New Handheld! (yeah, it's another Game Gear...)
44Sooo.... I bought ANOTHER Game Gear! Why? Well it's very similar to the one I already have with an aftermarket screen. In fact it might even be the same screen. So, again... WHY?!?! The driver board is different and unlike my old one this one has adjustable brightness! Mine was full blast all the time. Often too bright esp in a dark room and of course this doesn't really help the battery life all that much! Sure the screen is probably 3x more efficient but it's almost 3x as bright as the original. Meaning battery life was only slightly improved over stock. Now I can turn down the brightness (controlled by what was the contrast wheel on a stock unit) to a more reasonable level and improve battery life. This new unit also has ceramic capacitors instead of electrolytic ones. They sure are tiny by comparison leaving a lot more room inside. This mod also used flex ribbons in place of separate wires in many instances. Overall looks like a good install I suppose but there was some corrosion left on some of the components legs that I had to clean off with some IPA. The only weird thing is that "start+I+II" isn't changing my scaling options as it does on most kits I've seen. I'm not sure if this kit just doesn't bother or if it's not hooked up properly? I bought this locally off Facebook marketplace for an acceptable price (lower than average I would say) and I will be selling my old one in turn. I will probably be selling it for less than I paid for this one (so a really good deal for someone) and the extra $20-40 I spent on this one is justified by the adjustable brightness feature. I basically just paid $20-40 to upgrade. Worth it? I think so.