Miyoo Mini+
May. 7th, 2023 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroMiyoo first produced the Miyoo Mini, a tiny handheld that was an improvement on the various tiny linux-based emulator handhelds that came before (like the PowKiddy Q90). That sold like crazy and they stopped being able to source screens, so they made the Miyoo Mini Plus, with a more standard 3.5-inch screen but the same internals.
So, my first impressions of this were spoiled because I got a bad SD card in my original order: I was instantly disappointed by the loading times when I first turned this on: 60+ seconds to turn on. 30+ seconds to load into a game. Loading time between menus. Weird pauses when I pressed the menu button. 60+ seconds to exit a game. I contacted the AliExpress seller and they offered me a replacement SD card and a free case, so a couple of weeks later those arrived and the problem seems to have been fixed. So keep in mind that this device is coming into reviews with a handicap because of that initial bad impression.
This is a head-to-head competitor with the RG35XX, with the same form factor and, entertainingly, the exact same rom set on the SD card. So it makes sense to run comparisons against them. They both do a great job with emulation up to PS1, they both have dedicated menu buttons, they both have recent and favorites lists for your games. They both look like tiny game boys for that nostalgia feel. The big advantage is that this comes with a stock version of OnionOS. It reminds me very much of TrimUI, though in this case it lets you have more access to the RetroArch backend (the “native menu”), so you can enable cheats or fiddle with the settings; but still makes save states easy to manage. I think there are arguments to be made that this version of OnionOS is “better” than the RG35XX stock OS, specifically because of that. (And unlike GarlicOS, when I added cht files to the SD card and activated them, the games ran properly! So the Miyoo Mini+ can support cheats if you’re willing to do a little legwork for them. It can also easily enable fast forward and turbo for systems that can spare the buttons, like GBA and NES.) OnionOS comes with a stack of “themes” already available, so you can swap the look of the menu without having to download anything new.
Side note, OnionOS doesn’t auto-refresh your roms list, as opposed to most other systems I’ve used. If you put new roms on this, you need to press select on the home menu when highlighting “games,” then choose “refresh rom” from the menu that appears.
Though this device’s screen seems to be slightly less sharp than the RG35XX, games still look beautiful, with default frames and overlays for systems that don’t scale to fullscreen. You can adjust the settings, though you have to do that through RetroArch, which is often obtuse and doesn’t necessarily make it clear what each setting does. I didn’t love the “GBA filter” this defaulted to for GBA games, but couldn’t figure out which setting actually controlled it. I also had issues changing input settings because the physical buttons aren’t necessarily named what you think they should be. (Which one is “button 11”? Who knows!)
The volume switches required significant pressure to activate, which is good and bad—you can’t accidentally nudge them, but you need to put effort into changing the volume. I think I prefer systems with a dial. This has a headphone jack, but unlike the RG35XX, no HDMI or component-out, so you can’t send it to a big screen. This doesn’t have a hard reset button, and only has one SD card slot (not that the RG35XX really needs the two, but it’s a thing to note).
What I don't love is the form-factor, as I have big hands. The RG35XX is slightly fatter and taller, giving you more room to grab and more space to put your extra fingers. This is a little more cramped and less comfortable to play for long periods. It has differently shaped L1/R1 and L2/R2 buttons, and that is an advantage—it makes it much easier to tell which button you’re pressing without looking.
I’ve heard there’s an upgrade to OnionOS in beta now, but it looks like the major “improvement” is the same change that GarlicOS made—it breaks the functionality of the Menu button in favor of hotkeys. So I was going to try it when it was out of beta, but given my experience with GarlicOS, I’m not going to bother.
My battery life test (mostly Final Fantasy Tactics, but also an assortment of SNES and GBA games) came out with more like 5 hours of life (or slightly more), versus the 4.5-ish the RG35XX was getting.
Overall: I think, on the whole, the Miyoo Mini+ is the winner for general recommendations. The form-factor of the RG35XX is somewhat more comfortable to me personally (for my hands and my eyes), but on the whole the system offers a lot more capability.
So, my first impressions of this were spoiled because I got a bad SD card in my original order: I was instantly disappointed by the loading times when I first turned this on: 60+ seconds to turn on. 30+ seconds to load into a game. Loading time between menus. Weird pauses when I pressed the menu button. 60+ seconds to exit a game. I contacted the AliExpress seller and they offered me a replacement SD card and a free case, so a couple of weeks later those arrived and the problem seems to have been fixed. So keep in mind that this device is coming into reviews with a handicap because of that initial bad impression.
This is a head-to-head competitor with the RG35XX, with the same form factor and, entertainingly, the exact same rom set on the SD card. So it makes sense to run comparisons against them. They both do a great job with emulation up to PS1, they both have dedicated menu buttons, they both have recent and favorites lists for your games. They both look like tiny game boys for that nostalgia feel. The big advantage is that this comes with a stock version of OnionOS. It reminds me very much of TrimUI, though in this case it lets you have more access to the RetroArch backend (the “native menu”), so you can enable cheats or fiddle with the settings; but still makes save states easy to manage. I think there are arguments to be made that this version of OnionOS is “better” than the RG35XX stock OS, specifically because of that. (And unlike GarlicOS, when I added cht files to the SD card and activated them, the games ran properly! So the Miyoo Mini+ can support cheats if you’re willing to do a little legwork for them. It can also easily enable fast forward and turbo for systems that can spare the buttons, like GBA and NES.) OnionOS comes with a stack of “themes” already available, so you can swap the look of the menu without having to download anything new.
Side note, OnionOS doesn’t auto-refresh your roms list, as opposed to most other systems I’ve used. If you put new roms on this, you need to press select on the home menu when highlighting “games,” then choose “refresh rom” from the menu that appears.
Though this device’s screen seems to be slightly less sharp than the RG35XX, games still look beautiful, with default frames and overlays for systems that don’t scale to fullscreen. You can adjust the settings, though you have to do that through RetroArch, which is often obtuse and doesn’t necessarily make it clear what each setting does. I didn’t love the “GBA filter” this defaulted to for GBA games, but couldn’t figure out which setting actually controlled it. I also had issues changing input settings because the physical buttons aren’t necessarily named what you think they should be. (Which one is “button 11”? Who knows!)
The volume switches required significant pressure to activate, which is good and bad—you can’t accidentally nudge them, but you need to put effort into changing the volume. I think I prefer systems with a dial. This has a headphone jack, but unlike the RG35XX, no HDMI or component-out, so you can’t send it to a big screen. This doesn’t have a hard reset button, and only has one SD card slot (not that the RG35XX really needs the two, but it’s a thing to note).
What I don't love is the form-factor, as I have big hands. The RG35XX is slightly fatter and taller, giving you more room to grab and more space to put your extra fingers. This is a little more cramped and less comfortable to play for long periods. It has differently shaped L1/R1 and L2/R2 buttons, and that is an advantage—it makes it much easier to tell which button you’re pressing without looking.
I’ve heard there’s an upgrade to OnionOS in beta now, but it looks like the major “improvement” is the same change that GarlicOS made—it breaks the functionality of the Menu button in favor of hotkeys. So I was going to try it when it was out of beta, but given my experience with GarlicOS, I’m not going to bother.
My battery life test (mostly Final Fantasy Tactics, but also an assortment of SNES and GBA games) came out with more like 5 hours of life (or slightly more), versus the 4.5-ish the RG35XX was getting.
Overall: I think, on the whole, the Miyoo Mini+ is the winner for general recommendations. The form-factor of the RG35XX is somewhat more comfortable to me personally (for my hands and my eyes), but on the whole the system offers a lot more capability.
