Ok, my Dingoo arrived yesterday and I've had a while to tinker around with it.
First off, the design is great. This is exactly the kind of size I want this kind of device to be; small enough to fit into your bag or pocket but large enough to not give you hand cramps. In that respect it's a big improvement over the GP2X, which was a little on the chunky side.
The d-pad is also a massive improvement, although it's not 100% perfect. It's basically an exact copy of the DS lite pad but it lies a little lower in the casing, which sometimes makes diagonals hard. Still, if you're not playing fighting games then it's great.
http://www.ishopvideogame.com/dingoo-a3 ... -1679.html