The EZFlash team sent GBAtemp an EZFlash Omega to play with and it turned up this morning.
For those unaware the Omega is EZFlash's new GBA flash cart, one aiming to be the be all and end all of GBA flash carts. Initial impressions are that it could well be so, and even if not it will see you presumably able to play 99% of the GBA library with some fancy features in a fairly solid little cart. One that retailers are listing for around 40 Euros, 50 USD or 35 GBP.
The full review will cover all the troublesome games and properly put it through its paces but for now.

Out of the box
Mother 3 fan translation. Boots just fine in RAM.
Pokemon Emerald (game with real time clock). Clean ROM boots fine, saves clock as offset clock from onboard time and savestates/real time save works in it.
Various other games were tested, including a handful of prepatched games. Fine too.
Menu. Very very nippy, minimal boot times and all on a nasty little 8 gigabyte cart of the class 2 persuasion. Odd menu ordering system (possibly date related) but you can go up and down very quickly, and left and right skip pages. Otherwise simple enough.
SD slot. Moved to a friction slot rather than spring loaded used by the microSDHC version. Easy enough to insert and remove, even with my not so dainty finger. It is not impossible that you could miss the slot but it should not fall into the case if you do.
Build quality. The plastic moulding is a bit rough around the injection marks and insides but the outside finish is fine. A micrometer was fetched for the curious. Measurements taken about the thickest edge just before it dips for the sticker inlay (it is the furthest point from any support and where most would pinch it to flex).

Device	Measurement (mm)
Omega GBA size	1.337
Omega DS lite	1.213
Original EZ4	1.013
EZ4 microSDHC	0.926
EZ4 lite deluxe	1.168
EZ2	0.882
Motogp	1.254

All that said thickness is but part of the story when it comes to plastics and sheet goods. In function the Omega most resembles an original GBA cart case in that it slides together and is retained by clips once there. Do note this if you are swapping between the stock GBA size case and the DS lite size case.
Said sliding clips and mid line screw make for a far sturdier case than the sometimes maligned EZ4 microSDHC offering (no EZFlash reform to compare here). Fit and finish is otherwise pretty good, not necessarily jewellery grade but more than suitable and accurate where it counts.
The Omega lacks the "shoulders" of an original cart, as do all the others in its immediate line (the EZ2 has them) but otherwise fits fine in a GBA SP, original DS and was a bit stiff to get into an original GBA (possibly caused by differences in the alignment grooves/insets on the outside) but still worked.

PCB wise possibly a bit light with the solder paste in some places but no cold joints or anything likely to fall off, BGA looked fine as well under a loupe.
Chip numbers

Spoiler

Left to right in PCB shot below.
Spansion
71gl064a08bfw0b
0651bvb
china
http://www.datasheet.hk/view_download.php?id=1270277&file=0149\s71gl064aa0-0z_1304149.pdf
Possibly a menu/

xilinx
spartan
xc3s200a
ftg256agq1517
a5059562a
A FPGA from the main maker of such things. The 200K gate model should you be concerned about such matters.
https://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/data_sheets/ds529.pdf

spansion
98ws512pe0fw003
748ppj40 g
malaysia
Possibly deprecated. A combined NOR and PSRAM chip.

Battery side
Windbond
25q16cvnig
1531
https://www.winbond.com/resource-files/da00-w25q16cvf1.pdf
Small flash memory chip. Possibly the programming/data chip for the FPGA

Silver top chip designated y1 in mask.
p24 54m 1603
Unknown

Under battery
8563s
Real time clock chip most likely
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/PCF8563.pdf

8514n
unknown 2 pin device

3bqd
3 pin device
Unknown
v1 on solder mask

battery
Blocked by tab
3v
12.25mm
0.25mm inc cover and separator
1220 is most likely size. Maybe Duracell CR1220.

Pictures
Click to enlarge


You can see some videos, including those of the menu, from EZFlash's own teaser thread. They mirror what we saw in this initial test.

Official Usage guide
http://www.ezflash.cn/omega.html
EZFlash product homepage
http://www.ezflash.cn/product/omega/

 

[Apache Thunder]

Oh so the battery in this is just for the RTC feature. Ok that makes sense then. Nice to finally see them ditch SRAM battery. I have a EZFlash V that showed up with a dead battery. Had them send out a replacement battery. Went through the trouble of soldering in the replacement and the ***king thing was dead again in a month. Just gave up on the damn thing and listed it for sale in the trade section.

 

[FAST6191]

@FAST6191 is the review working in progress? or final?

The above was very much a first impressions. The final thing will be a somewhat longer and more in depth affair.

 

[RetrogamerX]

Really want one, but nobody in the UK sells one?

 

[Rune]

If this has 100% compatibility, surely this is the last GBA flash cart anyone will ever need. Anyone know if there's any games that this will have problems with?

 

[DinohScene]

Neat.

I still own 2 original EZ4's.
Gifted one to me bf.
It's a pity we play so little GBA to justify the purchase but it is a neat looking cart!

 

[FAST6191]

Really want one, but nobody in the UK sells one?

There are a few on
http://www.ezflash.cn/dealers/
Never dealt with any of those before but most of the old guard have gone
and if you are happy with just in Europe then
https://www.shop01media.com/en/EZom-EZ-Flash-omega-GBA-NDS-NDSLite-flash-cart-linker are pretty cheap (not sure about shipping) and have been around for many years now.
There was another nice little German shop we all used to use but they only appear to have the reform right now.

If this has 100% compatibility, surely this is the last GBA flash cart anyone will ever need. Anyone know if there's any games that this will have problems with?

Non supercard GBA flash carts tend not to have problems with much beyond
https://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995
Obviously this has real time clock for those games that want it so you don't have to use the patches ( https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3927/ https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3924/ https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3912/ )
Whether this has inbuilt patches for the solar sensor (bad plan if you ask me as many like to customise them), anti piracy for the classic nes/famicom mini games* and all the other things mentioned on the first link in this part I do not yet know.

* https://mgba.io/2014/12/28/classic-nes/ has more on the technical side of things. Equally I favour the standalone pocketnes and HVCA emulators for most things that the classic nes/famicom mini series goes in for. It may also be that with its new/more refined approach to running ROMs that it would not trip the anti piracy in the first place.

As far as the majority are concerned then most flash carts are fine and have been for many years**. This one just also happens to play the pokemon games that need a real time clock (fire red and leaf green were also mainline games on the GBA but did not need it) without resorting to patches that have a few of their own issues, and on top of that a have a few nice features.

**the EZ2 I pictured in the big comparison of carts in the OP I got some 14 years ago and, granted it was one of the ones to still have real time clock, it will still play just about anything in the GBA library, as will most other flash carts then and to this day.

The GBA is not like the NES, SNES, parts of the GB/GBC, N64 and such like where there are loads of special chips and custom things to really get in the way and either cause things to lack compatibility or cost a fortune to be compatible with them. I am glad we are getting all singing, all dancing GBA flash carts but if your goal was "GBA library, let's play all of it" then you have had good options for well over a decade at this point.

 

[Hanafuda]

I have an EZ-Flash 4, and an old EFA-Linker 256 (which I actually prefer over the EZF4). If I ever buy another GBA flashcart, it'll be from krikzz.

 

[Madridi]

Oh so the battery in this is just for the RTC feature. Ok that makes sense then. Nice to finally see them ditch SRAM battery. I have a EZFlash V that showed up with a dead battery. Had them send out a replacement battery. Went through the trouble of soldering in the replacement and the ***king thing was dead again in a month. Just gave up on the damn thing and listed it for sale in the trade section.

Huh? What? When ezflash first announced it, they specifically said no rtc when I asked. Am I missing something here, or can @FAST6191 confirm this?

 

[Monty Kensicle]

Does it work with Pokemon Box, Colosseum, XD and DS Migration? If So, I'm sold.

 

[FAST6191]

Huh? What? When ezflash first announced it, they specifically said no rtc when I asked. Am I missing something here, or can @FAST6191 confirm this?

They mentioned it in the very thread for the second video released
https://gbatemp.net/threads/we-made-some-videos-please-check-it-out.497600/
Also yes it had RTC support when I tried it earlier.

Does it work with Pokemon Box, Colosseum, XD and DS Migration? If So, I'm sold.

Unknown actually.
The reason such things tended to fail was because the game was not the default thing presented (unlike some of the older NOR stuff where it could effectively be that) and if the save was accessed via SRAM protocols (as opposed to the Flash ones it expected and was programmed to use, or for some non pokemon games it could have been EEPROM or another type of SRAM.) then it would not respond as expected and the process would fail.
This is why you tended to have to patch the game pulling the saves/checking the carts ( https://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/rom-hacks/download-pokepatch-4-2-f27240.html ), something which I am not sure anybody ever did for the GC pokemon on a big screen games, or indeed any other GC game with similar functionality.
Technically the Omega could do that (with their nice little FPGA I don't doubt at all that they could have a flag tell it to force a given serial/header into the cart and save into memory) but I don't think it has been done. I also lack the means to test anything other than the DS game and would rather not have to mod chip my GC for this.

For the most part I would still say you are better off sourcing the relevant games (they are not that bad price wise) and a means to throw saves around between emulators, flash carts and such like however you will. That or getting to and doing on the modding the GC/DS games front.

 

[skydancer93]

The above was very much a first impressions. The final thing will be a somewhat longer and more in depth affair.

What I really want to know is how it stacks up against an Everdrive GBA. I have one and I'm curious to see if this one does anything that can't do. Other than potentially being able to write a game to RAM and treating it like a real cart to use with Pokemon on the GameCube. EZ Flash IV used to be able to do that.

 

[FAST6191]

What I really want to know is how it stacks up against an Everdrive GBA. I have one and I'm curious to see if this one does anything that can't do. Other than potentially being able to write a game to RAM and treating it like a real cart to use with Pokemon on the GameCube. EZ Flash IV used to be able to do that.

Alas I don't have one to compare against but looking at https://gbatemp.net/review/everdrive-gba-x5.489/ then much of a muchness. I imagine there will be a few niggling bugs that everdrive have had 2 odd years to fix and that EZFlash will then have to sort but feature wise it is pretty comparable outside of the price and shell sizes available.

 

[Madridi]

They mentioned it in the very thread for the second video released
https://gbatemp.net/threads/we-made-some-videos-please-check-it-out.497600/
Also yes it had RTC support when I tried it earlier.

Oh wow! After searching through their old posts, it seems like it was the reform one I was on about:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-reform-announced.487100/page-4#post-7652544

I never knew of the existence of this card. I mean, they had just produced the reform!

This is a definite buy for me then. It's the ultimate card!

 

[Rune]

Anyone know why the PCB has connector pins at the back of the cart too?

 

[FAST6191]

Anyone know why the PCB has connector pins at the back of the cart too?

The JTAG in the silkscreen is the big clue. JTAG is a debugging/programming/sometimes data transfer method used by electronics. You tend to want such things with FPGAs (like the big one in the middle of the device) and programmable chips.

Gets quite heavy quite fast but will cover what you would want to know

 

[migles]

https://www.shop01media.com/en/EZom-EZ-Flash-omega-GBA-NDS-NDSLite-flash-cart-linker are pretty cheap (not sure about shipping) and have been around for many years now.
There was another nice little German shop we all used to use but they only appear to have the reform right now.

they charge a fucking 10 bucks fee added to checkout saying "moms", that's why i am giving a mad grin at them

 

[migles]

@FAST6191 fon't forget to see what happens when you try to use the card in NDS mode (with a flashme nds for example)

i am curious if the thing enters in "ask for firmware" mode like the ez iv i got

 

[FAST6191]

@FAST6191 fon't forget to see what happens when you try to use the card in NDS mode (with a flashme nds for example)

i am curious if the thing enters in "ask for firmware" mode like the ez iv i got

I still have a GBA slot focused version of flashme installed on my DS'.
Stock booting without anything in the DS slot gets me GBA mode (some other carts I had to hold select for)
Force booting GBA slot (hold a,b,x and y) gets me a white screen.

 

[migles]

I still have a GBA slot focused version of flashme installed on my DS'.
Stock booting without anything in the DS slot gets me GBA mode (some other carts I had to hold select for)
Force booting GBA slot (hold a,b,x and y) gets me a white screen.

flashme with no autoboot? (i have this version of it) press select while booting, it will load slot 2 in nds mode

ABXY was for other thing, or you maybe using older version of flashme?

 

[FAST6191]

It is an older version (I used for many years and actually still use my original EZ4 in DS mode so I stuck with older versions of flashme -- I mainly only cared about losing the health and safety screen with the lack of need for a nopass/passme/DS slot thing with nopass functionality just a nice perk) but other than the button combos changing what they do slightly it will have the same results.

For me it is the same behaviour as the kernels that dropped DS mode. I have not had any yet force the skin update screen when trying to launch DS mode but I have seen some others have it.