Images recently surfaced of another new handheld due to be released under the PowKiddy banner. The Powkiddy Max2 is yet another attempt to shift some of those dusty old RK3326 chips, but who’s buying?
The below images are all we have of the upcoming PowKiddy Max2 right now. I have contacted PowKiddy on AliExpress, and others on the RG Handhelds discord have done the same, to try and get some info on the hardware. We’ve all had the same response: the hardware is secret for now.
the Max2 name hints at this being a successor to the RGB10 Max, which depending on your outlook either means the same hardware in a new shell, or new hardware in a new shell.
If I’m honest the shell looks great, and I think they could possibly get away with one more RK3326 device because of it. Given the recent release of the X18S it does seem unlikely that they’re about to release another flagship type product. However it’s likely that the X18S has been ready for months, just awaiting the required components for mass production. They could potentially have been sourcing another flagship in the meantime.
The stacked shoulder buttons in particular look really nice, and the controller portion of the design looks very comfortable too. I am hoping another flagship is in the works, but deep down I think it’s unlikely. One eagle eyed discord user spotted that the I/O on the top edge of the device lines up with those of the RGB10 Max, which could mean it’s the same board layout. It also appears to be running EmuELEC, just like the majority of RK3326 devices do out of the box.
UPDATE 2021/10/24
Well that didn’t take long. The Max2 is now listed on the official Powkiddy AliExpress store for $125 shipped. Whilst the device actually looks rather nice, I can’t see many people going for it over Anbernic’s RG351MP or RG351V. Personally I am done with RK3326 and am happy to wait for some more of these next generation machines to establish themselves.
I’d get it for gba screen size boost/interger scaling so I don’t care about chipset. But screen needs to brighter than rgb10 max and shoulder buttons could be less firm. The side grips barely touch the guys palms in the video so their useless but the back grips should help. Hate where the led battery light is located. Colors choices are boring.
I think it’s a bit too late to reenact the very same handheld in a different dress. Enough with these remakes
Update: No, It Won’t
LOOOOOL
Dang it.
So far I’ve only ever used the RG351V, and it seems like maybe this one would have been better, but you know 😛
I hope we can see a CPU at least with an A55 Cortex or something next time. Of course would be a ton better if we had an A75 or something, but I think considering how hard it is to emulate anything past PS1, N64, PSP and Dreamcast, it’s not even worth waiting for a GameCube capable chip. I’ve seen some quite powerful boards still struggle with Dolphin…
My only problem with the RK3326 is the very weak CPU that can’t fully handle SNES9x / Duckstation. Once we have that, the GPU could even stay the same with the Mali G31, which is already quite good for all these games.
It looks like a good device from the hardware point of view, but I’m concerned the UI will have a cheap-nasty design and a dog-awful firmware. Those screenshots of the UI already look half-arsed. I hope they nail that by release.
Powkiddy just confirmed it’s another rk3326.
The same old sh.t as before
I couldn’t say that better
I would be happy with another 3326 if they could overclock it enough to make a noticeable difference and keep it stable. Aside from that I would want a new chipset.