Review, antics, notes and troubles asjdjadsjsad
But lets be fair, some of this problems are definetively Cheela skills issues :3 like putting a screen protectors is always a hit or miss with me (i will order another one)
with that, lets start with this review of the TrimUI Smart Pro (not the S, as i bought the day before that thing was revealed lmao, i am still a lil bit salty about it
)
THE ERGONOMICS: Soo one of the reasons i was looking for another retro device, aside from power cause i wanted to play some ports and PSP/NDS games, was the ergonomics, and gotta say, this is probably the most comfortable handheld i had period, maybe the NDS was a lil better when i was a lil girl, but right now i am incredibly surprised by the comfiness of this handheld. BUT, i gotta say that i also 3d printed a handle for it, which makes it even better but less portable, either way i gotta say my hands have been really glad of not having to play the miyoo mini plus anymore, which even though I adore that handheld, my hands suffered a lot when i played metroid fusion on that thing. THERE IS ANOTHER REASON THOUGH THAT MADE ME 3D PRINT A HANDLE THOUGH.
THERMALS: gosh dammit reviewers, i know you need to sell a product but i didn't expect to be this bad of a problem. The device gets soo unpleasently hot in the back when is playing high end systems or using things like the scraper. Gotta say that the most bad that it ever got was on the scraper thing actually, but is definetively something that is not empathized enough from those Retro handheld reviewers, or at least it was... UNTIL THE S CAME OUT AND SURPRISE NOW EVERYONE IS MENTIONING HOW MUCH BETTER IT IS BECAUSE IT HAS HOLES IN THE BACK FOR COOLING.(sorry, still salty) With the 3d printed thing though the thermals is not longer an issue at least for playing, i havent stress tested enough to notice emulation going really bad on what is supposed to run great but...
SOFTWARE: again, this could be a lil skill issue on my end, but this device is a mess from a software perspective. There is no 1 to rule them all CFW period. Currently i am using Knulli for the port support, but i wish i could use crossmix because is much better for stuff that i also want to do like PSP emulation (which is better cause crossmix/stock os can do vulkan on PPSSPP) and the moonlight client on the stock os i find that work better than the portmaster one. I haven't try the other options like NextUI because i dont really like the minUI experience from my past handhelds, or SpruceOS, because even though i think OnionOS was awesome in the miyoo mini i am a lil bit exceptic on other devices. There is the other issue that crossmix hasn't been updated in a year, but i may try messing arround with some forks. KNULLI is based on batocera, which is alright as i am familiar with both batocera and emulation station in general, but gotta say... i dont really like it here. IDK why but it feels really sluggish in this device. also the default hotkeys are... something (fast fowarding is a mess by default)
EMULATION: I am gonna skip the obvious, yes everything that is weaker than PS1 will run absolutely flawless. Even difficult to run PS1 games like Hot Wheels Turbo Racing my beloved worked great on this device (i am soo excited for this because this game did not run great in my miyoo mini plus or my RG351MP that i sold years ago)
NDS: is also pretty darn good, aside from some bug related to the Knulli version i was using, the DS games i wanted to play (mainly pokemon and mario stuff) worked fantastic, is soo cool that i can now play a semi recent Mario Kart in this device and i am not stuck with only Super or Super Circuit.
N64 is better that what i expected, hell i even could run Smash Remix on it. BUT is still N64 emulation, and is still the same mess of plugins as always, soo no, is not a GREAT experience.
Dreamcast is weird, it run some stuff pretty well but also struggles a bit... i dont have much experience on DC soo it may be a me skill issue but at least i can play Sonic Adventure 2 and Marvel VS Capcom 2 with some hiccups.
Saturn... NO! i mean i wasn't suprised at all but yeah saturn emulation is still iffy in all these devices under 100 dollars.
PSP is the one that dissapoints me the most. First because is a mess with the whole CFW disscusion earlier, but also because some great run absolutely fantastic like Monster Hunter Freedom Unite or other lighter stuff. But whenever i see videos about this device they are like this like a PSP... but it can't play psp great. And i am not one of those girls who needs to play GoW: Chains of Olympus (which runs like ass btw but reviewers are gonna try to sell you that it can run...with cheats and frameskip) but is just not a pleasent experience. I really wanted to play THPSUG2Remix but is a no in this device... what a bummer.
Finally as a sidenote, Portmaster... Is complicated. Like some games run great with no issues, but some of them only run in knulli... and they run like ass or have crashing issues. Soo i am sorry Ross from Retro Game Corps but NO, i will not recommend this device for someone who wants to get the maximum value of portmaster, cause there are some games that straight up will not work (like Shovel Knight or Risk of Rain 1). Stuff that can work but with a lot of trouble shooting, slowdowns and crashes (Balatro,ShipOfHarkanian, Sonic TT16bit or A2MR) and stuff that i still need to troubleshoot but i cannot bother enough. BUT! I will say that some ports work really well and is a pleasure to play. Highly recommend both GTA3 and Vice City in this devices as they run decently enough, and of course the lighter already mastered stuff like Doom, DukeNukem3D,the SuperMario64 port, Diablo1, etc.
Would i recommend this device: yeah but... i think you will be better saving a lil more money for the Smart Pro S that is in the 100 buck price point if you want to play psp with this for factor. Still i will say that i am having fun with it and i already finished one game on it (DQ1 Lmao). And is not the worst handheld i ever owned but still.
6.5/10
But lets be fair, some of this problems are definetively Cheela skills issues :3 like putting a screen protectors is always a hit or miss with me (i will order another one)
with that, lets start with this review of the TrimUI Smart Pro (not the S, as i bought the day before that thing was revealed lmao, i am still a lil bit salty about it
)THE ERGONOMICS: Soo one of the reasons i was looking for another retro device, aside from power cause i wanted to play some ports and PSP/NDS games, was the ergonomics, and gotta say, this is probably the most comfortable handheld i had period, maybe the NDS was a lil better when i was a lil girl, but right now i am incredibly surprised by the comfiness of this handheld. BUT, i gotta say that i also 3d printed a handle for it, which makes it even better but less portable, either way i gotta say my hands have been really glad of not having to play the miyoo mini plus anymore, which even though I adore that handheld, my hands suffered a lot when i played metroid fusion on that thing. THERE IS ANOTHER REASON THOUGH THAT MADE ME 3D PRINT A HANDLE THOUGH.
THERMALS: gosh dammit reviewers, i know you need to sell a product but i didn't expect to be this bad of a problem. The device gets soo unpleasently hot in the back when is playing high end systems or using things like the scraper. Gotta say that the most bad that it ever got was on the scraper thing actually, but is definetively something that is not empathized enough from those Retro handheld reviewers, or at least it was... UNTIL THE S CAME OUT AND SURPRISE NOW EVERYONE IS MENTIONING HOW MUCH BETTER IT IS BECAUSE IT HAS HOLES IN THE BACK FOR COOLING.(
SOFTWARE: again, this could be a lil skill issue on my end, but this device is a mess from a software perspective. There is no 1 to rule them all CFW period. Currently i am using Knulli for the port support, but i wish i could use crossmix because is much better for stuff that i also want to do like PSP emulation (which is better cause crossmix/stock os can do vulkan on PPSSPP) and the moonlight client on the stock os i find that work better than the portmaster one. I haven't try the other options like NextUI because i dont really like the minUI experience from my past handhelds, or SpruceOS, because even though i think OnionOS was awesome in the miyoo mini i am a lil bit exceptic on other devices. There is the other issue that crossmix hasn't been updated in a year, but i may try messing arround with some forks. KNULLI is based on batocera, which is alright as i am familiar with both batocera and emulation station in general, but gotta say... i dont really like it here. IDK why but it feels really sluggish in this device. also the default hotkeys are... something (fast fowarding is a mess by default)
EMULATION: I am gonna skip the obvious, yes everything that is weaker than PS1 will run absolutely flawless. Even difficult to run PS1 games like Hot Wheels Turbo Racing my beloved worked great on this device (i am soo excited for this because this game did not run great in my miyoo mini plus or my RG351MP that i sold years ago)
NDS: is also pretty darn good, aside from some bug related to the Knulli version i was using, the DS games i wanted to play (mainly pokemon and mario stuff) worked fantastic, is soo cool that i can now play a semi recent Mario Kart in this device and i am not stuck with only Super or Super Circuit.
N64 is better that what i expected, hell i even could run Smash Remix on it. BUT is still N64 emulation, and is still the same mess of plugins as always, soo no, is not a GREAT experience.
Dreamcast is weird, it run some stuff pretty well but also struggles a bit... i dont have much experience on DC soo it may be a me skill issue but at least i can play Sonic Adventure 2 and Marvel VS Capcom 2 with some hiccups.
Saturn... NO! i mean i wasn't suprised at all but yeah saturn emulation is still iffy in all these devices under 100 dollars.
PSP is the one that dissapoints me the most. First because is a mess with the whole CFW disscusion earlier, but also because some great run absolutely fantastic like Monster Hunter Freedom Unite or other lighter stuff. But whenever i see videos about this device they are like this like a PSP... but it can't play psp great. And i am not one of those girls who needs to play GoW: Chains of Olympus (which runs like ass btw but reviewers are gonna try to sell you that it can run...with cheats and frameskip) but is just not a pleasent experience. I really wanted to play THPSUG2Remix but is a no in this device... what a bummer.
Finally as a sidenote, Portmaster... Is complicated. Like some games run great with no issues, but some of them only run in knulli... and they run like ass or have crashing issues. Soo i am sorry Ross from Retro Game Corps but NO, i will not recommend this device for someone who wants to get the maximum value of portmaster, cause there are some games that straight up will not work (like Shovel Knight or Risk of Rain 1). Stuff that can work but with a lot of trouble shooting, slowdowns and crashes (Balatro,ShipOfHarkanian, Sonic TT16bit or A2MR) and stuff that i still need to troubleshoot but i cannot bother enough. BUT! I will say that some ports work really well and is a pleasure to play. Highly recommend both GTA3 and Vice City in this devices as they run decently enough, and of course the lighter already mastered stuff like Doom, DukeNukem3D,the SuperMario64 port, Diablo1, etc.
Would i recommend this device: yeah but... i think you will be better saving a lil more money for the Smart Pro S that is in the 100 buck price point if you want to play psp with this for factor. Still i will say that i am having fun with it and i already finished one game on it (DQ1 Lmao). And is not the worst handheld i ever owned but still.
6.5/10
