The prelude to the holiday season seems to be magically making all sorts of niche devices appear for public consumption. After the Archos Gamepad, it is now the turn of PlayMG’s MG Handheld Android gaming device to make some news.

The MG is a Android 4.0 powered 4 inch touchscreen device, with a 1 GHz Cortex A 5 processor, 1 GB RAM, and 4 GB of internal storage with an expandable microSD slot, and WiFI connectivity. The MG features full access to the Google Play Store for downloading of game titles and is meant to be used as a dedicated Android gaming handset. PlayMG, the creators of the MG are accepting pre-orders for the MG handheld, for a discounted price of $149, only till November 4th, post which the price would go up to $170. Customers who pre-order will also receive a bonus $40 bundle which includes pre-loaded games worth $10, $10 credit on a SpendSmart card upon sign up and an 8GB microSD card

Interestingly, the Archos Gamepad which is also expected to be out at around the same time, is expected to carry the same $149 pricing, but boasts of much higher specs than the MG, with a dual-core Rockchip processor and dedicated Mali GPU, a 7″ 1024 x 600 display, and 8 GB of internal storage. More importantly, the Archos Gamepad has user-mappable physical buttons for gaming, which makes it a better bet as a dedicated gaming handheld for the same price.

Personally, I do not see the MG as having anything in the specs or features department, that a capable smartphone does not, to qualify, and more importantly, succeed as a dedicated gaming handheld. In that regard, the Archos Gamepad, does have the specs and the features, at the same price point, to set it aside as a gaming device.

But strange things are known to happen, and the holiday spirit does make consumers make buying decisions which they may otherwise shy away from. It would be interesting to see how this niche device does, post January, as that would be the actual test of whether there is a market for such devices.

What are your thoughts on the MG Handheld Vs the Archos Gamepad. Which among the two are you likely to choose?