Yinlips mini-review

[Gryzor]

   Ok, here's my review...
To begin with, let's get physical: the Yinlips device has copied, as you know, the PSP design. I haven't touched a PSP in ages, but it feels like it's the same stuff indeed. It's a bit lighter, so it feels a bit flimsier, but build quality is pretty good actually. Buttons are easy to reach and press and even the analog stick has a nice feeling to it. It's rather comfortable to hold  - though, of course, you can't really throw it in a pocket like you'd do with a Dingoo or something.

The screen is a resistive one, making things rather difficult for touch gaming. Yinlips has included a stylus but this, of course, is no solution. The good thing is, the buttons are much better than any touch solution and for your usual retro gaming you won't need to touch the screen. Maybe some adventures would need it, and I've read complaints about their control, but I didn't find it to be such a big issue. It's a pretty crappy screen when it comes to touching to tell the truth, though.  Brightness is rather good - not spectacular, but more than adequate. Got it out in the balcony today but it was more cloudy than Victorian London, yet I think it's pretty good - certainly so for indoor gaming or movie watching.
I'm not sure about battery life. On standby it's the regular Android standby mode, which means lots of things running, so it's not like, say, PSP's standby. On the other hand booting up is fast enough so you can switch it off when you're done playing. A fully charged battery would suffice for, say, 3 or 4 hours tops. Unfortunately you can't change it . Oh, and I think it doesn't charge through USB (PSU included).
Movies also look pretty crisp and play back quite nicely. Tried a 720p mkv (no patience to copy a 1080p one) and it played just great - I have also seen it playing on a TV and the image quality is great indeed. You'll need a microHDMI cable, though, and AFAIK these are a bit expensive.


Sound is pretty good. Quite loud, it won't disappoint you. Rotation is instantaneous, much faster than on my Sensation XE!


It comes with 4GBs on-board memory (3 available IIRC) and a 4Gb microSD. I switched it with a 8GB and I've got pretty much everything I need!


Make sure you root the thing (very easy to do) and install a custom ROM for some extra goodies.
-2600 runs, of course, just fine. Tried understanding what to do in E.T. and I failed miserably, but it runs good enough I guess Demon attack got on my nerves with the one-shot rule. But it's flawless as far as I can see.
-GBC runs very nicely. Tried R-Type (with the analog stick - very nice!), Robocop (oh, I expected something like the CPC version...) and Super Mario Bros (should show this to my girl!), no issues whatsoever.
-Sega Megadrive runs perfectly, again. Sonic was a joy to control (I was surprised!). Since I don't know Fatal Fury I couldn't judge how good control was, but it looked fine. Wiz'n'Liz didn't run, but I don't know if this is an issue with the ROM file I've got. Pity, because it's a great game and requires precise control. Alien 3 is hard as nails, just like it ever was! Thunderforce IV was a bit too fast for my stomach... wow.
-Damn, gotta find a Master System emulator, sorry!
Yet to try NeoGeo, despite really wanting to; the emulator insists on looking in a specific directory for ROMs so I got to figure it out. Also I'm not sure it supports NeoGeo Pocket?
So, to be continued.
Yet I wanted to share this: the feeling, when browsing through so many files, was amazing. For the first time -though I've had a few handhelds - I felt like I could play anything on any system, without needing to tweak anything or do this or the other. A little tip: if you don't associate ZIP files with a program, every time you click on a ROM file it will ask you what program to run it with. So you don't even need to run the emulator first - just click on the ROM file and choose the program!


Oh! Atari ST runs fine, too (though SToid is rather limited) and I need to try UAE4Droid!

[SyX]

Thanks for the review Gryzor!!! 

You have tested all the details that were interesting for me...  even playing ET, sorry 

Yet I wanted to share this: the feeling, when browsing through so many files, was amazing. For the first time -though I've had a few handhelds - I felt like I could play anything on any system, without needing to tweak anything or do this or the other.

Yes, that feeling is what i'm looking for 

[Optimus]

I am considering a Yinlips to be my next homebrew handheld but I am not sure and I have to read more reviews.
It's a pity about touch. It would be great if this served both as an emulator devices and android gaming platform. I am also wondering if the android games I hated playing with the touch in my phone, like games more suitable to play with the pad, is possible to be reconfigured to play with the pad or you are still stuck with touch if they don't support.
But then I see some videos of even playing N64 emulation smoothly, and my Caanoo so far could not even play PSX emulation perfectly and that was the most closest I got, so we are talking about much more processing power in Yinlips and that's interesting for high end emulation.


Then I read this  negative review too.


I need to read more. Performance and feature wise it seems great, but if I don't grab one in my hands I cannot tell. There were people crying for controls in Caanoo or Dingoo for example but when I got one I was sattisfied. I might like the Yinlips too but I don't know. It's still a pity about the touch. How hard is it really?

[TFM]

@Gryzor: Great review! Thanks' for sharing!

[alex76gr]

Nice!

Any CPC emulators for it?

How much does it cost?

[Gryzor]

Optimus: yeah, it's unfortunate about the shitty touch response. Then again, I think it doesn't have the raw processing power for heavy Android-centered gaming anyway, so... But, yeah, it such pretty big, so you can forget it for touch gaming unless you use a stylus.

As for your question about the pad, some games do allow the use of hardware controls, but it's a per case thing.

I don't understand the opinions in the forum you linked to... First of all, emulation is not, of course, the fault of the machine. But aside from that, emulation is pretty good from what I've seen, so I really don't understand the whining.

Yinlips has already put out more machines, a cut-down one and a more powerful one IIRC, so things are moving fast.

My Yinlips was a gift, but I think it can be found for around €90 or so

If you guys live in Athens I could lend it to you to try out...