How Bright is YOUR Backlight? The GBA SP’s Secret Relative Revealed, AGS-101 vs AGS-001
March 24th, 2010 | 
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So, you have a Gameboy Advance SP to play GB / GBC and GBA Games on? Not bright enough?
Turns out theres something that not many people know about the GBA SP. There was a second release with a backlit screen, not frontlit (technically side lit..).
It was released in North America, and Europe in very limited numbers. The available colours are typically light blue, light pink and dark metallic grey. In Europe, also the tribal is rumoured to have been released in the 101 model. So, you won’t see a standard common silver AGS-101.
How can you tell the difference? It’s simple, if you know what you’re looking for. The serial number on the bottom.
The original GBA SP has model number “AGS-001″.
The prized 2nd release with the bright screen has model number “AGS-101″.
And here’s the difference in brightness, side by side. The AGS-101 is on the left, obviously.
..and the difference in price is at least double.
So, next time you see a GBA SP console, just flip it over and check the model number ;o)
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Hi, I am in UK and just in the last couple of weeks got a mint AGS101 with all original box and packaging and leaflets etc. from USA with no customs fees to pay and it’s a real beauty, the color of the item is “graphite”.
Also got a 2nd one in real beat up but fully working condition (for a spare incase either goes wrong) but both AGS101’s screens have no dead pixels and the light scratches on the screen on the beat up one makes no practical difference to the gameplay.
Both of them seem to have no centre thing under the Dpad so manouvering can be tricky in some games sometimes. I bought a headphone adapter for a couple of GBP off Ebay and tried it and it works fine but I sometimes hear a slight whining noise at high volume through my headphones when no music plays when the battery has had some drain, on my beat up AGS101 (not tried it on my minter). Background noise when the battery has been charged is very low even at full volume level whilst listening on headphones when the sound is absent (like on the load screen of my flash cart’s).
They are both so much better than my AGS001 that I got from GameStation for a fiver, the screen is washed out and has poor blacks and hardly any color saturation on my AGS001, and that’s indoors with the lights off! It sucks.
You can even play outdoors in fairly bright conditions with very satisfactory results on the AGS101 with it’s backlight on bright mode. It’s incredibly bright in that mode, way brighter than my fairly recent Sony laptop! In normal backlight mode the AGS101 is rather bright and very colorful and has excellent contrast and sharpness with just a tiny gap between pixels. The sound is also capable of going quite loud with it, same as AGS001 and way louder than GBC.
Both AGS001 and 101 are compatible with my Netmars GB Emerger flash cards (16 and 64Mb) for GB / GBP / GBC and also work with Action Replay Extreme Pokemon Crystal edition used with the same cards.
Although both AGS101 and 001 are compatible with both of my identical NDS/GBA 128Mb Firelinker flash cards that I got from Deal Extreme and Light in the box, the same flash cards do NOT work with my Action Replay for GBA, which is dissappointing, but I don’t think it’s the fault of any of my GBA SP’s!
Both my AGS101’s came from USA came with USA/Japan mains adapters which of course I don’t use and instead use them both with the UK mains adapter for GBASP that I got with my 2nd hand GBASP AGS001 that came from GameStation UK. Output voltage of both of these US/Japan and UK original Nintendo adapters is identical so the UK adapter works fine with my North American AGS101’s. Safe and reliable.
Battery life on the AGS101 is very very good, even with it’s much brighter screen, I can play indoors for a couple of hours and don’t have to worry about the battery giving out, then I always take a break and recharge it, and it’s always recharged in under half an hour! And this is with used original batteries which came with the systems!
I highly recommend anyone to get the AGS101, it’s got a WAY better screen, the difference is frankly staggering.
BTW seems to be no difference in gameplay speed between my AGS001 UK/Euro model and my AGS101 North American model. Both AGS001 and 101 run at 60Hz. This is because with consoles they have to sync to whatever TV they are connected to, so PAL old skool consoles are it seems always slower than their NTSC counterparts, unless “modified”, whereas hand helds can stay at 60Hz since they have their own dedicated screen. So you can buy e.g. Game Gear or GBA / GBA SP ( 101 / 001 ) games from any region in the world and play them on your own country’s hand held and they work fine and the gameplay speed is identical on all.
Note that on the box for the Euro version of the AGS101 that I saw on Wiki (not on my box which is USA edition), it mentions that it is NOT for sale or use in the UK! So even if we had of seen a widespread European release, I wouldn’t have ever been able to buy one in a normal UK retail games shop. Charming! Thanks Nintendo LOL. Thank goodness for Ebay!
Cheers,
Alistair G.
Now released portable console GBA ??
good administrator
Actually, I checked your site out. It’s OK
link reinstated!