I wrote this up initially at NintendoAge but given the huge thread I saw here based mostly on the original unit which was fairly flawed I decided to share this here just so people could see how the system handles without traveling elsewhere to do so. I hope that's not a problem.
I got this on the 27th, and here's a general review of some basic tests and impressions I've had so far. Also included is info how on this version to make SA1 games (both Kirbys and Mario RPG) work with a swap trick. As I figure out more I will revise this and if you have questions or comments leave them in the thread and I'll answer what I can. I have around 80 SNES titles so if you need one looked at I may have it.
Battery Life/Charge: I charged it in around 3hours, have not discharged yet
Game Compatibility: (Youtube Proof of functionality) http://www.youtube.com/user/templeofd00m?feature=mhee
Working: General, DSP1, FX(Mario Chip1 and GSU-1), FX2 (DOOM), CX4, and SA1**
Not Working: SDD1(Street Fighter Alpha 2, graphical errors) and FX2 Yoshi's Island (garbled graphics, freezes)
D-Pad: Solid, but has the slight issue that also the RDP has, if you smash the dpad down in the center it causes weird behavior in some titles, like Pocky and Rocky makes them move upwards, but if you stick to the outside of the pad it's responsive equally in all directions. Other buttons are solid. Also I think the reset on this(no super powerpak) is solid as long as you hold the button down.
Sound/Audio: Only tested out of the system itself, and I've fired up 10-12 games, about 1/2 or more first party and they sound right, nothing is muffled. The scratchy speaker issue of the original version I don't hear it. I've put this up to maximum and listened to a variety of samples from the deep strings in the DOOM game to the light bongo-y like audio of DKC3 and the soft sounds of Kirby's Dream Land 3. Everything sounds crisp and clear, no fuzz, no scratch even on max volume on the handheld.
Screen Quality: Seems quite solid, the only issue is if you hold the unit where the screen faced up and away from you it will fade, but any other extreme angle to the side doesn't do it, and straight ahead is nice. The visuals are fairly sharp but I guess like the Nomad or Turbo Express your mileage may vary with a few games that have small print as it may not scale to where it's as easily readable on a larger screen as intended but it's not a problem either. It's sharp, clean, crisp and most of all smooth unlike seeing these old games on a big LCD screen where they range from super sharp to muddy or somewhere in the middle.
Jacked into the TV: This seems to work extreme well from the little test I have done so far. I used DKC3 again for this one to check it out against playing it portably. The A/V cable seems to be of a pretty solid quality and pops into the top of the system. When it is in there the system still uses the LCD which seems fairly pointless because it disables the systems controls, you must use an external game pad. I did use one and the handling on it is 1:1 with a real SNES so if the possible issue I mentioned with the dpad is a problem, this takes care of it. The audio and the visuals going through the unit's tv cable is solid, enough said. It looked and sounded just the same as my snes and mini snes on my 26" Panasonic Viera LCD tv (about 5-6years old now.)
System Build Quality: Now I never had the original but I heard it felt a little thin and light. To me this one is not. It seems firm to me. I've given it a good squeeze and a little twist here and there and didn't feel any give. The controller ports are very solid and don't rattle or come loose on your game pads. All the buttons feel natural, not 'off', mushy, cheap or flimsy. Just that d-pad issue I mentioned before which I'm going to look into. The only real issue is the dumb LED button on bottom in green, it's always green, it's off when the system is on, it stays green when you charge it, then it's off when full. You get NO warning I'm told when it dies other than your audio and visuals start to get rough and wobbly.
Here's an expansion of the list of games I've tested and the SA1 I double starred for a reason.
-Ninja Warriors
-Super Valis IV
-Pocky & Rocky
-Earthbound
-Mega Man X3(CX4)
-DOOM(FX2)
-Starfox(FX1)
-Donkey Kong Country 3
-Super Mario RPG(SA1)
-Kirby Super Star(SA1)
-Kirby's Dream Land 3(SA1)
-Unique pirate 7in1 cart I have, fired up menu ok and played Super Turrican and Lion King alright.
**SA1 Game Swap Trick: The chip itself when designed by Nintendo also worked as a lockout chip, think of it as a devious evil younger brother prick of the NES-10 on NES carts. It basically checks for legit hardware and if not, the games won't fire up. Sucky right?
1) Boot any game, even other chipped titles like Starfox.
2) Once loaded press and HOLD the reset button.
3) Pull the game out and place Mario RPG, Kirby's Dreamland 3 or Kirby Super Star in the slot.
4) Release the reset button.
5) Game boots have fun.
As it stands, the only two games with issues are SDD1 Street Fighter Alpha2, it gets lines through the screen as it's not decompressing the data right and Yoshi's Island which just glitches visually and gets stuck. I obviously have not tested anything I don't own nor have I tested Japanese stuff. I don't have Top Gear 3000 which uses a chip too so I have no clue about that either. I also did not test out the Super Gameboy, there's a video online already proving that one works out of the box.