Dingoo review

Got my hands on the Dingoo a few days ago and have had plenty of time to run it through the gauntlet. For an $85 portable machine designed to play tons of media files along with retro console/handheld games, it does a pretty good job. The system is small, performs well, has a good looking screen, and does a lot of things right out of the box. My main reason for grabbing one, though, was to play old games on a system I could slide into my pocket. I’m not rolling in the sun-drenched lens-flared awe that is Dingoo, but I feel like it was a good buy, especially since Pandora has yet to show itself to the world.

The Dingoo itself is tiny, about the size of an iPhone but thicker and a bit longer. It’s surprisingly lightweight and the screen sits behind a thin layer of plastic which creates a smooth appearance. The buttons are laid out just like a SNES controller with tiny little L and R triggers on the top. The bottom has two speakers, a slot for a mini-SD card, AV out, and a USB mini plug, while the right hand side has a reset/off switch and an awkwardly-placed headphone jack. Oh, and on the back it has a little paw print, Dingoo Digital’s logo, so there ya go.

The unit powers up within five seconds, which is a huge plus. The horizontal system menu is a lot like the one found on PSP, so just scroll around and see what you’d like to do. Games, music, movies, radio, sound recording, image viewing, etc., it’s all there for easy access. Most of my time was spent under the “Interesting games” selection, which apparently means “emulators”. Opening this up brings you to a simple file browser that lets you select your game and start playing right away. Simple, straightforward, and despite the awkward English translation in places, easy to understand.

Emulation for several systems is included out of the box, so, after loading a few ROMs, you can jump right in and play. Using the included USB cable and a PC, adding content is as simple as drag and drop, the Dingoo recognizes file types and uses the appropriate emulator on its own. Keeping everything organized is your own chore, which I actually like in a system. Screw you, iPod, and your auto-managing Nazi philosophy.

Now down to what really counts: emulation. The system handles GBA, NES, NeoGeo, SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis titles on its own, and there are a few homebrew emulators available to try as well. When you’re in-game, sliding the power button takes you to a menu that allows you to fiddle with a few settings, save or load states, and exit the game. You won’t have many options to mess with in these emulators, however, so hopefully adjusting the volume, screen size and framerate is all you wanted to do.

I used almost all of the game emulators on the Dingoo but spent most of my time with GBA and SNES titles. Game Boy Advance games run almost flawlessly on the Dingoo, which made me quite happy. NES games run well, too, though the screen did look a bit stretched. I even tried an early version of a homebrew Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulator which ran well, though the sound was all kinds of messed up. SNES emulation, on the other very nasty, unwashed, disease-ridden hand, is an entirely different matter. From framerate issues to sound problems and more, some 16-bit games are rendered unplayable. My beloved Wario’s Woods runs acceptably well, as does EarthBound, but several action games had some control/timing problems that made playing them extraordinarily difficult. I’m hoping the homebrew community can come along and save us, because this is a bit of a blow to my ability to adore the Dingoo.

I won’t be reading e-books, playing music files, videos or listening to the radio with my Dingoo, but it performs each task admirably. The system supports loads of formats, so you don’t even need to convert files before you play, just toss ‘em on the Dingoo and you’re ready to go. Hear that, Apple? This is why your devices are terrible mobile media players…

The Dingoo has a lot of tools in its belt, but there are a few flaws worth mentioning. My first question is this: Why do hardware manufacturers insist on putting buttons so close to the edge of a machine? Do they enjoy bending their hands into awkward positions, or is it just me that hates that? The Dingoo is more guilty of this than any other handheld I’ve tried, and using the L, R and A buttons quickly becomes painful. Not a good sign, but my hands are a bit large, so most people won’t be as bothered by this.

And here’s one big issue plaguing the Dingoo: the Y and B buttons. For some fun reason, you can’t use both of them at the same time. Not a problem for most emulated system, as you can always remap the buttons with a quick slide of the power button. With the SNES, however, this is a big deal, since it uses all of the buttons the Dingoo has to offer. Since SNES emulation is cruddy in the first place, it kind of diminishes the pain of the hardware flaw. I would rather use B/Y to jump/run in my GBA/NES games (especially since the A button is so close to the edge of the system), so I suppose I’ll have to adapt. Still, this isn’t something I should have to deal with!

So, there you have it, the inexpensive, tiny little Dingoo, a device that claims to be a beast of a portable media player/emulator and almost manages to live up to its promise. I’ll admit, if I weren’t so picky about experiencing these games exactly as I remember them from 15 years ago, I wouldn’t have many bad things to say about the Dingoo. It does a lot of things and does them well, and it’s open to the homebrew community, making it a versatile piece of hardware to have on hand. It may not be as exciting as Pandora, but it’ll hold you over for a while. Feel free to ask questions in the comments below.

A few Dingoo links you’ll be interested in:

• DealExtreme.com – Best place to get a Dingoo.
• Dingoo Digital A320 – Unofficial support website
• Dingoo Official site – In English!
• Dingoo Scene – Blog about homebrew happenings.
• Dingoo Downloads – From OpenHandhelds.org