GPD XD Plus Android Gaming and Emulator console review

The original GPD X was a successful Android handheld that brought the portable Android console into the limelight. The GPD XD Plus is the latest model which improves on the original.

The GPD XD Plus is powered by a Mediatek MT8176 processor which scales up to 2.1Ghz when required. The graphics chip is a PowerVR GX6250 which is great for gaming and runs at 600Mhz. There is 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage which can be expanded with a MicroSD Card. Connectivity is handheld with 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi Fi and Bluetooth 4.1.

As the GPD XD Plus is primarily an Android for gaming device you can expect some high quality gaming controls. There are two ALPS analogue sticks, a D-Pad and the usual gaming buttons, 12 in total including shoulder buttons using Omron microswitches.

Despite only measuring 7.87 x 7.09 x 2.44 inches the XD Plus feels very comfortable to hold for a long period of time. The joysticks especially feel very good and are perfect for first person shooters with good accuracy. The D-Pad is very good for emulators and you can enjoy perfect directional controls with it.

The screen size is a 5 inch H-IPS touchscreen. The display colours are vibrant and the touch screen supports 5 fingers at once which is great for gaming as often you will need multiple fingers in use at once. HDMI 1.4 output is also supported via the Mini HDMI port. You can connect it to your TV and enjoy lag free gaming on a larger screen. It turns the GPD XD Plus from an Android gaming tablet into a gaming console.

The GPD XD Plus is a very capable gaming handheld. I played a number of games such as Asphalt, Space Marshals, Call of Duty Mobile and Stranger Things: The Game. They are a good mix of games that use native gaming controls, touchscreen or joystick and touchscreen remapping.

The GPD XD Plus has built in mapping for joystick to touchscreen. It is very easy to set up, simply press the dedicated joystick mapping button, drag the on-screen buttons on the layout where you want them to be recognised and all physical button presses will be recognised as touch presses. The remapping works extremely well and can be used to add joystick controls to any game that only uses touchscreen.

The second strength of the GPD XD Plus is as an Android retro gaming console. One of the contributing factors to the GPD XD popularity was the large number of emulators for Android and how well they performed. The XD Plus can run everything from Atari 2600, Gameboy Advance, up to the PlayStation Portable with PPSSPP.

It can even emulate the Gamecube with some games running at a solid full frame rate. Thanks to Vulkan API support the emulators run more efficiently and as a result you get better speeds on your emulator and can play games as they were intended.

The PlayStation Portable games overall run very well and all earlier systems such as Gameboy, Megadrive/Genesis, SNES etc will have no issues. It is a great Android Retro Console with games and there are a few emulators built in with the Happy Chick app and you can always download more from the Google Play Store.

As you have full access to the Google Play Store you can download everything just as you would on your Android phone or Android TV Box. The GPD XD Plus is also great as a media player and Kodi for example works and looks great on both the H-IPS screen and output over HDMI to your TV.

Coming from the original GPD XD to the GPD XD Plus it was a nice improvement. Games and emulators both run very well and this a great gaming and emulator console. Also, having support for apps such as IPTV and Kodi, and day to day usage such as browsing, social media and media consumption. This is one of the best all-round portable consoles you can get.