So, a couple of weeks ago, I got my Powkiddy V90 retro gaming handheld in the mail.
I was excited because it had been a while since I had a dedicated device for gaming, and I mostly play retro games so I thought it would be a nice purchase. And it most definitely was.
As soon as I got it, I swapped the SD card in it for a Kioxia one, as the bundled in ones aren't the best quality. I also installed Miyoo CFW and put all the roms I wanted, which was over 11gbs of them.
The menu handled itself perfectly and scrolling through the large lists was a breeze, there was never any crashing or stuttering on the device.
In general I was actually pretty impressed with the performance.
It looks like a GBA SP and plays like a GBA SP, absolutely perfect. But there was a lot more room there for gaming. SNES ran wonderful, older 8-bit titles all worked perfectly, and the image was always crisp. The ports of PC games were a little disappointing. DOOM worked perfectly and so did Wolfenstein 3D, but Quake 1 and 2 ran terribly and Cave Story didn't have working music and had a cursor on the screen at all times (it did work under NXengine on Retroarch though).
But check this out:
With the Miyoo CFW, this thing can do some light PS1, and Gran Turismo 2 was the title that impressed me the most, being fully 3D and fully playable. I was bored one day at my friend's house whilst he was sleeping and just did a bunch of license tests and played a couple of races, handled itself perfectly. Other PS1 games such as Crash Bandicoot, Marvel vs Capcom and Castlevania SOTN also worked with mostly no hiccups.
Now, it runs well, but how does it feels?
Absolutely wonderful. Despite being small and my hands being gigantic, the rounded corners ensured I had a good grip and the buttons are incredibly good to press.
The battery can also hold a very decent charge, I never ran out whilst in the middle of a play session and I did play it heavily.
The USB-C port also works nicely and is a really strange but great feature to have on such a cheap handheld.
But...
Back into the box it went...
And to a new owner it now belongs.
Why?
I realized I have a phone.
Damn. What a surprise.
But no, really. I decided to push my Galaxy A71 to its limits and throw some PPSSPP and Dolphin emulation at it.
I was surprised.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (objectively the best Gamecube game, fight me) ran perfectly, and so did R: Racing Evolution. PSP games also worked just fine.
Then whilst browsing the Facebook marketplace, I saw something that caught my eye.
This bluetooth iPega controller for phones.
It was just $9 USD. So I bought it.
And ended up just moving my entire rom collection to my phone. Which is more powerful than some computers I've had in the past, and fits it all nicely.
So I sold the Powkiddy simply because I have no real use for it. I don't mind the clunkiness of carrying around the iPega, so for me, it's fine. But as soon as I put it up for sale, people were interested.
And I know why.
It's a wonderful little product, and if you want to get started in the wonderful world of emulation handhelds, it's a great cheap starting point, but if you already have a powerful Android phone and don't mind using the same device for everything, then it might be wise to just buy a controller instead.
Overall, a solid 8/10. Not 9 because the power down mechanism is a bit odd, and not 10 because you need to install a CFW for it to work nice. But it's still a great product, that once set up, will run fine and do its job.
