People ask me all the time about my favorite gadgets and I rarely have any answers.
I&ve been playing with stuff since 2004 and I&m pretty gadget-ed out.
But this year I&ve finally found something that I really enjoy: the GPD XD, an Android-based gaming handheld that lets you play multiple emulators including an endless array of homebrew and classic ROMS.As an early fan of the Caanoo I&m always looking for handheld emulators that can let you play classic games without much fuss.
The Caanoo worked quite well, especially for 2010 technology, and I was looking to upgrade.[gallery ids="1670742,1670739,1670738"]My friend bought a GDP and showed it to me and I was hooked.
I could play some wonderful old ROMs in a form factor that was superior to the Caanoo and this super cheap, super awful 4.3-inch device that emulates like a truck.The GDP, which has two joysticks, one four-axis button, four shoulder buttons, and a diamond of game buttons, is basically a Wi-Fi enabled Android device with a touch screen.
It runs Android 7.0 and has a MTK8176 Quad-core+ processor and 4GB of memory.
It comes with NES, SNES, Arcade, and Playstation emulators built in as well as a few home-brew games.
You can install almost anything from the Google Play store and it includes a file manager and ebook reader.
It also has a micro SD card slot, HDMI out, and headphone jack.To be clear, the GDP isn&t exactly well documented.
The device includes a bit of on board documentation & basically a few graphics files that describe how to add and upload ROMS and emulators.
There are also a number of online resources including Reddit threads talking about this thing emulation prowess.
The original model appeared two years ago and they are now selling an updated 2018 version with a better processor and more memory.GPD recently launched another handheld, the Win 2, which is a full Windows machine in a form factor similar to the XD.
It is considerably more expensive & about $700 vs.
$300 & and if you&re looking for a more computer-like experience it might work.
I have, however, had a lot of fun with the XD these past few months.So whatever your feelings regarding ROMs, emulators, and tiny PCs, I&m happy to report that I&ve finally been pleased with a clever and fun bit of portable technology.