Gizmondo Reviewed

This is what it must feel like to roll in a 1987 Ford Escort. While the rest of the gaming public was playing with their long-awaited PSPs last week, I spent 96 hours test-driving the Gizmondo, putting it through its paces, hoping to see how it stacks up to other gaming handhelds on the market. One thing to note: Despite earlier reports, the Gizmondo has pushed back the US release of its device until Q3—thereby avoiding the complete suicide of trying to toe-up with the PSP. I was told, however, that the unit I trialed would be nearly identical to the final product, minus a few software upgrades.

I’ll admit to being pleasantly surprised. Lightweight and ergonomic, the Gizmondo is made from a rubberized plastic that feels sort of like velvet. It’s a weird, but not unpleasant sensation. The 2.8” TFT color screen is bright and prominent—all of the games and videos I watched on the Gizmondo were easy to see, even in outdoor settings where there was lots of ambient light. Finally, the button configuration is intuitive, obviously designed to be instantly familiar to anyone that’s ever used a Playstation or X-Box controller.

The Gizmondo is a jack of all trades. Its Samsung ARM9, 400 Mhz processor along with the Nvidia GoForce 3D graphics accelerator combined to make watching videos easy, though I experienced some pixelation and a choppy frame rate while trying to watch the Halo 2 and Nelly videos that came pre-installed. Window CE-based, the Gizmondo comes pre-loaded with Windows Media Player 9, so it supports MPEG 4 playback. It also comes with a built-in MP3 player is a nice addition—though it took me a minute to release that the volume control could be adjusted by pressing the two shoulder buttons—the controls weren’t as intuitive as I’d like. Strangely, the Gizmondo’s sole speaker is positioned right under the keypad, which meant I was constantly muffling the sound whenever I was playing a game, or holding the Gizmondo in two hands while watching a video. Thankfully, storage’s not a problem. In addition to 32 megabytes of on-board memory, the Gizmondo also features a SD slot for removable storage—and the unit had no problem recognzing a card full of music and picutres I inserted. For good measure, the Gizmondo designers also threw in a Bluetooth radio, GPRS connectivity, a SiRF-designed GPS chip, and, finally, a VGA camera.

Yet, the Gizmondo manages to master none of these features. Take, for instance, the camera. I know the few folks that go out and buy one of these won’t be doing so for the camera—but the Gizmondo has one of the worst I’ve seen (even worse than the original Treo 600). The pictures were reddish, and the resolution horrible. Sending messages is also a bear. With no keyboard, I was forced to bang out SMS messages or try and enter contact information into the contact app (yet another feature) on a tiny virtual keyboard, using the rocker and a button. This is sub-optimal, at best. (It makes you wonder why they even bothered.) Far more discouraging, however, were the games. If—as the entire history of console systems suggests—content is what sells hardware, than the Gizmondo is DOA. I played their flagship title—a Grand Theft Auto-like game called “Colors”—for an hour or so, and while the 3d graphics were impressive, the gameplay was boring, and long. Trailblazer—an action game where you race along a course in space—was fun, but certainly not worthy of any real attention. This platform needs some developer love, and quick. I just don’t see how they’ll get it, with Sony and Nintendo commanding so much attention right now.

The final nail in the coffin is the $400 pricetag. Did these guys learn nothing from the N-Gage? With few, if any, compelling games and nothing that really sets the Gizmondo apart, besides an impressive spec sheet, its hard to imagine anyone running out to pick one of these up. It’s a shame, too, because the Gizmondo has potential. The only chance they have is to hire a smart marketer and some crafty developers to position the Gizmondo as something other than a game device—punch up its GPS skills, or something. Even that’s a stretch, but its either that or an early retirement. Right now, I’m leaning towards the latter.