Review Dingoo A320 Review

Tux' · Dec 22, 2010

Introduction:

<img src="http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab62/Lpp12/Dingoo%20A320%20Review/107_0061.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Hi everyone so it has been awhile since I wrote a review, and I just recently got my Dingoo A320 from <a href="http://bit.ly/ehMeSL" target="_blank"><img src="http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab62/Lpp12/logo.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

The features of the Dingoo A320 include:

Games: Play games in(8/16/32 bit) GBA/3D formats, SNES, NES, Neo Geo, Sega Genesis, and CPS1 & 2
Multi-media Player: Music format in MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, RA etc. Movies format in RMVB, RM, AVI, WMV, FLV, MPEG, MP4, ASF, MOV. Pictures format in JPEG, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP.
Text Reader: Supports .TXT and English Text to Speech. It also supports font sizes, can be opened while music is playing.
Radio: Built in receiver and can record audio
AV-Out: Can connect to a TV
Operating System: Windows 2000/XP
Display: 2.8 QVGA LTPS screen, 65.5K colors
Weight: 110 grams
Size: 125x55x14mm (4.92x2.17x0.59in)
CPU: Ingenic JZ4732 @ 336MHz, under-clocked from 360MHz (clocks up to 433MHz) (MIPS architecture)
Input: D-Pad, 2 shoulder, 4 face, Start & Select buttons, Mic.
Internal Storage: 1/2/4 GB
Output: Stereo Speakers, Headphone Jack, and TV-out w/ included cable
Battery: 3.7V 1700-1800 mAH (6.29WH) Li-Ion, approx. 7 hours run time
Software Support: Official firmware and Dingux(Dingoo Linux)

So now after all of that, let's get started with the review!

Packaging:

When I first got the Dingoo at the packaging, I was very surprised that it was in excellent condition. Compared to the GBA SP Designer console I got, this was in pristine condition.

The packaging has a plastic coating that you take off, and then you can open it from the top. The contents of the package include:
1 Dingoo A320 Console
1 AV Out Cable
1 Mini USB Cable
1 Set of ear buds
2 Instruction manuals, one in English, the other in Chinese
1 Warrenty Booklet in Chinese
1 USB Wall Charger

The packaging was excellent and good eye candy for first impressions. I give the packaging 10/10 because it was small and compact, the contents survived whatever it had to go through when shipping, and was very simple.

Hardware:

The hardware on the Dingoo A320 is very unique in its own way. The Dingoo has speakers at the bottom of the device, as well as a USB port to connect to a computer, a Mini-SD slot, and an AV-Out slot, so you can play on your television. The buttons have a very simple layout; a directional button pad and select button on the left, and A, B, X, Y, and start buttons on the right. There is also two buttons on the top of the device, a L button and a R button. As for the side of the device, there is a microphone and a reset button on the left side of the console, and the power slider and the headphone input on the right side of the console.

The Dingoo A320 is very durable and does not break too easily when dropped. I dropped it from a distance of five feet to solid ground with no carpet and did not receive any scratch, nor a damaged screen.

This game console is kind of an odd design, and is very comfortable in my hands. It does not feel too big, nor too small and I can access the buttons very easily, which is really good when playing those button mashing games.

I give the hardware a solid 9/10. It is a nice, compact device, fits very well in my pretty big hands, and is a nice design, but the speakers should be on the front of the console, rather than on the bottom, for maximum sound towards the user of the console, and the little pads on the back come off very easily, and I have lost three out of the four pads.

Software:

In this section, I will be covering two different parts of the software: the original software that is preloaded with the machine, and Dingux, which you have to install yourself unless you buy it direct from certain places that will do it for you for a price.

Native Software

The native software is very basic and looks like the PSP XMB(Xross Media Bar). The categories consists of a 'Game Center', 'Music Hall', 'Movie Theatre', 'Radio', 'Record', 'Picture', 'Library', 'TV', 'Browser', and 'Settings'.

The Game Center is where you go and access your games which you can put on via USB transfer. There are two sub-categories in this category which are '3D Game' and 'Interesting Game'. 3D Games are games that come preloaded on the Dingoo and are games made for the Dingoo. The games are:<ul><li>7 Days</li><li>Block Breaker</li><li>Candys House</li><li>Xing-Day Mars Decollation Warrior</li><li>Link Em' Up</li><li>Snake</li><li>Tetris</li><li>Ultimate Drift</li></ul>The games are pretty good for the most part, and actually pretty addictive. I was expecting the 3D games to not be so great, but they were way better than I expected and past my expectations.

The Interesting Game category contains titles that can be emulated like Neo Geo, Game Boy Advance, NES, and SNES. The games run pretty well, but some games for the SNES, like Super Bomberman, use frameskip and can be pretty laggy at certain points in the game. Overall the emulators the Native OS uses on the Dingoo A320 is great and if you were to use it solely for emulation of SNES, NES, GBA, Neo Geo, etc. this would definitely be the best choice.

The Music hall, Movie Theatre, and Radio are pretty self-explanitory. You are able to listen to music in MP3 formats, watch movies in AVI formats, and listen to FM radio, AM is not supported. Record, Picture and Library are used for recording with the built in microphone, viewing many different formats of pictures, including GIFs, and reading books, but only in TXT format, no PDF support.

I give the native operating software a 9/10. The software is nice and simple, nothing complex, but some of the stuff is a bit limited, for example only being able to view TXT files in the Library, but other than that it is perfect for just the basics. If you want the ability to play some ported games, like Duke Nukem' or Heretic, you would need Dingux.

Dingux

Dingux is the operating system for the Dingoo that is Linux based. There are instructional videos everywhere on showing how to install Dingux, and here is one of them:

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This is for installing Dingux, the driver and tools are provided in the description in a handy package, special thanks to qbertaddict1 for uploading this video.
The 'Local Pack' can be found <a href="http://boards.dingoonity.org/dingux-games-and-homebrew/dingux-local-pack-v0-35-31-05-2010/" target="_blank">here</a> Thanks to everyone who made this package possible, but some files you will need to locate yourself.

Dingux is a great operating system to use on the Dingoo A320, much better than the native operating software in my opinion. The local pack that I have listed above comes with many different applications, emulators, games, and ports of games. There are some pros and cons that make the native operating software better than Dingux. An example would be the Game Boy Advance emulator. Gpsp was made for Dingux, but does not match up to the GBA Emulator in the native operating software. I prefer to use the Snes9X4D for SNES emulation over the SNES Emulator because it seems to run better. It has many pros and cons for emulation, but the possibilities are endless with the games you can use while on Dingux.

People have developed plenty of games for Dingux, and even ported some over, like Heretic, or ASCII Portal. They are fun games, and the menu has a bit more pizazz and is more customizable and shows more information, like the CPU, Volume, Battery, and the space left on the Mini-SD card.

I give Dingux a solid 10/10. It is a great operating system and a great addition to have for the Dingoo A320. Though some things are difficult to do, like after using the native operating software for so long, it is hard to get used to the style of using Dingux and Gmenu, the GUI that Dingux uses.

I would choose Dingux over the Native software for games and extras, but as for emulation and music and movies, I would choose the native operating software, because emulation is more stable and you can move movies and music onto the Dingoo, unlike in Dingux where it has to be on the Mini-SD card

Native Operating Software: 9/10
Dingux: 10/10

Comparison of emulators:
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<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJaHzeobMrU&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJaHzeobMrU&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Conclusion:

The Dingoo A320 is an excellent device for what its main purpose is, emulation. The Dingoo A320's emulation is amazing, and being able to install Linux on it makes it even better. It's design is nice, compact, and best of all, simple. The hardware is perfect and it is nice and durable, which makes it the perfect travel device, and is a perfect Christmas, birthday, or just a present for no occasion because of the packaging it came in, it is the perfect gift box.

Packaging: 10/10
Hardware: 9/10
Software: 10/10

Total: 9.7/10

Once again, special thanks to <img src="http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9288/logowr.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" /> for supplying me with this amazing device! It is definitely worth the money it costs.

An extra thanks to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/qbertaddict1" target="_blank">qbertaddict1</a> for uploading all those helpful videos on how to install Dingux on the Dingoo A320, too!!

Ryukouki · Dec 22, 2010

Tip: first image is huge. Size it down a bit.

Tux' · Dec 22, 2010

Ryukouki said:
Tip: first image is huge. Size it down a bit.

Hah, I was hoping it would resize, it did for me I had to switch between uploading websites, just let me fix that

Ryukouki · Dec 22, 2010

EnnDeeEssCardSale is a giant lie. Cheapos. They claim they have the best prices and service on the market, yet they choose not to respond to my emails. No big deal.

Joe88 · Dec 23, 2010

use thumbnails instead because it taking for ever to load every pic...

GolenSun550 · Dec 24, 2010

The dingoo a320 is actually a good console compared to other Chinese game console , the A330 is not a big deal since there are not huge improvement at all .

As for the EnnDeeEssCardSale , they are now focus on SEO and branch sites (ndscardstore and other sites ) , they always don't know what they are selling , just put every kinds of

related items on their site , that's all .

Review Dingoo A320 Review

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See you later, guys.

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See you later, guys.

[λ]

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