Thanks for making this. I can imagine it would be great for 4:3 systems. I've never been a fan of these kinds of systems, but the square screen does look tempting...
Really impressed with this mate, looks like a great handheld. Might treat myself, although i know I'd just end up playing speccy games on it 🤣. Merry Christmas mate.
Very useful review. It's a pity that the directional pad is not optimal. It seems to be a great buy anyway, though. The SOC seems to be quite powerful, 'cause N64 and Saturn games seem to run really well. Thank you for the video, Pete.
Hey..theres a fix for the battery problem..ive done it. It works. Open the back of system...then unplug the battery for a like 5 mintues..then plug back in.. close up system..then the battery will work and display correct..it worked for me...just remove back screws..and use something small thin plastic (i used a guitar pick)then pry into top edge middle and corners..working your way around whole system..itll pop open..be carefull...unhook battery for like 5 minutes..then plug back in..close up..bam youre done and fixed..it worked for me..hope this helps some of you 😊.
Thanks for doing this review. Really interesting. Alas there's always something with these systems and it's a shame if the D-pad and buttons aren't so great. Otherwise it looks excellent.
A bit of correction regarding shoulder buttons/triggers. Neither the N64, PS1, PSP (or even PS2) had analogue triggers. The only device that this device can run which would benefit from analogue triggers is the Dreamcast, and from what I know, most treat them as digital except racing games or perhaps analogue camera movement (which could potentially be mapped to the right joystick)
It already has all the emulators, you just add ROMs. I added Saturn simply by adding ROMs to the Saturn folder on the SD card, so I'd assume Mega CD is the same. If not, there's an option in settings for the systems you want to display on the main menu.
Just like Arnie said, a wide frame requires big strong shoulders 😂 the only thing that impressed me about this was the docked mode and the Dreamcast games.
It's really a nice device, but I struggle with the battery life. Especially when playing more demanding systems like NDS, N64 or GBA, I can literally see how the battery percentage falls every minute. What sucks the battery even more is wifi. It definitely helps though if you activate wifi power saving in the settings. But overall battery life is quite poor with this device unfortunately. I haven't measured exact figures yet, but my feeling is that it's really bad. I think I can easily exhaust a full battery within an hour if I play a demanding game with high brightness and wifi. What experiences do you have with battery life?
@@onaretrotip My experience during the last weeks is that I have a battery consumption of round about 15-25 percent per hour without wifi and with medium screen brightness. With moderate settings 4-6 hourse are realistic. But when using Wifi and high brightness, it can be much worse. Wifi is really a battery killer. Even when you leave the device in standby (screen off) with Wifi on, the consumption can be round about 15 percent per hour (if I remember correctly). But standby is not really usable with this device anyway, the power management of JelOS or ArkOS is really poor. Even without Wifi it takes up to 10% per hour in standby. Overall I'm quite disappointed with the battery life of this device. But ok, for 83€ I can't really complain. By the way, I found many postings from other users in the Internet complaining about battery issues with this device. People are reporting not only about high battery consumption but also about weird battery behaviour like instant dropping from 40% to 0% battery (unplugging the battery from the motherboard for 30 minutes should help, at least for a while).
The second day i had mine i managed to hide, remove, delete....my favorites folder and dont know how to get it back. 😢. So my favorite games are at the top of each system list with a star beside them but no favorites folder anymore. Idid manage to add roms i wanted...and get rid of scan lines and turn the horrible background front end music off....and more tweeks but i just dont know how to get the favorites folder back.... Btw...I love Atari 2600 on this SO much and all the Gameboys. I'm NOT tech savvy so i guess i should just be thankful i didnt totally screw anything up
I managed to add the whole 2600 library. And wow it's awesome BUT I also managed to lose or delete my whole favorites file and can't find it again. LoL. Spider Fighter is fabulous on this system IMO
It seemed fine, but to be honest I didn't use it much because of the aspect ratio. I'd say probably give it a miss if PSP is your thing, and go for something like the RGB10 Max 2.
@@onaretrotip thanks. It's not a deal breaker. My Pixel Fold emulates PSP perfectly, it's more because of the limited space in my fold as there's no SD slot.
Ive got like 20 psp games so far on mine...works pretty good..a couple games ran alittle slow...but i adjusted the emulator options and it fixed any problems..all my 20 psp games play just fine..:) enjoy..get one..
Literally EVERYTHING else? Let’s see. Game Boy/Game Boy Colour and Game Gear = 160x144, Neo Geo Pocket/Pocket Colour = 160x152. Did you even watch the video? Then there’s NES at 256x240 (perfect height for integer scaling). SNES and PC Engine with 8:7 aspect ratios are both very good. So yes, for 8/16 bit retro systems it’s superb as are the aforementioned vertical arcade games.
@@MsModestyBlaise oh wow yea i just skipped through it a bit and did indeed just see a few games with letterboxing, but thanks for the info i didnt know so many come close to 1:1!
.... H E L P .... I Updated The System Using RETRO CAME CORPS Guide And Now All Games Have No Sound . Even The Games I'd Been Playing That Previously Had Sound Now Have No Sound At All ....
@@onaretrotip I posted it on retro games Corp channel as well. And I never got a reply. So I decided to reach out to many different channels. Hoping that I could get some help and so far. No one's been able to help me
@onaretrotip no but now it says there's an update for jelos so I go to download it and it acts Lime it's downloading something but 10 t0 15 seconds later it goes to home screen and says AN UPDATE IS AVAILABLE So I Tried It 5 times and it doesn't update just says A NEW UPDATE IS AVAILABLE each time
I commented here about the device being faulty and it being a fairly common fault, to boot. But my comment mysteriously disappeared. *shrug* I very much do NOT recommend buying this, because it's likely to be faulty and Mechdiy's support is just there to gaslight you.
@@onaretrotip The power sensor thing. As far as I can tell, it *may* fix itself if you crack it open and detach the battery. Apparently it's not a guaranteed fix, though, and it's easy to break the plastic clips in forcing it open. Mechdiy has been giving me the runaround and having me install other versions of JelOS, to no avail. Now they're telling me it's a faulty SD-card, even though the first thing I did was to swap in a reputable card.
Order at Mechdiy:
mechdiy.com/products/powkiddy-rgb30-retro-handheld-gaming-console?_pos=1&_psq=rgb30&_ss=e&_v=1.0
I emailed Powkiddy about adding a Touchscreen. Hopefully they follow through and bring the community what they want.
Yeah, would love touch screen for the SCUMM games.
I mean a handheld called "ZPG A1 Unicorn" will be released soon, that is using the same square screen. But it's more powerful, AND touchscreen etc😁
@@Mosestylezits $120 more the at $220 instead of $99 so you’ll pay for it.
@@Mosestylez not pocketable, so not comparable at all imo
This things looks sooooo nice!!! Great all rounder. Wow. Thank you so much for the best in class review! You outdid yourself
Yeah, love the screen on this thing. Absolutely perfect for 1:1 (or near) aspect ratios. Thank you!
Thanks for making this. I can imagine it would be great for 4:3 systems. I've never been a fan of these kinds of systems, but the square screen does look tempting...
Absolutely mental for Game Gear and NGPC. Compare this to the cost of an Analogue pocket and GG adapter and it's a no-brainer.
....I'm loving mine .... the rgb30 marks the very 1st Retro Handheld device I've ever kept . I ordered a 2nd rgb30 too ....
@onaretrotip absolutely AweSomeNess PerSoNiFied is my rgb30 and I ordered a 2nd rgb30 too
@@DroidLocks6971 Nice!
Oh I’m liking this form factor. Might have to grab one.
Defo worth it for GG and NGPC alone mate.
You'll be glad u did
Really impressed with this mate, looks like a great handheld.
Might treat myself, although i know I'd just end up playing speccy games on it 🤣.
Merry Christmas mate.
Spending your money for you (again) LOL
Just ordered one from alley express 60 quid . Cant wait
Noice!
Very useful review. It's a pity that the directional pad is not optimal. It seems to be a great buy anyway, though. The SOC seems to be quite powerful, 'cause N64 and Saturn games seem to run really well. Thank you for the video, Pete.
I'm always harsh on D-Pads, it's not terrible.
Ohh nice, this looks a great little bit of kit will order one ❤ hope all good mate 🍻
yeah, it's absolutely perfect for NGPC and GG mate. Hope you're good!
NGL I was waiting for you to talk about another Retro Handheld. 😁
😃
Hey..theres a fix for the battery problem..ive done it. It works. Open the back of system...then unplug the battery for a like 5 mintues..then plug back in.. close up system..then the battery will work and display correct..it worked for me...just remove back screws..and use something small thin plastic (i used a guitar pick)then pry into top edge middle and corners..working your way around whole system..itll pop open..be carefull...unhook battery for like 5 minutes..then plug back in..close up..bam youre done and fixed..it worked for me..hope this helps some of you 😊.
Ah, thanks. Will try that.
Thanks for doing this review. Really interesting. Alas there's always something with these systems and it's a shame if the D-pad and buttons aren't so great. Otherwise it looks excellent.
D-Pad is fine in all honesty; I'm always overly harsh on them. Great little device.
A bit of correction regarding shoulder buttons/triggers. Neither the N64, PS1, PSP (or even PS2) had analogue triggers. The only device that this device can run which would benefit from analogue triggers is the Dreamcast, and from what I know, most treat them as digital except racing games or perhaps analogue camera movement (which could potentially be mapped to the right joystick)
What?
How do you add sega saturn and sega cd to this system ??? I dont have those emulators..other people have them...
It already has all the emulators, you just add ROMs. I added Saturn simply by adding ROMs to the Saturn folder on the SD card, so I'd assume Mega CD is the same. If not, there's an option in settings for the systems you want to display on the main menu.
What screen size did you use for your vertical shooting and vertical arcade games ?
Whatever the default setting was.
Just like Arnie said, a wide frame requires big strong shoulders 😂 the only thing that impressed me about this was the docked mode and the Dreamcast games.
The docked mode is probably the main reason I'll keep this TBH.
It's really a nice device, but I struggle with the battery life. Especially when playing more demanding systems like NDS, N64 or GBA, I can literally see how the battery percentage falls every minute.
What sucks the battery even more is wifi. It definitely helps though if you activate wifi power saving in the settings. But overall battery life is quite poor with this device unfortunately. I haven't measured exact figures yet, but my feeling is that it's really bad. I think I can easily exhaust a full battery within an hour if I play a demanding game with high brightness and wifi. What experiences do you have with battery life?
My battery life hasn't been quite that bad, thankfully. I don't have wi-fi turned on, as that's always a battery killer on these devices.
@@onaretrotip My experience during the last weeks is that I have a battery consumption of round about 15-25 percent per hour without wifi and with medium screen brightness. With moderate settings 4-6 hourse are realistic. But when using Wifi and high brightness, it can be much worse. Wifi is really a battery killer. Even when you leave the device in standby (screen off) with Wifi on, the consumption can be round about 15 percent per hour (if I remember correctly). But standby is not really usable with this device anyway, the power management of JelOS or ArkOS is really poor. Even without Wifi it takes up to 10% per hour in standby. Overall I'm quite disappointed with the battery life of this device. But ok, for 83€ I can't really complain. By the way, I found many postings from other users in the Internet complaining about battery issues with this device. People are reporting not only about high battery consumption but also about weird battery behaviour like instant dropping from 40% to 0% battery (unplugging the battery from the motherboard for 30 minutes should help, at least for a while).
@@Thunderbird1337 Yeah, I've seen several comments about it too. Thankfully, all I've had so far is the battery percentage displaying incorrectly.
The second day i had mine i managed to hide, remove, delete....my favorites folder and dont know how to get it back. 😢. So my favorite games are at the top of each system list with a star beside them but no favorites folder anymore. Idid manage to add roms i wanted...and get rid of scan lines and turn the horrible background front end music off....and more tweeks but i just dont know how to get the favorites folder back....
Btw...I love Atari 2600 on this SO much and all the Gameboys. I'm NOT tech savvy so i guess i should just be thankful i didnt totally screw anything up
Oh damn... Don't know what to suggest apart from a reinstall.
Mine had 4 Atari 2600 games..lol why ? Whats the point ...
🤣
I managed to add the whole 2600 library. And wow it's awesome BUT I also managed to lose or delete my whole favorites file and can't find it again. LoL. Spider Fighter is fabulous on this system IMO
cool, thank you very much
😀👍
How is the PSP emulator? Is there any slowdown?
It seemed fine, but to be honest I didn't use it much because of the aspect ratio. I'd say probably give it a miss if PSP is your thing, and go for something like the RGB10 Max 2.
@@onaretrotip thanks. It's not a deal breaker. My Pixel Fold emulates PSP perfectly, it's more because of the limited space in my fold as there's no SD slot.
Ive got like 20 psp games so far on mine...works pretty good..a couple games ran alittle slow...but i adjusted the emulator options and it fixed any problems..all my 20 psp games play just fine..:) enjoy..get one..
Fighting game afficionados will use the stick over the d-pad to begin with
Haha that's probably true.
I dont like how the top buttons are switched backwards..R1 R2 L1 L2..weird..l2 and r2 should be on the outside...
Totally agree.
Does anyone make a grip for it? It looks terrible to hold.
I'm not sure. Was okay to hold, but can see it hurting after long periods.
- snip yikes i posted before watching fully
Literally EVERYTHING else? Let’s see. Game Boy/Game Boy Colour and Game Gear = 160x144, Neo Geo Pocket/Pocket Colour = 160x152. Did you even watch the video? Then there’s NES at 256x240 (perfect height for integer scaling). SNES and PC Engine with 8:7 aspect ratios are both very good. So yes, for 8/16 bit retro systems it’s superb as are the aforementioned vertical arcade games.
@@MsModestyBlaise oh wow yea i just skipped through it a bit and did indeed just see a few games with letterboxing, but thanks for the info i didnt know so many come close to 1:1!
LOL
.... H E L P .... I Updated The System Using RETRO CAME CORPS Guide And Now All Games Have No Sound . Even The Games I'd Been Playing That Previously Had Sound Now Have No Sound At All ....
I think you're better off asking Retro Game Corps for advice. Did you back up/keep the original SD?
@@onaretrotip I posted it on retro games Corp channel as well. And I never got a reply. So I decided to reach out to many different channels. Hoping that I could get some help and so far. No one's been able to help me
@onaretrotip no but now it says there's an update for jelos so I go to download it and it acts Lime it's downloading something but 10 t0 15 seconds later it goes to home screen and says AN UPDATE IS AVAILABLE So I Tried It 5 times and it doesn't update just says A NEW UPDATE IS AVAILABLE each time
@onaretrotip I did ask and russ is just too busy to be able to answer us viewers
@@DroidLocks6971 I'd suggest cloning your SD as a backup when your new one arrives, and save that somewhere.
I commented here about the device being faulty and it being a fairly common fault, to boot. But my comment mysteriously disappeared. *shrug* I very much do NOT recommend buying this, because it's likely to be faulty and Mechdiy's support is just there to gaslight you.
I haven't deleted any comments. Did it have any words that TH-cam might have flagged?
What's the fault?
@@onaretrotip The power sensor thing. As far as I can tell, it *may* fix itself if you crack it open and detach the battery. Apparently it's not a guaranteed fix, though, and it's easy to break the plastic clips in forcing it open. Mechdiy has been giving me the runaround and having me install other versions of JelOS, to no avail. Now they're telling me it's a faulty SD-card, even though the first thing I did was to swap in a reputable card.