Posted January 25, 2018
Being an earniest handheld fan since the beginning of noughties, and owner of few GPD Android gaming handheld in my collection, I've had to skip on first iteration of this device back in 2016 because of my personal money problems back then, but when I was at imaginary crossroad last December, thinking what's to get for my upcoming birthday in January, I made my choice for this upcoming Windows 10 handheld over Nintendo Switch (which is amazing device as well, yet it doesn't have a big and interesting enough game library for me at the moment). So I backed (among the first) GPD Win 2 campaign at Indiegogo, which started 15th January, preordering my unit for a limited price of $599, and so far almost 2500 devices was preordered for just ten days of campaign, with anticipated pre-market delivery by late April/May.
GPD Win 2 is a full-fledged Windows 10 Home x64 laptop with inbuild gaming controls of the size of small 7" tablet, highly portable and hands friendly. It's a solid upgrade of GPD Win 1, with most of shortcomings of the first model were removed after the feedback from users community, while most of requested improvements and new features for a next device from end-users were taken into account before its developement had started. It's running x64 PC games up to Doom (2016), Wolfenstein 2 and Fallout 4, although some of most demanding games (including Fallout 4 and unfortunately The Witcher 3) has to be setted on lowest setting/smaller resolution and maybe some optional low-res patches/mods should be applied to get a playable FPS. But most of games of yesteryears it will run great even on high/highest settings! In addition to the PC games and customary office/web/media tasks, GPD Win 2 is also capable of the widest emulation than any other portable device in the world these days, it plays everything from NES and old home computers up to PSP, NDS, PS2, Game Cube, Wii and selected games from PS3 & Wii U. Latter capabilites possibly gave the GPD Win 2 an unprecedent interest from Japanese gamers, noticeable amount of Indiegogo campaign backers at the moment is from Japan and Asia.
Unfortunately, everything has its price and in case of GPD Win 2, its price is not as tiny as device's size, but for an obvious reasons - most of its specs were more than doubled in comparission with GPD win 1:
• CPU was changed from Atom X7 Z8 Z8750 to Core M3-7Y30, giving a 2.2~2.5 times boost in performance of latest PC games;
• RAM was doubled (from 4GB to 8GB), with improved bus frequency and dual channel feature;
• internal storage was changed from eMMC to an easily replacable M2.2248 SSD, which also means increased speed of system boot and performance in games, making possible to upgrade its pre-istalled 128 GB drive for an up to 512 GB one (and possibly for more, if there will be more spacious SSD drives of that form-factor in the future);
• SD slot's speed was incread up to 4 times;
• Win 2 screen stays at 720p but its size was slighly increased (5.5" to 6") to give the device more polished look, and newer generation of Corning Gorilla Glass was implemented to ensure its longevity and protection against scratches;
• battery was increased from 6900 to 2x4900 mAh, with new design of battery compartment making easier for its replacement and GPD promises to sell replacement batteries via shop after the device's release, power system was optimized for using power direct from the source when Win 2 is on charging (full charge cycle is 2.5 hours, working time is 2 hours on high load, but 6~8 hours in conventional tasks, also it may be greatly improved by lowering TDP in bios/XTU utility), and Win 2 may be used as powerbank for other portable devices;
• heatsink system was greatly improved after feedback on GPD Win 1, in results it's much quieter and more effective and the device is getting only noticeably warm in most hardest conditions as opprosed to almost unbearably hot in case of GPD Win 1;
• keyboard was reworked for a better ergonomics and response, and two additional triggers (L3/R3) were added on the back bottom of Win 2.
GPD decided to give the device premium design so third-party acclaimed design team from Germany was involved in designing Win 2. In his recent interview for Japanese press, president of GPD stated its personal proudness in the device's design and concept, claiming that by making GPD Win 1 and Win 2 the company is trying to establish itself as a world brand.
GPD Win 2 comes with pre-installed Windows 10 Home x64 OS (activation key is provided in the box), but it's also supports Linux installation and, probably, optimised Android distributive is coming somewhere in the future as well.
There are just few people in the world that got the prototype of GPD Win 2 for a reviews at the moment, but they're making a steady flow of videos about the device and games running on it, so please check these Youtube channels for more info:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePhawx/videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnDsmgMnCn0XZvGIM9yrXg/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/Deen0X/videos
More info may also be obtained on these forums and GPD Win fan-sites:
https://boards.dingoonity.org/gpd-windows-devices/
http://forum.gpd.hk/f20-gpd-win-2
https://www.facebook.com/4GPDWin/
https://discordapp.com/channels/243411108940087297/313060408170905601
In case if you'd like to preorder your GPD Win 2 for a special price of $649 (tentative retail price when device will be released on market in August is expected to be $899), don't waste your time because there is limited number of units available for that level of price, and all of them are expected to gone in a week or two.
https://igg.me/at/gpdwin2/x/4767665
GPD Win 2 is a full-fledged Windows 10 Home x64 laptop with inbuild gaming controls of the size of small 7" tablet, highly portable and hands friendly. It's a solid upgrade of GPD Win 1, with most of shortcomings of the first model were removed after the feedback from users community, while most of requested improvements and new features for a next device from end-users were taken into account before its developement had started. It's running x64 PC games up to Doom (2016), Wolfenstein 2 and Fallout 4, although some of most demanding games (including Fallout 4 and unfortunately The Witcher 3) has to be setted on lowest setting/smaller resolution and maybe some optional low-res patches/mods should be applied to get a playable FPS. But most of games of yesteryears it will run great even on high/highest settings! In addition to the PC games and customary office/web/media tasks, GPD Win 2 is also capable of the widest emulation than any other portable device in the world these days, it plays everything from NES and old home computers up to PSP, NDS, PS2, Game Cube, Wii and selected games from PS3 & Wii U. Latter capabilites possibly gave the GPD Win 2 an unprecedent interest from Japanese gamers, noticeable amount of Indiegogo campaign backers at the moment is from Japan and Asia.
Unfortunately, everything has its price and in case of GPD Win 2, its price is not as tiny as device's size, but for an obvious reasons - most of its specs were more than doubled in comparission with GPD win 1:
• CPU was changed from Atom X7 Z8 Z8750 to Core M3-7Y30, giving a 2.2~2.5 times boost in performance of latest PC games;
• RAM was doubled (from 4GB to 8GB), with improved bus frequency and dual channel feature;
• internal storage was changed from eMMC to an easily replacable M2.2248 SSD, which also means increased speed of system boot and performance in games, making possible to upgrade its pre-istalled 128 GB drive for an up to 512 GB one (and possibly for more, if there will be more spacious SSD drives of that form-factor in the future);
• SD slot's speed was incread up to 4 times;
• Win 2 screen stays at 720p but its size was slighly increased (5.5" to 6") to give the device more polished look, and newer generation of Corning Gorilla Glass was implemented to ensure its longevity and protection against scratches;
• battery was increased from 6900 to 2x4900 mAh, with new design of battery compartment making easier for its replacement and GPD promises to sell replacement batteries via shop after the device's release, power system was optimized for using power direct from the source when Win 2 is on charging (full charge cycle is 2.5 hours, working time is 2 hours on high load, but 6~8 hours in conventional tasks, also it may be greatly improved by lowering TDP in bios/XTU utility), and Win 2 may be used as powerbank for other portable devices;
• heatsink system was greatly improved after feedback on GPD Win 1, in results it's much quieter and more effective and the device is getting only noticeably warm in most hardest conditions as opprosed to almost unbearably hot in case of GPD Win 1;
• keyboard was reworked for a better ergonomics and response, and two additional triggers (L3/R3) were added on the back bottom of Win 2.
GPD decided to give the device premium design so third-party acclaimed design team from Germany was involved in designing Win 2. In his recent interview for Japanese press, president of GPD stated its personal proudness in the device's design and concept, claiming that by making GPD Win 1 and Win 2 the company is trying to establish itself as a world brand.
GPD Win 2 comes with pre-installed Windows 10 Home x64 OS (activation key is provided in the box), but it's also supports Linux installation and, probably, optimised Android distributive is coming somewhere in the future as well.
There are just few people in the world that got the prototype of GPD Win 2 for a reviews at the moment, but they're making a steady flow of videos about the device and games running on it, so please check these Youtube channels for more info:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePhawx/videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnDsmgMnCn0XZvGIM9yrXg/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/Deen0X/videos
More info may also be obtained on these forums and GPD Win fan-sites:
https://boards.dingoonity.org/gpd-windows-devices/
http://forum.gpd.hk/f20-gpd-win-2
https://www.facebook.com/4GPDWin/
https://discordapp.com/channels/243411108940087297/313060408170905601
In case if you'd like to preorder your GPD Win 2 for a special price of $649 (tentative retail price when device will be released on market in August is expected to be $899), don't waste your time because there is limited number of units available for that level of price, and all of them are expected to gone in a week or two.
https://igg.me/at/gpdwin2/x/4767665
Post edited January 28, 2018 by DremPSB