JXD s5110 ICS - Firmware V2.5

Hi everyone!

   JXD released a new firmware version some days ago. Version 2.5 has little changes or not at all as there is no changes log anywhere.

   So why bother updating the s5110?





   Well I have done some test with the new firmware and the Skelrom v1.6. I created a new "v1.7" Skelrom with all the benefits from v1.6 and firmware 2.5.

   I tested this new v1.7 on my device and got this result in Antutu (v3.0.3):


- JXD s5110:  4.017 points - v1.7
- JXD s5110:  4.024 points - v1.6 SkelROM

- JXD s5110 CPU Integer: 599 - CPU Float point: 428 - v1.7
- JXD s5110 CPU Integer: 594 - CPU Float point: 428 - v1.6 SkelROM

- JXD s5110 2D Graphs: 398 - 3D Graphs: 1572 - v1.7
- JXD s5110 2D Graphs: 395 - 3D Graphs: 1690 - v1.6 SkelROM


   So clearly there is no clear benefit after updating to v2.5 firmware.


   On the other side, along this testing days I haven´t found any problem with the v2.5 firmware (using my v1.7 ROM). All is working nice and fast. NO FC so far.
   And I am feeling that maybe, just maybe, the device is more responsiveness device than before. IS this a placebo effect?
   It´s very difficult to measure this behavior but I´ll keep trying till I found a definitive way of measuring it.

   So, I am keeping my new v1.7 ROM and being happy with JXD still developing for this little device.

JXD s5110 perfomance review and improvements [W.I.P.]

Hi!
   In this post I´m going to test the JXD s5110 with different ROMs (ICSs and GBs) and show the performance results using the Android Antutu Benchmark program.
   The objective it´s to decide which software configuration will push the s5110 to its limits.


   Let´s start with an out-of-the-box s5110 with Android 4.03 and let´s compare it with an Xperia Play. The Xperia Play it´s at the top of the "mono core" Android gaming devices and both units has similar specifications.

    The Xperia Play I´m using has a locked bootloader (so Stock Kernel), root and a modified GB v2.3.4 ROM: Gin2JellyBean v1.8.1. This modified ROM is one of the fastest ROM available for this device. (More info on XDA)
    The JXD s5110 has an Android 4.03 ICS ROM from JXD.


   
I´m using the Antutu v3.0.3 Benchmark program to test both devices. This program is a very well-known Android benchmark utility and it´s widely use.
   The results it provides are used to make a percentage comparative between the two devices.



   After running the Antutu´s test these are the results:

- JXD s5110:  4.070 points
- Xperia Play: 4.450 points

   Approximately the Play scores 28% more points than the JXD unit!!!


   Let´s see it in more detail (SoC):



Both devices have an ARMv7 instructions set 1MHz CPU unit from different manufacturers:

JXD s5110: AMLOGIC MESON3 8726M SKT SH (ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore) with a MALI-400M
Xperia Play: Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 MSM8255 with an Adreno 205

- JXD s5110 CPU Integer: 491 - CPU Float point: 565
- Xperia Play CPU Integer:727 - CPU Float point: 491 

- JXD s5110 2D Graphs: 393 - 3D Graphs: 1724
- Xperia Play 2D Graphs: 500 - 3D Graphs: 1969




   The numbers speaks for themselves...the Xperia Play it´s a winner



   This result has to be treated with care. The JXD unit it´s a very low cost device meanwhile the Xperia Play it´s a 2011 device that in 2013 it´s still the ONLY mobile device with hardware controls for playing. Back in the 2011 the Play was a mid-range device
   A new JXD s5110 devices costs just 63€ meanwhile a Xperia Play (GSM) are being sold for 150€ more or less (second hand units in perfect conditions)
   So an Xperia Play cost 3 times more than a JXD s5110 unit. These facts balance them very close.

   Conclusion: The JXD s5110 it´s a very low cost device with a great performance. It has a BIG screen (5"), nice controls and it´s rooted by default. It´s specifications make this device handle perfectly well most emulators. So it´s recommended buy.

• Part two.

   After updating the s5110 stock ICS ROM to the v1.6 ICS Skelrom the device seems to run better although the Antutu Benchmark are the same more or less:

- JXD s5110:  4.024 points - v1.6 SkelROM
- JXD s5110:  4.070 points
- Xperia Play: 4.450 points 

- JXD s5110 CPU Integer: 594 - CPU Float point: 428 - v1.6 SkelROM
- JXD s5110 CPU Integer: 491 - CPU Float point: 565
- Xperia Play CPU Integer:727 - CPU Float point: 491 

- JXD s5110 2D Graphs: 395 - 3D Graphs: 1690 - v1.6 SkelROM
- JXD s5110 2D Graphs: 393 - 3D Graphs: 1724
- Xperia Play 2D Graphs: 500 - 3D Graphs: 1969


   After several days using the s5110 with the v1.6 SkelROM, my advice is to stick with it. The original Stock ROM it´s a little slower and it has some bugs that Skelton has solved.

  

•  Part three.

   After updating the s5110 v1.6 ICS Skelrom to my v1.7 (firmware v2.5) ROM the device seems to run better although the Antutu Benchmark are the same more or less:


- JXD s5110:  4.017 points - v1.7
- JXD s5110:  4.024 points - v1.6 SkelROM

- JXD s5110 CPU Integer: 599 - CPU Float point: 428 - v1.7
- JXD s5110 CPU Integer: 594 - CPU Float point: 428 - v1.6 SkelROM

- JXD s5110 2D Graphs: 398 - 3D Graphs: 1572 - v1.7
- JXD s5110 2D Graphs: 395 - 3D Graphs: 1690 - v1.6 SkelROM

   After several days using the s5110 with my v1.7 ROM, I´ll stick with it.

   W.I.P. post. 
   Things I´m going to test in the JXD s5110 device and post the results:
   - Skelrom´s Gingerbread ROM comparing the performance with the stock one
   - Kairnage´s Rabid ROM v1.0 (ICS)   - 00Zip00´s zcr 1.0 (GB)
   - Different tweaks to speed up this device.

s5110 and Outrun (Arcade)

 

 

Hi!
   I´ve been triyng the Outrun Arcade game version on a JXD s5110. Actually there are two emulators that will do this job:

•  MAME4droid v1.5.2

• Final Burn Alpha Android - aFBA v1.6

These two emulators can´t run the game at 100% speed on a JXD s5110 device so some "frame skipping" it´s necessary to play it.
(Maybe an optimizied version will run it at 100% on these low cost device?)


Both emulators runs quite well the Outrun Arcade Roms with little frame skip but MAME4droid gets a faster/better emulation.
(aFBA needs more frame skipping than MAME4droid but it has one of the best emulators GUI. It´s very very nice!)

So Mame4droid it´s the winner, just watch the videos and compare for yourself:


 

• In this video you can see Mame4droid configuration and ingame and aFBA configuration and ingame

 

So, what are you waiting for? Donwload the ROM and the emu and have a nice time playing Outrun on this little Android device.
Happy playing!

Archos Video Player v7.1.5 on a s5110

Hi everyone!
   The video player app that comes with the ICS Rom it´s a nice app but has very few options an features. It does the job well but it lack of important features as continue playing from the last point and has very few configurable options.
   So I tried alternative players to test in the s5110 and replace the stock video player.

   The first one I tried it´s the "Archos Video Player (v7.1.5)". Archos it´s a company that always aspired to give you a great video experience. Archos Video Player offers hardware and software decoding (if you wish), and claims to play just about everything.
   I installed it and fired it up and wow!, what a change! It´s a very stylish app with many many many features. The downside it´s that it´s a paid app :(
   BUT, after I tried some videos I realized that it´s a power hungry app and our little s5110 isn´t up to the job :(
   This is an Archos Video Player fault!, it´s not completely optimized  and so it´s not as fast as the ICS stock video player.

   Per example I tried some TV episodes with non HD quality:

      Codec: H264
      Resolution: 720x404
      Frame Rate: 23,9
      Audio: AAC, stereo, 48Khz
      Subtitles in *srt format.

   The stock Video Player played them so far so good meanwhile the Archos one had some performance problems :(.
   I searched the internet about the Archos performance problems and I found people having them too with higher specs devices (like the Nexus 4!)

  So the Archos Video Player it´s a pricey no-go cute app for the s5110. I´ll stick with the stock player till I found the "right one"















   Tests using the "MX Player v1.7.10". 
   This Video Player is a nice app with multi-core decoding support but this feature doesn´t bother us, does it?
   I tested it with the same video files as the other two players and it´s better than Archos but it´s still lagging at video decoding. So stock layer continues at the top of the charts!

   Last player I tested was the "Meridian Media Player Pro v2.6.0c". Nice player too with many options to choose from. After playing the same video files as the other three, this player has NO video lagging! Good news! Still it has a little problem with subtitles, it delays the subtitles for less than a second. This alone it´s not very important problem but a little bug?
   So Meridian is the natural stock Video Player replacement for the s5110! Try it for yourself and have a good time!

RetroArch Android 0.9.8 r5 (Jan 28, 2013) on a s5110

Hi!
   I´ve been testing this new multi emulator for the Android platform on the s5110 device. This emulator it´s in an early development stage and it´s not a valid one for the s5110:


    - Virtual on-screen controls must be disable after loading of any game It´s a bit annoying.
   - There are no configuration options available for any of the emulators
   - The GBA emulator is not as good as GameBoid. It lost frames and the sound is terrible.






   At least the RetroArch let´s you use the s5110 hardware keys out-of-the-box ;)


   BTW It´s good to have a new emulator in the Android scene!!!



UPDATE: The RetroArch developers are working on a faster GBA core. Great news!

Android GameBoy Advance Emulation (using a s5110)

Hi!
   In this post I´ll test the available Android GameBoy Advance emulators. The test results may help you to decide which of them to use on your device.

   These are the emulators I´m testing:

• GBA.emu v1.5.6

  

• GameBoid v2.4.7 (not in the market anymore)

 

•  My Boy! - GBA Emulator v1.1.16

• VGBA - GameBoy Advance Emulator v3.9.36

    The entire tests are done in a JXD s5110 with Android 4.03 stock firmware.

• Special characteristics

   Each of the emulators has different characteristics that may interest you. The most important are:

• GBA.emu v1.5.6

      Additional controls: Wiimote, iCP, JS1 but NO sensor
      It has a "Benchmark Game" option but I really don´t know how it calculates the results.
      It has some display effects

•  My Boy! - GBA Emulator v1.1.16

      Screenshot option menu.
      It lets you use the device sensor as a control device
      Cheats available
      Optionally you can use the GBA BIOS

• GameBoid v2.4.7:

      Needs the GBA BIOS to run.You can put it (gba_bios.bin)  anywhere in your SD Card.
      No sound configuration
      No video filters available
      It lets you use the device sensor as a control device
      Cheats available

• VGBA - GameBoy Advance Emulator v3.9.36

      Many screen filters
      May use 3D Hardware acceleration

   All the GBA games are being emulating at "maximum" quality (i.e. no frame skip, full screen with correct aspect ratio...) The test´s objective is to discover if the any of the four emulators can play GBA games in the s5110 at 100% full rate.

   And the tests results are

1. GameBoid v2.4.7. Not perfect but very very close
2. My Boy! - GBA Emulator v1.1.16. Lost frames and music isn´t perfect
3. GBA.emu v1.5.6. Lost more frames and music is even worst than My Boy! emulator
4. VGBA - GameBoy Advance Emulator v3.9.36. Not working! ¿Configuration problem? ¿Compatibility with s5110 ROM problem?

   PD: It´s annoying that a "dead" emulator as the GameBoid (it´s not on development anymore) wins hands down everyone!


   Let´s see the winner in action: GameBoid v2.4.7

Xperia Play compatible emulators

These is a WIP list of Android emulators compatibles with the Xperia Play controls.


Arcade
   MAME4droid (0.37b5) v1.5.2
   MAME4droid Reloaded (0.139) v1.2.1 ( targeted to Dual-Core devices)
   Jrioni Arcade Full Version (paid) v3.2.0
   Tiger Arcade v4.0.0 Beta (with Ads, Final burn alpha romset)
   CPSEmu v1.4 (Capcom CPS2 emulator)   
   NEO.emu v1.5.6 (Neogeo arcade and home system emulator, romsets from MAME 0.144 or newer)
   Final Burn Alpha Android - aFBA v1.6 (support multiple systems, including Cave, Neo Geo, Sega System 16 (and similar), System 18, CPS-1, CPS-2, CPS-3, X-Board, Y-Board, Toaplan, Taito, Psikyo 68EC020 based hardware and misc boards)


Consoles
N64
   MupenPlus 64 AE v1.9


Handheld game Consoles
Game Boy Advance
   1.- GBAoid v2.4.7 (recomended) (¿Development sttoped?)
   2.- My Boy! GBA Emulator v1.1.16
   3.- GBA.emu v1.5.6
      - explusalpha.com


WIP

Test: GigaTV Android HD620 T - No go :(

   I have the opportunity to test a nice Android 4.0 TDT device: the GigaTV Android HD620 T from tvtech.

   I wanted to play some emulators/Android games on it plugging an USB gamepad through any of its 3 USB connectors and watching it on a CRT Sony Trinitron 29".
   The idea was to connect the USB gamepad and with a "remapping" program use the gamepad to control emulators and Android games that aren´t programmed to recognize it. I had two programs to achieve this goal:

 

- Gamekeyboard 3.1.0







  - USB-BT JoyCenter 6.41





I connected my gamepad and the device recognized it automatically. It also let me use the gamepad sticks to move through system menus...cool.

Then I installed Gamekeyboard program and tried to run it. It didn´t detect my USB gamepad. After investigating the problem I realize that this program needs to change the active android input method to a new one added by the Gamekeyboard program.
This new method was unselectable :(...whatever I tried to activate it failed. So without activating this new method the program is useless.
The very same problem happened with  USB-BT JoyCenter :(.

So, why can´t I change the Android input method in this device? I still don´t know. This device is pre-rooted so no worries about that.
It´s a pity that I couldn´t get any far as this device seems quite impressive for its low prize.