Topic: GPD Win 2: The Most Powerful Handheld Ever Made

Given that I'm stuck with handhelds for a while and I refuse to buy a gaming laptop I'll be following the news for this.

It's not meant to be anything other than a niche product, it seems.

But I would never ever ever waste my money on a gaming laptop.

Yeah, it'll push a few games into the realms of being playable, but there were plenty already there and plenty more that still won't be. That 2.2x improvement is extremely unlikely to apply across the board either, as they'll just be showing the games with the most dramatic improvement - presumably where the main bottleneck was the single-threaded CPU performance - and to get to that level the games are still going to need similar amounts of tweaking. To put it another way, I certainly don't get twice the frame rate when playing games on an i5 tablet versus the original Win on all but a tiny fraction of games.

Never say never. I used to think the same way too, as up until a year or so back gaming laptops were heavy, power hungry beasts that lacked portability, had terrible battery lives and were ill suited for anything else you might want to use a laptop computer for. However, times change and they're pretty much like regular laptops now, only a little more expensive and coming in garish designs.

The GPD Win 2, on the other hand, isn't going to be much good for anything but playing games on. Still, it'll fit in your pocket and isn't really that expensive for something that comes with an instant library of over a thousand games, for me at least; you could maybe get a Switch and six full price games for the same money. Whether it's the right choice for you is another matter though.

Tbh Gaming Laptop, even though you said it's laptop... it's not that portable at all. I won't dream of using my own to play like, on a couch or something.

But laptop in general has their own uses (I'm really sick of being told "JUST GET A DESKTOP MAN". Yes, yes, I know desktop is cheaper in general but dude, I pick laptop because I still come home and back to my current place. A lot. I don't want to lug desktop around for that, and I might still move...)

Back to GPD, to be honest I see it as interesting thing, even though it's still too pricy for now Really more interested to see it more as emulating device though

So, looks like DOOM is running at 507p. Thought I'd clarify since he posted an update on the res that I missed.

It looks like it's better than that from the video, so when people were saying he said it was 720p on another video I didn't think twice about it... but I guess so did the Switch version in hindsight. But that's also vanilla settings out of the box, no dynamic res drops, and the full brunt of normal low settings rather than sub-low. So it's tit for tat, really. I think the switch version and handheld runs just below 600p, but not as good frame rate and lower settings, and dynamic res.

But it does bring expectations in line for Wolfenstein 2. I'm hoping with following a few guides to optimize settings, 610p could be achieved. And I've always held that 610p looks close enough to 720 that there's really not a big difference.

More than double the cost of the Switch. It had better be more powerful. But from what you are describing the device is built around running emulators and pirated copies of games. Seems like it has very limited native game support. Not to mention the control layout looks terrible.

@Heavyarms55
It's going to be expensive, yes. Enthusiasts only.

But no. Emulators are only one part of it. Although they're a big part. Never in the history of video games have GameCube and Wii and PS2 been fully playable on a handheld.

TONS of PC games run on this. Think over 10,000 games ran on the first one, this will be much more.

Pretty much any PC game in the history of PC games will run, barring current gen demanding games. And even then some of those will run too.

In the review done by The Phawx, he states it's like "his dream handheld come true". Way more comfy than the first, which was already considerably more comfortable than a 3DS.

Probably even more comfy than a Vita.

So, more comfortable than previous handhelds. 1000x more games. Full 6th gen emulator support. Only cost for all that awesomeness is the price. But make no mistake, this thing blows other handhelds out of the water. Are you gonna pay for it? Ya. But it's clearly more comfy, with more games, with more support with Dolphin and PS2 and PSP, it's superior in practically every single way.

If you can afford it, of course. But if you can... man. Hooo boy this thing is gonna rock it (But anyone with a STEAM library already has a full spread of games, so the money saved by already having a full collection plus purchasing on STEAM during sales and getting on both PC and a handheld with cloud save support makes it basically like Switch. Play at home on TV, take with on the go, only in more portable form and twice the battery life And a crap ton of games Switch will never get)

Not saying it's necessarily better than Switch but... price aside there's no denying how incredible this is. I, for one, will have a case which fits both. Hybrid play is where it's at. And this will effectively serve as a second hybrid

@JaxonH I still have serious doubts that it will live up to your expectations.

I've been sold on the idea of this for years, possibly more than a decade. Still too expensive but....

It's an impressive device but for $600+, it will remain niche. Not the best bang for the buck for portable gaming.

I think it's overpriced, but a lot of that money is made back via a complete STEAM library that you'll likely already have waiting on day one.

Even those without massive STEAM libraries, if one were to invest in a GPD Win 2 along with PC, you get the same "buy once, get console + handheld" you get with Switch games. Which is an incredible value in my opinion. I think I switch version of the game is preferable simply because it's all on one single device that's just easier to transition between. Even so, The value is still there.

A device like this one could look very tempting at first glance and it is very tempting in fact, at least until you begin to think about how much immediate its use can be compared to a console. It is still a PC that works like a PC, nothing could ever convince me that using it can be as fast, pleasant and cool as a real console and even if it was for now will it be the same once updates (intended for a generic computer not for this specific device) will begin to come one after the other?
Lol.
It seems exciting but not everything is what it seems and this thing definitely is not for sure.

It's arrived!!!

Had to swap out the SSD for a 512gb, add a 400gb micro SD and a 256gb USB that barely bumps out from the back. Now I'm downloading all my STEAM games.

I gotta say, this thing is way nicer than I expected. Super high quality. Playing Portal 2 and it looks so gorgeous. Think that game could run on the first Win but, still, it's been a dream of mine to have that game portable for so long...

Will be posting some pics this evening after work.

Wow this thing looks pretty awesome, never knew something like this existed. Very interested to hearing more impressions @jaxonh

Ditto 👍

This this is absolutely amazing! Running Dragons Dogma, Valkyria Chronicles, Ori and the Blind Forest, Batman Arkham Asylum and City, and 100 other games in my STEAM library.

Super high quality, and it just works as intended. Switches back and forth between mouse mode and controller mode. Gets hot on the tiny removable cover where the SSD is on the back, but aside from that its practically perfect

That D-Pad really doesn't look like its ergonomic.Nor do the face buttons. Too far in.

@JaxonH how are the controls in practice. Seeing pics of it, especially the bumpers/triggers looks like it may be uncomfortable for longer periods. How are you finding them so far?