GPD Win 4 2023, Portable Handheld Game Console
Product ID: 704721764
Review: Incredibly powerful handheld PC that is a joy to play on - FYI - my purchase was the Ryzen 7 7840u / 64GB RAM / 4 TB model. I figured if I'm doing this I'm going all in. I have only had it for a few weeks so I will update this a few times as I use it more. Right out of the gate I will say this is a very expensive toy for what it is no matter which model you select. As a computer I would never recommend someone buy a GPD WIN 4. For the price it is over-valued and you can get a better "real" computer for the money. BUT... this isn't your run-of-the-mill PC... and that's the reason why you are here isn't it? =) Yes I bought this to play games. Just as many of you have or are planning on doing and it does not disappoint. I installed Steam and the Epic launcher immediately. I play Forza 4, Blood Bowl, Fortnite, Skyrim, Slay the Spire all at 60 FPS smoothly. Absolutely ZERO complaints. I have run CyberPunk 2077 just to try out a top tier game and got 30-45 FPS on lower settings but also with some minor stutters. Not bad at all for a system that is portable! It is advertised to be between a GTX 1660 ti and a 20-series GPU for performance and I would agree with that. Games perform much better in 720p - same as any pc - but on this screen 720p is just fine for gaming. When I use it docked I push it to 1080p and it does struggle with some titles but, again, that is to be expected with this GPU. The processor is a powerhouse for such a small unit with 8 cores running up to 5 GHZ in bursts but this will get HOT in your hands. Having said that CPU throttles aren't too common - in my experienced anyway. The screen resolution is fantastic for the size. It is bright, vibrant and I haven't seen anything you'd call tearing or blurring. The screen also slides up from the body to expose a tiny keyboard. When the screen is in this position it feels more natural in my hands to play games on. When I have had to use the keyboard I guess the best description is "It's ok". LOVE the fact it has a full QWERTY keyboard. LOVE the fact it is backlit. HATE the fact the keys are hard to hit unless I use the tips of my fingernails. There are 2 mouse devices on the system. Flip the switch on the left side of the body to MOUSE mode and the joystick and triggers become the mouse and mouse buttons. Good for Windows but bad for games. Also the joystick "floats" across the screen so it just doesn't feel right. Flip the switch back to GAMEPAD mode and you have an XBox controller essentially. The good news here is there is a small touchpad under the right joystick and that is also a mouse device. It takes a little getting used to but works VERY well. Move it around with your thumb and push it for left clicks. This little pad is always on no matter the mode. Great for in-game menus and selections. Honestly I don't even bother to use the MOUSE mode as the pad just feels better and it moves faster. The controller feels responsive to my old gamer hands. It's an XBox setup with 2 extra button on the back of the housing for more versatility. I've had no problems being competitive in Fortnite or making that drift in Forza. The triggers are pressure sensitive so, for example, using the right trigger as a throttle is the same as on your XBox controller. The button placement takes some getting used to especially with the home and menu buttons on the bottom of the housing right next to the speakers. I got used to it pretty quick but it was honestly an adjustment at first use. The speakers are front-facing and sound so much better than I expected. At high volume you will get distortion the same as any device. But it sounds so good normally. Playing games, movies, videos, music all sound good with this system. I ran a quick toast.net speed test while connected to my home WiFi and I get 28 Mbps throughput which is the same as my laptop and gaming rig. When I downloaded from Steam my speeds were comparable as well. Can't complain there! Bluetooth headphones and gamepad connect with no issues. Not much more I can say about that other than "the wireless functions work well". There are 2 USB type C ports on the unit. One at the top and one at the bottom. They both charge the device. They both connect devices to the system. If you want to connect USB type A devices however you will need the dock. The dock is expensive but worth it in my experience. It adds USB ports, is a good charging station and has HDMI output. I put in an SD card yesterday just to test it and it works. Extra storage and file transfer yay! On a more mundane note I told my wife yesterday I needed to go upstairs and print something off for the bank. She looked at me and said "I thought that was a computer." I felt like a cartoon character for a second... I looked at her, back at the WIN 4, back at her.... then installed my printer driver, fired up Firefox and printed my document. Duh. It IS a PC after all. Quick summary - is it a PC? Yes. Is it a cost-effective PC? Hell no. Does it play games well? Mostly. Is it a cool piece of portable gaming hardware that tech-nerds just have to have? Absolutely! I would recommend this to gamers and tech addicts... but only around tax return time.
C**R
Incredibly powerful handheld PC that is a joy to play on
FYI - my purchase was the Ryzen 7 7840u / 64GB RAM / 4 TB model. I figured if I'm doing this I'm going all in. I have only had it for a few weeks so I will update this a few times as I use it more. Right out of the gate I will say this is a very expensive toy for what it is no matter which model you select. As a computer I would never recommend someone buy a GPD WIN 4. For the price it is over-valued and you can get a better "real" computer for the money. BUT... this isn't your run-of-the-mill PC... and that's the reason why you are here isn't it? =) Yes I bought this to play games. Just as many of you have or are planning on doing and it does not disappoint. I installed Steam and the Epic launcher immediately. I play Forza 4, Blood Bowl, Fortnite, Skyrim, Slay the Spire all at 60 FPS smoothly. Absolutely ZERO complaints. I have run CyberPunk 2077 just to try out a top tier game and got 30-45 FPS on lower settings but also with some minor stutters. Not bad at all for a system that is portable! It is advertised to be between a GTX 1660 ti and a 20-series GPU for performance and I would agree with that. Games perform much better in 720p - same as any pc - but on this screen 720p is just fine for gaming. When I use it docked I push it to 1080p and it does struggle with some titles but, again, that is to be expected with this GPU. The processor is a powerhouse for such a small unit with 8 cores running up to 5 GHZ in bursts but this will get HOT in your hands. Having said that CPU throttles aren't too common - in my experienced anyway. The screen resolution is fantastic for the size. It is bright, vibrant and I haven't seen anything you'd call tearing or blurring. The screen also slides up from the body to expose a tiny keyboard. When the screen is in this position it feels more natural in my hands to play games on. When I have had to use the keyboard I guess the best description is "It's ok". LOVE the fact it has a full QWERTY keyboard. LOVE the fact it is backlit. HATE the fact the keys are hard to hit unless I use the tips of my fingernails. There are 2 mouse devices on the system. Flip the switch on the left side of the body to MOUSE mode and the joystick and triggers become the mouse and mouse buttons. Good for Windows but bad for games. Also the joystick "floats" across the screen so it just doesn't feel right. Flip the switch back to GAMEPAD mode and you have an XBox controller essentially. The good news here is there is a small touchpad under the right joystick and that is also a mouse device. It takes a little getting used to but works VERY well. Move it around with your thumb and push it for left clicks. This little pad is always on no matter the mode. Great for in-game menus and selections. Honestly I don't even bother to use the MOUSE mode as the pad just feels better and it moves faster. The controller feels responsive to my old gamer hands. It's an XBox setup with 2 extra button on the back of the housing for more versatility. I've had no problems being competitive in Fortnite or making that drift in Forza. The triggers are pressure sensitive so, for example, using the right trigger as a throttle is the same as on your XBox controller. The button placement takes some getting used to especially with the home and menu buttons on the bottom of the housing right next to the speakers. I got used to it pretty quick but it was honestly an adjustment at first use. The speakers are front-facing and sound so much better than I expected. At high volume you will get distortion the same as any device. But it sounds so good normally. Playing games, movies, videos, music all sound good with this system. I ran a quick toast.net speed test while connected to my home WiFi and I get 28 Mbps throughput which is the same as my laptop and gaming rig. When I downloaded from Steam my speeds were comparable as well. Can't complain there! Bluetooth headphones and gamepad connect with no issues. Not much more I can say about that other than "the wireless functions work well". There are 2 USB type C ports on the unit. One at the top and one at the bottom. They both charge the device. They both connect devices to the system. If you want to connect USB type A devices however you will need the dock. The dock is expensive but worth it in my experience. It adds USB ports, is a good charging station and has HDMI output. I put in an SD card yesterday just to test it and it works. Extra storage and file transfer yay! On a more mundane note I told my wife yesterday I needed to go upstairs and print something off for the bank. She looked at me and said "I thought that was a computer." I felt like a cartoon character for a second... I looked at her, back at the WIN 4, back at her.... then installed my printer driver, fired up Firefox and printed my document. Duh. It IS a PC after all. Quick summary - is it a PC? Yes. Is it a cost-effective PC? Hell no. Does it play games well? Mostly. Is it a cool piece of portable gaming hardware that tech-nerds just have to have? Absolutely! I would recommend this to gamers and tech addicts... but only around tax return time.
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