iSmart Premium Hands-on Impressions

[Lily]

The EZ Flash Vi is one of those hidden gems. It is a great cart to use, and very competitive with the AceKard 2i. Being similar in price, having a menu that is similar in speed, and has a few features on top, there's a good reason to buy the iSmart and the EZ Flash Vi over the AceKard 2i. Depending on your preference you can go either way and do no wrong.

I would like to respectfully disagree with you. The iSmart:

- Has an in-game menu providing real time save/guide that freezes continuously. Offering the feature is one thing, having it work is another. There is no particular game or set of circumstances causing it to happen, but it happens so often and on so many games that the features may as well be useless.

- The homebrew compatibility is awful. If you just want to pirate vanilla DS games, the cart is fine. If you want to do anything else that a flashcart is expected to offer, you're mostly out of luck.

- The Acekard menu is still more customizable to user preference, especially in ways like how the games can be displayed.

..and that's just off the top of my head after putting it through the paces the past few days. If the EZVi is similar, it is most certainly not a hidden gem, nor even comparable to the Acekard 2i. The iSmart is being branded as an AK2i killer -- it's so far from that, that the claim is just funny.

 

[KidIce]

iSmart kernel runs on my EZV (both old non + or i version and EZ5i w/ latest firmware)... Put ez5sys.bin or ez5isys.bin if you're using an EZVi w/ latest firmware on the root of your SD and rename the system directory for the iSmart to ez5shell and blam, I now own an iSmart too!

Edit: Wish I had an iSmart to test if it can run the EZV kernels.

 

[Mbmax]

iSmart kernel runs on my EZV (both old non + or i version and EZ5i w/ latest firmware)... Put ez5sys.bin or ez5isys.bin if you're using an EZVi w/ latest firmware on the root of your SD and rename the system directory for the iSmart to ez5shell and blam, I now own an iSmart too!

Edit: Wish I had an iSmart to test if it can run the EZV kernels.

Well, this is quite normal. The kernel IS the file ez5isys.bin or ez5sys.bin.
It's the main file. When you start an ez5 or ez5i it's the first file loaded.
What you do is use the ez5 or ez5i main file to run the iSmart kernel.

Are you able to see the iSmart menu with your trick ?

I doubt you can.

 

[.Chris]

look promising, but the GUI reminds me of EZ Flash i

 

[.Chris]

and the cart looks like an r4

 

[KidIce]

Well, this is quite normal. The kernel IS the file ez5isys.bin or ez5sys.bin.
It's the main file. When you start an ez5 or ez5i it's the first file loaded.
What you do is use the ez5 or ez5i main file to run the iSmart kernel.

None of this is news to me. The whole point of testing the iSmart kernel on an EZ5 and my post was to prove that the claims that the cart is an EZV clone are true.

QUOTE(Mbmax @ Aug 29 2010, 10:29 AM) Are you able to see the iSmart menu with your trick ?

I doubt you can.

Obviously, it's not in the EZV's firmware (something I'm glad about mind). Another quirk of the different firmware is that the soft reset menu has an EZV backdrop while using the iSmart kernel on an EZV.

 

[KidIce]

look promising, but the GUI reminds me of EZ Flash i

That's because it is.

 

[.Chris]

look promising, but the GUI reminds me of EZ Flash i

That's because it is combined with the R4

fixed.

 

[Mbmax]

The whole point of testing the iSmart kernel on an EZ5 and my post was to prove that the claims that the cart is an EZV clone are true.

Because you doubted about PharaohsVizer's post ?
He seems to have much more information than me on this subject.

Now all i can see in this thread is people speculated on this flashcart.
Let Another World and PharaohViziers finish their full review before jump on the gun.

 

[KidIce]

The whole point of testing the iSmart kernel on an EZ5 and my post was to prove that the claims that the cart is an EZV clone are true.

Because you doubted about PharaohsVizer's post ?

Not at all, that's what lead me to downloading and running the iSmart kernel. The point was to prove it to myself as much as anyone else and just the sheer curiosity of how close of a clone this thing was.

 

[akfgpuppet]

Yes! People who also think the same as me, (as the idea of this being an EZVi clone

)

 

[redact]

i'm just wondering if the ismart would have the same annoying problem over time that i had with my ezvi (which i won from you, PharaohsVizier

) where after a few days/weeks of use it would frequently stop being recognized by the dsi

 

[redact]

I think that would be a cart problem XD

yeah, that's what i was getting at, i wonder if the build quality of the shell of the iSmart is a bit better

 

[XXLANCEXX]

They Need To Make A Dummy Flashcart with IR in the Cart for Pokemon Black and White, HG/SS, and other games that use IR technology

 

[redact]

They Need To Make A Dummy Flashcart with IR in the Cart for Pokemon Black and White, HG/SS, and other games that use IR technology

there's a homebrew cart with bluetooth if that sort of thing floats your boat ;p

but really, adding small, useless hardware to flashcards for a mere one or two games seems wasteful...

 

[Normmatt]

I think that would be a cart problem XD

yeah, that's what i was getting at, i wonder if the build quality of the shell of the iSmart is a bit better

The build quality is better in my opinion but it still suffers the shoddy contact issues of the ezvi. I have to put paper in behind my ismartds for it to show in my dsi/dsixl and my dsphat.

 

[KidIce]

They Need To Make A Dummy Flashcart with IR in the Cart for Pokemon Black and White, HG/SS, and other games that use IR technology

there's a homebrew cart with bluetooth if that sort of thing floats your boat ;p

but really, adding small, useless hardware to flashcards for a mere one or two games seems wasteful...

And yet people bitch that the [insert GBA flash cart here] doesn't have an RTC.

Oh wait, the sacred word "Pokemon" has been uttered. Never mind then. Carry on.

 

[ismartds]

I think that would be a cart problem XD

yeah, that's what i was getting at, i wonder if the build quality of the shell of the iSmart is a bit better

The build quality is better in my opinion but it still suffers the shoddy contact issues of the ezvi. I have to put paper in behind my ismartds for it to show in my dsi/dsixl and my dsphat.

We are taking care of the issue now. We should be able to fix the contact issue with the production units that we are sending out.

 

[Another World]

i'll confirm that the production unit (the one the end-user will purchase) has better contact than the pre-production unit. i haven't had a problem with it.

-another world

 

[dan_was_here9901]

can anyone confirm is this cart gammin?