It’s been a long wait, finally got my hands on the GPD Win, it’s a 5.5″ UMPC, handheld, gaming device. You get a Windows 10 device you can slip in your pocket with some really decent specs considering the small form factor. An Atom X7 Z8700, 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM, 64GB eMMC, 6000mAh battery and more ports than most tablets. Below’s my unboxing video, first impressions with a quick review style summary.
First impressions.
- It’s a bit chunky, build quality for the price is average.
- The screen is bright, but oh so tiny for Windows 10! (Windows tablet mode would help)
- Touch screen accuracy is okay, but due to the size easy to have missed touches.
- The shoulder buttons feel loose and flimsy, I hope they will stand the test of time.
- Mouse emulation via the joysticks works well. Left and right shoulder buttons are the mouse buttons
- The analog thumb nubs are cover with a grippy rubber
- Both USB ports will power external hard drives however it causes interference over the loudspeakers.
- The keyboard for the size is good for typing only a few lines. I would hate to type an email on it.
- Quite an amazing feat of engineering all this has crammed into and even fan cooling!
- The fan can be set to off, low speed or high for when you’re pushing it hard.
- Fan noise at high is a little annoying, but if it stops it throttling when gaming will be a fair trade off.
- It has a Samsung eMMC (Speeds will be in the full review)
- D-Pad feels average, a bit cheap. Will need to test it gaming
- A few minor build defects can be seen in the finish.
- It has broadband AC, this will help with Steam streaming (I’ll see if I can stream Witcher 3 to it later on)
- Type-c charging and data.
- 6000mAh battery for such a small screen and 720p should give good results (Will confirm in full review)
- The screen rotation sometimes doesn’t quite work as it should as seen in the hands-on video above.
- It’s not cheap, selling for over $300. I feel it’s a little overpriced.
More on this model soon! Gearbest has it listed for $359.
Sigfred
If anybody is interested they have it in stock at Geekbuying for $345 with protective case
azim miechal
GPD laptop rumors out there….and Chris please add your new upcoming tablet review list…..i want to buy z8750 dual boot tablet or powerful dual boot tablet…
Paul M
thanks for the review.
I’m a big fan of the UMPC form, and the lack of any devices has been disappointing.
Sadly I really wanted one of these, because it seemed like a cool device to have for on the go computing, but I have now concluded it’s too much of a compromise by having the game control features.
You could use the same shell but fit a larger screen and a more regular keyboard without the gaming controls and get something more generically useful, but then lose the gamer/emulator market which would lose the volume sales needed.
BHW
Hello Chris,
In your video around 13:04 about the screen rotation, the gyro sensor is in the chassis, therefore if you only flip the screen, it is not going to rotate
Do you know if there will be a dual boot version?
r0b0c0p
Amazed it has a fan! Really wasn’t expecting that but maybe there’s no other option in that tiny form factor with that processor. I was really looking forward to seeing how this was as I have the previous XD model (fanless Android, no keyboard), but the fan is a deal breaker. I am trying to go totally fanless as I think that is one if the major benefits of these SOC devices. Quite a unique device and good attempt though, maybe later iterations will be more attractive at that kind of price.
Fco Javier
There is an interesting alternative, much more powerful: The Smach Z. The kickstarter campaing finished recently, and the first units are scheduled for April. The specifications are:
– CPU: AMD Merlin Falcon RX-421BD (12-15w) SoC at 2.1 GHz
– Cores: 4/4
– iGPU: Radeon R7 at 800 MHz
– RAM: 4GB (SMACH Z) || 8GB (SMACH Z PRO) DDR4 2133 MHz
– HD: 64GB (SMACH Z) || 128GB (SMACH Z PRO)
– Screen: 6” FULL HD (1920×1080). Capacitive touch-screen.
– Battery: 5 hours of gaming.
– MicroSD Card Slot.
– USB 3.0 type C.
– HDMI video output connection.
– Wi-Fi connectivity 5.0 Ghz. 4G LTE mobile network connectivity (PRO model only)
– Bluetooth connectivity.
– Front-camera 3-megapixels (PRO model only)
Kickstarter campaing: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smachteam/smach-z-the-handheld-gaming-pc
r0b0c0p
Looks awesome, a premium product at a premium price no doubt.
BHW
Very good specs
but no more pocket size
Pete
Good review!
Reminds me a little of the old Toshiba Libretto. 🙂
David
I ended up selling mine. I got it for emails while out, and it was terrible. As a gaming machine, it was fun for a bit. Broforce works well, as did several other older games.
Putting any games on the SD Card gives a terrible lag. It goes to sleep after 10 seconds and needs to wake up for every read. Placing Steam games on the card created slow gaming. I used a USB thumb drive for most of my games.
All-in-all, I liked the device. I didn’t find any practical use for it though. Sold it and picked up a small Chromebook for emails while out. Much happier.
Chris G
I’m not sure I’ll keep it. I couldn’t imagine typing emails on it, just good for a few lines of text. That’s about it. Seems it has a few bugs, did you also have issues with the accelerometer and the screen rotation?
David
I disabled screen rotation in Windows as soon as it started flipping around. Once disabled, it was fine. Never had any issues after. Other than the rotation issues, I didn’t use the accelerometer.
I was also lucky that I didn’t have a unit that was crashing. I played several games with it. It got really hot, really fast though. Made playing long term too difficult. If you look at the tear-downs, the fan is poorly placed and not well designed. It just blows down on the heat plate on the end of it. It can be counter productive at times.
I used a USB thumb drive in the unit, but the USB placement is poor. Most drives stick out too much to allow the screen to open fully. That makes the SD Card sleep issue to be much bigger than it should be.
Chris G
I’ve just tested out Skyrim and it runs on lowest setting 720p. But I see what you mean about the heat, it warms up after about 5 minutes of gameplay even with the fan on high. I’ll have to check the max temps. So far I can’t really see the use in keeping it. Thanks for the tip, when the screen was correct way up I disabled rotation now it’s fine.
BHW
Chris,
Would you please try your Type C hub on the GPD Win, see if one pluge solution works to turn this UMPC to a desktop?
by the way the gyro sensor is in the chassis, therefore if you only flip the screen, it is not going to rotate.
Thank you very much
Chris G
Also as a previous owner can you please cast a vote at least at the top right of the page. A number out of 10. I see someone as already rated it 7.3.
David
Done. I put it at a 6.3. While it is decent little emulation device, the specific use, high price and list of issues make it something that I wouldn’t recommend. There are also several devices, like the GPD XD, that make just as good emulation devices. If the price were lower, some of the faults could be forgiven. In my case, it wasn’t for me.
Chris G
Thanks for the rating. Looks like I’ll be rating it around that mark too. So far I’m not really into as much as I thought I would be. The one thing that bothers me is the triggers, they feel so flimsy for the price. And the fan noise/heat. This wasn’t cheap and after taxes I paid all up about $400 USD for this….Argh throwing away more money. At least gaming on it is the best part, the rest however very annoying, the screen is just too small.