R4i Gold Card - Hands On
Posted: Thursday, September 08, 2011
by Mark Thompson
We do a good number of r4 and other ds flash card reviews. Last month we were able to get a sample of the R4i Gold 3DS card from the guys over at Modchipstore and have been playing with the card and getting it through the motions, because we haven't played with it completely, we wanted to give you the brief review of the card, packaging, compatibility, etc.. It's not the only 3DS compatible card. In fact there are a number of them out there that now work on the Nintendo 3DS. However, the r4i gold seems to not get nearly the attention it deserves.
The Packaging:
Just like every R4i card before it, the R4i Gold 3DS version comes in a very nice retail box. It shows the card, and the 3DS compatibility is made prominent on the display box. Everything fits right into the nice package. In the box you'll find the r4i gold 3ds card itself, the micro sd reader / writer, and the carry case for the r4i gold.
R4i Gold Analysis:
In many ways the R4i Gold is very much the same as other r4i cards. In fact, many of the clone card makes have taken the basic look, feel, and functionality of the r4i gold and have done everything they can to make their cards seem similar - except of course the compatibility. We've taken one of our knock off cards and put them side by side. They look the same externally. It's when you turn it on that you see a difference. The menu on the official card is much more crisp and looks like it was designed by a designer, and not thrown together form clip art style icons that look like something from a 486 computer.
What about the game loading times you ask? The R4i Gold 3DS loads them up quickly, almost like a real game card would. We timed game load times, as this is one of the most important factors. It took about 5 seconds on the R4i gold 3ds while the very exact same game took 18 seconds on the clone R4i.
Video game compatibility test:
When they say the R4i Gold 3DS is 100% compatible, they mean it. Every game and app we loaded for testing was working just fine. The games we tried were amongst the newest games. We know old games work, but the new ones were what we were interested in. The games loaded fast and there was no freezing. The knockoff card however had issues with 3 of the new games we tried. A could of the games loaded but then froze at their intro screens, while the others didn't even make it to the main menu..
The upcoming update continues the review so far as kernel updates in addition to ease of upgrading the R4i Gold 3DS, therefore check right back once more next week. You can find out more about the R4 DS Cards at http://www.modchipstore.com
Just like every R4i card before it, the R4i Gold 3DS version comes in a very nice retail box. It shows the card, and the 3DS compatibility is made prominent on the display box. Everything fits right into the nice package. In the box you'll find the r4i gold 3ds card itself, the micro sd reader / writer, and the carry case for the r4i gold.
R4i Gold Analysis:
In many ways the R4i Gold is very much the same as other r4i cards. In fact, many of the clone card makes have taken the basic look, feel, and functionality of the r4i gold and have done everything they can to make their cards seem similar - except of course the compatibility. We've taken one of our knock off cards and put them side by side. They look the same externally. It's when you turn it on that you see a difference. The menu on the official card is much more crisp and looks like it was designed by a designer, and not thrown together form clip art style icons that look like something from a 486 computer.
What about the game loading times you ask? The R4i Gold 3DS loads them up quickly, almost like a real game card would. We timed game load times, as this is one of the most important factors. It took about 5 seconds on the R4i gold 3ds while the very exact same game took 18 seconds on the clone R4i.
Video game compatibility test:
When they say the R4i Gold 3DS is 100% compatible, they mean it. Every game and app we loaded for testing was working just fine. The games we tried were amongst the newest games. We know old games work, but the new ones were what we were interested in. The games loaded fast and there was no freezing. The knockoff card however had issues with 3 of the new games we tried. A could of the games loaded but then froze at their intro screens, while the others didn't even make it to the main menu..
The upcoming update continues the review so far as kernel updates in addition to ease of upgrading the R4i Gold 3DS, therefore check right back once more next week. You can find out more about the R4 DS Cards at http://www.modchipstore.com
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