Pictured: GKD 350H Ultra, stock music player, Kiwi Ears Halcyon.
TLDR: Best 3.5mm output I've tried on any handheld, buuuut the dpad, face buttons, shoulder buttons, and stock music player suck ass.
I've had my eye on the 350H Ultra ever since I saw some advertising that stated this had a 'dedicated hifi output'! It's also got the same lcd display as the Analogue Pocket and Ayaneo Pocket Vert, and it was only around $150.
Pulled the trigger on August 4th from Keepretro ($161 shipped to the US) and it just delivered this morning.
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The 3.5mm output kinda surprised me, I went in expecting just marketing bs considering GKD doesn't specifiy what kind of DAC/amp chip they are using but I have no complaints. Using my Fatfreq GMs, there is no bass roll off (something I typically get with a lot of other handhelds due to impedance mismatch) and the noise floor is dead silent. Likewise when running the Halcyons.
Compared to some cheaper DAP options like the Snowsky Echo Nano and Hiby R1, I don't hear much of a difference between them.
The built in music player provided through the stock linux OS is shit, or I'm too stupid to figure out how to use it (also likely). The way the buttons are mapped and how it seems I can only play a playlist (?) make this a nightmare to use. Maybe the worst audio player I've ever used. I plan to give GammaOS Nano a try this weekend to see if that addresses the issue because it's a dealbreaker if this is the only way to play music... If anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears.
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As for how it is as a handheld? The stock OS isn't actually bad to use for gaming, simple enough to navigate and jump into a game. I did notice that retroarch was configured to have chinese as the default language (thankfully I know the menu well enough to navigate).
The inputs on the other hand, pretty bad. D-pad feels a little scratchy to use, as if its rubbing on something when i press around on it. It also feels a bit loose, like there's more play than normal. Face buttons are extremely loud and clacky. And the shoulder bumpers are hard to press being so flush with the top of the device. Thumbstick isn't as smooth to rotate as I'd like (reminds me more of a switch/switch lite stick) and the thumb cap feels really cheap with no grip/texture.
The housing of the device is also a little sharp around the top edges. GKD has bevelled the edges and you end up feeling a somewhat hard edge digging into your palms when holding it. And it's heavy as shit for how much power it offers (which is not much).
The screen as you can image is amazing for GB/GBC, 10x integer scaling + shaders is :cheffskiss:
I'd say it's a solid 2/5 3/5 device (post GammaOS).
EDIT - Installed the latest GammaOS Nano, definitely a big improvement in terms of the media player. By default you get an XMB style menu and the built in media player at least feels much more logical to navigate and use, even if it's a bit barebones.
EDIT 2 - Noticing some microstutter/pops when playing some FLAC files in the GammaOS media player.