eWin 2 Series First Impressions
Today I recieved sample kits of the latest eWin series of flash carts for the Nintendo DS/GBA.
The new eWin 2 series comes in three variations:
- eWin 2 SD - The largest of the three, approx. 1 cm taller than a regular GBA game pak. Takes standard SD memory modules.
- eWin 2 Mini SD - This one's the same size as a regular GBA game pak. Takes mini SD.
- eWin 2 Micro SD - The smallest of the three. But not dust cover sized. Takes micro SD memory.
All three cards are
not compatible with GBA ROMs. They support DS ROMs only.
All cards in the eWin 2 series are available at very cheap prices. They are actually the cheapest NDS flash kit currently available, going for around approx. £20/€30/$40.
There's the box the eWins come in!
The standard SD eWin 2.
The mini SD eWin 2.
The micro SD eWin 2.
A size comparison
A size comparison
A size comparison
A size comparison
My first impressions when looking over these three cards was the build quality. The eWin team are known for their high quality products, and the eWin 2 series are no different. The build quality is
superb. The carts feel very solid! The plastic is rock solid and doesn't flex or creak, it's free of defects and has a nice frosted look to it. The casings fit together really nicely. The labels look good, and the PCB's are designed nicely and are made in high quality and with high quality components.
The standard SD version has a side loading SD slot, the mini-SD is front loading, and so is the micro SD.
The first two have spring loaded slots, but the micro SD has a standard slot and for the love of me, I can't figure out why on earth they designed it like this... It's impossible to remove the micro SD card once it's inserted without using a pair of pliers. It's even worse than the EZ Flash IV slot.
The eWin software is very straight forward, and easy to use. I tried three random ROM backups - New Super Mario Bros., Castlevania and Need for Speed Underground. They all worked just fine. But yes, the Castlevania intro lagged!
The loading times on the eWin are quite good, and it shows you it's progress during the load. The user interface seems great and has several nice features, all of which we'll cover more in the review. When playing a game, the save game is on a internal rechargable battery - this is then backed up next time you play a different ROM. The eWin detects the change and notifies you and asks to backup the save before the new game overwrites the battery. Saves are in .sav format.
That's all for my first impressions, the eWin 2 will be covered more extensively in our full GBAtemp review that should be up soon.
If you have any questions or things you'd like to see added to the review before it's published please leave your comments here.
