Android Vita or GPD XD for retro emulation?

Pacheko17 · May 23, 2017

Shield if you can.
GPD if you can't.
Vita isn't really that good for emulation in my experience.
Ended up selling my Vita TV to get a Raspberry Pi 3, no regrets.

SuperDan · May 23, 2017

ShadowOne333 said:
Yep, then in that case, the OP has several options.
I will list them from best to worst:

If money is not an issue, go for an Nvidia Shield (TV/Portable). This has easily the best compatibility in terms of emulation and controllers to play with.

If you are somewhat short on money, you can go for a PS Vita <3.60, so you can hack it, put RetroArch in it and then still enjoy PSP/PS1 games as well thanks to the native support for them in the Vita.

If you are extremely short on money, then get a PSP Slim or something similar. You can get quite a decent amount of emulators for it and also play PSP and PS1 games. Beware though, as the emulation for this system might not go beyond the 16-bit era.

yeah you pretty much nailed it .. i mean u can grab a nvidia S>P for about $150 off Ebay ..i say its worth it has KODI , Movie HD plus a endless list of retro games .. plus any new android game running at MAX Settings with ease ....5 to 7 hour battery ( people claimed 10 but im calling BS on that ) .. its a beast .. and has the best speakers i EVER had on any handheld ... so loud you would never play anything at 100% in public ... grab one you wont be disappointed at all

thealgorithm · May 23, 2017

GPD XD is more powerful than a PS Vita (CPU, GPU, Ram, Screen Resolution, Battery Life) and a better emulation machine than the Vita (due to having more flexibility to run more demanding emulators at a decent speed).
For native gaming, I would say PS Vita is a great one. You are able to run Vita, PSP and PS1 games no issue (and backups of these if you are on FW 3.60)
Watch out for the horrible buggy hardware of the GPD XD however. Use a fast charger on it and say bye bye GPD - Protocol for charging forces full load onto the GPD XD. Also do not turn on/off the device while charging as it can short the screen circuitry.

XC-3730C · May 23, 2017

Again guys, I already have a PS Vita. I just created this thread to see if emulation on Android would be better, since emulation on Vita is still fairly new.

So I will keep my Vita for Vita, PSP, and PSX, and get a Shield Portable for emulators.

Thanks guys!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

SuperDan · May 23, 2017

thealgorithm said:
GPD XD is more powerful than a PS Vita (CPU, GPU, Ram, Screen Resolution, Battery Life) and a better emulation machine than the Vita (due to having more flexibility to run more demanding emulators at a decent speed).
For native gaming, I would say PS Vita is a great one. You are able to run Vita, PSP and PS1 games no issue (and backups of these if you are on FW 3.60)
Watch out for the horrible buggy hardware of the GPD XD however. Use a fast charger on it and say bye bye GPD - Protocol for charging forces full load onto the GPD XD. Also do not turn on/off the device while charging as it can short the screen circuitry.

mine died i did not even had it long ... but i did enjoy it while it was working ...

Deleted User · May 23, 2017

I have both. In fact let's compare between 3ds, gpd, and vita. First is the build quality. Out of the three i think the new 3ds has the best build quality. It's very very solid device. The ps vita is almost on par with the 3ds. But sadly gpd xd quality is not as good compared to those devices but compared to chinese device's in general the build quality is surprisingly very good. Also the gpd xd has the loudest speakers out of the three. So loud that on the max volume it can sound distorted. As for the d- pad. The d-pad is squishy on the gpd xd with i dont like. On the 3ds and ps vita the d pad is clicky. In the d pad category the ps vita wins for me. As for the circle pad. Here its draw between the ps vita and gpd xd. Both are better than on the 3ds. The x,y,a,b/circle,triangl,square,x buttons are the best on the 3ds (on the vita they are too small and on the gpd xd they are spongy) . Now for the games: On the gpd you can play android games and use bunch of emulators. Of course except for ds, psp,and ps1 emulators everything else works much better on the gpd xd. If you need it only for emulators go for the gpd xd. But on the psvita and 3ds you have their own games that are much better than any android game. also you have double backward compatibility on both devices. Psp and ps1 (via adrenaline) for ps vita. ds and gba (via cfw) on the 3ds. In conclusion 3ds is the most enjoyable for me. Ps vita second and gpd xd is the third. Gpd xd is just an android phone that can't ring and has physical buttons

thealgorithm · May 23, 2017

I have all three as well and I agree about worse build quality on the GPD XD (Although surprisingly not that bad). Vita and 3DS win in the build quality. Spec wise, the GPD Win wins in all categories hands down as well as having phenomenal battery life. (PS1 also works full speed no issue on the GPD XD). Vita's Cortex A9 based SOC is only up to 440mhz or so per core in comparison to the more efficient cortex cpu on the XD (1.8ghz quad core). GPU wise, Vita has around 51gflops of power in comparison to the GPD XD's 90-100gflops on the mali T range.

But for games.. Android games are not on par with the games on the Vita and 3DS. (Maybe only a few exceptions)

Deleted User · May 23, 2017

thealgorithm said:
I have all three as well and I agree about worse build quality on the GPD XD (Although surprisingly not that bad). Vita and 3DS win in the build quality. Spec wise, the GPD Win wins in all categories hands down as well as having phenomenal battery life. (PS1 also works full speed no issue on the GPD XD). Vita's Cortex A9 based SOC is only up to 440mhz or so per core in comparison to the more efficient cortex cpu on the XD (1.8ghz quad core). GPU wise, Vita has around 51gflops of power in comparison to the GPD XD's 90-100gflops on the mali T range.

But for games.. Android games are not on par with the games on the Vita and 3DS. (Maybe only a few exceptions)

I don't know much about the specs i only know that emulators works the best on the gpd. Maybe he should get gpd win. It only cost twice as much.

thealgorithm · May 23, 2017

I have the GPD Win too and it is the ultimate pocket device imo. It can run PSP and even gamecube games (some of which full speed) and the usual native windows games (as it has windows 10 installed) portable 5 inch laptop with keyboard and embedded game controllers.

the_randomizer · May 23, 2017

thealgorithm said:
GPD XD is more powerful than a PS Vita (CPU, GPU, Ram, Screen Resolution, Battery Life) and a better emulation machine than the Vita (due to having more flexibility to run more demanding emulators at a decent speed).
For native gaming, I would say PS Vita is a great one. You are able to run Vita, PSP and PS1 games no issue (and backups of these if you are on FW 3.60)
Watch out for the horrible buggy hardware of the GPD XD however. Use a fast charger on it and say bye bye GPD - Protocol for charging forces full load onto the GPD XD. Also do not turn on/off the device while charging as it can short the screen circuitry.

I should warn that the default firmware on those devices is pretty bad, a custom ROM is a must to fix the numerous issues it has (58 Hz screen tearing for one). Maybe I'm confusing it with another Chinese device, similar to this one.

thealgorithm · May 23, 2017

Indeed. Default firmware for the GPD XD was 57hz iirc. The custom rom known as "legacy rom" fixes these issues and much more streamlined with less junk

Smoker1 · May 23, 2017

SuperDan said:
nvidia shield portable

Are you serious????? I have a Portable. The XD has a few more Buttons, more Storage Space, and the OS has not crapped out on me yet.
Shield Portable is limited to 16GB Storage. Yes you can Move to SDCard, but it will Load Slow. If you have a Home Screen Set up, and have the Shortcuts Mapped to it, here is what will happen: You go to Power On the Device........a few Restarts later......Home Menu and everything is up and running.......only you notice the Apps on the SDCard are not where they should be. You have to put them back where you had them.
As for the Restarts: I have had to Restart mine about 2-4 times just to get it running properly.
Seriously need to find out how to Replace the eMMC Storage so it performs better. Not to mention, need to add more RAM.

SuperDan · May 23, 2017

Smoker1 said:
Are you serious????? I have a Portable. The XD has a few more Buttons, more Storage Space, and the OS has not crapped out on me yet.
Shield Portable is limited to 16GB Storage. Yes you can Move to SDCard, but it will Load Slow. If you have a Home Screen Set up, and have the Shortcuts Mapped to it, here is what will happen: You go to Power On the Device........a few Restarts later......Home Menu and everything is up and running.......only you notice the Apps on the SDCard are not where they should be. You have to put them back where you had them.
As for the Restarts: I have had to Restart mine about 2-4 times just to get it running properly.
Seriously need to find out how to Replace the eMMC Storage so it performs better. Not to mention, need to add more RAM.

damn i never had any of that madness at all ?? but yes Everything is my SD card 256 micro sd which still has 30 gig spare ... i mean its loaded to the max with Deamcast games, Retro Games & Pc Ports i love DOOM 3 ATM... ( main reason i bought it really & N64 ) but Everything loads in a few minutes no issues at all .. none of that is a issue with mine ... its true enough the 16 gig internal should have been bigger ... but thats why it has SD slot ...

XC-3730C · May 24, 2017

I am still torn between the Shield Portable and GPD XD. Shield Portable supports Hyperspin (nothing else like it exists for Android), but has low built in memory. The GPD XD has 32gb/64gb built in memory, but others have commented negatively about it's D-pad and build quality.

How do the two screens compare to a Vita OLED (I feel the Vita screen is the best quality of any portable, but that's just my opinion). I considered a GPD Win, but it's too expensive for me.

SuperDan · May 24, 2017

XC-3730C said:
I am still torn between the Shield Portable and GPD XD. Shield Portable supports Hyperspin (nothing else like it exists for Android), but has low built in memory. The GPD XD has 32gb/64gb built in memory, but others have commented negatively about it's D-pad and build quality.

How do the two screens compare to a Vita OLED (I feel the Vita screen is the best quality of any portable, but that's just my opinion). I considered a GPD Win, but it's too expensive for me.

i think the shield is better ( brighter ) than my oled vita you dont get that auto dim thing with games also ... but the vita and the NSP are pretty much the same size too .. for the screen ... like i said my gpd xd died .. but i was enjoying it while i used it .. & even tho NSP has that tegra zone ( netflix for games $8 a month ) i never did use that either .. but like i said for android apps\games its a beast can play all .. and emulators work even better .. i play it more than my switch & vita .. im kinda waiting for any switch hacks to arrive ..& i still love my vita but ive had it for years and played everything i like on it .. im just adding the odd ePSP & hack things i like ...just waiting to see if they finally get games 3.61+ working one day

XC-3730C · May 24, 2017

@SuperDan,

Thanks for your input. I was hoping to hear from someone that experience with both a Shield Portable and GPD XD.

Have you ever used Hyperspin with the Shield Portable? I used it with a Shield Tablet, which was awesome, but I ultimately want an actually portable that does the same. Android apps isn't my biggest reason for getting an Android based portable, but hopefully, the Shield Portablevwill play most games.

Also, have you used it as a GPS device?

SuperDan · May 24, 2017

XC-3730C said:
@SuperDan,

Thanks for your input. I was hoping to hear from someone that experience with both a Shield Portable and GPD XD.

Have you ever used Hyperspin with the Shield Portable? I used it with a Shield Tablet, which was awesome, but I ultimately want an actually portable that does the same. Android apps isn't my biggest reason for getting an Android based portable, but hopefully, the Shield Portablevwill play most games.

Hyperspin? im not sure what that is ? but when you do get one goto the google play store grab Diii4 its free and put DOOM 3 on it still looks awesome direct pc port and im playing it now .. it still a game that makes me jumpy , but yeah you will like the nvidia only games half life 2 .. & portal are still great & like i said dreamcast games work .. im enjoying them too glad i could help .. people are talking about a 3ds emulator on the horizon " citra " thats the next thing i want to try out

XC-3730C · May 24, 2017

Hyperspin is an emulator front-end that supports high quality preview videos, artwork, and has a wheel for choosing different systems and games.

Check out a video of it here:

It only works on Tegra devices.

SuperDan · May 24, 2017

XC-3730C said:
Hyperspin is an emulator front-end that supports high quality preview videos, artwork, and has a wheel for choosing different systems and games.

Check out a video of it here:

It only works on Tegra devices.

oh that looks good there is a thing i use like it called happychick same deal lots of emulators all in one ds ,n64 psp,ps1 ect ect with direct download links to the games you want from the app its self .... btw i have ner used gps on mine but i used remote play for ps4 at work there is a mod app

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p.s next day off i will grab that Hyperspin looks cool thanks for the info

Xanthe · May 24, 2017

GPD's DPAD is FAR better than the shield's. For a retro experience, you want to go no where near the shield's DPAD. It is mushy and soft. The GPD's gamepad is similar to that of a DS

Android Vita or GPD XD for retro emulation?

Controversial opinions guy.

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