The ZPG Pro Rumours and Release Date

The original ZPG was a DIY handheld that used the guts of a cell phone for its mainboard. It was mostly the work of Lao Zhang, he made use of Vita controls and the motherboard of a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact to create the device. The ZPG was released in very small batches to the Chinese market, and was almost impossible for Westerners to buy.

It’s always been rumoured that the ZPG was leading up to something else, and that rumour has just been substantiated. Over on the Chinese forums God of light and darkness (cool name) is posting short teaser videos pertaining to a ZPG Pro.

There have been a couple of these short videos released so far, and that implies there is a reason to hype it up. If the ZPG Pro was only going to be available in miniscule batches again, would there be a need to invest time and effort promoting it? After all the original ZPG batches sold out in seconds, without any fanfare required. Alongside that fact, this quote states the ZPG Pro will be going in to mass production.

God of light and darkness posted the video and is a reliable source of information on these forums, so let’s assume he’s right.

MULTIPLE ZPG VERSIONS?

Another user claims he has information from the maker regarding different versions of the ZPG.

Something worth bearing in mind is that there have been perpetual rumours of more OGA clones coming up. It certainly makes me wonder if either the ZPG Pro, ZPG Mini or ZPG Max could be one of them. Whatever the hardware, it’s safe to assume that any mass produced units won’t be made using gutted cell phones.

If I had to guess, I would say that these devices are going to run on RockChip. It’s possible that a custom Snapdragon board has been designed for one of the versions, but historically unlikely. Things are moving fast in 2020 though, so anything is possible. I’ll update this post with more news as it surfaces.

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Update 23/6/2020

PROTOTYPE SHOTS

In the last couple of days, some shots of a prototype ZPG Pro have appeared on baidu. It is also now pretty much confirmed that the ZPG Pro will be another OGA clone.

These shells are likely to be 3D printed, so we’re still a little way off seeing a general release.

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Update 10/07/2020

BUTTON LAYOUT

Here’s the button layout for the ZPG Pro. As you can see, it’s been designed so that it has enough buttons to match the Odroid-Go Advance, with F1-F6 represented. This should alleviate the mapping issues present on the RK2020.

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Update 27/07/2020

MORE PROTOTYPE SHOTS

Could this be the ZPG Pro? The layout certainly marries up with the diagram and 3D prints from earlier this month. Looks promising!

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Update 16/9/2020

ZPG PRO IS NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER

The blue and yellow plastic versions, as well as the metal shell version are all available to order now at whatskogame.com and AliExpress. Be sure to use coupon code OBSCURE for a few dollars off the price at whatskogame.com.