Man, I love alliterations.
This time we're going to do a quick review of a newly released KickBacker …The FunKey S.
Now We are talking! I have a weird Obsession with handhelds. The PC-engine GT, Wonderswan, Neo Geo pocket, Watara Supervision, even Retro-pi all get my juices going. So Imagine my delight when I heard of the FunKey, this baby is surprisingly sleek.
Most people are wary of hardware from Kickstarter as some take years and that if they ever get released. The FunKey on the other hand was funded in less than 3 hours and the Team made sure everyone was up to date with any delays or changes. Screen, battery, and SD card issue were all explained and taken care of quickly.
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- Dimensions: 42.5 x 44.5 x 13.8 mm
- Processor: ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.2 GHz
- RAM: 64 MB DDR2
- Storage: 32GB, SD card up to 128GB
- Display: LCD IPS screen, 1.52”, 240x240 px
- Audio: ∅10 mm mono speaker, 500 mW
- Battery: 410 mAh Li-ion battery
- LED charging indicator
- Micro USB Port: charge battery, load games
The ARM 1.2GHz and 64MB of Ram might not seem to be powerful enough but oh Boy its just right. It comes in 3 colors Original Purple, Retrogaming Gray and Atomic Purple. The Atomic Purple gives off that nostalgic Gameboy Color vibe. But I needed My Grey as They stated they will include different color buttons and The Retro Gamer in need stated SNES buttons are mandatory.
I received it about a week ago and have been playing it a lot.
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The Box is made from a nice Card Board with a minimalistic design and logo. Inside are the instructions, Usb Cable and the Glorious buttons. It took about 10 minutes to change up the buttons. It was not soo bad but the pieces are so small make sure you don't lose them. The Plastic itself is not bad but I wish it would of been a bit more sturdy.
What sets this apart from the others is the from factor. This thing is tiny but not too small that you can not play properly. I also have the Pocket Sprite, which is smaller when the Funkey is open, but I found the sprite too small to really play on.
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The other feature that blows my mind is the fact you can just close it shut and it automatically saves the game and exact place. When you open it again it will automatically open the same game at the same place. This makes playing on your commute or when every just have a couple of minutes great, as you can just close it and not worry about losing progress. The Battery will last around 60-120min depending on the system, Brightness and Volume.
The FunKey S was already loaded with a couple of Homebrew games included meaning that you did not need to watch at all to start gaming.
Some of us that have mess around with Retro-pi, Hyperspin, and CoinOps know the Pain/joy of spending HOURSSSSSS modifying and adjusting settings. This is not the case with Funkey the Emulators and Frontends are already set up just add the Roms and play.
The four frontend skins seems similar to others but hey when is that a bad thing.
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Adding Roms is a Breeze as just connect the USB cable to your computer and From the menu screen just mount USB. Then We can just drag the Roms the the folders. ( For GBA and PS1, you need the Bios, Which can be found easily online). Artwork can be added by placing a png image of the Boxart to the same folder of the Roms.
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Like most newer emulators you can have a save and load a game at anytime and change the aspect ratio.
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The Funkey played almost everything I threw at it ( of course there the odd game that just does not work perfectly or needs a patch https://funkey.miraheze.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_compatibility_issues ).
The standard Nes, Snes, Genesis, work without issue but really surprised me was the PS1 games. It was playing Buttery smooth on a couple of games. The only thing was the lack of dedicated L2+R2 buttons.
You can also use GMENU2X to use additional software (when available ).
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There is already a beta N64 Emulator that looks to be working but I have not tried. With the fact that it has an open source OS, I can not wait for what the Community has in store for this tiny player.
The price of 65 euros its well worth it compared other Emulation handhelds like the ANBERNIC R350 or any of the counties revisions they have. The issue now is waiting for it to come back in stock as they stated delays from China are still going on.
All this with something that you can keep on your keychain, is the next level of retro gaming.
https://www.funkey-project.com
Verdict
What I Liked . . . What I Didn't Like
Small but Playable. Battery life
No real setup needed Lack of L2 and R2
Decently priced Cheaper Side plastic
COME ONE, it's truly keychain size. Limited Ram for Home Brew
Open Source
8.5 out of 10
Overall
This Pint Size Handheld brings a Tremendous amount of gaming. Being Open Source allows the community to keep creating software. Overall This is definite but for Collectors or just those who want a quick Retro fix on the go.
