So I have finally had a chance to spend some time with this thing and put it through it's bases and here's my review!
The Physical: 8 out of 10
Bearing in mind the low cost of this bundle and the compareable neo options in this range (read: none) DANG is this a nice looking setup. Starting with the packaging, if this thing doesn't produce desire in your soul you are missing some neo loving fragment of it, one of the most pleasing games to unbox ever.
The handheld feels great to me as well, high quality stuff for a unit this price produced in this low a number, and the controls on it are easily the best I've touched for playing arcade games on the go, a genre that is pretty much all about controls. The neo stick feels fantastic and handles FAR better than the "Bean" CDZ sticks I've got lying around, and for the price it's a dream. The dock itself I would also say is pretty dang sweet, I disagree that the plastic on the dock is cheap, the construction on it, coupled with its lack of weight is what makes it feel cheap, but it in no way feels to me like it will break or ding or wear down from even frequent use.
On the Hardware side the X is a dream, it looks right, feels right, it's just right. If it wasn't for the incredibly wrong sized screen and lack of a standalone charger for the unit this would have gotten a 9.5 from me.
Sadly there is bad news.
The Immaterial: 4 out of 10
Dear Lord the software! You know they had a different team working on this aspect, for every amount of love, care, and fanboy thoughtfulness that went into the physical side of the package, a directly proportional amount of incompetence and uncaring went into the software. From the blurry and artifact producing way the screen is scaled, to the audio delay issues, to the lack of built in options that would allow you to fix those very problems (and don't even get me started on the UI design). The software end of this was botched hard, and it would score much lower if It wasn't chock full of truly fantastic games, that despite these shackles, are still a joy to play.
If Tommo takes the time to put some serious work into the firmware of this device and fix some of its inherent issues (especially the ones that cause the terrible video quality) then they will have a really wonderful piece that will be very deserving the Neo Geo name. If they don't, then it will just be another holiday season novelty that no-one ever hears about or sees except in odd stories.
I'm closing, I personally love my NGX and I'll be playing it for a long long time moving forward (as well as likely purchasing every game card that they release for it) it's just a shame that such an important part of it was released in such an incomplete state.
Dear Modders, God Speed. Dear Tommo, Good luck.