Well it’s finally in my hands - the Odin Pro, I’ve been excited for this device for a long time as I’d heard great things about the build quality and it’s performance, so does it live up to expectations? Let’s find out……
Build Quality and Ergonomics
The build quality of the Odin Pro is excellent, the whole machine feels really premium and high-end, from the touchscreen to the analogue sticks, face buttons to the shoulder buttons, everything is really responsive. It is a very ergonomic and comfortable device to hold too thanks to two raised grips on the back of the machine so no complaints from this section! I also really like the optional blue light around the analogue sticks and side panels, this can be turned off in the Android settings.
Screen
Another high point of the Odin Pro is the screen which is the sharpest, brightest and most colourful I’ve seen on any retro emulation handheld, the ATV Launcher I use (pictured above) and the games really do pop off the screen, very impressive indeed.
Performance
Now we come to the big, important section. how does it perform? The answer is exceptionally well! The machine has three performance modes - Standard, Performance and High which can be changed quickly and easily via the notifications menu, High Performance mode is definitely recommended for anything above PS1 such as PS2, Dreamcast, Saturn, N64 and PSP although for PS1 and below you should be fine with Standard. It’s reported that it plays around 50% of PS2 games well and around 75% of Gamecube games well and to date I’ve had zero issues with Dreamcast, Saturn, N64 or PSP, they all run perfectly although with some PSP games a little bit of tinkering is required regarding frameskip for example on the two God of War titles. The surprise packet for me so far has been the performance of the AetherSX2 PS2 emulator which has surpassed my expectations! The best results are achieved by adding some underclocking in the Settings. There’s only been one title so far I’ve added which I’ve not been able to play and everything else plays extremely well including titles such as Time Crisis 2 & 3, Gran Turismo 3 & 4 and God of War II, I seriously was not expecting this level of performance on PS2 and just proves what an absolute powerhouse of a machine this is! I did have an issue until yesterday getting the left analogue stick to work with some PS2 titles but thanks to advice from Reddit and Discord I’ve now fixed this.
Gamecube plays great via the DolphinMMJR emulator although some overlocking is required in the Settings for best results on some titles, a high point for me on this emulator was being able to play F-Zero GX for the first time at full speed and with perfect audio! I didn’t manage such impressive results though with Wii on the same emulator, most games were quite stuttery, slow or difficult to play due to the Wii’s controls although I did manage to get perfect performance and playability out of Mario Kart Wii (by far the best performing Wii game), Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom All-Stars. I wasn’t expecting great things from Wii anyway so the fact that any Wii games are playable is a bonus!
Dreamcast and Saturn titles perform perfectly straight away with no tinkering required and 720p resolution is possible, and these games have never looked better thanks to the Odin’s amazing screen!
And lastly PSP, the Odin definitely gives the best performance I’ve yet seen playing pretty much every title perfectly right up to 3x resolution with little or no frameskip required in the Settings, although, as previously mentioned the two God of War titles do work best with a frameskip of 1 and 1 or 2x resolution but again, both games perform better on here than I’ve ever seen on any other device.
As you’d expect any machine below and including PS1 performs flawlessly right out of the box in Standard performance mode with no tweaking required.
Overall the performance and power of this machine is incredible and unrivalled by any other retro emulation handheld in my collection, I am so impressed!
Final Verdict
This is without a doubt the jewel in the crown of my collection, it’s extremely comfortable to use, looks great with responsive controls and exceptional performance, it really is a quite incredible device! TRJ RATING : 5/5
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