My Retro Gaming Experience

I grew up with NES, Genesis, GB, GBC, GBA, Dreamcast, and PSP. I currently only own these two handhelds (RG35xx and Mini+), plus the Switch. I have dabbled in emulators many times in the past, but recently rediscovered them now with the handheld retro gaming scene. I bought a Powkiddy V90 for my SO to fill a desire for the GBA SP experience, which made me realize how interesting and mature handheld retro gaming has become.

I am currently in awe at how great retro gaming is with these devices, being able to save scum at my leisure with button combos to trigger save states, add cheats, and drop in and out of games with the tap of a button. Lots of games I gave up on in my childhood are now games I plan to finish. As someone with not a ton of free time I really appreciate being able to experience more of a game but in a way that respects my time and also on the go.

Unboxing Experience

Both of these consoles are playable out of the box and come with 64gb cards preloaded ROMs. Both also came with a glass screen cover which was easy to install. The boxes for either were nothing special, but the Miyoo Mini felt a little more special coming out of the box as there was no paper cover to remove before revealing the console.

Anbernic is now shipping the RG35xx dual booting with Garlic and their own Linux, which makes it a slightly nicer experience than the stock Miyoo one.

Build Quality

I got the Miyoo Mini Plus in translucent purple which makes it feel a lot like the original Game Boy Color. It’s a great purple and the plastic feels really good.

The RG35xx I ordered in a more subdued retro scheme. Combined with the wider screen bezels it has a sweet old school brick Game Boy (DMG!) feel.

The Miyoo Mini Plus feels notably more premium with only a slight button rattle and a nice weight to size ratio that makes it feel very solid. The RG35xx on the other hand, feels very durable, but not as polished or premium due to a rattle that the triggers make every time you handle the device. I did already drop the RG35xx on laminate flooring from waist high and it didn’t take a dent. The Miyoo Mini Plus took a similar hit when it fell off the bed, about 3ft, and the battery compartment cover fell off, but nothing was damaged and it continued to work fine, although I now feel the cover creaks a tiny bit.

I wound up cracking open the RG35xx (easy if you've opened any electronics before) and slipped in a cut piece of foam from the retail packaging to eliminate the trigger rattle. Now it feels just as good and premium as the Miyoo! If this is something you are willing to do it will take the RG35xx up to a much higher quality feel.

For some reason, on the RG35xx, the included glass screen protector doesn’t adhere to the last 2mm of the screen (I think the LCD glass on my copy is slightly curved towards the bottom) which doesn’t really affect visibility but it might irritate some people under some lighting conditions. I haven’t heard anybody talk about this before so maybe it’s just my console.

The RG35xx screen gets noticeably brighter and slightly dimmer than the one on the Miyoo Mini+, and the sound also gets louder and sounds slightly cleaner to me. However, both get bright enough and dim enough for my needs as well as being plenty loud and quality is fine. The colors on the Miyoo Mini Plus look slightly better, but I can only really tell having them side by side.

One great feature I rarely hear discussed is that the screens are laminated to the glass. In practice it means for a device that will glide in and out of your bag or pocket, there is no way for lint to make its way somewhere inside and obscure the screen. I once had a piece of lint stuck this way in an old 3GS as well as a GBA SP.

Booting up both devices requires holding the power button, however on the RG35xx the button protrudes a bit and must be held for like 3 seconds and released on the Miyoo Mini+ it’s flush and just needs to be pressed for 1 second. It doesn’t sound like a huge difference but there will be plenty of times I press the power button on the RG35xx and wonder why it doesn’t turn on, the ridiculously dim power indicator doesn’t help either.

The power light on the RG35xx is laughably dim and I often have to shade it with my hand to see if it lights up. On the Miyoo Mini Plus you can hold the power button for 1 second and when the power light turns green you can let go. This is a much nicer, more positive “turn on” experience whereas the RG35xx can feel mildly frustrating.

I couldn’t get either of these to charge off the USB-C Macbook power adapters nor my 45w Anker Powerport with C. I saw that some people were able to charge with low watt C-C setups but I wound up grabbing the old 5W Apple iPhone wall wart to use with an A-C cable which worked fine. This makes both annoying for me to travel with as I have now switched entirely to C-only wall warts for onebag travel.

Finally, for completeness: The RG35xx has an RTC for in-game time like Pokemon Gold/Silver. You can also use a micro-HDMI cable to connect it to the TV. The Mini Plus has neither of these features. The Miyoo Mini Plus has a battery compartment cover like the GB, GBC, GBA, but in order to remove the battery you must also unplug a tiny 2-prong plug.

Ergonomics/Controls

Both of these are very small devices so they are about the same to hold. I have L/XL hands and I have to cradle them just in my finger tips to have a gaming session, preferably with my elbows out as wide as possible, resting my elbows on a table if possible but okay pinned to my torso. I can hold them in my palms in a more hand-filling grip but it’s not so great on my wrists this way, although if I keep my forearms parallel and rest my elbows on a desk it’s reasonably comfortable. For those of you with a few old bones (I get some flare up from an old cycling injury), a handheld this size probably can only afford an hour at most for comfort.

I didn’t find the triggers to be in a great position on either of these devices. If you play a lot of games that are trigger dependent, you will probably not be that comfortable. However, I still was able to make use of the triggers just fine in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, where the triggers are used for dodge and ability mechanics. The triggers are slightly nicer on the RG35xx as they afford a slightly larger grip but they sound and feel obnoxiously clicky compared to the Miyoo Mini Plus which feel very refined. Finally, the Miyoo Mini Plus sits flat on a table which looks amazing for photos and the RG35xx sits at a slight angle upward facing you which looks awkward but is maybe better if you want to play the device on a table, although you will be triggering the shoulder buttons.

The face buttons and D-pad feels about the same on both of these, but the D-pad on the RG35xx can feel a bit sloppy in some games as you can hold a direction and wobble it a bit which can make your character move side to side when you are say, pointing straight up. In some games, like with tank controls, this can be an advantage, and in others like Tetris, it could feel a little imprecise. On the Miyoo Mini+ you have to be a lot more deliberate about triggering diagonal movement, but it feels pretty good and precise.

Both devices are easy to pocket, although the Miyoo Mini Plus is a little shorter and has less protruding triggers. I feel more comfortable putting the RG35xx bare in my bag or pockets due to feeling sturdier, but with a little care the Mini Plus should hold up just fine.

Installing Custom Firmware

I understand that not all people feel it is necessary to install custom firmware but after reading a lot about it, it seemed to me to be a great way to get optimal performance for absolutely free in exchange for 20-30 minutes of my time. For people who are not going to tinker and just want to play anything, you can skip this section.

I followed the excellent setup guides from RetroGameCorps. Miyoo Mini Starter Guide, RG35xx Starter Guide. I bought two microSD cards for the RG35xx (64gb and 256gb) and I had a spare 64gb microSD that I put in the Miyoo Mini+, however the RG35xx only needs a single card if you don’t want to buy two.

For the Miyoo Mini+ all that it takes is ensuring it’s running the latest Miyoo firmware before copying the OnionOS 4.2.0rc onto a (fresh) card (1). Downloading, unzipping, and copying over the ROMs (I used Tiny Best Set Go!) took awhile, but it was just as easy. As MacOS does not unzip folders into existing folders, I had to use the terminal and cp -r (2) to merge the directories.

Installing GarlicOS 1.4.9 on the RG35xx was a little trickier. I needed to install a disk image tool and flash the image with partitions to the first SD card. I disliked that the default partitions didn’t make use of the full space for the OS card, so I had to use the terminal to resize the partitions. Installing ROMs was the same as the Miyoo, but I put them on a second card.

It’s worth noting that GarlicOS on the RG35xx is capable of reading the ROMs off the OnionOS system card from the Mini, so you can swap them back and forth into the second card slot as you like. However, while normal saves will load fine, save states will not load correctly. Also, the setup for Tiny Best Set Go offers separate optimized preview images and MAME files for Garlic and Onion, but the Onion images still view on Garlic.

(1) It’s not recommended to use the SD cards that come with these things as they’re considered low quality and may not last many writes.

(2) *nix idiosyncrasies are out of the scope of my review, sorry!

CFW OS and Gaming Experience

While OnionOS and GarlicOS look very similar and use a compatible file structure they are actually more different than I’ve been able to read about elsewhere on the internet.

OnionOS on the Miyoo Mini Plus is a lot more featureful with the Package Manager that allows you to select which systems are installed as well as all sorts of apps like AdvanceMENU alternative frontend, Easy Netplay, an ebook reader, a media player, and a way to search games by title (hit “X” anywhere in the system menu). It feels very powerful, but on the other hand I did manage to crash the game switcher once which felt weird for such a “simple” gaming device. (Turning the device off and on again fixed it.) One nice feature is you can sleep the device with a quick tap of the power button and come back to the game instantly, although it looks like it will drain power more quickly than shutting it off.

GarlicOS is a lot more streamlined and lightweight. Booting up the console takes less time (12s vs. 17s on OnionOS) and shutdown is essentially instantaneous. Besides RetroArch settings there isn’t anything to configure on this device and I loved being able to press “Y” to favorite a game. (In Onion, you have to hit Select and then choose “Add to favorites” from the menu) I also loved the fact that holding down the Menu button shows a cheatsheet of all the key combos you can press to trigger special functions like Fast Forward, Cheats, and save state management.

The Miyoo Mini Plus running OnionOS has one huge feature that RG35xx does not- WiFi for RetroAchievements and wireless link play. The WiFi could use a better antenna (I couldn’t log achievements sitting in my home office) but otherwise worked just fine.

On the flip side, the RG35xx on GarlicOS has clocking (hit Select in the main menu) where you can underclock to save some power or overclock to squeeze out a little extra performance. I found this made a difference for some games but I don’t know that the Miyoo Mini Plus suffers for lacking overclocking. In some games at standard clocking on the RG35xx, I've noticed some stutter, particularly in audio on the SNES. Going back to the menu and hitting Select overclocks or underclocks the device (there is +, ++, -, and -- in the battery icon) and overclocking does clear up any stuttering issues.

It’s worth noting that OnionOS seems to have quite a fast pace of development and can also be updated without a computer by simply connecting to WiFi and triggering the OS updater. GarlicOS is stalled (but incredibly stable) at 1.4.9, but creator BlackSeraph is working on a 2.0 update that will run on more devices and add more features. Both feel “complete” so any new features will likely fill in smaller niche needs and quality of life upgrades. 
Gaming on SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, and PSX all feels great on both of these devices and Game Boy games feel right at home on the vertical format. I haven’t noticed performance issues on either machine.

Both run RetroArch under the hood which is a system for managing and playing ROMs. It provides a unified interface to all of the emulators (now called "Cores") and allows quite a lot of configuration to tune the gaming experience how you like it. The depth of availability is huge but the most important thing in this case is both the makers of GarlicOS and OnionOS are highly opinionated and have already configured it to work great on both systems. I did not need to adjust anything to enjoy playing, although I did wind up changing it so it did not stretch the screen aspect ratios.

Buying Experience

The price I see the Miyoo Mini Plus for on Amazon Prime is $90. The price I see for the Anbernic RG35xx is $72. I rate these to be good values, but it seems the price on both of these handhelds is much better if you are willing to wait and order from China or AliExpress. Shipping will take around 2-4 weeks, although sometimes there is a snag and it can take longer. Right now until August 27, 2023, Anbernic is having a sale on their website and the 35xx is $46 and no tax. Their normal price is $56. The Miyoo Mini Plus goes for $56 on AliExpress.

You also will want to buy a microSD card for these. 64GB is the minimum you will be happy with. I've been advised by the kind folk over at RGH Discord (shoutout to Axcelon) that 32GB is sufficient if you keep your PSX collection to a only a few discs and plenty for all the other systems. If you want a lot of games, 128GB will hold the currently largest easy-to-use ROM collection (Tiny Best Set GO + Extra! 128GB Expansion) and 256GB is the max addressable by many of these handhelds due to using old FAT32 filesystem. There is no real benefit to buying faster cards.

Looking across the broader landscape there are a lot of devices available. These two happen to be the cheapest and most popular "entry level" gaming handhelds. There are some cheaper ones but they are more interesting curio than gaming gadget. The vertical style systems (like GB, GBC) are appealing because of their classic nature. Both of the reviewed consoles can be one-handed for subway riding and playing slow games like Pokemon. The horizontal style systems (GBA, N-Gage, PSP) are more comfortable for longer gaming sessions. There are a few cheap horizontal systems but I don't know anything about them. Then there are more expensive systems that can play DC, GCN, PS2, NDS, PSP. And Vita. There is a sprinkling of support for 3DS, PS3, and even Switch but beyond some lighter games those start to have serious hardware requirements, more like Steam Deck.

Conclusion

The Miyoo Mini Plus is undoubtedly the nicer device in my mind. It looks and feels way more premium, and it just brings me joy to see it on my desk. I am a little worried about durability as the predecessor non-Plus Mini was well known to break the screen with even the smallest of drops and mishandling, but it doesn’t feel fragile at all. Having WiFi with RetroAchievements is super cool and it definitely encourages me to push further in games although it only works if you are online.

The Anbernic RG35xx is no slouch however and feels built like a tank. I actually honestly prefer the GarlicOS experience for day to day gaming as it’s a little faster to boot up. It definitely has more power to unlock as newer CFW like Koriki have better GPU support and allows PSP, N64, DS, and Dreamcast gaming. I also really like having the twin card slots for the flexibility of file management. Finally, I didn't try it out at all, but it has a micro-HDMI port allowing you to play your games on the big screen, which could be a big plus if you want to kick back on the couch at home or at a hotel.

The Miyoo Mini Plus has a larger battery but I haven’t felt a noticeable capacity difference, particularly with the RG35xx underclocked for most of my gaming.

Overall, I’d say the RG35xx is a better handheld for children and the accident prone, or people who might want to tinker with Koriki for gaming above PSX. The Miyoo Mini Plus is better for people who want a premium experience and RetroAchievements. If I were giving one as a gift I would want to give the Miyoo as it feels more impressive and grown up.

I originally felt like I was missing out by not having both, but honestly I think it’s best to just pick one for vertical gaming and if you must have more devices, get a more powerful handheld in horizontal format for games above PSX. Neither is strictly better than the other and both are good enough that they’re essentially interchangeable.

Interesting video that quickly describes the evolution of the handhelds and gives a brief mention of this beautiful world of sbcgaming!

Love to see more Linux-based options. Maybe we will see a device with better build quality on the same chipset.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2981117

Playing on my PinePhone Pro on ArchLinux using Backbone One controller. Some missions are super hard because the game does not have any aim heper for gamepads. The game runs mostly smooth, but sometimes I experience small yet noticeable FPS drops depending on the weather and time of day.

The current build of Jelos updated the libSDL from v2600.5 to 2800.1 and it broke a few ports. In particular the ones I know of are Panzer Paladin and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. Both are fixed with the instructions below.

I saw in some threads people asking about it so here's the fix:

You'll need a copy of the 7/26 JELOS build or before from the github releases page and copy out the libSDL files from /usr/lib. To do this, you'll need to download the tar archive, then use something like 7zip to extract the SYSTEM file to a folder.

Copy off all the the libSDL2 related files that have a file size (ignore the ones that list as 0kb in size, those are symlinks). All told there are something like six files you need, the 2.0.so.02600.5 file, the ttf file, the image file, gfx file, and mixer.

You need to rename the filesaccording to the SDL2-CD.dll.config set in the game folder at /storage/roms/ports//dlls/

If you prefer, I already have all the correct files and renamed as needed. You can download them in zipped format here.

Once you have the correct files, correctly named, copy them into /storage/roms/ports//libs/

Lastly, edit the game's .sh file in /storage/roms/ports/ to add the following lines:

# # # export path for local libSDL
export LD_PRELOAD=$gamedir/libs/libSDL2.so.0

Add that to the script on its own line. I put it at line 29, after the "Loading... Please Wait." echo output line. Anywhere after the get_controls line should be fine.

If you mess up the file, or run into problems, the full file should look like this one.

From there, save it and run the game. And that should be it.

If you gather the files yourself instead of using the ones from the ZIP I linked and the game loads sideways (in portrait), get the libSDL2-2.0.so.0.2600.5 from the SYSTEM folder in the /usr/lib/SDL2-rotated path instead of /usr/lib, and copy it to your game's lib directory on the handheld, and rename it to libSDL2-2.0.so.0 to fix.

I noticed that darker games on my x55 didn’t look good, like dark tones and blacks were almost inverted looking at stock settings. After a bit of tweaking, setting gamma from default (50%) to 67% got everything looking good.

After checking out a few YouTube videos it seems the gamma level on the display varies between units. I’ve seen it look good on default in some and even up to 100% on one video. Play with the setting and dial it in to what looks best for you.

If it helps I’m currently using:

• brightness 68%
• gamma 67%
• contrast 52%
• saturation 60%

Personally it would be the form of a GBA, I love the form and would love a handled with the same shape

I’ve got a Powkiddy X55 and I’m really enjoying it, but for some games I find even its 5.5” screen to be fairly small for the task, particularly when looking at games from the 32-bit era and up.

How on earth are people actually managing to play these games on 3.5” and 2.8” displays? I feel like it would be really cramped for screen real estate or you’d basically be holding the device in front of your nose just to play it.

This is my number one thing I look for in a handheld so just wondering what models have stuck out to you guys.

I had a RG351P but couldn't stand the accidental diagonals so I moved on. Apparently there is a mod to fix it so might have to eventually go back and try that.

Next I got a RP2+, and I love the d-pad on this thing.

I know the general view of the RG Nano is its gimmicky small, too small to be used for actual gameplay. But I’ve actually found it to be a useful addition to my collection.

Generally my daily carry has been my Miyoo Mini. But there are often times I stick it in my pocket but don’t actually have an opportunity to play it. And as its a rare, easily breakable device, this isn’t ideal.

The RG Nano is perfect for that. I’ve already dropped it a few times and it’s gotten wet, and it’s still chugging along. And as its so small, it has absolutely no profile in any pocket size, so it’s a great carry for any occasion.

Gaming-wise, yes there is a bit of hand discomfort, but I’ve only experienced that after close to an hour of gameplay. It’s easy to adjust your hands and hold it in different ways.

Which brings me to my next point. Game selection. It is not a good device for most games. It has no fast forward functionality, and it’s hard to use precision. Therefore I don’t have any platformers, action, or even Pokemon games on it because I can’t play Pokemon without fast forward.

The games I feel are perfect so far are Harvest Moon FOMT and The Tower SP on GBA and Civilization 2 on PS1. Note that the device only has one set of L and R, so PS1 games have to not rely on those buttons.

What I really love about it is it boots up very quickly, shuts down quickly and saves your state on exit so when you boot back up you’re right back in your game.

So ultimately, if you’re someone who wants to use your phone less while out and about and enjoy the idea of being able to quickly log a few minutes of gameplay without overcommiting a pocket to a larger device, I’d say the RG Nano is an excellent device to consider.

I'm also using the drUm78 CFW which I feel improved the device a bit.

A new video from Russ just dropped today.

In it, he discusses his current favorite handhelds. They don’t have to be made in 2023, but he is focusing more on the newer handhelds.

As usual, this won’t include everything in the video. If you’re interested at all, please watch the video and give Russ a like and subscribe!

Russ splits up the handhelds by price and gives a few recommendations for each.

“Budget” (around $50): RG35xx and Miyoo Mini Plus

Best Under $100: PowKiddy x55

“The Sweet Spot” (around $150, he mentions this is what he recommends you buy unless you have a certain use case):

RP3+, RG405m

If you don’t mind spending a little more: Metal RP3+, Pocket Flip

Best around $200: Odin Lite (his only recommendation in the $200-$400 price range, though he says the Odin Base/Pro are roughly equivalent)

Best over $400: Steam Deck, ROG Ally with honorable mentions of GPD Win4 and AYN Loki Max.

I personally was a little disappointed that we don’t have anything to replace the T618 devices for power and performance even after all this time.

Side Note: I mentioned to Russ a while ago on both YouTube and The Old Place that he might want to post on a federated platform. Nothing yet. He might not even move over. So, I (and others already have) will continue to post his videos here if that is ok.

What do you think about his picks?

So, I'm curious if anyone has been able to make use of the HDMI input on the orange Pi 5 Plus. I have tried Josh Reik's Ubuntu and also the Ubuntu image on orange Pi website, and I'm not able to get anything from the v4l device.

How do you use the HDMI input?

I saw this initially on his YouTube channel, but then I also saw him post his video directly to The Old Place. Asked on his YouTube if he would consider posting to some other alternatives alongside The Old Place like kbin/lemmy and that I was doing light summaries of his videos with links to them on YouTube.

Brief Summary (please watch his video and like and subscribe if you like his content and want to see and hear everything):

— Very surprising, good quality device from PowKiddy. Would be great value from any company but doubly so from them. The new value king!

— Weak chip, but plays as expected (and sometimes better than expected). Most N64, NDS, PSP, and DC are playable, even upscaled!

— Face controls are good. Sticks are of the “better for portability, not as good for playing” switch variety.

— Lots of very clicky/loud buttons, and the split volume buttons are poorly positioned.

— Very smudgy finish.

— Amazing screen for the price. Trounces other similarly priced (and even doubly priced) competitors.

— Has more than expected ports (two usb-c; is safe to use with fast charging, though it will charge at same speed; hdmi out; great quality headphone port; 2 micro sd slots) and features (BT, Wifi)

— Must replace OS immediately due to oopsie from PowKiddy (but it is very easy and supported by the CFW community)

Please go watch another great video from Russ!

I’m excited to see some gameplays on one of these, the price and potential seems like something I’ve been waiting for

The image is not my own. It comes from a review from Retro Resolve.

There is also another article from Retro Dodo

I did not link the main post URL to either of them, as I feel they can be a bit...loose with the facts and assumptions. That's just my opinion though!

The new device specs are as follows. This is what is known right now. All of this could be wrong, or could change drastically before release. The device could also never release.

Most of these specs from from a Reddit post. You can find that post by goggling the name of the device.

CPU: Allwinner 133 Plus GPU: Imagination PowerVR GE8300 Display: 4.96 inches, 720x1280, 294 ppi Battery: 4000mAH Dimensions: 188 mm x 80 mm x 17 mm Connectivity (Bluetooth, Wifi), ports, Operating System are unknown at this time.

One could guess at ports and OS based on images and buttons, but they are just mockups so anything can change

Here is a comparison between the Allwinner 133 (not plus) and the Unisoc T618.

I chose to compare it to the T618 as that is the chip used in some of the most common devices today (such as the RP3+). You can compare it to other chips on that same site if you like.

I could not find a listing on that site (or any other chip comparing site) for the 133 plus. I see that the main differences between the 133 and the 133 plus is the clock speeds of both the cpu and the gpu. The cpu, though at a higher clock, does still use 4x A53s (these are pretty weak), which is the same as the 133.

The extra clock speeds make me think that this will just handle PS1 (and some SNES) better. I do not think it will allow it to include newer consoles that the original 133 could not handle. I think that this means still no NDS and no N64 and no Dreamcast.

Many might be shocked at the controls. I do agree with the obvious point: "Why include a right analog if it cannot run any systems that would use it?"

That doesn't bother me as much. You can still map all of those controls in RetroArch, and you can even come up with fancy ways of playing such as full right handed or full left handed. It should not increase the price drastically, but if it does, then I would agree it should be removed.

TrimUI generally has great budget price points, so I'm hopeful this will land around 90 USD.

What do you all think of the device? Also, how was this post? Too wordy? Too many/few links? Too many opinions?

Here is the link to the KTR1 Discord. There's quite a few people here and some pretty great conversations as well. Most importantly this is where you'll get updates on the progress of the most exciting up and coming handheld emulator in the market, in my opinion .

Russ (RetroGameCorps) is one of my guilty pleasures. I eagerly await his videos.

Does anyone have any problems with me posting links to his videos here? I will also summarize some of his findings, unless, again, anyone has a problem with it.

Any suggestions? This seems ok? You’d prefer this was done in a different method?

I’m just trying to keep this community active. I haven’t yet found a good replacement for SBC Gaming from the Old Place. I’m on this magazine, and several others regarding retro handhelds, but I still don’t get as much info as before the Old Place went bad. I’m not saying to go back there now, as it already feels like a ghost town. There are so many odd posts there now, I don’t even know if it is from bots or what.

If people are ok with this idea, I can definitely post links to videos from some of my favorite retro people, like Russ, but also ETA Prime, The Phawx, maybe a few others.

What do you all think?

Does someone know if it’s possible to play Gothic on the RP3+? I know I could stream it via moonlight, but I am curious if there is some kind of port or another way to play it directly on the device itself?

I recently bought the Powkiddy X55 and reviewed it on reddit here. Now that I've had it a for a month how is it? Great!

Some of this will be a retread of my original review, but I wanted to post an update with some new detail since the firmware has improved greatly since release, and some things have changed/improved over time.

TL;DR at the bottom.

Build quality and feel

# Screen

The display is a 5.5" IPS with good viewing angles. It's a quality display, good vibrant color, and you have the ability to adjust contrast, brightness, gamma, and hue in the system settings.

Vertical viewing angles aren't as good as horizontal, but it's pretty decent. It also gets very bright, unlike the prerelease models you may have seen on youtube. Extremely bright, in fact. I'm generally only using it at 60% brightness.

The screen is flush with the frame and there's zero light bleed, which is nice.

Despite being 16:9, it makes for a fairly large screen for any platform, even 4:3 or 1:1 stuff. It's great, and there's nothing else near this size for the price.

# Shell

The X55 feels pretty lightweight. I don't expect it to hold up to any high drops. It is firm though, no flex or creaking. I disassembled it fairly easily, and the shell clips are strong enough to hold it together without screws. The 8 screws probably help to keep it sturdy and prevent any flexing.

# Buttons and sticks

First, the good. I love the feel of the face buttons and d-pad. They work well, don't stick at all, and are not dissimilar to the 2DS XL in feel. The d-pad is soft on touch, not clicky, and same for the buttons.

The dpad is a bit larger than what I'd consider "normal" and the size makes it a bit difficult for rolling motions for fighting games. I can do something like a hadouken (back-down-foward), but trying to do a dragon punch doesn't always work unless I do the motion a bit slowly. There are also some false diagonals on up and down. After several weeks of use, the d-pad is breaking in nicely though, doesn't feel as stiff as when I bought it. It's getting easier to do fighting games motions and for general use it's fine.

One complaint with the face buttons: height. They sit high and have long travel. Feels like they should have been a bit shorter for comfort and responsiveness. Also, the distance between the face buttons feels too wide, but that probably has to do with the height, since they have flat sides instead of being largely rounded.

The top (R/L) buttons are pretty good. R1/L1 are a bit narrow, but easy to reach. I do feel like they sit a bit high which can make switching between L/R1 and L/R2 more awkward than it needs to be, but overall they're good otherwise. The top buttons are clicky sounding, but I don't mind that, YMMV. This isn't a powerful enough handheld for platforms that use analog triggers, so I'm not bothered by the lack of analog press.

Many reviews noted that the R and L buttons are very loud. It's true but they do seem to have gotten quieter with use over time; I guess as they break in.

Start/select and volume buttons are clicky and loud, that's unchanged from when it was brand new. They're solid feeling, and flush with the unit. I don't mind the button style but some won't like this. Placement of start and select is a bit awkward. I don't hate it, but it's far from ideal. Also, volume up is on the left, and volume down on the right. Small thing, but it's the reverse of what you'd expect.

The sticks are decent. I'm not a fan of these short, Switch style sticks, but they feel good, are comfortable to use, and have a solid click for L3/R3 press. They're recessed and in motion they feel like they have a bit of 8-way gating. Full range of motion, but they do seem to be a bit sensitive given the short travel distance on them. I've had no issues with games that use the analog like for Dreamcast or N64.

# Audio

We have stereo speakers (maybe a first for Powkiddy?) and they sound great. This thing gets very loud without distortion. I like it, and at 100% volume I think I could hear it from the other end of my house and through multiple rooms.

# Ergonomics

The X55 is ergonomic, with a slight curve at the back sides where you'd expect on a gamepad. It's subdued to reduce thickness, but enough to lend grip and make it comfortable to rest your fingers behind. It's well balanced, and holding it by either side feels the same, the weight is centered well.

Despite being ergonomic overall, it's not perfect. The d-pad is below the left stick, leaving your hands offset for most games you'd play on this unless you're comfortable using the stick instead. I wish the d-pad was on top. Small complaint, but with the d-pad low on the unit I notice my pinky can hang off the frame. Primary stick was an odd choice for this since it'll mostly be playing d-pad based games.

I've noticed over time with using it I've adjusted my grip to compensate, and it's stillcomfortable over longer sessions.

Performance

If you're familiar with the RG353M/P, you'll know what to expect here. This runs on the same chip (RK3566), and will perform similarly.

Everything 8 and 16 bit plays flawlessly, no tweaking or issues.

PS1 performance is great, and everything runs full speed at 2x resolution on the default emulator (Retroarch PCSX-R). If you use a more accurate emulator like Duckstation, most games will run 2x but some more intensive titles may need to run at 1x resolution or will be around 50-55 fps. Overall good, my recommendation is to just use the default emulator unless you encounter an issue, only change on a per game basis if needed.

Saturn emulation is surprisingly good. Switch from whatever is the default emulator to the Yaba Sanshiro standalone for best performance. 2D games all run full speed no problem, and some 3D games as well. More intensive titles will run between 40 and 59 fps depending, but Yaba Sanshiro's frameskip makes it completely transparent feels like a smooth 60 fps with no hiccups or issues. I'd say this is totally viable for Saturn emulation. Firmware updates have improved Saturn performance and many games run full speed or extremely close to it without frameskip now.

Don't buy this for N64. Lighter games like Mario 64 will be fine even upscaled without tweaking, but if you want to get into more intensive N64 games like Conker, Blast Corps, or F-Zero X, it gets rough. Slowdowns, audio crackling, dropped frames, no matter which emulator you use. It'll run, but performance is poor enough I'd recommend against it. I still hope this improves with firmware updates as the specs on this should be capable of a good amount of N64, but I've accepted it's not a great system for this handheld for now.

Dreamcast is a mixed bag too, but more positive. In testing, Flycast2021 core seems to be best with built-in frameskip, and most titles I've tried ran well. It's not always full speed, but with frameskip it runs smooth and no audio crackle or stutter. With some games, like Dead or Alive 2, it needs too much skip and is definitely noticeable. This handheld is decent for Dreamcast, but it'll depend on the game, not all will be smooth.

PSP improved greatly with JELOS updates, and many games run full speed, most at 2x PSP resolution. It won't do highly intensive games like MGS Peacewalker, Gran Turismo, Ratchet & Clank, and God of War, but anything lighter runs just fine. I've tested many games without any issues, some with frameskip, but many without. I'm pleasantly surprised, and majorly impressed with the JELOS devs.

Lastly, the GPU is decent enough to run various shaders, in some cases with multiple passes. I tend to play GBA with a custom shader with two passes (VBA-Color at 0.25 darkening + LCD1x). For 8 and 16 bit games, zfast-crt-standard works great.

Software

The X55 runs JELOS. It runs well, EmulationStation themes are supported, and they can be added manually or with Thememaster now as it's been updated to support the handheld.

Ports work fine and I’ve had success with Doom, Doom 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Sonic CD, and Sonic Mania, no issues, all running full speed. Since the 6/19 update, GZDoom works now too.

OS shortcuts work well, interface is snappy, in the rare issue like an emulator hang, there’s a reset button on the top left of the X55 that will restart the unit quickly.

Power button turns off the screen, pressing again turns it on. It now has a true deep sleep mode when you turn off the screen, I've tested it, it's as promised. Over 8 hours I think I lost 3-4% battery.

Most themes I’ve tried run smoothly and the interface is well laid out with most functions on start, select, or X button options menus when on the main screen or in a Game collection.

Closing thoughts and TL;DR

I really like this handheld! No buyer's regret, and it's an absolute bargain at its price point. I bought it mainly for 8-bit through 32-bit gaming and it's great for those, especially amazing for GBA. For more PSP/Dreamcast/N64, and higher emulation you should probably consider a T618 handheld. But for the price ($90 currently, $80 with coupon) this thing is a steal, and gets better with every JELOS update. There are some small compromises for the price, but I feel you get more than you pay for. The screen alone makes it worth it; for the first time on a handheld I feel like I can comfortably play shmups and see everything flying at me and react. I feel very comfortable recommending it, either as a first handheld, or if you just prefer a larger device.

TL;DR - some compromises for price, but decent ergonomics, big, quality screen, and great performance through 32-bit (including Saturn, surprisingly). N64 and up are "extra," performance not guranteed. Odd choices and clicky buttons may be a deal breaker for some. This is a great starter handheld, and particularly fantastic for GBA, as well as anything 32-bit and below.