The GPD Win 2 is a pocket-sized computer with a 6 inch, 720p display, an Intel Core M3-7Y30 Kaby Lake processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid state drive.

It’s a Windows 10-powered computer that  like a cross between a laptop computer and a Nintendo DS, with physical gaming buttons above a QWERTY keyboard, as well as shoulder buttons.

GPD plans to begin shipping the Win 2 in May, and it’s up for pre-order through a crowdfunding campaign at Indieogogo. The first 1000 people back the campaign can reserve a GPD Win 2 for $599. After that the price is expected to go up.

Update: The first 1000 units are accounted for and the price is now up to $649.

As the name suggests, this is actually the second device of its type from GPD. The original GPD Win launched in 2016 and featured a smaller display, a less powerful processor, and slower storage, among other differences.

The new model is a major upgrade, but it’s also more expensive than the first-gen model, which sells for around $400 or less.

While GPD positions the Win 2 as a gaming computer, it’s worth keeping in mind that it doesn’t have discrete graphics, has one of the least powerful 7th-gen Intel Core processors, and generally doesn’t have the horsepower for bleeding edge gaming. But it should be able to handle many older games without trouble, as well as some newer titles at lower graphics settings.

GPD recently posted a series of videos showing various games running on the Win 2, but if you’re looking for some third-party test videos, The Phawx has posted dozens of them in a YouTube playlist.

I’m hoping to get my hands on a review unit soon as well.

Upgrading from eMMC storage to an M.2 2242 SSD should give the device of a bit of a boost. GPD says even the microSD card has been improved, offering higher read and write speeds.

Other features include 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, a USB 3.0 Type-C port, a USB 3.0 Type-A port, a headset jack, stereo speakers, and a 37.Wh battery that GPD says should be good for around 6 to 8 hours of run time.

The whole thing measures about 6.4″ x 3.9″ x 1″ and weighs about a pound.

While I’d normally be reluctant to use the word “pre-order” to describe a crowdfunding campaign, GPD has been making handheld gaming products for years and the company has pretty much finished building working prototypes and has the resources necessary to ramp up production and ship the product. I think GPD uses crowdfunding more as a way to generate buzz and gauge demand for its products.

I can’t say for certain that the GPD Win 2 will meet its May ship date, I’m pretty sure the GPD Win 2 will ship at some point.

thanks Victor C!

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56 replies on “GPD Win 2 handheld gaming PC up for pre-order through Indiegogo, should ship in May”

  1. I’d buy this if Amazon sold it directly with Prime. What’re the chances of that happening? It looks like the Win 1 and Pocket are still only sold by 3rd party sellers on Amazon.

    The gaming controls are a turn off though. Don’t want this for gaming. Compromises for me I guess.

  2. Hopefully, GPD doesn’t send Brad a broken unit for review again, haha.

  3. Too much money to spend on a no-name company. Seems like hell trying to get issues resolved with GPD. Unfortunately, I’m going to pass on this. If you ignore that it’s from GPD, it seems like a nice device though.

  4. Too expensive for what this is. Plus GPD isn’t a good company to deal with.

  5. This device is in a bit of a weird spot. I don’t really see any value in this. The GPD Win 1 was powerful enough to run most emulators, and low end games. Skyrim was probably among the most demanding games you would expect to play.

    Now the GPD Win 2 is just powerful enough to attempt to play more high-end games, but at very disappointing framerates and quality. It isn’t enough of a leap in performance to do anything noteworthy whatsoever. We can all oogle and drool over the idea of a Core-M in a handheld game system, but in practice, I’m not going to do anything on this thing that is going to make anyone envious.

    GPD’s resources would have been far better spent making a high-powered ARM device, and run Retropie, or Recalbox as the OS. There is no shortage of emulation fans out there waiting for exactly that.

    1. I think they did the right thing: they made the XD+ which is what you are asking for: an updated ARM device with emulators in focus, and updated their flagship the Win to what the community asked them for. The Win generates a buzz, when you expect every small device to run Android and then here comes this tiny thing and it’s a full PC with an X-Box controller integrated, it blows your mind. My Win 1 still does when I open it, I would like to go back in time to my 8yo self to show him this, it’s pure SciFi.

      Besides I use the Win 1 less for gaming and more for a very portable PC for field, to configure routers literally in the wild (on the top of a tower in a factory hanging from a rope, so generally a place where I would not like to bring a full sized notebook). I used to use my phone for this, but the Win is so much better partially because I get access to all my x86 based config tools, I have an USB and with that an ethernet port. And the controls work with a glove too.

      1. You’re right, the GPD Win 1 is the right product for most people who want an x86 UMPC.

        I also agree about the GPD XD+, I’m glad that they just did a simple SOC refresh, and didn’t try to reinvent the whole thing.

  6. Definitely a lot of bang for the buck. And if Windows wasn’t moving towards ARM, I would say this is a spot on form factor where all the major PC manufacturers should also have a device.

    But now unfortunately the industry has to find its footing again. It’s not hard… single OS, all form factors (within reason)… go.

  7. Ah, now pre order price is 649 dollars :/

    Retail price after this goes up to 700 dollars…

    1. First 1000 early birds price was $599, so thats gone. Now is $649 for latecomers. They include shipping costs, hopefully that makes up for extra charged.

      1. Still too much money. I like the form factor but the price is a no-go. If one of the big manufacturers makes something like this in scale we should see more realistic pricing.

  8. With a ryzen 2500 15w APU 650$ would be fantastic. The crazy part is that they ask too much money even at 650$ promo price is super expensive. If they do the same also in pocket 2 for sure they will get on both devices far less bakers than win 1 and Pocket 1.

    An m3-7Y30 based device with that quality for that money is just ridiculous.

    1. AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U’s default TDP of 15W which ranges from 12W to 25W is well above palm sized form factor devices active cooling can handle. At maximum temperatures, that processor can only throttle down aggressively to 12W which meant active cooling for the device must work very hard to cool down. In contrast, Intel Core m3-7Y30’s default TDP of 4.5W and lowest range of 3.75W isn’t much of a problem in such devices which is why this processor can often be found in devices with passive cooling. Also given the scarcity of devices with Ryzen 5 2500U at AMD’s Ryzen mobile launch, unlikely GPD will pick this APU from the beginning. It seems to be more likely processor shortage. Today only HP Envy x360 is available while Acer Swift 3 only recently starting to reach retail. Meanwhile Lenovo Ideapad 720S still waiting in the wings. Others like Dell, Toshiba, Sony and ASUS has yet to announced models and shipping dates.

      1. I agree that this would be a much better sell with a low TDP AMD APU. I was really interested in the GPD Pocket but the low power Intel chip was the killer. AMD has several embedded solutions (one of which was in a planned competitor to the GPD Win) with R7 graphics which could have been used in the GPD Win 2. For $650 or $700 USD, I’d expect the capability to play modern titles as decent frame rate at 720P resolution without resorting to hacks and ultra low texture quality.

        1. Most of AMD’s embedded processor with Radeon R7 have TDPs of 15W or higher. Any AMD embedded processor below 15W comes with weaker Radeon R2E or R1E. AMD has been out of ultra low power processors since the mysterious Mullins. Currently AMD’s lowest power mobile processor is E2-9000e at 6W TDP with weak Radeon R2 which struggles to run simple League of Legends game.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXGMP9lZuJA

          1. Yeah, it’s going to be a 15W TDP APU. That’s perfectly manageable with a good heatsink design. Sure it won’t have amazing battery life at full load but it would provide the power needed to play newer titles. I’d probably drop $650 or $700 on a scaled down AMD FX APU but it’s too much of an ask for a lowly Intel M3.

          2. As I have said earlier, 15W is too much to handle for palm sized form factor devices. Didn’t Smach Z burned their AMD RX-421BD processors which had 15W TDP during internal testing? Very likely the problem stems from the processor’s inability to reduce its TDP down way below 12W to prevent high temperatures from rising continuously. Part of GPD Win 2’s allure was the better emulation speeds. Emulation requires very high IPC and single core performance. AMD FX’s Bulldozer style cores had weak IPC and very inefficient for use in low power mobile processors. Currently AMD has no equivalent processor to Intel’s Core m3-7Y30 in ultra low power area at the 4.5W TDP range. AMD’s mysterious Mullins processor such as the A10 Micro-6700T with Radeon R6 were made obselete by Intel’s first generation Core M-5Y70 processor https://www.techspot.com/review/951-lenovo-thinkpad-helix/page3.html in both CPU and integrated GPU performance.

          3. No doubt that it would be difficult to dissipate the heat at full power but I definitely think that it would be possible. I have run only AMD processors for over 15 years and they have always been flexible with custom clocks and undervolting. I’m pretty sure that you could configure the system to run cool enough at low loads.

            I’d have to look closer at the single core IPC of the M3 to know where it’s at in relation to older AMD cores. Intel has led AMD for some time when if comes to IPC. I know my FX 8800P 35W chip is pretty decent for a 2+ year old chip. Same goes for my FX-8350 8 core. Intel is just better in this area. Zen closes the distance and Zen+ should bring single core parity while maintaining a small lead in multithreaded workloads.

            In either case it will be interesting to see how the new GPD Win 2 performs with various tweaks. If the price drops down to the 450 to 500 range it might be worth a second look.

          4. For 15W cooling example in ultra thin compact form factor, take a look at Microsoft Surface devices which had active cooling and larger surface area for heat dissipation. Also those Intel mobile Core processors have lowest TDP of 7.5W on smaller models to 9.5W on bigger models. That allowed the use of less bulky cooling solutions. However these are still not palm sized form factor devices. Many were predicting AMD’s dual core mobile Ryzen 3 2200U processor to have 5W to 7W TDP, alas when the official specifications were revealed here https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-3-2200u turned out to be still 15W TDP with lowest TDP of 12W. That 4MB of L3 cache indicates that this processor uses the same die as quad core Ryzen 5 2500U processor but with half the CPU cores enabled and only 3 CUs enabled. So far have not seen specifically dual core only Ryzen mobile processor yet. Prices for GPD Win 2 will come down eventually much like GPD Win pries. When that happens, likely the next generation is looming close. Despite being small company, GPD’s hardware development cycle is rather quick. Moving from Intel’s Atom x7-Z8750 processor to a completely differet processor like Intel’s Core m3-7Y30 didn’t pose any problems for them. Check out GPD’s president most recent interview at https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/topic/feature/1100993.html Experience and industry connections are vital. However the same cannot be said about Smach Z.

  9. Looks like GPD successfully manipulated 1000 people into the early bird $600 “discount” price. Let’s see how much GPD’s lie of a $900 retail price will get people into the $650 “discount” price.

    I’m sure GPD lied that Intel increased the price of their CPUs too.

    1. There’s a lot of anger here but have you ever checked Intel’s Ark? It lists key details about every product they manufacture, including Intel’s price (which is subject to negotiation but a good starting point). The x7-z8700 from the GPD Win 1 is listed as $37. The m3-7Y30 from the GPD Win 2? $281.

      So, unless Intel are selling a $281 chip for $20-40, they genuinely did increase the price of their chips. Maybe check your facts before getting angry.

      1. The Intel ARK prices are a gross exaggeration. Just look at the Cube Mix Plus: $300-$350 for a Core M tablet.

        1. If designing a PC was only about picking a CPU off the shelf, everybody would be able to do it. Yet PGS and the Smatch Z team somehow failed in this allegedly simple task, and the Open Pandora team needed close to a decade to deliver. Something tells me there is a bit more to PC design than just picking a CPU.

        2. Oh yeah, I can guarantee no one pays the claimed price. Even so 90% off is a pretty massive discount 😛

    1. After that first 1000 at the $600 price, pre-orders seem to have slowed down significantly. I guess going from $600 to $650 put this beyond a lot of people’s willingness to pay.

    2. I’m guessing GPD needs to sell on the order of 10’s of thousands of units to make a profit. It seems that the campaign is slowing down a lot now. Hopefully, retail sales will be much better.

  10. I’m not willing to buy from GPD but I’m hoping this does well enough to catch the attention of bigger OEMs like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Razer, etc. so I could buy from them instead. Heck, I’d even pay the Sony tax if they came out with a competitor.

    Also, built in LTE is always something I’d pay for a highly mobile device such as this.

    1. Same. I’m not willing to risk money on GPD. However, if this does well enough to get major OEMs onboard, I’d pay this price.

      1. It’d be great for Samsung or Fujitsu to get back into this market if the Win 2 does well enough. Hopefully, a lot of people are willing to risk $600+ on GPD for OEMs to take notice.

  11. Too rich for me. Maybe if a major OEM was behind this, I’d buy one. GPD seems to be an iffy company to deal with.

    1. Well, GPD is not exactly an iffy company as they have produced great products like GPD XD, GPD Win and GPD Pocket. So GPD can be considered quite reputable in delivering the actual product. Yeah, quality is one aspect but they have improved alot especially looking at the GPD Pocket.

      1. GPD has “acceptable” quality, only because they dabble in the $100-400 price range. When you start selling things over $600, you are welcoming a whole different level of criticism and expectations. GPD doesn’t have the quality to play in this game.

        1. To be honest, GPD has absolutely no competition in their product category. The closest alternative to a Win is maybe a Switch. Or the Win 1 which is also a GPD product. They can pretty much stick whatever price they want on a quality they want, because right now they make the ‘standard’ for the portable gaming handheld UMPC category.

          1. I’ve used the GPD pocket, a colleague of mine has one. I’m not just talking about the fit-and-finish, or the physical quality. I mean design oversights, or features that just aren’t thought out as well.

            The only thing I have against the GPD Win is the keyboard and mouse trackpoint. They tried to fit too many unnecessary keys on that keyboard, and it is cramped as a result. I could have designed a much better keyboard. The mouse trackpoint is not well thought-out at all. I can’t use it.

          2. Yeah, the keyboard is cramped as noted from review video below. The old Thinkpad style mouse knob isn’t easy to use but saves space in palm sized device. However the reviewer seems to be able to use it fine though. Perhaps he got used to it quickly. Also can see from the review, internally well made especially the motherboard and heatsink design which is a big step up from GPD Win.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJl9BuzJvs0

  12. Too much money to risk given how unreliable GPD is. Just look up how the Win 1 went/is going: DOA, intermittant hardware issues, communication problems, shipping delays/loss, battery issues, using a site associated with malware for driver/firmware downloads, etc.

    1. Yep. I pre-ordered a Win 1 and whilst it was great as a curiosity, there were too many niggles with the hardware that made it not worth using beyond the novelty period.

      1. If GPD gets the Win 2 on Amazon Prime (not some 3rd party seller on Amazon), it’d help decrease some risk. If you get a broken Win on delivery (likely for GPD), Amazon is usually pretty good with replacements/refunds.

        I definitely won’t buy a GPD device through Indiegogo or a foreign seller (I’m in the USA). International shipping, time zone differences, language barriers (not good if both sides aren’t native English speakers) and months of turnaround time is too much for me.

    2. That is only the initial batch of GPD Win but were later corrected subsequently. Despite that, GPD Win still sold very well and garnered huge following. The only sticky parts are RMA which can be long due to distance and source of replacement battery. There’s always something to complain about, although not everyone’s experience is the same.

    3. I got a first batch GPD Win 1 and a “second gen”. I did have some issues with the first one, had to send it back to GPD and they did fix it eventually. It did take a lot of time, but then again they were (and probably still are) a 17 person company so I can totally understand it. I sold the first one recently. The second device is still in daily use by me, and I’m really thinking about buying the Win2. I totally trust GPD in that they will honor the warranty and won’t take the money from a crowdfunding and disappear into the night. And from my previous experience I know that if I do have a problem it might take some time. They are not Apple to have a store in every country and major city with thousands of employees dedicated to my problems. Heck, I’ve had more problems with Acer honoring a warranty, and they are certainly not a 17 person company from the other half of the globe. I think GPD is totally reliable, but slow.
      Regarding the price: there was a poll about a year ago regarding the Win2. Wade asked the community if we wanted an AppoloLake device with similar price-point as the Win 1. This would have bumped up the IGMA and nothing else, ApolloLake does not support M.2. The other choice was a Core M CPU, M.2 slot and all the other upgrades you get here. The Core M idea won overwhelmingly, so GPD went with that. I don’t know if there are any other companies that would make a poll of it’s upcoming flagship device and actually take the user feedback as seriously as GPD. They even changed the keyboard layout after a forum post!
      So yeah, I’ll break up the piggy-bank and will totally get myself a Win2.

      1. Thank you for confirming that it takes several revisions for GPD to provide a decent product and that they’re very slow to resolve issues.

        You’ve convinced me to not fund the Win 2 at this time.

      2. Haha, why are you upvoting all of your comments? So lame. It’s not going to get GPD any more sales. Probably the opposite if anything.

        1. After your comment, zdanee started fake up voting others. What a loser. Before, only his/her comments had 50+ up votes and everyone else had less than 10.

          30-50 upvotes in 30 minutes, hahahahahah.

          Anything more than ~10 votes are obviously fake.

    4. GPD isn’t reliable enough to spend $600+ on. Doesn’t matter how small they are. That’s not relevant to the user. In the end, if they can’t meet the expectations for higher priced devices, their sales numbers will only go so far. It could be enough for GPD though.

      1. Well yes, GPD is an enthusiast brand, the whole concept is something you can probably sell a million units worldwide, tops. It’s not a new iPhone, very few people are interested in PC gaming on-the-go and even less are willing to pay for an extra device besides their phone to actually try it. There is little need in GPD going much bigger as I doubt there will ever be a bigger market for such things, especially as Windows for ARM is going to bite into their customer base in the coming years. This does mean that you won’t have a GPD brand store in your city to have local customer care, so if that’s your concern I would suggest going for a Nintendo Switch instead of a Win by all means.

      2. I wonder how much GPD needs to sell to break even on the Win 2. 20,000? 50,000? 100,000? more?

        1. With as short of a span of time between the GPD Win 1 and GPD Win 2 release, I’d guess that it’s a pretty low total number of units to make it into the black. If they were still in the red, there wouldn’t be a lot of incentive to get something new out to market, especially when they are the basically the only player in the non tablet handheld x86/64 PC space (save the Dragonbox Pyra, which will not be as powerful when it finally releases).

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