Rating: 8/10
The Gizmondo is something of a curiosity. A handheld device pushed as a games console that can play your MP3s and MPEG videos; send and receive text and multimedia messages; has Bluetooth facilities; can use standard SD cards; has a built-in digital camera; a USB port; and GPS and GPRS capabilities. It's presented in a smart black case (with silver buttons) and sports a 2.8" TFT screen that outputs at a high resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Powering the unit is a 400MHz ARM9 processor with a powerful 128-bit 3D graphics chip by NVidia.
The unit has an eight-way D-pad, four face buttons, a left and right trigger at its top and five function buttons sit above the screen. On powering up the device, the OS takes a minute or two to start up - surely nothing too painful in the days of waiting for Windows XP to boot.
Thereafter, you're given a fairly straightforward menu on the left-hand side of the screen. Moving up or down highlights your options, and the bottom 'play' button will action your choices. Games and applications are loaded via the SD card slot at the base of the console. Included on the free SD card is a demo of Trailblazer and there are also some movie trailers for you to watch.
The built-in camera isn't the best I've seen, producing images at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, which today is fairly low-resolution, and it'll only work well in good light conditions. However, for its implied usage, that is to send multi-media messages, it's more that adequate, and I suppose the images are good enough for web pages and eBay auctions, so it's no great loss. There was some noise from Gizmondo about 'augmented reality' games, using the camera to capture a background image and super-imposing another one over it. However, nothing yet has come of this. I'm rather keen about the concept though.
I have a few of gripes with the unit. The instructions being rather sparse, there was nothing to suggest a minimum spec and I found that I couldn't install the USB link on a Windows 98SE computer. Not a great loss however as installing it on Windows XP was easy enough. Secondly, the third party title Sonic the Hedgehog seem to be a straight port of the PC version and as such disabled the power button. This meant that the only way to quit the game was to take the battery out of the back. Third party developers need therefore to create games sympathetically to the hardware. And finally the battery supplied isn't heavy duty enough for any serious time playing games. Again, not a great loss if you're near a plug, and for just under £35, you can buy a heavy duty rechargeable battery that will sort this out though if you want to spend the extra cash.
Overall, the Gizmondo is a nice piece of kit. The GPS facilities are really handy if you're ever lost, and you can turn it into a fully-fledged navigator for your motor vehicle. The screen works in most light conditions, even on its lowest setting, and the volume from the internal speaker is sufficient. I've not had chance to test the Bluetooth as it only allows connections with another Gizmondo, but I'll presume it works without a hitch. This handheld has a lot of potential and is packed with technology, and by early 2006 there should be roughly 50 games available for it. Whether it will be able to compete against the likes of Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS is yet to be seen. If nothing else though, it makes a damn cheap GPS.
For more information, visit Micromart.co.uk