Simple box..simple product.
Inside the box, you'll find the following: Ewin2 Lite
There have been plenty of well-known and established flash card manufacturers pumping out revision after revision of their hardware to best suit DS Lite owners desiring that cosmetic invisibility when in use. Even the lesser-known flash cards are following suit. We have before us, the Ewin2 Lite. While it was a late arrival into the Slot-2 marketplace, they did come out with a surprisingly good product with their previous models. Is this genuine DS Lite version able to yank the dollars out of your wallet, or would it be wise to stick with the kings of the industry? Let's have a look.
The micro-SD slot is in the right place. NOTE: Since this is nothing more than a hardware revision versus previous Ewin2 models, the review will focus solely on the costmetic changes rather than the sum of the product. In order to better familiarize yourself with the Ewin2 product line, please read Darkforce's Ewin2 Review here at GBATemp. I could find no differences in its use of software, ROMs, homebrew, etc. that isn't already mentioned by Darkforce.
Upon immediate inspection, the Ewin2 Lite's casing seems to bear the same dimensions as the Nintendo GBA Slot Cover. However, as we insert it into the DS Lite, simply observation reveals that the casing sticks out a millimeter or two. For once, I'm glad the sample showed up in a different color than my white DS Lite in order to demonstrate this. The memory clicks in securly and and is just as simple to remove. Unlike most slot-2 DS-Lite flash cards, the micro-SD slot is conveniently located at the bottom. I say convenient, because the Ewin2 Lite is extremely tough to get out of the slot. It makes the M3 Lite seem like it is loobed. The end plate of the cover is not as long as the standard cover or other flash cards of this type, so you might find yourself grabbing something to help get it out, a butter knife for example, or finding someone who has very tough fingernails. As long as you plan on making this the only slot-2 flash card that you will ever use, you will be just fine.
Don't ever do this to yours!
Looking at the guts of the Ewin2 Lite, you can see that this is not something an amateur would want to take apart. The micro-SD bay is seperate from the main board which is connected via a ribbon cable. It was a bit tasking to reassemble, as I had to put a decent amount of strength on one side in order to close the casing properly. Since it is only sold with a single casing available in white, black, ice blue and pink, this is a moot issue. At least the screw doesn't strip easily. Still, to those who would buy it, resist the urge of grabbing the screwdriver and tearing this apart. There's no point in doing so. Buildwise, it could have used a bit more refinement. Just don't take it apart, and you will be fine.
If your casing is to mimic the original cover, then please put forth a little more effort.
As Darkforce stated in his review, older PassCard 3 and Superkey models won't boot this flash card. The newer revisions supposively will, but I don't have those handy to personally verify these claims. I tested the NinjaPass X9 and M3 DS Simply, and both of these slot-1 flash cards will boot the Ewin2 Lite just fine. I also found that my 1GB Kingston would not work with the Ewin2 Lite at all, no matter how I formatted it, but luckily, my 512MB Sandisk worked just fine (FAT16, 16k cluster format). The Ewin2 website states that it can handle up to 1GB of memory, but it seems even some 1GB are not yet supported. Now, assuming you read through Darkforce's Ewin2 Review, which covers the NDS Tool, updating firmware, ease of ROM use, etc. (if not, go now!), it's time for my synopsis.
The Ewin2 Lite does suprisingly well for running ROMs from a company with such a short tenure. While more comparable towards M3 Lite Pro, as it too is without GBA playability, it seems to have arrived a bit too late in the game. The casing needed a bit more refinement in its design prior to its release. Homebrew fans will definitely want to avoid this one for the time being. With slot-1 flash cards pouring out of the woodwork, this may be one of the swan song products within the slot-2 marketplace. At a cost of $30-35USD, it's not too bad, but when you can add 15-20 more to get a slot-1 solution of equal or better performance, it just doesn't have what it takes. The Ewin2 product line would have been more than welcome over a year ago, but today, it falls short simply because of its timing. This isn't a bad first flash card, but you can find better out there. Let's hope Ewin 3, their upcoming slot-1 flash card, yields better results and arrives before it too is late for the party.
Pros:
+ Low cost
+ Tough build
+ Memory slot faces out for convenience
+ Available in various color casings
+ High ROM compability
+ Easy to use and skinnable loader
Cons:
- Difficult to remove
- Not completely flush when inserted
- Only one casing with purchase
- Low homebrew compatibility
- Poorest bandwidth of any flash card site
- Some nopass devices will not work
- A bit too late to not have GBA support
Nintendo is going after the development team of an emulator. A legal case was filed by Nintendo yesterday, alleging that the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, has...
Just last week, on Tuesday, February 26th, 2024, news broke out about the Yuzu emulator team being sued by none other than Nintendo themselves, with Nintendo claiming...
Quietly following on the heels of the injunction ruling against Yuzu emulator that resulted in its removal and ceased development, popular Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra...
After a rough week, the emulation and homebrew scene continues to suffer major losses. As of today, homebrew developer Steveice10's GitHub repository has been...
TheFlow is up to his old tricks, hacking PlayStation hardware once more. After a month of tinkering around, he's managed to get past the security on Sony's...
Exophase, the developer of the DraStic Nintendo DS emulator, has made a statement regarding the future of the emulator. DraStic has been a popular closed-source DS...
Nintendo is back at it again with their latest and most well known franchise, the DMCA, and this time they went after quite a handful of GitHub repositories with...
Emulator frontend Emulation-Station has been removed from the Amazon Appstore, less than a week after its launch. The reasoning for the app's removal, is, according...
The Nintendo 3DS is already past its prime, both in life-cycle and its homebrew scene, and while its homebrew scene still continues to be strong to this day, many...
Yet another emulator bites the dust, in the aftermath of the Tropic Haze/Yuzu vs. Nintendo case. Pizza Boy, a $5.49 paid app on the Google Play Store, has been taken...
Nintendo is going after the development team of an emulator. A legal case was filed by Nintendo yesterday, alleging that the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, has...
Just last week, on Tuesday, February 26th, 2024, news broke out about the Yuzu emulator team being sued by none other than Nintendo themselves, with Nintendo claiming...
Quietly following on the heels of the injunction ruling against Yuzu emulator that resulted in its removal and ceased development, popular Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra...
Nintendo is back at it again with their latest and most well known franchise, the DMCA, and this time they went after quite a handful of GitHub repositories with...
After a rough week, the emulation and homebrew scene continues to suffer major losses. As of today, homebrew developer Steveice10's GitHub repository has been...
Famous and beloved manga creator Akira Toriyama has passed away at the age of 68. According to an official blog post made by Bird Studio--Toriyama's manga company--he...
Yet another emulator bites the dust, in the aftermath of the Tropic Haze/Yuzu vs. Nintendo case. Pizza Boy, a $5.49 paid app on the Google Play Store, has been taken...
Emulator frontend Emulation-Station has been removed from the Amazon Appstore, less than a week after its launch. The reasoning for the app's removal, is, according...
Exophase, the developer of the DraStic Nintendo DS emulator, has made a statement regarding the future of the emulator. DraStic has been a popular closed-source DS...
A YouTuber has leaked some insider paperwork that reveals what future plans Sony has in store for the next PlayStation hardware. The channel Moore's Law Is Dead...