Smach Z Steam Handheld

Anyone seen this?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smachteam/smach-z-the-first-handheld-steam-machine

Looks pretty good albeit bulky, apparently they're claiming it can run Witcher 2, Metro Last Light and Borderlands 2 so should be able to handle anything from last gen if their claims are true. The also list Gamecube/Wii and PS2 emulation.

Specs:
AMD embedded G-Series SoC (formerly codenamed "Steppe Eagle") with "Jaguar"-based CPU and GCN-based Radeon™ graphics with 2 GB of dedicated GPU RAM.

• 4 GB RAM memory (8 GB on PRO model)
• 64 GB* internal memory (128 GB on PRO model)
• MicroSD Card Slot.
• 5-inch Touch screen with 1080p** resolution.
• USB 3.0 type C
• Configurable tactile gamepads.
• HDMI video output connection.
• Wi-Fi connectivity 5.0 Ghz
• Bluetooth connectivity.
• 4G mobile network connectivity (PRO model only).

* Only if the Stretch Goal is achieved, otherwise: 32GB.

** Only if the Stretch Goal is achieved, otherwise: 720p.

Concerns for me are the comparatively low 64gb internal storage (which could be 32gb if they don't meet their goals) and the ability of the APU to actually run those games decently. So far there's no actual footage of games running on it so hopefully they're not basing it's capability on AMD's promotional material.

Also if the AMD G series does turn out to be as good as they claim then hopefully we'll see some pretty low cost subnotebooks and tablets that can do last-gen gaming in the near future. Anyone have an idea of how powerful the quad core version of the G series is?

EDIT:
From looking at the Kickstarter comments they seem to think the 8gb Pro version will run Fallout 4, looks like these guys don't really do PC gaming.....

 

Well considering they're only about 15% funded and have 33 days left, unless this catches on like wild fire, I don't see it happening. And I don't see what meeting a stretch goal has to do with how much RAM it has. Either they offer it or they don't, it's like any device with extra storage or RAM.

 

Having looked a bit more in to it this is looking like a failure already. After being told their APU wouldn't be able to play the more demanding games they're claiming they apparently now have a super secret new one from AMD and are under an NDA.

There's also no video of a prototype, just a dev board hooked up to a 5" screen. The Fallout 4 line raised my eyebrows the most though, surely they can't be serious?

Hmmmm.......

 

It's definitely not confidence inspiring.

 

The PS4/XB1 SoC always seemed like a prime candidate for a same spec handheld once the die shrunk, but that was console versions.

...is more than a 720p really necessary for a 5" screen?

 

I'm surprised they haven't made the Xbox 360 or PS3 on a handheld with emulation.

 

Given the PS3's oddball architecture, I have a feeling it will be many years before even desktop hardware would be powerful enough to emulate it.

 

Maybe so, but Xbox 360 at least. I mean these things are ten year old technology, actually it was slightly aged ten year old technology. Seems you could emulate it fairly efficiently to match X360 performance at 720p with a low powered CPU and GPU.

 

It's not quite that simple. We've only recently entered the age where sixth-generation console (PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast) emulation is viable, but it's not anywhere near perfect. I've been tinkering with the DEmul Dreamcast emulator, and while it's certainly playable on my Zotac Zbox, it's far from ideal. You really need a good quad-core CPU and GPU to get the best performance and visual/audio fidelity.

 

Looks like they'll be using a 15w Soc with the HD8330E so no Witcher 2 or Metro Redux. May be able to run Borderlands on low settings. That's if it gets funded and they can actually produce it, both of which look unlikely at the moment (especially the latter).

I heard on the grapevine that GPD are looking to make a Cherry Trail handheld with their XD shell which is basically a New 3DS XL with a full set of controls in lieu of a bottom screen. I have the Android XD and it's extremely well made so hopefully we'll have a nice clamshell Windows console with great controls and a superb screen hitting the market soon.

Also Steelseries are releasing their XL controller for Windows which is the first controller to support Xinput over bluetooth which is great news for tablet gaming.

I just want to play Fallout 3 on the toilet!

 

Hmmmm......
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8330.92874.0.html

 

That'd be the first GPD product I'd want. @lemmywinks Any dates given?

 

It was just a rumour from someone who works closely with them, apparently they are considering making a Windows XD. GPD are quite active on forums and do listen to what their market wants (for instance they replaced the rubbish analog nubs on the Q9 with Vita sticks) and there has been demand for a Windows handheld recently.

I have the 64gb XD and it's great, everything about it gives me confidence that they could do a Windows handheld properly. Hopefully they go through with it, I'd buy one straight away.

 

You just want what to fall out on the toilet?

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

 

The doctor said I need more fibre in my diet but I think buying a Windows handheld is a much more sensible option.

Looks like the Smach Z team have canned the Kickstarter campaign anyway, to be fair they seem to have realised where they went wrong unlike pretty much every other failed crowdfunding effort out there. They're sourcing private funding so they aren't solely reliant on backers' money and are looking to get a working prototype up to benchmark some games before trying again. Pretty much all my favourite games are old school (well some from last gen) PC titles so something like this still interests me, it's too big really but if it beats the equivalent Atom at the time of release then it could be tempting.

 

Atom works fine for me. Even a tablet with controls would work. I'm looking into that Asus vivo stick for portability but I can't find anywhere to order it.

 

Yeah, the fact that you can play games like Tomb Raider at about 30 FPS, granted 800x450 low detail, on the Transfomer T100TA with a 2-4W Atom is incredible. With newer tech and slightly higher TDP should be able to manage 720p 30fps at medium details fine. It would be nice to have a 8-10W TDP CPU with focus on iGPU like in the consoles, and be able to play a large library of PC games. Maybe not the latest and greatest AAA titles, but most anything else should play great. Just need a great configurable controller.

Here's Tomb Raider on T100TA

 

I was actually considering the T100HA, (updated version) but I really want to wait for one with physical controls on the sides. I hate having to take my controller with me everywhere as well, and there's no USB port on it. I am not counting the C because it's so under-utilized so far.

Edit: I would actually like to use the Steam controller with it- it's versatility to be a mouse as well is amazing and I've found it very useful - too bad i'd need an adapter.

 

Oh, and while on the subject of "altenative gaming devices", I am saddened that the Snail W3D has seemingly disappeared from Amazon's site... I was looking into that phone a bit, and I thought I might've wanted it.

 

Well there is a Cherry Trail clone of the Razer Edge, the Linx Vision tablet for £149.99:
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...7139!&ef_id=VgweAgAAAFZdVuAj:20151224015318:s


It's got looks only a mother could love though, probably the worst inspiration for a clone ever. They should have done a Wikipad clone.


@Templesa - the Snail phones look nice but they'll be expensive for pretty low performance devices. If you want an Android console then go for an XD, I've had a few JXDs and GPDs as well as DIngoos and PSPs and the XD beats them all.

 

got cancelled! HA!

 

Sorry for off topic, but did you by any chance tried playing Pillars Of Eternity on T100. Wonder how would it run on T100.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong though, Lemmy, the GPD's do not have cell service. That's why the interest was in the Snail.
I wasn't even aware of that clone. Are there any other interesting devices like that floating around?

 

No GPD haven't made a gamephone, there are a few knocking about though.

JXD S5800:
http://www.jxdofficial.com/jxd-s5800-3g-phone-game-console-302.html
Careful with used ones as they had a serious hardware bug where some buttons were linked, the newer ones are meant to be great.

Much W1 / Ireadygo 78P01:
http://www.banggood.com/MUCH-78P01-...ndroid-4_2-Phone-Gamepad-Tablet-p-989973.html

Much G2:
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/MUCH...tion-Game-Player-Smartphone-Black-324654.html
Review here: http://manguiro.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/review-ireadygo-much-g2-quad-core-5.html

Much i5:
http://manguiro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/review-phablet-console-much-i5-quad.html

Snail were also meant to be bringing out a non-3D gaming phone but this has also gone off the radar. You should be able to find most of the others on reseller sites and AliExpress though, Banggood had Much on sale a few months ago. Perhaps the one that interested me the most was the Much G2 as it resembles a traditional phone with limited gaming capabilities which is something that suits me more, I don't think Deenox liked it much though in his review.

 

GPD have released some renders of their initial design based on customer feedback just now, it's looking like a great device IMO. If anybody is interested and has anything to add then I can point them in this direction, they do listen to their market and this has the potential to be a great little gaming handheld.





So far people on other forums have specified 64gb internal storage, xinput and a switchable right analog mouse mode. These seem like the most important things to me. Looks like they'll be using Vita sticks like on the XD.
If there's interest on here then I'll start a new thread for it and leave this one for the Smach Z if it gets off the ground. Let me know what you guys think, I'm already setting some money aside for one!

 

They released the specs for the GPD-Win;
x5 Z8500
4GB RAM
USB 3.1
Rest is pretty standard.

 

Hi. Some update for this device.

There will be a "base" (standard) device version:
Current known specs are:
Processor: X5 Z8500, but with chances to be updated to Z8550
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB
USB 3.0 (Full Size)
USB Type-C (Fast charge and data)
Screen: 5.5" IPS, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
MicroHDMI Output
MicroSD slot (up to 128GB)
Headphones port
BIG heat sink (passive cooling system)
First release is within Windows 10 Home, but most proably GPD will release a firmware to download with dualOS for manual flashing (Android and Windows)
Battery 6000 mAh
Price: Suggested about 300 usd/275€ aprox

there is another "Pro" version that GPD is considering:
Main differences are on RAM and storage:
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128GB

And there is another "lite" version that GPD is considering:
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 32GB

maybe they can consider another version, but this is not commented by them:
Plus version:
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 64GB

The form factor will be based on current GPD-XD device (Clamshell form factor)

Zalu2!

 

I just saw this and I have to ask... Whaaaat?!

My M17xR1 with a Q9000 and 260M GTX was able to play Playstation 2 games via PCSX2 at full upscale 1080p with 3-5x native resolution flawlessly on most games (Suikoden had some serious issues that even affect my Haswell machines), Chankast was liquid smooth back all the way to Windows 2000, PPSSPP was liquid smooth for PSP emulation... Seriously that machine was bought in 2009 and I ran HDMI to my TV without issue with anything (I didn't try Reicast or nullDC and Chancast doesn't work on modern hardware). I was also able to run GameCube games with Dolphin although in that case the speed was not constant.

Either way, that machine was able to run emulators with graphics filters and AA that made the game look like a AAA title without running 10FPS like a AAA title would.

Xbox emulation has never been done successfully. The only working Xbox emulator can only run Halo so it shouldn't count and Xenia's Xbox 360 emulation is... Ouch. They have games loading at least.

PS3... Yeah we won't see that one for a long long long time. I'd bet on a PS4 emulator before a PS3 emulator.

 

Official pics from the new device.

 

Just another render...



L3 and R3???????

question. is there any thread talking about this device? i'm looking for where to place these info, but i don´t find nothing...

 

Looks awesome. I'm ready to buy!

 

The port layout is hilarious. 'Micro HDMI' aka USB and USB aka Micro HDMI..

 

L3 and R3 are on the keyboard, on the right hand mini-keyboard part which has system buttons. Not the best place to put it for games where you need L3 to run etc.

Is the thread active on Dingoonity? Not much information on there these days but better than nothing. Not had much online time since the new year and kinda forgot about this. It's looking good though, will be looking at the 128gb version if everything goes well.

 

Yes, it's active. It's about ~40 pages now. Some very good info there. And the benefit is that they have Kenny who reports to the forums first! (GPD Employee for those wondering)

 

well, kendy reply from time on time...

 

Wll, finally we have final prices:
$299 on Indiegogo crowdfounding campaign
$499 on market release

 

Wow. I was seriously ready to place money down on this, but I don't know if I can lose 300 if the project flops and Indiegogo's aren't refunded. 200, maybe... If the price remained the same after launch I'd buy for sure.

 

Dead. In. The. Water...

No way people will pay that for those specs... my cell phone has better specs and I could buy a bluetooth keyboard.


Save your money. This one will flop.

 

I used to own a few UMPC's and the desire is there to own one again- in fact like I said, if it was refundable I'd be there immediately. Maybe it's nostalgia for a pocketable computer, but a bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth gamepad (both of which I already own) just doesn't compare to a full Windows machine that fits in the pocket.
Still, I have to sadly agree due to the price / refund status- save your money.

 

Well, i agree that the price is nonsense. I will not pay $499 for a device like this (almost, not with this SoC)

but, you cannot compare this project with a smartphone, no matter wich smartphone is, unless you get a full enabled Windows 10 smartphone, of course.

the main goal of this GPD-Win is... Windows. You can play Windows games, steam library, etc.
in fact yesterday i finished the Sleeping Dogs on my Teclast X89 (baytrail) + iPega 9023 gamepad, and the experience of playing this title on the subway was awesome.


(Note: the image on the device is full-screen. The HDMI output generate these black bands)

I want the same experience with something like GPD-Win... and you will not get the experience with Android/ios/windows mobile devices. (or almost, for now)

yes, there is needed a first step, but i think GPD is wrong with their way.

If they take their current GPD-XD device mold, replace the RockChip SoC by a Intel SoC (any intel, even a Baytrail will be fine) without generating a new mold (that is so expensive) then they maybe offer a very interesting product to the market.

maybe, a second step would be this GPD-Win, a micro-Notebook that fits into your (big) pocket.
This second step may come with some improvements such a better SoC, keyboard, more RAM, etc, etc.

anyway... the best thing we can expect with this is that other manufacturers pay attention to this market, and offer other products with better prices. GPD is the cutting edge of this kind of products, but i really hope that they will not be the only choice.

 

I'd be more interested if Intel offered a unique Atom chip with greatly improved GPU capability (like 1000MHz core and small amount of dedicated vRAM), 8GB RAM, and the device supported at least a 42mm M.2 SSD's. eMMC is garbage. GPD-Win hasn't even achieved $8k of it's $100k goal.

 

they have two months for achieve $100000
I think they really can achieve easy (about 340 units)

 

Hello,everyone.This is Lisa form GPD company.We are a company is specialized in the design and manufacture
of video games consoles.And we all have a dream to make a portable handheld PC/Gaming consoles based on
Windows system.so we make GPD WIN.We made a campaign on INDIEGOGO for GPD WIN.Hope you can support us and
keep it going!!Any concerns,just be free to let me know.Thanks so much!

 

@LISA77 Is that a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port?

 

Thanks so much for your kind concerns and support!!GPD WIN have two USB port.one is Micro USB(USB 2.0),one is the UAB type A(USB 3.0).

 

Thanks! That sounds great. So you could use it with a small USB 3.0 flash drive for storage instead of MicroSD, something like this: http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-128GB-SDCZ43-128G-G46-Version/dp/B00YFI1EBC



Could have much better transfer speeds.

 

I would've preferred the x7-8700 or 8750 minimum- at least we'd get the 4 extra GPU cores.

I'd like a 450mhz base clock with 16mb of vRAM (certain 15w i5's now have 64mb so this doesn't seem too unrealistic) and boost to 700mhz with 20/24 GPU cores for the next top Atom SOC. That'd make one hell of a little gaming go machine.

 

In the Indigogo page comments they mention they are looking to source Z8550 instead of 8500, and likely to happen. They mention Z8700/50 maybe in the future but not happening in first version. But the Z8550 only boosts 160MHz more than Z8500 based on specs, not sure if there's any other advantages, really.

I ended up contributing, because for $300 you get a nice little compact foldable Windows laptop, and for the price I think the specs are spot on. For $500 they better offer it with Z8700 or Z8750 and 8GB RAM and 128GB eMMC storage. That's a huge hike, and only way I would buy one for $500.

I'm thinking of buying one for each of my kids too, because they're more likely to play games that don't require a lot of power. But I'm hesitant to put $900 up for chance in case they don't come through, as opposed to just $300. But then again I don't know that I'd pay $500 each either.

 

I'm willing at this point to wait out a 3/4ths funding. If they can do that I'll put my money down (and I expect others will too the closer it gets to fully funded to ensure they can get their device)

Edit: The 8550 is said to have better thermals, better clock speed, some graphics fixes (Alpha Blending and ASTC issues) and they rename the GPU's to fall in line with Intel's strategy (HD 400 and HD 405 for 12/16 GPU cores respectively)

 

Kendy. did you updated indiegogo page with that the USB Type-A will be replaced by USB Type-C?