Miniloong Pocket 1
Jun. 3rd, 2026 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroAnother handheld by a new developer and direct competition to Anbernic’s XX line. It’s got a 4 inch, 4:3 screen. It’s got an HDMI-out and a standard headphone jack. It’s got a good layout and is very comfortable to hold. (It’s a little hefty, but feels solid.) The build quality is very good and it’s nice to play on. The gimmick is the custom faceplate and d-pad that you can swap out. (It’s unclear if they’re ever going to make any other faceplates, though. And honestly, that’s not much of a gimmick.)
I quite like the custom Retroarch front-end (LoongOS) and the fact you can choose between their custom menu and the full Retroarch menu for the dedicated Menu button to open (and their custom menu can always open the full Retroarch menu, anyway). So you’ve got full and easy access to save states, cheats, hotkeys, shaders, all the good stuff.
The problem is it’s a solid Tier 2 device, directly comparable to the RGXX series in terms of what it can run. SNES, Genesis, PS1? They’re great. But N64 is janky and mostly unplayable, and PSP pretty much only plays minis (though the SD card did come loaded with them). DS games run fine, but the screen isn’t great for them, so you’re limited to games where you don’t really need a touchscreen and can ignore the second screen most of the time.
In a direct comparison against the Anbernic RG40XX, it’s comparable or maybe slightly better in build quality and runs basically the same stuff. It’s similarly a bit too big to be pocketable, but absolutely comfortable for long play sessions. Like Anbernic’s systems, it comes fully loaded and ready to go right out of the box with virtually no setup. The 4-6 hours battery life is comparable, as well. That said, I found it on sale for $60 and it’s usually in the $80-90 range, and once you’re at that price point you can get something like the Mangmi Air X and actually play DS, N64 and more PSP. (And in either case you’ve reached “this won’t fit in my cargo pants pocket” size, so going a little larger doesn’t really matter.)
Overall: If you want to play SNES, Genesis and PS1, it’s a lovely device. It’s comfortable to hold, great frontend, decent battery, nice screen and beautiful emulation. But it doesn’t have a good place in my ecosystem because I have smaller, more pocketable devices that cover the same range of systems (or better) and larger, even more comfortable devices that play higher-end systems.
I quite like the custom Retroarch front-end (LoongOS) and the fact you can choose between their custom menu and the full Retroarch menu for the dedicated Menu button to open (and their custom menu can always open the full Retroarch menu, anyway). So you’ve got full and easy access to save states, cheats, hotkeys, shaders, all the good stuff.
The problem is it’s a solid Tier 2 device, directly comparable to the RGXX series in terms of what it can run. SNES, Genesis, PS1? They’re great. But N64 is janky and mostly unplayable, and PSP pretty much only plays minis (though the SD card did come loaded with them). DS games run fine, but the screen isn’t great for them, so you’re limited to games where you don’t really need a touchscreen and can ignore the second screen most of the time.
In a direct comparison against the Anbernic RG40XX, it’s comparable or maybe slightly better in build quality and runs basically the same stuff. It’s similarly a bit too big to be pocketable, but absolutely comfortable for long play sessions. Like Anbernic’s systems, it comes fully loaded and ready to go right out of the box with virtually no setup. The 4-6 hours battery life is comparable, as well. That said, I found it on sale for $60 and it’s usually in the $80-90 range, and once you’re at that price point you can get something like the Mangmi Air X and actually play DS, N64 and more PSP. (And in either case you’ve reached “this won’t fit in my cargo pants pocket” size, so going a little larger doesn’t really matter.)
Overall: If you want to play SNES, Genesis and PS1, it’s a lovely device. It’s comfortable to hold, great frontend, decent battery, nice screen and beautiful emulation. But it doesn’t have a good place in my ecosystem because I have smaller, more pocketable devices that cover the same range of systems (or better) and larger, even more comfortable devices that play higher-end systems.
