Android-based ODROID handheld available for pre-order
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Sep 29th 2009 1:06PM
posted Sep 29th 2009 1:06PM
Hard Kernel has just announced that the developer version of the ODROID Android-powered portable gaming device is available for pre-order as of today. The device features an 833MHz Samsung S5PC100 processor (same as the iPhone 3GS), 512MB of RAM, and a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen. Sadly, there's no integrated 3G, but WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and mini-HDMI output is supported. The Android OS 1.5 runs off a 2GB TFlash card, with an 8GB SD card supplied for storage. Also included are a download/charger cable, serial console debugging board and batteries. Going for about $320, this bad boy is expected to ship on November 5th. If all goes well, you can expect to see a consumer version sometime in December for around $250.
[Via SlashGear]
[Via SlashGear]
Very nice!
Looking good. I just hope that Android is really a suitable platform for gaming.
It is technically quite capable, but so far the selection of games on it is pretty lacking. I wish a bigger company would make something similar (HTC or GamePark, for example) so that it would have some chance of fostering a development community to make half decent games on the platform.
@chefgon_ign: Really? That java -like (or java-based?) abstraction layer stuff that mostly prevents a firefox port to android had put me off on anything that needs low level access to the CPU/GPU...
yeah HTC should partner w SEGA on a mobile gaming device
Looks almost like someone photoshopped a screenshot onto a Wonderswan.
I thought the same thing. I saw the pic first and thought "what is Engadget doing with an article about Wonderswan"?
haha I thought the same thing!
Wonderswan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WonderSwan.jpg
Personally I preferred the Wonderswan to the GameBoy back in the day.
I somehow feel like I need one, but I'm not sure why. Kind of like an iPhone.... :)
It's mezmorizing
Or you could say it's indoctrinating.
I would rather have a pandora which will prolly from the production blogs be available at the same time or sooner
Ah Pandora... forever "coming soon".
I thought the Iphone had an ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor
Same thing. The CPU in question is made by Samsung, incorporating an ARM Cortex A8 core. (Remember, ARM doesn't make CPUs; they design the cores, and their licensees build chips including them.) The chip can do 833MHz, but the iPhone 3GS underclocks it at 600 MHz to save power.
It's Android on the Wonderswan!
They should have designed it in a half-circle and called it Hemi-Roid.
steroid.
I am an Android fanboi but I am also a fanboi of nicely designed stuff. $320 is a bit of money for something that looks disgusting. :(
Yeah looks abit cheap, like a small childs toy.
It's a development model, not a consumer model. It isn't supposed to be pretty.
Except for the Dev G1 . . . that thing was hot
http://www.loopygadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/google-g1.jpg
I guess I'm the only one who thinks it looks awful.
Which begs the question, where the hell is the fables icontrolpad?
*fabled*
The icontrolpad was supposed to be made by the same guys that make the "openPandora" gaming device.
But ... well. As we can see with the Pandora, they are not exactly fast ( Pre-order last year September 2008, and ... today, still no device ). They are so slow, that even a unknown company has been able to produce a gaming device, in a shorter timespan with more produced samples then the fabled Pandora. ;)
So, when they can not even release there own big product, don't expect to see a side product like the icontrolpad any time soon.
ya know, you can install mame on the G1 and save yourself a lot of money and not have a big old hunk of plastic taking up space in 2 years.
Argh, this comment system.
ya know, you can install mame on the G1 and save yourself a lot of money and not have a big old hunk of plastic taking up space in 2 years.
Yay for having to post this comment 6 times. WTF.
Put gps on there & sold :)
I have no idea why people would buy this things when their smart phone can do the same job.
Cause there is no smart phone with proper gaming controls, and when you game on a smart phone, you detract from it's abilities as a phone
I'm totally baffled by the button layout. At first, it looks like a good solution to provide a D-pad and four buttons in either vertical or horizontal layout.
Upon closer inspection, the lower (or right-hand) cluster of buttons next to the main D-pad are the Android system keys, including the Home button which is UNMAPPABLE to any game software. It is impossible in any Android program to map that cluster of buttons to four in-game actions, because the one labeled home will always quit back to the home screen. I'm not sure what the open circle is, but if it's the lock button then that's another key that cannot be locked by standard software (though it is technically possible with an invasive hack, I'd be surprised if I ever see a game developer do it).
Gees, and you guys harped on PSP Go for being too expensive.
Wonder... wonder... Wonderswan, nooooo!
Man, if they were going to base this on an obscure handheld, it should have been the Neo-Geo Pocket. It's still home of the best fighting games on the go!