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The NeoGAF Open Handheld Thread
- Thread starter Bullet Club
- Start date
Rodolink
Member
glad you got it, enjoy! i always carry mine in my jacket.The thing is here and it's pretty cool. I never had snes, ps1 or any of the consoles prior aside from bootleg nes.
So this is very interesting. Crazy deal too. You get sd card full with games, carrying case and even sd usb adapter
next thing I'm looking forward is the retro pixel pocket
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Killer8
Member
I got a Miyoo Mini Plus last week from AliExpress and have been having a blast.
First of all I am very pleasantly surprised by the overall build quality. The plastics don't feel cheap at all and my main concern with the buttons ended up being unfounded. They feel great and i'd go as far as saying that the shoulder buttons feel better than my Analogue Pocket's. The d-pad is also surprisingly serviceable - how a $70 handheld can do what Xbox still can't after two decades, I will never know.
The IPS screen generally looks nice. Don't go in expecting top tier OLED quality, but it's bright and colorful and when you see retro games running on it pixel perfectly, it's hard not to be a little impressed. The only negative point was the horribly muffled built-in speaker but I found a cheap mod on Etsy which swaps it out for a better one. As a side note, the packaging it came in was slick and they are kind enough to throw in an SD card and cables, although I personally threw mine away to use a 128gb Samsung SD.
At first I was disappointed with the performance of the device. Lots of frame drops, screen tearing, ugly filters on the games. I heard that the aftermarket Onion OS was practically a mandatory install though, so that was my first port of call. I'm happy to report that it resolves basically every issue. Once i'd done a bit of tinkering with each Retroarch core (only a bit as OnionOS does most of it for you), I now have great emulation of NES, SNES, Game Boy Color, GBA, Genesis + Sega CD, NeoGeo + CD and PlayStation 1. It's capable of other pre-PS1 consoles too but those are personally what interest me. There are some very minor performance dips on PS1 but a lot of that is present on a real PS1 too. Mild overclocking via Retroarch seems to resolve most of it so I don't think it's a case of the device being underpowered.
The game changing feature though (and in a lot of ways I mean that literally) is OnionOS's Game Switcher. This functions like Quick Resume on Xbox Series X. With the press of the home button on the Mini, suddenly I can scroll through snapshots of exactly where I left off in a dozen games. Right now I have: Pepsiman, Gunstar Heroes, Metal Slug, Crash Bandicoot 2, Tetris Blast, Super Mario Bros 3, Wario Land 4, Silent Hill, F-Zero, Chrono Trigger and Advance Wars, all running and ready to dive back in. The feature is fast and to put it into perspective you can swap between games in less than 5 seconds.
The question people may ask is: why did I buy this device? After all, I have numerous handhelds. I've poured money into PSPs and IPS modded GBAs and an Analogue Pocket. I'm a certified Switch soy boy™. The simple answer is that the Miyoo Mini Plus does a lot of things really well. It's a swiss army knife of retro systems. The convenience of just being able to pick it up when I have a spare 15 minutes and resume exactly where I left off in seconds cannot be overstated. It punches well above it's weight, yet it's also cheap, so if I lose it I won't feel particularly bad. Just throw it in your bag and head out, which is what handheld gaming should be about.
First of all I am very pleasantly surprised by the overall build quality. The plastics don't feel cheap at all and my main concern with the buttons ended up being unfounded. They feel great and i'd go as far as saying that the shoulder buttons feel better than my Analogue Pocket's. The d-pad is also surprisingly serviceable - how a $70 handheld can do what Xbox still can't after two decades, I will never know.
The IPS screen generally looks nice. Don't go in expecting top tier OLED quality, but it's bright and colorful and when you see retro games running on it pixel perfectly, it's hard not to be a little impressed. The only negative point was the horribly muffled built-in speaker but I found a cheap mod on Etsy which swaps it out for a better one. As a side note, the packaging it came in was slick and they are kind enough to throw in an SD card and cables, although I personally threw mine away to use a 128gb Samsung SD.
At first I was disappointed with the performance of the device. Lots of frame drops, screen tearing, ugly filters on the games. I heard that the aftermarket Onion OS was practically a mandatory install though, so that was my first port of call. I'm happy to report that it resolves basically every issue. Once i'd done a bit of tinkering with each Retroarch core (only a bit as OnionOS does most of it for you), I now have great emulation of NES, SNES, Game Boy Color, GBA, Genesis + Sega CD, NeoGeo + CD and PlayStation 1. It's capable of other pre-PS1 consoles too but those are personally what interest me. There are some very minor performance dips on PS1 but a lot of that is present on a real PS1 too. Mild overclocking via Retroarch seems to resolve most of it so I don't think it's a case of the device being underpowered.
The game changing feature though (and in a lot of ways I mean that literally) is OnionOS's Game Switcher. This functions like Quick Resume on Xbox Series X. With the press of the home button on the Mini, suddenly I can scroll through snapshots of exactly where I left off in a dozen games. Right now I have: Pepsiman, Gunstar Heroes, Metal Slug, Crash Bandicoot 2, Tetris Blast, Super Mario Bros 3, Wario Land 4, Silent Hill, F-Zero, Chrono Trigger and Advance Wars, all running and ready to dive back in. The feature is fast and to put it into perspective you can swap between games in less than 5 seconds.
The question people may ask is: why did I buy this device? After all, I have numerous handhelds. I've poured money into PSPs and IPS modded GBAs and an Analogue Pocket. I'm a certified Switch soy boy™. The simple answer is that the Miyoo Mini Plus does a lot of things really well. It's a swiss army knife of retro systems. The convenience of just being able to pick it up when I have a spare 15 minutes and resume exactly where I left off in seconds cannot be overstated. It punches well above it's weight, yet it's also cheap, so if I lose it I won't feel particularly bad. Just throw it in your bag and head out, which is what handheld gaming should be about.
El Muerto
Member
Kinda wish i got the Miyoo but it was never in stock. Really wanted wifi for scraping game art. Got tired of waiting so i bought the RG35xx and installed Garlic OS which is basically a clone of Onion OS and it's pretty great as it does what you describe the miyoo does. I recently installed Koriki on my RG35xx and can play 3d systems like the Nintendo DS on it now. I also bought a Powkiddy X55, installed JelOS and it gives you the option to start a new game or quick resume. Device can also play up to Dreamcast but n64 performance is poor. Thinking about getting a Retroid Pocket 2s for PS2 and GC games but hate android.
Killer8
Member
The original Miyoo Mini was hard to find apparently because of difficulties sourcing the tiny screen. It got to the point where i'd see them going at 2x, sometimes even 3x the price because of scalpers. Paying that much for one really defeats the point of the device to me though (ie. dirt cheap but punching above its weight).
The Miyoo Mini Plus in comparison is a lot easier to buy. The larger size has meant Miyoo could source the screens easier and so it's pretty much always in stock on AliExpress now.
The Mini Plus and RG35XX seem pretty comparable. The RG35XX seems to even have better specs on paper, but these devices are both pretty good at emulation anyway so maybe it only has an advantage in some games that are performance heavy edge cases. I don't think you can really go wrong with either as they're similarly priced.
Bullet Club
Banned
StereoVsn
Member
That looks pretty cool, but I am too old to even try this screen, lol.
Been kind of eyeing RG556 with its OLED and 5.5 screen, but I keep thinking that I have a Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Switch OLED, Vita,
Bullet Club
Banned
I got one of the Game Boy style Miyoo Mini's about 6 months ago cheap from Temu, it is pretty cool for 8-bit and 16-bit games. The screen is a bigger than this new one's though.
StereoVsn
Member
That’s pretty nice and for older game should run just fine.
I have also been looking also at Anbernic ARC and 405v handhelds. Seemed kind of cool.
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Rodolink
Member
the ARC is amazing, i hope they do more of those platform specific designs without fear, like the ARC has no stick, and if it were designed by powkiddy it would already have not one but even two sticks xD
i filled the ARC just with Sonic games until Dreamcast so its my Sonic machine
StereoVsn
Member
That’s pretty awesome!the ARC is amazing, i hope they do more of those platform specific designs without fear, like the ARC has no stick, and if it were designed by powkiddy it would already have not one but even two sticks xD
i filled the ARC just with Sonic games until Dreamcast so its my Sonic machine
I was just basically thinking Genesis, fighting games and lower end Saturn/Dreamcast.
I think I am going to grab it! Wish it had a bit more power for some of the more demanding Saturn Capcom fighters.
Bullet Club
Banned
ChoosableOne
ChoosableAll
I joined this adventure by ordering the Miyoo Mini Plus. I'll have to wait for 2-3 weeks for it to arrive. I also ordered a mini SD card. Switch is tiring my arms, so I think I found the perfect console for retro games. I hope I'm not mistaken.
THE DUCK
voted poster of the decade by bots
Man ayaneo has the best promo pictures. I want the white Neo s just because of the pics.
CamHostage
Member
Ayn also has a "Mini" coming up, the Odin 2 Mini.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 5" Mini LED screen (1920 x 1080, 1100 nits), 8GB or 12GB LPDDR5x RAM, 5,000 mAh battery, 320 grams,
8GB/128GB for $339 or 12GB/256GB for $399. (No Hall Effect on the sticks, sadly, but otherwise it's mostly comparable to Odin 2 and has a different screen.) Sort of like an asymmetrical PS Vita in layout and build design. Not a mini price, unfortunately, but it's pretty much Odin 2 performance (and the upcoming pre-order includes a case and screen protector.)
liliputing.com
In any case, it's nice to see the "portable" concept of portables making a bit of a comeback with new devices, especially in the top-end of Android that boomed as of late. You'll still want a Steam Deck or other expensive PC-based device if you want modern games (albeit there's new PC emulators like Winlator which can bring PS3-era Windows games to these Android devices,) but for something portable and comfortable and affordable, these Android handhelds can be pretty nice. (The ultra-cheap GB/GBA-sized ones are nice as well, as you can beat on them, and especially if you get one with a 4:3 screen, they'll play most of what you want on a screen made for those games.)
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 5" Mini LED screen (1920 x 1080, 1100 nits), 8GB or 12GB LPDDR5x RAM, 5,000 mAh battery, 320 grams,
8GB/128GB for $339 or 12GB/256GB for $399. (No Hall Effect on the sticks, sadly, but otherwise it's mostly comparable to Odin 2 and has a different screen.) Sort of like an asymmetrical PS Vita in layout and build design. Not a mini price, unfortunately, but it's pretty much Odin 2 performance (and the upcoming pre-order includes a case and screen protector.)
AYN Odin 2 Mini handheld game console with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 coming soon for $329 and up - Liliputing
AYN Odin 2 Mini handheld game console with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 coming soon for $329 and up
liliputing.com
In any case, it's nice to see the "portable" concept of portables making a bit of a comeback with new devices, especially in the top-end of Android that boomed as of late. You'll still want a Steam Deck or other expensive PC-based device if you want modern games (albeit there's new PC emulators like Winlator which can bring PS3-era Windows games to these Android devices,) but for something portable and comfortable and affordable, these Android handhelds can be pretty nice. (The ultra-cheap GB/GBA-sized ones are nice as well, as you can beat on them, and especially if you get one with a 4:3 screen, they'll play most of what you want on a screen made for those games.)
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