Few people have heard of the GP32, mainly because it was supposed to be a primarily Korean phenomenon. Nevertheless, word –and units– have gone out around the world over the past couple of years, and this was a good thing because this amazing little device could play games, MP3 music, even DivX videos, in a form factor that was reminiscent of a Game Boy Advance. And yet it was far superior to a GBA in terms of versatility, especially since it was an open source console. In fact, it was best known for its amazing number of emulators, including SNES, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Sega Genesis/SMS/Megadrive, Commodore 64, and even GBA!

Enter the GP2X. This sub-10,000 peso followup from Korea’s GamePark Holdings follows the GP32’s legendary footsteps and offers much, much more.

For one thing, this amazing device is not just a media player/gaming console. It is actually a full-fledged computer masquerading as a gaming device. It has dual CPU cores (!) — namely an ARM920T host processor and an ARM940T video processor, 64MB of RAM and 64MB of NAND Flash memory, an SD card slot, USB 2.0 connector, 3.5″ 320×240 TFT LCD screen, S-Video TV-Out, and can run videos for EIGHT HOURS.

And, get this, it ships with the Linux OS.

In short, this is an open source-lover’s mobile dream come true. Use it as a DivX player, image viewer, play classic games on your TV (thanks to the sheer number of free emulators available), use it as your MP3 player (or OGG, or whatever music format you care for), or even develop games for it.

It’s hard not to rave about the GP2X. Stocks arrive first quarter of 2006, and it’s guaranteed a cult following.