XU10 Review: Surprising $70 Retro Handheld!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- The XU10 is a mysterious handheld that came out of nowhere, with excellent build quality, good controls, and a stock firmware that's not terrible. Let's take a look at this device and see whether it's worth picking up.
Buy one here: bit.ly/RGCxu10
This was a review unit sent to me by KeepRetro. All opinions are my own, they did not see this review ahead of time, and no money was exchanged in any way.
Timestamps:
00:00 introduction
00:49 pricing and specs
02:27 unboxing and impressions
03:50 controls (d-pad, buttons, and more)
07:18 whoa, it's an Analogue Pocket
09:22 buttons and pocketability
10:52 white model and teardown
12:52 software experience
16:19 game testing (retro systems)
19:52 N64, DC, Saturn, PSP
23:53 microSD card contents
24:35 summary (likes and dislikes)
26:54 conclusion
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This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only.
#XU10 #powkiddy #emulation #retrohandheld - เกม
Today I learned that you are not supposed to use diagonals when going up the stairs in Castlevania III, you just press up on the d-pad. Took me 30 years to figure that out, thanks to everyone for the feedback!
Always great to find out your previous successes were contingent on poor controller reads
Bruh
Wait, really...? Man, did i goof that one.
Love the videos can you do XU10 vs R36s compassion which is better
Oh my, that's a little embarrassing, but the Contra tests and Hadouken tests are still applicable. Keep it up Russ you're doing great! Your videos are always helpful even when they aren't perfect.
If you hold down the 'volume down button' while booting up, you eliminate the start up sound 👍
XU10 is one of my favorite budget handhelds now.
Specially the D-pad on this thing is so amaing compared with the R35 or R36.
Screen is maybe not the best still find it comfy to look, hold and play for hours on this thing.
Same here, I can't wait to experiment with this Handheld. 😁
Yeah, the R35S d-pad was really bad, that and the shoulder buttons prevented me from making a video on it. I have the R36S but haven't tried it yet!
@@RetroGameCorpsthis breaks my heart 🤣 bought the 35s as my first HH, guess the community wont take off too far with all the negative feedback.
Taki already made a video on how to make the d-pads and the face buttons better in the r36s.
@@michaelgronn4351 rg505 or 405v
The reason you can't climb the stairs in Castlevania is because you need to press directly up/down, not diagonally. Once you're on the stairs you can press diagonal and it will work, but if you do so while on the ground you'll just keep walking.
TH-cam: "Are you sure you want to thumbs up this video during the intro?"
Me: "Yeah man, I wanna do it!
I'm a big fan of that Spanish PS1 game, lovely to hear it get mentioned with correct pronunciation.
Yes it took me years to figure out how to properly say that mysterious game!
Dammit
Regarding performance- the spec sheets say this new one has DDR4L ram instead of DDR3L, still 1gb but the clock speed on that RAM is probably *double* what the DDR3 was. That might play a part too.
Not likely, it is certainly a nice to have upgrade, but when it comes to system memory N64 runs perfectly on SDRAM 133MHz, while in the Dolphin (Wii and Gamecube) FAQ it is stated that RAM speed does not have any impact on emulation which likely means we were already past the requirements with DDR2 (6.4GB/s). Perhaps it could affect GPU VRAM side of things due to the shared memory nature of ARM SoC's, again N64 ran perfectly on TNT2 with 2.65GB/s VRAM, but DDR3L should generally be around low to mid level desktop GPUs we used around Dreamcast emulation (say above top DDR2 VRAM cards, but considerably below GDDR3 ones). So if anything, from the systems that can be ran on the RK3326, it could only have a minor influence on Dreamcast, and that is probably a big stretch.
@@FromWitchSide yet its the only major difference you can find, because you can easily overclock some baseline 3326 devices to match this and still they wont perform as well.
Comparing this review to older ones of devices with similar/matching form factors it’s amazing to see the leaps and bounds Russ has made in becoming such a pillar of the community. He goes so in-depth on the current device I end up learning even more about the devices I already own. He has a way of renewing excitement both for the devices I currently own and for the near future of retro gaming. Much appreciated as always, I love the skeptical optimism with these cheaper devices
Apé Escapé is also my favorite Spanish game
Would have loved to own this 35 years ago. Would be king of gaming.
Those ridges at the top are the handheld's Eugene Levy eyebrows.
Dudeeeeee you keep delivering!!! When do you rest??
I'm getting this for Christmas. Definitely looking forward to adding it to my collection
If this thing gets some real custom firmware it will be incredible Im very excited about that
Onion os 👍👍👍
custom firmware would be even making it better indeed !
@@shto4782can it be download to it or no?
@13:00 - this startup video can be bypassed by using a Linux terminal to unsquash the SYSTEM file on the SD card, delete /usr/splash.mp4, and resquash the files. I'd recommend backing up first.
Thanks for this in depth review, it's what made me decide to purchase it. I love the ergonomics of the device.
It's worth 70 bucks to me just for playing PS1, and Dreamcast games. You are right though, there are a ton of options in what to buy, but I don't think there are too many options. I love the variety of handhelds out there, and it's just nice that it's not jusy one, or two companies monopolizing the handheld gaming industry.
This is an amazing handheld. They already even put holes and copper shims to prevent overheating.
I bought the R36S over the XU10 because it was on sale. But I’m still waiting for Russ review cause he’s the only one that give viewers 💯 % detailed information.
@@dcents5458Yep that’s why I bought mine, I followed a guy named Jacek Rusin he made a lot of videos about the R36S playing Dreamcast, NDS, N64 PSP and more after watching all the videos I decided to buy it. And the screen is way better than the XU10.
Were the SD card slots labeled correctly on the white one? If so, I wonder if the white one was the new corrected version and the purple is the old version and maybe that's why the white one came with the added the bag and adapter.
Featuring Coded Arms is like an injection of nostalgia.
Now that there's JelOS support would you change your opinion on the XU10?
Love your reviews, RGC. Do you think there’s any way you could take an EmulationStation based image and put it onto the system card? Or is the limited system card the issue? Running ES and retroarc on this machine would be a nice turn. Or even pushing a Batocera image? Probably not enough power…I am kind of a newbie on this, so just throwing stuff out. You are one of my favorite TH-camrs to watch. Maybe a verticals top 5 from you?
Great video. Enjoyed the breakdown. You had mentioned loading your own roms. Where is a good library to pick up any roms of my choice?
Looking forward to seeing more of your content, take care.
Russ will never tell you exactly where to go get the roms. Just google it and you will find it. There are several sites you can get them.
I like the intro, it reminds me of an old console. Like the PS1 dropping the bass when you turn it on.
Very impressive! Thanks for the video!
I think that because of the way this handheld is sort of locked down as far as menu options are concerned it makes for a very good starter retro-handheld for a child. Very little room for them to accidentally break the system. The only changes you would need to make is possibly trimming down the game list so they are not overwhelmed.
I’m glad I got mine before Russ’ video went live. Watch the prices go up as the demand increases. Russ, you’re the man!
I clicked on his link and its actually now cheaper, 49.99 instead of the $70 he says in the video 🤷♂️
Powkiddy Stalker GF acquired.
Hope they make a new version with a different firmware or can be changed in the future cause that intro would drive me craaazy. Super interesting that they put a PS4-PS5 style D-Pad as well. Been playing Super Mario Wonder with my PS4 controller and I loved using the D-Pad for it so hope new devices try it out.
Wow, seems like there’s a new device every day
Well, this kind of market is kinda booming at the moment. Bought a Miyoo Mini Plus myself when it came out. Probably gonna take a while before one of similar size comes out that is capable of running almost all PS2 and GC games properly, so I'll stick with my MM+ until then.
@@thenonexistinghero I'm also waiting for full PS2 & GC. The 405v is almost there so it's safe to assume that next year's model will probably be decent for that. For now I have my Plus and modded PSP to hold me over.
If you do a hand held round up before Christmas I would love to see a segment or category for best hand held to gift to kids or someone who knows nothing about computers or emulation. Even if it's like a you set it up for them before you gift it to them thing.
Taki Udon did a review of the device as well and did some modifications to the boot sound, menus, and some more during it. It's definitely possible to work with it to some degree.
I saw Taki's review and I'm waiting to see a tutorial on what he did. I'm getting my xu10 in a couple of days and I'd love to have it set up like he did. If anything, I just want to get rid of that loud start up sound I'll be dealing with till a fix shared.
Me too!! I'll be keeping an eye out for any tutorials on how to improve the boot sound etc.
The little bumps on the top could be for protection? like when sliding the system into something by mistake? Other than trying to keep the screen safe from bumps along the top I can't see why else they'd have that. I will say however it looks pretty cool
It's nice to see a solid purple one rather than those clear purple ones, or any clear colored ones.
2024 is gonna be an amazing year for budget handheld, I can feel it
the engineering on this is creatively great
Thanks for the video. I've just got one of these and so far ive found two issues: the G button is veeeery light, like you literally just touch it and it triggers, no click basically, and the headphones jack is weird, it's not 'smooth', like the headphone jack gets stuck inside, and the sound is full of noises like it's catching the interferences from surrounding hardware...are either of these normal or I've got a defective unit? Thanks!
I think you should assign a score from 1-100
Then put them on a table for us to compare
I mean, there are a ton of devices like this coming out every often. Now with the holidays it would be nice to have a list to help us decide based on our budget.
Great content
Thanks a lot
Scores don't provide enough nuance. Even if a handheld had a high score, it wouldn't mean it would fit your usecase perfectly. There's always compromise with these things.
Just wait for another one of Russ's videos that talk about his favorite handhelds of the year, or watch more of his reviews.
I have it and there are important details to consider
-The screen has a greenish tone. If you put the two consoles (r36s) you will notice what I say
-The crosshead has problems when pressing 2 or 3 diagonals at the same time... it locks until you release it.
-the cpu and ram are not what they are. scb13h4g160 is ddr3L memory and if you remove the copper sheet you will see that the cpu is RK3326... not "S"
The system is totally blocked. I really look forward to seeing arkOS here soon.
I recently got the R35S+ which looks very similar to this one(I got the purple transparent color) & was $50 I wasn’t expecting really much because it was so cheap but I was honestly so blown away at how well it is made,the buttons feel quality and the whole device feels quite quality. The volume actually gets pretty loud and all games I’ve played so far works great n plays good. I even played GTA:Vice City Stories and that game kinda had some frameskips/lags/glitch buh it’s not bad to the point where it’s not playable just a little slow and lasts about 6hrs. I do wanna find a emulator or handheld with GameCube & ps2 games buh maybe I’ll end up getting a steam deck so I can play everything
I get only 30fps on PSX on R35S+ do you know why that is?
If you have a decent android smartphone like Samsung Galaxy 20 5G you could get a razor kishi controller which turns it into a nintendo switch like handheld that can run PS2 and Gamecube games fine.
If custom firmware can provide an overall polished experience while also ironing out the n64 experience, it'd be a pretty solid unit for most use cases and we could definitely say the chipset has enough grunt for this form factor. We're definitely in a good place for ~$70 4:3 handhelds that can do most things very well. I am not too hung up on PSP playability personally, as the experience is far too compromised on a 1:1 or 4:3 display regardless of how good the chipset is.
The next big stride with these budget-ish handhelds would have to be a 16:9 horizontal unit that has enough raw power to run PS2/GC/Xbox emulation smoothly. Probably a few years away from that though.
You kinda don't need 16:9 for PS2 and GameCube, though, imo.
Maybe those ridges are additional protection for the screen from damaging when falling down.
Exactly what I thought lol
But they don't pop out against the screen
Loved that the first bug you saw was in Bug's Life 😂
Startup Sound: maybe a video file exists on the system partition. One could edit it to remove the audio track or replace it with silence
Here's hoping you'll take another look at this device with the price having dropped as well as the availability of AmberElec and JelOS.
This now runs JELOS. And the original firmware can be modded to be full on AmberELEC. It was $42 shipped to the EU during the spring sale on Ali, so it was a really nice deal. Superb hand held with good performance. I really like being able to play Ikaruga on a cheap pocket size device.
This and the r36s are close to the same price on AliExpess now so which would you recommend?
When are you going to review the r36s? I heard a lot of good things about it!
Too many of these vertical handhelds in the market. I want clamshell like GBA SP canr wait for it from Anbernic and miyoo. Hope they get made soon.
Anbernic already has one but it's almost 2 years old. So your power is limited to SNES and GBA
A new clamshell might be announced before the end of the year. There's a spreadsheet floating around of rumors.
For some reason i put the SD card in my rk2023 then put it back in the xu10 and now the load and save feature doesn’t work
I just got the Miyoo mini, and it's pretty good. I also have another one that is RG353VS I love theses handhelds. I don't like the ridges on top.
Hello, please make a shopping guide/list for black friday / Christmas purchase. Maybe for different range of products!
when will we have a vertical handheld with stacked shoulder buttons instead of the horizontal ones?
Wouldn't it be possible to go into the OS Sd card and delete the boot video/sound?
Awesome mewithoutyou T-shirt!
We have official Jelos now!!
Combined with 351elec or today amberelec, this one is my favourite vertical handheld. Add your own background music and games on a new sd card and you will have a superb time with it - offline
Can you play the Nintendo games that require the gun using the analogs?
It's possible to add more games in the other as card port? Or what is the use for that other slot?
Does the XU10 do video out via OTG?
The R36S implies in photos on aliexpress that it does but I could not get it to send any video signal out using any of my USBC hubs that have HDMI out.
That intro audio is literally the only thing holding me back. Please keep an eye on whether or not they make a cfw. Because this seems better than the 353v in performance, and I'm just waiting for something exactly like this to upgrade from my 35xx to. So if the community puts together a custom firmware for this, I'm all over it. The only serious downside is that slow and loud intro, imo.
how does it compare with the rg353v? now I'm curious :)
Hey, Russ this device that you reviewed in your video is a clone of the rg351v meaning there's an image for the xu10 handheld devices that you can flash to the micro SD card.
Edit: you can use any images of the operating system.
top ridges for screen drop protection? maybe to fit specific case?
Do the N64 games come preloaded on the card, or did you import the roms yourself for testing?
I like the way you edit your speaking in your videos. I can never hear you pause to take a breath.
To go up the stairs in Castlevania you just press up, this is not a D-Pad's issue in any way.
These lips above the screen looks like they are impact points to protect the screen from breaking in case of a fall. I always thought the screen from RG353V/VS were too exposed to the side of the shell...
Just FYI for anyone looking to purchase one of these - The AMPOWN branded ones are shipping with the RK3326 and DDR3L, not the stated specs of RK3326S and DDR4. I cannot speak for the PowdKiddy branded units. I opened up my unit and it does indeed have an RK3326 and DDR3L.... misleading given the specs listed on the box...
It actually looks like the unit he opened up in this video has DDR3 judging by the markings (should be SCB13H4G160AF-11MI which is DDR3L 1866mhz). I bet if the copper shim was removed it would show an RK3326.
People need to be made aware of this as it seems the stated specs have never been correct.
I’ve had my XU10 for about 2 weeks now and I absolutely love it! The only thing I was wanting to add is some kind of protective outer shell. I dropped it the other day and the lite plastic it’s made of really concerned me 😅. Awesome device still!!
Where do you go to safely aquire these ROMs to add?
could you do a refresh on this? it's sitting at 50 USD at the moment and has ArkOS available
Can it not use the same CFW as 351V? I saw in the boot partition contains 351v DTB. If so, can put 351V ArkOS on it.
The PS style D-pad is a huge plus for me, also the sane stick layout is appealing compared to the R35S that I currently have. I heard someone was able to install the RG351V AmberELEC cfw image on theirs and that removed the annoying sound if not the splash image. So maybe we can think of it as a pro version of that Anbernic device which is not a bad pitch for me.
EDIT: Also JELOS recently started to officially support it, so now there are even options.
i already have mine, i want to put wuake or doom ports, do you know how to do it? is the arkos tutorial works the same way with xu10?
My best guess for the lip on top is a kind bumper and or structural support. without it the screen glass is very close to the top edge of the device and there would be a very thin bit of plastic protecting it. with this bumper hopefully certain types of impact can be partially absorbed or deflected. and it might also reduce the amount of flex in the plastic. it is a strange design and never really seen used anywhere else, but who knows it might actually work and prevent screen damage. am i just imagining or did i hear some horror stories of certain mini vertical handhelds being particularly susceptible to cracked screens...?
Is it better than the r35xx or the r36s?
I got both, I didnt really liked the r35xx because I like fighting games, and i cant with the d pad, but I absolutely loved the R36s.
I managed to get a couple Naomi and Atomiswave games, but I got rid of the PSP ones as I didnt liked the performace of the ones i saw, though i didnt check too much either.
But if you can actually play some amount of psp here, might be better.
Im asking because I am seeing it right now in Aliexpress at 50 bucks.
I love the aesthetic of this one and how it’ll fit in my hands. but I’m so indecisive if I should get this one or myoo mini plus? Someone please help
From the back the little bit that sticks out look like arcade machine marquee things. Especially the ones in Asia where there's long rows.
I kept thinking, "if only we had some more rk3326 devices - I'm feeling nostalgic" 🤪
The plastic protrusions on top i think are there simply to protect the screen in case of it ebing dripped on the top edge.
I was hoping for a comparison with rk2023, it's just 5usd more and has quite a bit better CPU AFAIK.
Just got my hands on the RGB30 and boy do I love it and have enjoyed tinkering with it. But I have to send it back cause the screen has several dead pixels in it 😢
So sorry - they definitely know its you and asked me if they should send you one 😂. We might have more firmware available soon but no promises.
Haha, mystery solved :)
Would you choose this one or r36s?
I JUST ordered the Arc S
Although I dont want another vertical so maybe im fine with the Arc
When is the E6 gaming handheld running gamemt interface and on android gooing to be reviewed?
Im gonna be honest i think this might be the best handheld in this pricepoint 🔥 (assuming software gets improved over time)
I like it, but I have to wait probably a long time cause I just spent too much and have to save money. In the meantime there will probably be many more released during the next year or so.
Oh man, I love that Spanish game!
i have a steamdeck and all my games are set up perfectly but i cant stop watching these reviews like im gonna buy one lol
My too
Do the Dual Analog sticks work with Robotron 2084?
Serious and urgent question. Can anybody please tell me how this compares to the rg351v only in size? I need a replacement for mine. I have the 35xx but that is way too small to be comfortable for me.
HELP!!! Just got mine today and it is just stuck on the loading screen. And than goes through the system stuff over and over.
Jinjos
The real sell for me regards whether it comes with a tiger sticker or not?
Did it come with sonic adventure 2 or did you have to add it
Personally I prefer the new R36S game console with the button lay out switched around with joysticks at the bottom. Buttons are very clicky which I like personally like, much more comfortable then the anbernic rg35xx. It also has a replaceable easy to access battery. Also exactly like the one being reviewed but without the lip on top and in my personal opinion better d pad pre loaded with arkOS which I find pretty clean and simple similar to garlicOS
You don't need to hit a diagonal to go up the stairs in _Castlevania 3._ You just need to press 'up.'
It's really hard to focus on anything in the review after Apé Escapé. This is gonna live rent-free in my head forever.
I was listening to this in the background while working... That Spanish game joke took me about 30 seconds to click in my head, but was so funny.
This thing looks like a pretty good deal considering what it can do & it's price.
Seems like straightforward repliсa of dualshock 4 d-pad