“The picosystem arrived promptly which was great the device itself is quite new but from the games available so far I was impressed. The build quality of the device is where it excels great quality metal premium finish a great job. New games are trickling slowly but some great stuff is being worked on I have my hopes high for this one thanks once again to the team behind it :)”
“Pros:
- The build quality is great. The metal chassis, buttons etc. all feel amazing.
- If you're familiar with working with other Pi devices or microcontrollers you should be able to just jump right in.
Cons:
- MicroPython library is still under work and not much documentation.
- The screen isn't flush with the case so you're going to get dirt, dust etc inside eventually.”
“Pico is the keyword here, small it is. I love all tiny electronics, although I'm gettin up in age where my eyesight no longer appreciates my mind on these things. LOL. I can barely see what is happening on this tiny thing but I love it.”
“This product is EXTREMELY good. It is very rare that you find something like this which comes (1) fully assembled (I can't solder worth anything), (2) with easy to use, well documented and well supported software (SDK + various tools), (3) from a company that stands behind their products like Pimoroni (and not some random crowd funding project that will disappear in 2 months).
Re: the system itself, the build quality seems very good to me. The screen is on the small side (I wouldn't mind it being a bit larger) and it needs a screen protector (but it's hard to find any of the appropriate size, unfortunately) but it's bright, has decent color reproduction and it's very easy to read at multiple angles. The buttons and d-pad all feel good, the piezo buzzer does what it says on the tin. The case is heavy and robust, I would say almost if not fully kid-proof. Though I have to say I'd have appreciated a technical drawing of the case being available online to simplify the creation of custom face and backplates.
To me the best thing of all is the SDK that Pimoroni put together. It layers on top of the Pi Pico SDK, which is very robust and well documented. The Picosystem SDK is simple to use. This is extremely important for this kind of platform -- you want people to get started very quickly without having to spend several days figuring out quirks of the platform. The SDK achieves that goal -- all the code you write is to draw, drive the speaker, read the button and implement the game logic. No crud, no glue code, nothing of the sort is required. At the same time, for advanced users all the raw Pi Pico capabilities are there waiting to be used and easy to access.
All in all to me this is a 5-star product, fully worth the price.”
