Samsung Q1: Possible viable portable emulation unit?

[Leathco]

Just picked up one of these from the other auction place. Looking forward to getting it, if they would have just put a controller on the face it would blow even Pandora out of the water.



Notice the left side has a joystick mouse control (the unit is also touchscreen) and the left side has 4 programmable buttons (internal software can have buttons programmed as app quicklaunchers or keyboard keys). Programming them as keyboard keys may work well for gaming emulation for early titles.

But lets check out the particular unit I'll be getting (assuming I don't get conned and gotta get the money back by making a paypal claim, seems to happen to me every 4th or 5th time I buy on eBay over 100 bucks)

1 gig RAM
1 GHZ CPU
60 gig HDD (ouch, kinda small, might add a 32 gig thumbdrive to boost the storage, since hard drive is a 1.8 inch ZIF drive and a pain in the ass to find the right one to upgrade this thing) WiFi 802.11g/b
Bluetooth 2.0
Input Device: 3 button pad, 8-way stick, Touch-screen
Graphics Processor: Intel GMA 900
Mainboard: Mobile Intel 915GMS Express
Data Bus Speed: 400 MHz
Microsoft® Windows® XP Tablet Edition 2005
7” WVGA (800×480) display (scales to 800x600 and 1,024x600 resolutions)
Dimensions: 5.5” x 1” x 9”
Weighs 1.7 lbs

So, while the performance is lackluster for a standard PC, it blows a lot of handhelds away other than newer UMPC units.

The best part is the price, these started out in late 2005 at $1099 dollars. You can get one today for around 200 (mine will be $190 shipped). Someone is selling one on Amazon.com for $220 with slightly lower specs.

Links to my specific unit (unit looks bulkier cause pics are in a case and including the keyboard/mouse nub attachment and extended battery) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=320555527791

Since my GP2X Wiz failed horribly for portable gaming (damn screen), I think this may be a good bet for powerful retro gaming for cheaper than a Pandora (although functionality with some games will be limited unless you use the stand on the back and plug in a USB Gamepad). The nice thing is that with the specs on this I should be able to run new versions of MAME without a horrible performance hit, as well as emulate anything up to the N64 era. It should also work great for older PC games, as I'm a sucker for any Star Trek PC game from the middle trek gaming days (around the time DS9 and Voyager was out) as well as some newer classics like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament.

Obviously, the biggest concession is limited use without attaching a keyboard or Gamepad (thank god the back has a build in stand!)

[Da_Shocker]

More ram than the 360 and PS3 too.

[tomaitheous]

Yeah, where are the gamepad controls??? Doesn't look so hot for emulation.

[Leathco]

Yeah, where are the gamepad controls??? Doesn't look so hot for emulation.

Keep in mind I haven't tested this out yet, but the left hand 8 way HUD is a small mouse, wondering if it can be programmed in emulators as a controller? On the right the 4 buttons you see are customizable via software to be either quicklaunchers OR any keyboard button.

That and it has USB ports, just add a gamepad.