GPD Makes The Best 7840U (So Far) - GPD Win 4 Review 

Thats right, its kinda desesperating

Shitty jjoysticks are great as well

The only thing i want is a 7 inch screen

I have a steam deck and an rog ally and I’m considering a gpd win 2 or maybe a win4 just because of its form factor with a keyboard. It’s becoming obvious how important it is to have a keyboard

@@50086gt Yeah it makes a lot of things easier especially when you are on the go. I wanted to get a steam deck just to try out and see the "console like" experience from the handheld perspective. It arrived today which is great so I will get to tinker with it this weekend.

​@@ecrescent4545How did you like the Steam Deck in comparison? I'm considering the Win4 and already have a Steam Deck, which I'll pass on to my son if I upgrade.

@@Madsynth1987 So far for the few days I've had it the steam deck has been good to use. I do like the "out of box" experience, it's pretty straight forward and I do like the OS/overlays. I do prefer the Win 4 form factor + keyboard, although the deck isn't large enough that it's uncomfortable for me. I think the Win 4 is a bit more versatile being windows based and all (though the steam deck can be modded of course). The slightly better performance is much of a muchness in that form factor I think (unless you were interested in docking the device), however in terms of game compatibility this would favour the Win 4 for now (emulation as well), though I'm aware there are workarounds for the deck and that valve is constantly working on games being steam deck compatible. I think honestly it comes down to your budget and how much you are willing to pay, as I'm aware the price difference between the two devices can be significant depending on where you live. I think I will probably bounce between them for different uses for quite sometime. (steam deck has just been games, whereas I use Win 4 for games, browsing and watching shows/streams)

The keys look real small, have you not had many problems with them?

IMO even with all of the speculated devices thus far, the Win Max 2 wins the 2023 Handheld competition, hands down. Especially if you got their $799 and $1049 IGG deals

@@mix7893 I think the Max 2 is spectacular, but the Win 4 takes the cake for me. The fact that it fits nicely in my back pocket means it eliminated my need to carry a backpack or sling style laptop back to work. I take it to work, plug it up to the 2 docks I use, got a crapload of IO and 3 monitors running off it. Fingerprint for security. It's legit improves my social life because now I don't have to tote a bag with a laptop and check it, and constantly worry about it, when I go out for a drink or a date after work. Yeah...I've got a big ass handheld gaming looking thing in my back pocket, but so far women seem to be focusing on the other bulges in my pants. It's god tier. GPD got my dick sucked. Mic Drop Boom.

​@@cheeeeezewizzzlol that's actually a really cool use for it that goes beyond gaming.

⁠@@cheeeeezewizzz This is truly the best endorsement a gamer can give to a gaming device.

more psp than vita like, somewhere in between but yeah for sure always loved the design

All of gpds devices look like another handheld. They have one that looks like a 3ds xl...

If you check the few benchmarks GPD has on their own youtube channel, it looks like there's only about a 10% difference from the 7640u to the 7840u. Of course they're not doing extensive benchmarking but the general trend with power limited hardware seems to be you don't gain a whole lot using extra cores. Personally I like the idea of running the chip at full speed plugged in so more cores "should" show more advantage there.

Potrait based displays are only a problem when you want to play older games. They are fine if you don’t want to play older games

Thank you

it comes down to cost, portrait displays are cheaper as they are meant for tablets where orientation isn't a problem because the tablet can tell andoird what orientation the tablet is being held in, this is why Valve chose one for the steam deck, its cheaper and they can correct it in software inside of steamOS

wonder if manufacturers could just flash the display controller to make it natively landscape

@@AugustineKusiDuah-bk4fr That's - unfortunately - not true and just oversimplification of a complicated issue. Every second game I start on portrait-based Windows handhelds (without Lossless Scaling in action) end up only covering half of the screen, not able to enter excl. full screen and stuff like that.

why what was wrong?

@@michaelmodernsonicfan5341 My Gpd Win 1 and Win max both stopped turning on after less than a year. My win 1 was sent to GPD to repair under warranty and they never sent it back, apparently GPD are known for not returning devices. The Win Max I investigated myself and the motherboard had fried.

To each their own. I've never had any issues with them. Whenever I had questions or issues and contacted them they always gotten back to me and offered solutions.

@@DanThePianoManNZ thats weird huh, could it be from where you live?

They do have warranties...

Black Friday right around the corner

10-30% upgrade isn’t that worth it? Man, you have got to check out the real performance numbers as in real fps in a lot of games before you make a decision not to get the 7840u. But if you have the 6800u aya neo 2, well then fine. It’s all up to you

​ @AugustineKusiDuah-bk4fr Yeah I bought the Aya 2 around 6 months ago for ~$800. I think I'll just wait for a more significant upgrade before pouring too much money chasing the newest best specs every 6 months. I'm still playing games that run smoothly on it anyway! I still have Dark Souls III and Sekiro to beat.

How’s the software man? The temps? Playing at max? etc… geniunely curious tho…😅

Remember that this is all BEFORE official Drivers. Those WILL further boost the performance of these Phoenix Apu's, without a doubt. Amd is taking their sweet time with the Drivers, but they will inevitability show up (likely sooner rather than later), and the performance gap will widen. That being said no need to upgrade from the AyaNeo 2 unless money isn't a big concern (or you can sell your device for over half the initial cost). Best to wait for Strix Point in about a year, which will have up to 12 Cores (8 full and 4 "c" cores which are the same just clocked lower) of Zen 5 and 16 CU of Rdna 3.5 (Which allegedly is more than just a simple refresh of Rdna 3 and actually has features and improvements from Rdna 4 in it), so that should bring another "10-30%" boost or so in performance. At that point it will be worthwhile to upgrade from the the 6800u devices since it will be a much more substantial difference.

@@slickrounder6045 nice, means the gap will be eeveen wider when Steam Deck 2 with its fully compatible drivers come, I'll be mind blown in hopefully 1 year.

DDR4 has 64-bit/channel. DDR5 also has 64-bit by using 2 independent 32-bit channels. Which means that all DDR5 has dual-channel in single SoDIMM. Dual SoDIMM DDR5 config is a dual-channel 64-bit or quad-channel 32-bit. Steam deck's advantages were mainly due to Linux and its specific optimizations compared to Windows OS that GPD has.

@@3dr14ng4 Yes I have heard that about DDR5 from reading it somewhere.

It definitely has enough power to handle lower end PCVR titles, but you're not going to be maxing the graphics on something that's normally GPU bound.

@@KentHambrock vrr and vr are different things

Get xreal AR glasses for it, the gpd screen will never be used. Glasses make it much better

I still can't figure out why Sony isn't back in the handheld market, they could ask AMD for a custom soc with 8 Zen4C cores and 18 RDNA3 CUs and that thing could absolutely run games in PS4 if not PS4 pro mode at 10W at around the same size as the 7840U. They could absolutely sell it for below 500$

​@@maverickvgc4220they kind of are back in the market. If by back you mean- giving us a "console" that only works if you have both an internet connection and already own a ps5...

@@justinpatterson5291 we don't talk about the Sony Wii U here

@@maverickvgc4220 these days Sony is barely able to keep their main console alive. Sadly. I think it's ok they are focusing on that instead of on branching out into more things and dividing their attention.

@@lucascarracedo7421 idk about that, it would be attention from the hardware team. Running games in PS4 pro mode means that you don't need devs to make games just for that platform, you can just run the same games as the home counterpart.

It works reasonably well all things considered but it's more of a means to have a very quick way to use mouse. Not as good as Lenovo nub

Hmm.. I don't really game on it at home. I'll either use a controller or play on my steam deck or main rig. I use the Win 4 as a portable work PC. It is my main travel PC though and I do use it to play on trains and planes and when commuting to the office. There the extra portability trumps screen size every time. I've played on it quite a lot though, maybe about 200 hours, and I can give you some input. The comfort initially is a bit odd. The balance shifts depending on the position of the screen. I found that it feels comfortable in either orientation, but the ergonomics actually get better when you open up the screen. Neat. Rather than hold the device I really kind of cradle it on top of my pinky, ring, and middle finger while my index sits up under, or on the shoulder buttons and triggers. It is not nearly as comfortable as the steam deck to hold. The Decks ergonomics are the best I've ever experienced with a handheld device. Feels like they made it specifically for my hands. I can fall asleep with it in my hands and not drop it. Still, after a couple of play sessions I've come to feel that the win 4 is very comfortable to use. Especially while standing or seated. If I had one gripe it would be that the comfort takes a hit when laying down. It takes a bit of trial before you figure out how to open the keyboard, use the mouse, etc while laying on your back and holding it up. I don't play it laying down on my back very often for that reason. But I did lay down and type out this entire thing on my back and it really wasn't that difficult. Not bad at all. Ill be using my win 4 for years. I love it.

@@cheeeeezewizzz thanks for the feedback. Due to injury I can't game at my desk for long sessions and was looking for a way to game in bed more. I used my phone an S23 Ultra to stream my games which is around 6.8" but wish the screen was a little bigger to read small txt like inventory items in an RPG. The Win4 reminds me of the PSVita except that the analogs are non symmetrically across. I loved my Vita but the flat holding made my hands uncomfortable. I tried using an xbox controller with my phone mounted above but the weight balance wasn't ideal when laying on my back. I was thinking of getting something like a backbone or a gamevice flex controller to give a more steamdeck feel to things. These windows handhelds appeal to me as well but comfort comes to mind a lot and I really don't know how big I should go with the screen as my eyes aren't as young as they used to be but I imagine a 16x10 screen is better to see in a small portable than 21 x 9 ratio although my desk uses a 34" ultra wide with the same native res go figure.

That's what I do on my 6800U Win 4. I set the cpu clock to top at 2.2ghz and limit it to 4cores. I still get 40-45fps in Spiderman at 11W but the battery last almost 2 hours now. The only time I unlock 8 cores is if I do Switch or PS3 emulation.

I think it has the horsepower for it. Depends on how many extras you throw on it. I'd wait for someone who knows more than me to give exact details

As the Win 2 still is, until it leaves that role to the Win mini. It's insane it took this long. My IGG Win 2 is still in my desk all the time. With all it's shortcomings, nothing has come to beat it yet. And sadly, at least regarding form factor, I'm not sure the new Mini will actually do so either.

@@lucascarracedo7421 how i wish the win mini is the same size to win 2.

@@kaibigan_28 yeah I know they did their best, but nobody is interested in sacrificing that much performance it seems. Even with current hardware it may not even be possible given all APUs are considerably bigger. At some point I thought maybe this was it, time to replace my win 2, but no way.

@@lucascarracedo7421 well I hope they make that in the future when everything is optimized. I want to buy win2 before but im too late to purchase watching this channel i saw the win max then I bought it because i saw that they can play wiiu games and they are good for emulation but higher TDP. Now you can play some xbox 360 in 7000 series. If they can lower down to 10 to 15w for emulating xbox 360 that will be pretty sweet.

I really wanted the OculLink, but for now I'll settle with USB 4

@@destronia123 Yea. I hear you. For me, G1 isn't a big hype. Just want to play my backlog on my couch.

The printable grip makes it much more comfortable

@@destronia123it’s a problem all of the gaming pc don’t have the problems

@@destronia123 Kind of ruins the purpose of having a smaller device. The gpd sucked to hold. It felt bulkier and less comfortable then even my giant steam deck. Plus the screen was too small for modern games.

@@creaturecore13 That was my only concern about this device: the 6 inches display. Like you said, seems too small for modern PC games

Well my friend you're wish has been granted ayaneo kun reviews

prob can expect 3-4 months

Finally somebody said that. Even tho it is smaller and much powerfull than anything else, it could still be a little bit smaller. For example they could add mini ssd as it have steamdeck. Also it is still too hungry in case of wattage/perfomance. 2 hours isn't that much. If you had psp you know that you could play on it almost whole day before you needed to charge it again

As a GPD Win 4, Ally, and Deck owner. The GPD is best off all. my only complaint is it gets warm and small face buttons.

Yes i am sure. They did the same for the 6800u win 4

​@@AugustineKusiDuah-bk4fr they sold hall sticks? I heard they backed down on their promise to offer them post launch and canceled them.

7840u has higher performance at lower TDPs too, so it's better for battery life.

How long the 7840u battery life?

@@M4r10h Yeah...but those have exactly what unique selling points. In my opinion...they are all essentially the same device. Only the GPD devices and the steam deck really matter to me. No matter what they throw in any competing device, it will always be less flexible and less useful overall than the GPDs. It's bizarre to watch to be honest. The market should be pushing hard for keyboards. Like....really hard.

​@@cheeeeezewizzzbut for someone that has no care for rts type games and plays pretty much every game that consoles and controllers play, kind of makes pads keyboard and such pointless to those people so they will probably rather get something more sleek and compact, i think the aokzoe a2 looks really sleek, wish it comes with an OLED model

@@melxbagree, not everyone wants trackpads

Dog alley hype died so fast😂😂😂

@@onomatopoeia5540 has it tho, still best bang for buck and more updates coming, drivers aren't even out yet just as phawx mentioned

I would have kept my ally if it had trackpads. The steam deck is still the undisputed king of portable PC gaming imo. I don't get how Asus could miss that on a device they pushed as "play ALLYour games", is supposed to be a portable PC, and then they gimp the shit out of it and basically relegate it to playing console ports. I play all kinds of wild stuff on my deck that is meant to be played keyboard and mouse and thanks to the track pads and steams awesome input config you can get a great experience in damn near anything.

it's not wild. Those are huge devices. Getting that to fit on smaller footprint devices is a completely different game. About oculink, they probably will do. Sadly, usually GPD needs to do it first and then they follow if it catches on. GPD has been here before all of those, and is still the one trying out new things instead of copy pasting the switch and adding small details, only exception being the trackpads on the Deck. Also, the Kun is still in backing process while this is a second iteration device. And that beast weighs 900g also, which is ridiculous for anything that wants to call itself a handheld device. Most people will hold it in their lap or table.

32GB ram is standard on the AokzoeA1pro. There is also Chimera Os and Holo iso

@@AugustineKusiDuah-bk4fr yeah but every handheld should be starting at 32GB also I know of those options, would prefer direct from the source thooo

The AOKZOE A1 Pro would like to have word. Base 32GB of RAM.

it’s just wow. its running obsolete graphics.

The ROG Ally's FreeSync range starts at 48Hz, even with LFC, which is a tremendous oversight. So, in the end, it's not much of a feature, but rather a gimmick.

@deckverse You can edit the range with software down to 20hz. But I wouldn't expect someone called "deckverse" to know that.

​@@animetodamaximum That's LFC for you, as I mentioned. Glad to see there are still enough people looking for some new tech background to learn!

@@deckverse Do you know what CRU is? If so you would know you are changing the VRR range and not referring to LFC. LFC also only goes down to 30. I am pushing VRR down to 20.

its just you

same goes for me. I wouldn't want to bring a gaming handheld to work or meeting.

I don’t think so.

The Z1 extreme is a custom stripped down 7840U to save power.

For the Ally get Handheld Companion it's Auto TDP and TDP limiter are magic. I usually cap mine at 18w and it sits right at 20w total system power.

Generally speaking, you should anticipate around 3-4x performance improvement per watt.

oh wow thank you very much for the answer, that's much more than I thought it would be@@ThePhawx

I have a question: I am considering gpd win 4 vs asus rog ally, the ally is more easily accessible for me to buy in my country but I like the gpd win 4 7840u is smaller and more portable. Fan noise though is a pet peeve of mine, how low do I need to get the wattage on either device to make the fan silent or barely audible? Is there any difference? Is there any advantage to performance in those power profiles to either device and/or access to changing wattage settings and/or available power options? I normally don't fiddle with power settings so I have no idea where to find those things. @@ThePhawx Oh, also... will the gpd win mini be better at reducing fan noise per power than the gpd win 4 while still staying pretty small?