also because my F100 had a problem. The B button was very picky. I had to press down on it quite hard. My F200 however doesn't have this problem so I think it is an isolated incident. As for the touchscreen, it works pretty sweet (as mentioned). It is precise and playing ye-old scumm games is also very easy. Much nicer with touchscreen that with a mouse or with the stick.

As for the control differences between the F100 and the F200, the only difference aside from the touchscreen is that the F100 has an digital stick. The stick also has a button inside it (push down on the stick presses a button) which the F200 lacks completely. The F200 has 4 directional buttons instead. The stick has been replaced because many people weren't pleased with it. Personally I agree with those people however with a replacement cap (the plastic extention of the stick, the cap, can be replaced easily) the stick works pretty good. Also the push-button in the stick is used as a pauze button during video playback which I used quite frequently. On the F200 no replacement for the push button has been made which can make certain games or pausing media playback a pain.

Looks
Well I didn't want to cover this too much, I like the look and feel of the GP2X (exterior) and it is something that is very personal. But one thing I felt I had to mention, de power LED. The F100 has 2 LEDs on the front, one that indicates the GP2X is powered on (green) and a 'low battery' LED (red).

The F200 however has only the first LED and instead of green it is blue, very bright blue! So bright even that when watching vidoes in the dark it's pretty annoying. You can put some tape over it (with a bit of paper underneath it) or hold a finger over it if it annoys you but I still wanted to mention it.

Games and Applications
There are many games and applications for the GP2X, which generally are pretty good (especially considering it's free!) however it isn't as with a DS or PSP with a large library. There are several commercial titles but those are quite few in number. Now I won't cover every game and application out there but I'll mention the things I tend to have on my GP2X's SD card. These applications and games, together with many others, can be donwloaded from http://wiki.gp2x.org/ which is a great resource:
• GMenu2X; a menu replacement/alternative to the original frontend. It works very good and allows you to change the clock frequency of the GP2X before starting games/applications. It has many features but also allows you to return to the original frontend.
• GNUboy2X; a gameboy (color) emulator for the GP2X
• gpfce; a NES emulator for the GP2X
• SCUMMvm; a scumm game engine enterpriter for the GP2X. It works with the touchscreen too!
• pocketsnes; a SNES emulator for the GP2X
• gpsp; a GBA emulator for the GP2X

Developing
This is something I want to mention. As I personally have never coded anything for the GP2X I have little useful to say about this. However one thing that is important to mention is that the F100 has a feature that allows you to acces it's NAND via USB (at least up until FW2.*) and the F100 allows you to telnet to it via USB. The F200 doesn't have either of those features. That makes debugging your application/game a lot harder. One thing that both units have is SDL (support). SDL allows you to write a game or application for the GP2X much easier and allows you to quickly compile your app/game for another system (or port something written with SDL on another system). Anyway if you have no interest in programming, there is no problem with not having the telnet feature.

One great advantage of the open-nes of the GP2X (and it's relative age) is that many people have been developing for the system and most quirks are known. Also there are quite a few guides out there.

Accesories
There are 5 'official' accessories:
• TV out cable. The TV out cable is a cable that connects to the GP2X extention port and has a S-Video out and stereo out plugs. The cable is pretty long (3 meters; 10 feet) so you have enough cable to connect it to the back of a TV and have your GP2X in your hands on the front (or even in the chair with it depending on how far your sitting away). The TV-out feature itself is mentioned back in the review (the 'built in features' section).
• BOB/cradle. The bob (break out bord), or the commercial version of it (the cradle) is an extention of the GP2X. When it connects to the GP2X via the extention port it adds 4 USB ports (host mode) and several other items. The cradle itself also holds up the GP2X in a vertical position at a slight angle. If you ever want to connect anything via USB I highly suggest you buy the cradle/bob. As for the USB speed, it is rated USB2.0 but I don't think it's highspeed.
• A carry bag, I use a DS bag though (I've never handled the GP2X bag). Some DS bags are a loose fit though, so if you are looking for a carry bag/case you should just check in the store if it will fit properly.
• A wrist strap.

Summary

In the end the GP2X is a very nice piece of kit. It has several things going for it such as the open nature of the system, the general specs (both internal as controls) are pretty nice, the F200 has the touchscreen and it runs Linux. There are however also several downsides; low battery life, small viewing angle vertically, its age and the LTSK problem. Also the games library isn't as big as with the DS or PSP. In the end it is a very personal choice. If you want to play loads of games and just that, you are probably better off with something from the big 2. However if you are looking for something alternative, don't mind recoding your videos before taking them with you together with several sets of batteries, possibly even code a little (via SDL) then you might want to consider picking one of these up. There is of course also the advantage of it's age, right now it will only cost you around 100 euros.

-Simon van de Berg

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