GPD WIN 2 Might Fix Almost Everything Wrong With The GPD WIN
The GPD WIN was an interesting proposition. It was a gaming device that crammed Windows 10 in a handheld that seemed to mash together an NVIDIA SHIELD Portable, a BlackBerry's QWERTY keyboard. As a Windows 10 computer, however, it was pretty much limited to the hardware available on the cheap at that time. It's success, however, seems to have given GPD the courage to give it another try and it seems they have mostly fixed the biggest complaints in the GPD WIN 2. At least most of them.
The GPD WIN is a rather ironic device. Unlike the GPD Pocket "mini laptop" that came after it, this was a device designed for gaming. And yet, given market constraints, its hardware wasn't exactly up to snuff for majority of popular Windows games. At least not without some major tweaking. The device came up short in at least three aspects: the processor, the internal storage, and the keyboard and button layout.
Those three are reportedly addressed in the GPD WIN 2. According to the Reddit post, the next gen Windows gaming handheld will run on an Intel Core M3-7Y30. More than just having a lot more muscle than a feeble Atom, it also allowed GPD to finally use SDD storage instead of slow eMMC memory. More than that, the 128 GB M.2 SSD is even user-replaceable.
Based on the photos of the device, the keyboard is finally spread through the whole width of the device instead of being shoved to one side. That also means the buttons that were there have been relocated. The R3 and L3 buttons, specifically, now join the other shoulder and trigger buttons. Unfortunately, that does mean that the joysticks still don't have buttons themselves.
In some areas, the GPD WIN 2 remains the same, like the 720p resolution, now at 6-inches, which is better for games with that hardware. Naturally, you still can't expect any graphics muscle from this device, though the Intel HD graphics should still see some improvement. No word yet on when or how GPD intends to sell the GPD WIN 2.
VIA: Reddit