By Liyo Kikon
This one is for the gamer on the go, the kind of gamer who want to play real games instead of mobile games, the gamer who wants to say “I got Skyrim in my pocket!”. The GPD (GamePad Digital) Win is a portable PC powerhouse which runs a full 64 Bit Windows 10 on a device the size of a Nintendo DS. Sure, there are lots of other small companies which produce portable PC and there have been lots of portable PCs in the past but the GPD shines simply because of the fact that it can run high end games on such a small device. It comes with a 5.5 inch IPS multi touch Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display with a resolution of 1280×270 and pixel count of 267ppi, which is more than enough for such a small device and since it packs a punch with the Intel Atom Cherry Trail x7-Z8700 Quad Core Processor running at 1.6GHz and turbo boost upto 2.4GHz, it can run almost any game you throw at it. Sure, you will certainly have to lower the graphics quality to get good frame rate, since it only has the Intel HD graphics, but that’s not much of a deal breaker simply because of the fact that the screen is not large enough for you to notice much difference in the first place.
When you flip open the GPD, the first thing you notice is the full qwerty keyboard. Even though the keys are a tad too small, they work as you would expect them to. Just above they keyboard is a pair of joysticks, a D-Pad and ABXY game controls, needless to say, anyone can easily tell that this device is meant for gaming. They joysticks have a few tricks up its sleeve since they can be toggled to perform different tasks using the switch in the middle, there are three modes – D Input, Mouse and X Input. The D Input is generally used for playing older games, the X Input is the one commonly used for almost all modern games and the Mouse mode will turn the joystick into a mouse which you can use to navigate around. In mouse mode, the right joystick will move the cursor around while the left joystick acts as a scroll wheel which anyone can quickly get used to. There are L1, L2, R1 and R2 Buttons on the top of the device just like an X-Box controller and even though most people say that they are flimsy, they can last a long time and again, they work! The L3 and R3 buttons are just on the right side of the front keyboard, along with the power button, a dedicated X-Box button, volume buttons and other buttons. The GPD has all the keys to run just about anything. Apart from the buttons and keys, there are several ports such as a full standard USB Type-A which you can use to connect external keyboard and mouse if you want, or other devices such as pen drives. It also has one USB Type-C which is primarily used for charging the device and this supports fast charge as well, an HDMI C-Type connector for you to connect to an external monitor or television, a 3.5mm standard audio jack for your headphones and an expandable memory slot which supports upto 128 GB TF card. Internally, this device has a memory of 64 GB where you install the operating system, along with most softwares and games, but it is reported that even if you install games on the TF card, they still run smoothly! That’s a bonus indeed. And even though the GPD only has 4GB DDR3 memory, it can run most games smoothly. For example, Skyrim at moderate graphics settings, run at around 40fps. The battery on this device is another matter, it has a 6700mAH battery and surprisingly, it can last for around 2 hours while playing heavy games and it generally lasts around 6 hours or more if you are just surfing the web or watching some videos. With Bluetooth 4.1 and 802.11 WiFi, you need not worry about connectivity, it’s like the guys who built the GPD thought of everything!
At this point it is obvious to see that this device is tailored for a specific group of people, it is meant for the gamer on the go. Sure the tagline on the GPD official website says that this is “A laptop fitting in your pocket”, and since this tiny device can run a full Windows 10 out of the box, I’d say that this can certainly replace the conventional laptop for some users but the main thing is that this is a gaming machine and since it can run most games, it’s definitely not a gimmick. There is a new campaign for another GPD on indigogo, but that one does not have the joysticks and it might be the one for you but the GPD Win is available today on most online stores for around Rs. 25,000.
