Two Cheap Retro Handhelds, Two Different Jobs: Powkiddy Q90 vs TrimUI Smart Pro

Budget retro handhelds have gotten cheap enough that owning two isn’t hoarding — it’s specialisation. I’ve been living with the Powkiddy Q90 and the TrimUI Smart Pro, and despite both being “Linux retro handhelds”, they barely compete with each other. One is a pocket specialist. The other is the do-everything device. Here’s what each is actually for.

The Q90: a Game Boy-shaped specialist

The Powkiddy Q90 launched back in late 2019 and still floats around AliExpress for roughly US$40. The spec sheet reads like a museum piece: an Allwinner F1C100s with a single ARM9 core running under 1 GHz, 32MB of RAM, and a 3-inch 4:3 320×240 IPS panel. In 2026 that sounds like a joke. It isn’t — because 32MB of RAM was exactly what the games of my childhood needed.

What that hardware buys you is flawless 8- and 16-bit emulation: Master System, Game Gear, Mega Drive and PC Engine all run perfectly. GBA is decent. SNES is pushing it. PS1 and beyond are simply off the table — the RAM wall is real. But here’s the thing: if your nostalgia window closes at the 16-bit era (mine does — Super Mario and Shinobi II on the Game Gear), nothing above that matters.

What keeps the Q90 in my bag instead of a drawer:

• It actually fits in a pocket. 135 × 61 × 15mm. The Smart Pro needs a jacket pocket or a bag; the Q90 disappears into cargo shorts.
• Instant-on, save-state gaming. A boss fight fits neatly between MRT interchanges. Suspend, close, done.
• A 4:3 screen at the correct aspect ratio. Game Gear and Master System titles look the way they were drawn, not stretched across a widescreen panel.
• Battery life has never once been the limiting factor. The thing sips power.

The honest knocks: the stock firmware is bare-bones, the buttons are serviceable rather than good, and there’s no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth — no wireless audio, no online anything. At this price none of that is a surprise; it’s just the deal you’re making.

The Smart Pro: the budget all-rounder

The TrimUI Smart Pro is a different animal: a 4.96-inch 1280×720 IPS display, an Allwinner A133P chip, and a slim shell that typically lands between US$50 and US$70 depending on sales. That screen is genuinely one of the nicest panels you’ll find at this price — pixel art looks crisp, and even 3D-era titles hold up.

Performance-wise: NES through PS1 run flawlessly. PSP and Dreamcast are largely playable, N64 is patchy, and GameCube or PS2 are not viable no matter what the YouTube thumbnails promise. The A133P is still a budget chip wearing a nice screen’s clothes — set expectations accordingly.

The stock OS is mediocre out of the box. This is a device you buy knowing you’ll spend one evening installing custom firmware — CrossMix-OS or Knulli — after which it feels like something twice its price. If you’re not willing to flash firmware, honestly, reconsider.

Which one, and for whom

• Commute micro-sessions and 8/16-bit nostalgia: Q90. It’s the device you grab without thinking.
• One device for everything up to PS1/PSP, couch and travel: Smart Pro.
• If you can only buy one: Smart Pro, and it’s not close. The Q90 is the second handheld you buy with your heart, not your head.

The Singapore buying reality

Neither brand has a local retail presence worth mentioning. Both come from AliExpress or Banggood; add shipping and GST at import and call it roughly S$60–100 landed each. There’s no warranty walk-in — if a unit dies, you’re filing a platform dispute, not visiting a shop. Buy from stores with long track records, and assume any defect shows up within the first fortnight.

One HDB-specific note: these devices shine precisely because flat dwellers get short windows of free time. Ten minutes while the kettle boils, one MRT stop-to-stop run, twenty minutes before the kids claim the TV. Save states turn dead time into game time in a way a Switch or a phone emulator setup never quite manages — no fiddling, no pairing, no launcher apps.

The verdict

These two aren’t competitors, and comparing them as spec sheets misses the point. The Smart Pro is the rational purchase: one device, wide compatibility, a great screen, and one firmware evening away from feeling premium. The Q90 is the emotional one: it does less than any phone you own, and it’s more fun than most of them precisely because of that. Buy the Smart Pro first. Add the Q90 when you notice you’re bringing both anyway.