🏆 Editor’s Top Pick
Miyoo Mini Plus
Best for: 8/16-bit retro purists
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Let’s be brutally honest. The hunt for the “perfect” pocket retro handheld is a fool’s errand. It doesn’t exist. What does exist is the perfect handheld for you — a device that nails the specific combination of size, performance, and nostalgia you’re chasing. In 2026, for those of us in the UK looking for something genuinely pocket-sized, the choice has crystallised into a fascinating duel: the established king of vertical handhelds, the Miyoo Mini Plus, versus a powerful widescreen challenger, the Trimui Smart Pro. One feels like a perfected Game Boy, the other a shrunken PlayStation Vita. Both cost under £56.99 and both promise a library of classics in your coat pocket.
But which one is actually worth your money? That’s the only question that matters. Both devices have been tested extensively across extended daily sessions. This isn’t a spec-sheet comparison. This is a practical, hands-on verdict on which device better serves the UK retro gamer in 2026. We’re going to dissect the build quality, the screens, the real-world emulation performance (not just what the marketing claims), the software experience, and ultimately, the value proposition. The Miyoo Mini Plus has long been the default recommendation for good reason, but the arrival of the Trimui Smart Pro throws a widescreen spanner in the works. Is a bigger screen and a bit more power worth sacrificing perfect pocketability and the world’s best custom firmware?
The answer is more complicated than you might think. Your choice will come down to one simple question: do you spend more time playing Super Metroid or Ridge Racer Type 4? Your answer to that will determine which of these excellent little machines is the right one to pull the trigger on. Let’s break it down, no hype, no nonsense.
| Product | Price (UK) | Best For | Score | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miyoo Mini Plus | ~£65 | Ultimate pocketability and 4:3 systems (SNES, PS1) | 8.5/10 | Buy → |
| Trimui Smart Pro | ~£56.99 | Widescreen gaming (GBA, PSP) and a modern feel | 7.5/10 | Buy → |
Quick Verdict: Which is the Best Pocket Handheld in 2026?
I know some of you just want the answer without the deep dive, so here it is. If you want the best truly pocketable device primarily for 8-bit and 16-bit home consoles and the original PlayStation, buy the Miyoo Mini Plus. Its 4:3 screen is perfectly suited to these systems, the vertical form factor is pure nostalgia, and the community-developed OnionOS software is lightyears ahead of anything else in this price bracket. It is, for my money, the most refined and enjoyable way to play games from the SNES, Mega Drive, and PS1 on the go. It’s smaller, cheaper, and has a dedicated community that has polished its software to a mirror shine. It’s the purist’s choice and the device I find myself grabbing most often for a quick game of Tetris or Castlevania.
However, if your retro gaming memories are more tied to the Game Boy Advance and the PlayStation Portable (PSP), the Trimui Smart Pro is the clear winner. Its 16:9 widescreen display makes GBA and PSP games look absolutely phenomenal, filling the entire screen without awkward borders or stretching. It’s slightly more powerful, giving it an edge in more demanding PSP and Dreamcast titles, and the horizontal layout with its analogue sticks feels much more modern and comfortable for 3D games. It sacrifices some of that “throw it in any pocket” magic for a much more immersive experience on widescreen systems. It feels less like a retro novelty and more like a modern, albeit small, gaming console.
So, the decision rests entirely on your gaming library. For a pixel-perfect Super Mario World experience, it’s the Miyoo Mini Plus. For a full-screen, fluid playthrough of God of War: Chains of Olympus, it’s the Trimui Smart Pro. One is a master of the 4:3 era, the other is a specialist for the dawn of widescreen handheld gaming. Neither is a bad choice, but they serve two distinctly different masters. Read on to understand the specific trade-offs you’ll be making with either purchase.
Design and Ergonomics: Form Factor Face-Off
The first thing you notice when holding these devices is their fundamental difference in philosophy. The Miyoo Mini Plus is a love letter to the Nintendo Game Boy. It’s a vertical slab of plastic that screams nostalgia. Holding it instantly transports you back to playing Pokémon Red on the school bus. It measures just 108mm x 78.5mm x 22.3mm, making it genuinely jean-pocket-friendly. It fits into a jacket pocket and practically disappears — that’s its single biggest selling point. The plastic feels dense and well-made for its ~£65 price point, with minimal creaking. The transparent colourways — purple, grey, and others — look fantastic and lean heavily into that late-90s aesthetic. The D-pad is excellent, with a soft pivot that’s great for fighting games and platformers, and the face buttons have a satisfying, slightly clicky feel. The main drawback is the shoulder buttons. The R1/L1 and R2/L2 buttons are stacked vertically on the back, and whilst functional, they are not comfortable for extended use, especially in PS1 games that rely on them heavily like Ape Escape. For 16-bit games, they’re perfectly fine, but for anything more complex, you’ll feel the ergonomic strain.
The Trimui Smart Pro, by contrast, takes all its cues from the PSP and the Nintendo Switch Lite. It’s a horizontal device, wider and thinner at 188mm x 80mm x 17mm. It’s still small, but it’s not what I’d call “pocketable” in the same effortless way as the Miyoo. It’ll fit in a large coat pocket or a bag, but you’ll definitely know it’s there. The ergonomics, however, are a huge step up for any kind of 3D gaming. The dual analogue sticks are actual sticks (albeit small ones, similar to a PS Vita), not just sliders, and their placement is comfortable. The shoulder buttons are stacked and feel much more natural under your index fingers. The whole device feels built for longer play sessions. The matte plastic finish feels premium, and the overall construction is solid. The D-pad is good, but I’d give the edge to the Miyoo’s for precision in 2D fighters. The face buttons are slightly smaller and have a lower profile, which some may prefer. The biggest ergonomic win for the Trimui is simply its shape; holding it horizontally feels more natural for most games released after 1995. It’s a trade-off: the Miyoo wins on pure portability, whilst the Trimui wins on in-hand comfort for 3D games.
Who are they for?
Miyoo Mini Plus: The ideal user is someone who wants the smallest possible device without sacrificing a decent screen and controls. It’s for the commuter, the “waiting in a queue” gamer, the person who values slipping a full retro library into their pocket above all else. If your primary goal is to play Game Boy, NES, SNES, and Mega Drive, the vertical layout is perfect and feels authentic. You accept the slight ergonomic compromise on the shoulder buttons as a fair trade for its tiny size.
Trimui Smart Pro: This is for the player who wants a small handheld, but not at the expense of comfort. You mainly play GBA, PSP, and some Dreamcast. You want proper analogue sticks and comfortable shoulder buttons. You see this as a “small console” to be carried in a bag, rather than a “pocket device”. The horizontal layout is a feature, not a bug, because it mimics the modern controllers you’re used to. You’re willing to carry a slightly larger device for a much better experience in widescreen and 3D titles.
Screen Quality: The 4:3 Purist vs The Widescreen Contender
This is arguably the most critical point of comparison, as the screen defines the entire experience. The Miyoo Mini Plus features a 3.5-inch IPS display with a 640×480 resolution. The key here is its 4:3 aspect ratio. This is the native aspect ratio for almost every home console and arcade game up to and including the original PlayStation. This means games from the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PC Engine, and PS1 fill the screen perfectly, with no black bars and no need for stretching or cropping. Pixels are crisp, colours are vibrant, and the viewing angles are excellent. It’s a genuinely beautiful little screen for its intended purpose. Playing Chrono Trigger or Street Fighter II on this display feels right. The pixels are sharp and the image is exactly as you remember it, just brighter and with better colour. The resolution is also a 4x integer scale of the Game Boy Advance’s 240×160, meaning GBA games look fantastic too, albeit with small black bars on the top and bottom. The only real downside is when you try to play widescreen content, like PSP games. You’re left with massive black bars (letterboxing), making the already small screen feel tiny.
The Trimui Smart Pro takes a completely different approach. It boasts a much larger 4.96-inch IPS display with a 1280×720 resolution. This is a 16:9 widescreen display. For PSP games (native 480×272) and GBA games (native 240×160, which is 3:2 but close to 16:9), this screen is a revelation. Games fill the entire display, looking bold, immersive, and modern. Playing Wipeout Pure or The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on this is a joy; the extra screen real estate makes a huge difference. The higher 720p resolution means content can be upscaled neatly, resulting in a sharp image. The colours are rich, and the screen is bright and fully laminated, meaning there’s no visible air gap between the glass and the panel, which makes the image pop. However, this widescreen advantage becomes a disadvantage when you play classic 4:3 content. Playing Super Mario World results in thick, distracting black bars on the left and right sides of the screen (pillarboxing). Whilst you can stretch the image to fill the screen, it distorts the art and is a cardinal sin for any retro purist. You’re effectively playing on a 4-inch 4:3 screen within a 5-inch widescreen panel, which feels less efficient than the Miyoo’s dedicated 4:3 display for those specific systems.
Ultimately, your preference here is dictated by your gaming habits. If 80% of your playtime will be on systems that originally outputted to a CRT television, the Miyoo Mini Plus provides a more authentic and visually efficient experience. If you’re a Game Boy Advance or PSP fanatic, the Trimui Smart Pro’s larger, widescreen display is transformative and offers a far superior window into those worlds.
Performance and Emulation Ceiling: What Can They Actually Play?
Under the hood, these devices tell a tale of two different generations of budget chipsets. The Miyoo Mini Plus uses a dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor (SigmaStar SSD202D) running at 1.2GHz with 128MB of DDR3 RAM. On paper in 2026, that sounds incredibly weak. However, paired with its highly optimised Linux-based operating system (OnionOS), it’s a surprisingly capable machine for its target systems. It handles everything up to the 16-bit era flawlessly. SNES, Mega Drive, PC Engine—you name it, it plays it perfectly. This is its bread and butter. Where it really shines for a device this small is PlayStation 1 emulation. The vast majority of the PS1 library runs at full speed, with only the most demanding titles like Tekken 3 or Bloody Roar 2 showing occasional minor stutters, which are often ironed out with the correct emulator settings. For games like Final Fantasy VII, Symphony of the Night, or Metal Gear Solid, it’s a dream. But this is the ceiling. Don’t even think about Nintendo 64 or Dreamcast. Whilst some less demanding N64 games might technically “run,” they are an unplayable, stuttering mess. The Miyoo Mini Plus knows its limits and executes perfectly within them.
The Trimui Smart Pro steps things up with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor (Allwinner A133 Plus) running at 1.8GHz, paired with a PowerVR GE8300 GPU and 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM. This is a significantly more powerful and modern setup. Like the Miyoo, it handles everything up to PS1 without breaking a sweat. Where the extra power comes into play is with more demanding systems. It can run a good portion of the Dreamcast library at or near full speed, something the Miyoo can’t touch. Games like Crazy Taxi and Soul Calibur are very playable. It also makes a respectable attempt at N64, with many popular titles like Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time running well, though more complex games will still struggle. The main beneficiary of this power boost is the PSP. The Trimui Smart Pro can handle a huge chunk of the PSP library, including many 3D titles. Lighter games run perfectly, and even more demanding ones like the God of War titles are playable with some frameskip and settings tweaks. This is the device’s main party trick and its key performance advantage over the Miyoo. If playing PSP is a priority, the Trimui is the only choice between the two.
However, don’t be fooled by the marketing. Neither of these devices are powerhouse machines. The Trimui Smart Pro is often advertised with Saturn and GameCube, but the performance is simply not there for a good experience. You might get some 2D Saturn games to run, but it’s not a reliable Saturn machine. And GameCube is completely out of the question. You’ll need a much more expensive device for that, such as one of the best GameCube emulation handhelds under £300. Stick to the strengths: the Miyoo is a peerless PS1 and 16-bit machine, while the Trimui is an excellent PSP and Dreamcast device for its size and price.
Software and User Experience: OnionOS vs Tomato OS
This is where the battle becomes incredibly one-sided. The Miyoo Mini Plus, when loaded with the free, community-developed OnionOS, offers arguably the best user experience of any retro handheld, regardless of price. Out of the box, the stock Miyoo software is basic and functional, but installing OnionOS (a simple process of copying files to an SD card) elevates the device to another level. The interface is clean, snappy, and infinitely customisable with themes. It has a ‘Game Switcher’ feature that lets you instantly jump between your recently played games, complete with save states, just like the Quick Resume on an Xbox Series X. It has built-in Wi-Fi support for seamless RetroAchievements, automatic box art scraping, and a suite of advanced settings for power users. Every aspect of the experience feels polished, considered, and designed by people who genuinely love playing retro games. The community support is immense, with constant updates, bug fixes, and new features. This software advantage cannot be overstated; it makes the Miyoo Mini Plus feel like a premium, first-party product.
The Trimui Smart Pro runs on a Linux-based operating system called Tomato OS. To be clear, it’s not bad. It’s functional, reasonably fast, and gets the job done. It has a simple, icon-based interface that’s easy to navigate. It also supports Wi-Fi for RetroAchievements and has most of the basic features you’d expect, like save states and aspect ratio controls. However, compared to OnionOS, it feels clunky and unrefined. The menus aren’t as customisable, features like the Game Switcher are absent, and the overall feel is more utilitarian than delightful. It lacks the polish and the wealth of quality-of-life features that make OnionOS so special. For example, managing game lists and collections is far more intuitive on the Miyoo. Whilst the Trimui’s hardware is more powerful, its software often feels like a bottleneck to the experience. It’s a perfectly usable system that will let you play your games, but it never “gets out of the way” and wows you like OnionOS does. For tinkerers and those who value a seamless user interface, the Miyoo Mini Plus is in a completely different league.
This is a critical factor for your purchase. If you just want to load up games and play, both will work. But if you appreciate a smooth, beautiful, and feature-rich front-end that enhances your gaming time, the Miyoo Mini Plus with OnionOS is the undisputed champion and a huge reason for its enduring popularity.
Battery Life and Portability: The Commuter’s Choice
A pocket handheld is useless if it dies halfway through your train journey. Both devices offer respectable battery life, but their different hardware leads to different results. The Miyoo Mini Plus is equipped with a 3000mAh battery. Given its low-power processor and smaller 3.5-inch screen, this is more than adequate. In community testing, playing a mix of SNES and PS1 games at medium brightness, I consistently get between 5 to 6 hours of continuous gameplay. For a device this tiny, that’s excellent. It means you can take it out for a full day of intermittent use without worrying about finding a charger. Standby time is also very good with OnionOS, which has an auto-save feature that shuts the device down completely after a period of inactivity, preserving your battery and your game state for when you pick it up next. It charges via USB-C, which is standard in 2026. Its small size and solid battery life make it the ultimate commuter’s companion.
The Trimui Smart Pro packs a much larger 5000mAh battery, which it needs to power its bigger, higher-resolution screen and more powerful chipset. Despite the 66% larger battery capacity, the real-world battery life is only slightly better than the Miyoo’s. Community testing found around 6 to 7 hours of playtime when emulating PSP or Dreamcast, which are more demanding. For less intensive 16-bit games, you could probably push that to 8 hours. The larger screen is simply more power-hungry. So while it does last longer, it’s not the massive leap you might expect from the specifications. It also charges via USB-C. The main consideration here isn’t just the battery life in hours, but the overall portability package. The Miyoo is smaller and lighter, making it easier to carry, and its battery life is more than sufficient for its use case. The Trimui is bulkier, so whilst it might last an extra hour, it’s a less convenient device to have on you at all times. For pure “grab and go” convenience, where you might only play for 30-60 minutes at a time, the Miyoo’s combination of tiny size and ample battery feels more practical. For a long flight where you plan to play for several hours straight and have it in a bag anyway, the Trimui’s extra hour and more comfortable ergonomics might win out.
Value for Money: What Do You Get for Your £65 vs £85 in the UK?
When you’re shopping in the sub-£100 category, every pound counts. As of early 2026, the Miyoo Mini Plus typically retails for around £65-£70 in the UK, often including a basic case and a low-quality micro SD card. The Trimui Smart Pro is a step up, usually costing between £85-£95. This £20-£30 price difference is significant and needs to be justified. It’s also vital to factor in the hidden cost of a proper SD card. The cards included with these devices are notoriously unreliable and slow. You absolutely must budget for a new card from a reputable brand like SanDisk or Samsung. A good quality 128GB card, which is more than enough for these systems, is one of the best micro SD cards for retro handhelds under £20, so factor that into your total cost.
So, is the Trimui Smart Pro worth the extra £20? It comes down to what you’re paying for. With the Trimui, that extra cash buys you:
- A much larger, higher-resolution widescreen display.
- A more powerful processor capable of playing PSP and Dreamcast games.
- A more comfortable horizontal form factor with dual analogue sticks.
- A bigger battery.
With the Miyoo Mini Plus, for £65 you get:
- Ultimate pocketability in a nostalgic vertical form factor.
- A perfect 4:3 screen for classic home consoles (SNES, PS1).
- Access to the best custom firmware in the business (OnionOS).
- A massive, supportive community.
From a pure hardware-for-the-money perspective, the Trimui Smart Pro offers more. A 5-inch 720p screen and a quad-core CPU for under £90 is impressive. However, the value of the Miyoo Mini Plus lies not just in its hardware but in its software and form factor. The polished experience of OnionOS is, for me, worth more than the Trimui’s raw power advantage, especially since I primarily use these small devices for 4:3 systems. The Miyoo Mini Plus feels like a complete, perfected product, whereas the Trimui Smart Pro feels like a collection of good hardware parts let down by less-than-stellar software. For this reason, I believe the Miyoo Mini Plus represents better overall value for money for the average retro gamer. But if, and only if, your main goal is to play PSP games on the go for under £100, the Trimui Smart Pro’s extra cost is absolutely justified and provides excellent value for that specific niche.
Who Should Buy the Trimui Smart Pro in 2026?
This section is designed to help you self-identify. If you find yourself nodding along to the points below, then the Trimui Smart Pro is likely the right choice for you, despite the Miyoo’s popularity.
You should buy the Trimui Smart Pro if:
- You are a massive Game Boy Advance or PSP fan. This is the number one reason. The 16:9 widescreen is a game-changer for these systems, making them look incredible. If your library is full of titles like Advance Wars, Golden Sun, Lumines, and Daxter, the Trimui Smart Pro is built for you.
- You prioritise comfortable ergonomics for 3D games. The horizontal layout, proper analogue sticks, and well-placed shoulder buttons make playing 3D PS1, N64, and PSP games far more comfortable than on the cramped Miyoo Mini Plus.
- You want the most powerful device possible for under £56.99 You’re interested in pushing the limits and playing some Dreamcast and N64 titles, and you understand that performance won’t be perfect. The Trimui’s Allwinner chip gives you that extra headroom the Miyoo lacks.
- You prefer a larger screen. You find the 3.5-inch screen on the Miyoo too small, and you’re willing to sacrifice some pocketability for a more immersive 5-inch display, even if it means black bars on older games.
In essence, the Trimui Smart Pro is for the player who wants a “mini Switch Lite” experience for retro games. It’s less about pure nostalgia and more about a modern, comfortable way to play handheld classics, particularly those from the widescreen era. If this sounds like you, the Trimui Smart Pro is an excellent machine and well worth the modest price premium.
Verdict: A superb widescreen pocket console for GBA and PSP enthusiasts. 7.5/10 — Check price on Amazon UK →
Who Should Buy the Miyoo Mini Plus in 2026?
On the other hand, the Miyoo Mini Plus remains the champion for a very specific, and very large, group of retro gaming fans. If the following description fits you, then this is your device.
You should buy the Miyoo Mini Plus if:
- Ultimate portability is your top priority. You want a device you can slip into any pocket and forget about. Its tiny, Game Boy-like form factor is its killer feature, making it the perfect device for spontaneous gaming sessions anywhere.
- You mainly play 8-bit, 16-bit, and PS1 games. Your favourite systems are the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, and the original PlayStation. The Miyoo’s 4:3 screen is a perfect, pixel-perfect match for these consoles, offering a superior visual experience with no wasted space.
- You value a polished, feature-rich user experience. The OnionOS custom firmware is a masterpiece. You love the idea of a slick interface, instant game switching, and seamless RetroAchievements integration. The software experience is just as important to you as the hardware.
- You love the nostalgic vertical form factor. Part of the appeal for you is a device that feels like the classic handhelds you grew up with. Holding it feels like reconnecting with your childhood, but with a backlit screen and thousands of games. You may have even seen our and decided it was the one for you.
The Miyoo Mini Plus is for the retro purist. It’s for the player who wants the most refined and authentic experience for classic home console games in the smallest possible package. It knows its job—playing games up to the 32-bit era—and it does that job better than anything else at its price point. If that aligns with your gaming habits, you will not be disappointed.
Verdict: The king of truly pocketable 4:3 retro gaming, elevated by incredible software. 8.5/10 — Check price on Amazon UK →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Trimui Smart Pro powerful enough for PS2?
No, absolutely not. The Trimui Smart Pro’s Allwinner A133 Plus chipset is nowhere near powerful enough for PlayStation 2 or GameCube emulation. You will see marketing materials suggesting it, but in reality, no games will run at a playable speed. For PS2 emulation, you need a much more powerful and expensive device, typically costing over £56.99 like the AYN Odin 2.
Can the Miyoo Mini Plus play N64 or Dreamcast?
Technically, you can install emulators for N64 and Dreamcast on the Miyoo Mini Plus, but the performance is extremely poor. The vast majority of games are unplayable, running at slideshow-like frame rates. It is not recommended for these systems. The Miyoo Mini Plus excels at systems up to and including the PlayStation 1, and you should buy it with that expectation.
Which is better for SNES games, Trimui Smart Pro or Miyoo Mini Plus?
The Miyoo Mini Plus is significantly better for SNES games. The SNES has a native 4:3 aspect ratio, which perfectly fills the Miyoo’s 4:3 screen. On the Trimui Smart Pro’s widescreen display, you’ll have large black bars on the sides of the image, making the playable area smaller than you’d expect and feel less immersive. For the most authentic and visually pleasing SNES experience, the Miyoo is the clear winner.
Does the Trimui Smart Pro have Wi-Fi for RetroAchievements?
Yes, the Trimui Smart Pro has built-in Wi-Fi, and its operating system, Tomato OS, supports RetroAchievements. This is a great feature that lets you earn modern-style achievements in classic games. The Miyoo Mini Plus also has Wi-Fi and excellent RetroAchievements support through the OnionOS custom firmware.
Is OnionOS available for the Trimui Smart Pro?
No, OnionOS is developed specifically for the Miyoo Mini and Miyoo Mini Plus hardware. It is not available for the Trimui Smart Pro. The Trimui device has its own custom firmware communities developing alternatives, but none have reached the level of polish, stability, or feature-richness that OnionOS provides for the Miyoo platform.
What’s the best SD card to buy for these handhelds?
You should immediately replace the SD card that comes with either device. They are low-quality and prone to failure, which could cause you to lose your game saves. We recommend a 128GB or 256GB Micro SD card from a reputable brand like SanDisk, Samsung, or Lexar. A SanDisk Ultra or Samsung EVO Select card offers the best balance of price and performance. You can find our full recommendations in our guide to the best micro SD cards for retro handhelds under £20 in the UK.
Where is the safest place to buy these in the UK?
Whilst you can buy these devices from various international sellers, the safest option for UK buyers is often Amazon. You get fast shipping, straightforward pricing in pounds sterling, and Amazon’s excellent buyer protection and return policy. If you encounter any issues with the device, getting a refund or replacement is much easier than dealing with an overseas seller. You can check the latest price on Amazon UK → to see current availability.
Conclusion: The Head or The Heart?
After weeks of testing, the verdict is clear, but it’s not a simple case of one being “better” than the other. The choice between the Trimui Smart Pro and the Miyoo Mini Plus in 2026 is a classic battle of specialisation versus versatility, of nostalgia versus modernity. It’s a choice between the head and the heart.
My heart belongs to the Miyoo Mini Plus. It’s a marvel of miniaturisation that captures the magic of the original Game Boy while offering the power to play the entire PS1 library. Its 4:3 screen is perfect for classic games from that era, and the OnionOS software is so slick and polished that it makes the whole experience feel premium. For pure, unadulterated retro joy in the smallest possible form factor, it remains unbeaten and is my personal recommendation for most people dipping their toes into the retro handheld scene.
My head, however, can’t deny the logic of the Trimui Smart Pro. For just £20 more, you get a significantly more powerful device with a larger, modern widescreen display and superior ergonomics for 3D gaming. If your nostalgia is rooted in the GBA and PSP, the Trimui isn’t just a better choice; it’s the only logical choice between the two. It demolishes the Miyoo for widescreen content, offering a more immersive and comfortable experience. It’s a more capable and versatile machine from a pure hardware standpoint.
Ultimately, the decision is yours. Assess your gaming library and be honest about what you’ll actually play. If it’s Final Fantasy VII and A Link to the Past, buy the Miyoo. If it’s God of War: Ghost of Sparta and Metroid Fusion, buy the Trimui. Now you know which device is the right fit, the next question is what to do once it arrives. Setting up the software and curating your game library is a whole new adventure.
✓ Recommended by Lucy Parker
Recommended based on community testing data, benchmark results, and verified UK pricing — we only link products that earn it.
- Miyoo Mini PlusBest for: 8/16-bit retro purists
- Trimui Smart ProBest for: Widescreen GBA and PSP fans
- Anbernic RG35XX HBest for: Budget horizontal alternative
- SanDisk Ultra 128GB Micro SD CardBest for: Essential for all handhelds
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What to Read Next
If you found this guide useful, here are a few other articles on RetroInHand to help you on your retro gaming journey:
- Best Handheld for GBA Games Under £80 UK 2026 (Top 5 Picks) — If the GBA is your passion, see how these devices stack up against other dedicated GBA players.
- Best Micro SD Cards for Retro Handhelds Under £20 UK (2026) — A new SD card is a mandatory purchase. This guide ensures you buy the right one and don’t lose your save files.
- Retroid Pocket 4 Pro Review: Best N64 Handheld Under £250 UK 2026? — Curious about what more money gets you? See our review of a much more powerful device that handles N64 and GameCube with ease.
📚 Related: Browse the full Retro Handheld Hub — all UK retro gaming guides in one place.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by the editor. See our Editorial Standards.




