Some of this will be a retread of my original review, but I wanted to post an update with some new detail since the firmware has improved greatly since release, and some things have changed/improved over time. Surprisingly, the device only comes in one colorway – that gorgeous blue that we know Anbernic for using quite a bit.

The X55 also has micro HDMI video out, so you can connect it to a large-screen TV and use it as a console. I don’t tend to do this with any of my handhelds as that’s what I want them to be, handheld!! But, I do get that a lot of gamers like to connect them to a large-screen TV.Most themes I’ve tried run smoothly and the interface is well laid out with most functions on start, select, or X button options menus when on the main screen or in a Game collection. There are two sets of hotkeys that are important to consider: those while in the main (EmulationStation) menu, and those while in a game (RetroArch for most systems). If you read my recent article for the RK2023, you will see that it’s also the same chip used in that too, which, at the time I stated, was a decent handheld, just underpowered, and the same is the case with the X55. Press the START button to bring up the Main Menu. This will be your main location for adjusting JELOS options. For Game Boy, you can set a colorization option to mimic older LCD panels. My favorite is called “Special 1”.

There are two sets of hotkeys to consider: those in the main menu (EmulationStation) and those in a game (RetroArch for most systems). JELOS Keyboard Shortcut: Insert the 16GB microSD card into the “TF1” slot on the PowKiddy X55, and also insert the larger microSD card into the “TF2” slot. Power on the device and let it run through its initial setup. Once you see the main EmulationStation interface, press the START button and navigate to Quit > Shutdown System. The display is a 5.5" IPS with good viewing angles. It's a quality display, good vibrant color, and you have the ability to adjust contrast, brightness, gamma, and hue in the system settings. Once the controller is paired, navigate to the Controller Mapping section and follow the instructions to pair the buttons on your Bluetooth controller. Finally, configure the settings under “P1’s Controller” and “P2’s Controller” to assign the controller to the correct player as you would like to set up your gaming session. The more I think about it, a newcomer would probably be blown away by what the x55 can do. That’s going to be the best target market for the x55.Saturn emulation is surprisingly good. Switch from whatever is the default emulator to the Yaba Sanshiro standalone for best performance. 2D games all run full speed no problem, and some 3D games as well. More intensive titles will run between 40 and 59 fps depending, but Yaba Sanshiro's frameskip makes it completely transparent feels like a smooth 60 fps with no hiccups or issues. I'd say this is totally viable for Saturn emulation. Firmware updates have improved Saturn performance and many games run full speed or extremely close to it without frameskip now. To start, head over to ScreenScraper and create a free account if you haven’t already. Make note of your login credentials. It’s also the same chip in Powkiddy’s own most recent release, the RK2023. Which we be reviewing soon. Sound quality from the stereo speakers is very good, and the X55 has to be one of the loudest gaming handhelds I have heard. It’s crisp and clear, and it was so loud that I found myself having to turn it down.

Looking at the stats for the X55, you can see it’s been in development since last year, using many of the specs that most gaming companies are now moving away from, including Powkiddy themselves. The RK3566 is the same chip used in the Anbernic RG353M, which is one of my most favourite handhelds from last year. The Powkiddy X55 comes with over 30 emulators for different platforms and over 8,000 games spread across them , and as you might expect, most are 8-bit and 16-bit era games, though there are a handful of titles (and emulators) of the fifth generation of consoles. Be that as it may, the emulation limit is PSP and all previous consoles are fully playable, but not always perfectly. The “TF1” slot on your device holds the system firmware, so for that card 16GB is ideal. The “TF2” slot is for your game files, so you will want a larger card for that one. You can either use a single-card setup to host both your system files and the games on one card, or you can separate the two functions using a dual SD card setup. I recommend a dual-card setup for ease of use, and you can use that second SD card in other devices with a similar setup.I’ve been playing on a Pimax Portal lately. That thing does PS2, Game Cube, Wii, and some Switch. So the Powkiddy x55 definitely don’t add anything new to my toolbelt. Once you have the device in hand, I recommend setting up a fresh installation of the JELOS ( Just Enough Linux OS) custom software. This provides many additional benefits to the PowKiddy X55 and is regularly updated. For the second TF card, the higher SD card is suggested such as 128GB if you prefer to load EVERY 8-bit and 16-bit game out there, all of the arcade games that work, and a large number of CD-based game files (Sega CD, PSX, Saturn, Dreamcast, and so on).

The PowKiddy X55 comes with 16GB microSD card ( Jelos OS Preinstalled) as the first TF card. In addition, there’re other versions including a 32GB, 64GB, 128GB card or no expansion card. These cards belong to a generic brand and are prone to failure. It’s suggested to replace your cards with microSD cards from a trustworthy brand that will prevent the cards from getting damaged over time. You can keep the original card in a safe place in case you run into problems in the future. But once we start looking at the internal specs, we can see that this was likely in the works for a while. Probably too long.Two things that I really liked were the image quality and the sound. The screen is absolutely stunning at 5.5 inches and sporting a 720×1280 resolution, and the image quality pops from the screen, amazing colours and brightness, as well as great sharpness, you will be impressed with this. In the Game Settings section, you can adjust configurations such as the overall aspect ratio and integer scaling. If you are just starting out, I recommend using the default options. One exception is the “Auto Save/Load” option. I recommend setting this to “Show saves when not empty”. This will automatically save your game when you exit, and if there is an auto-save associated with your game when you start it, you will have the option to select that auto-save or start the game from the beginning. In the UI Settings menu, you can change your theme or configure the current theme. If you want to have a navigation setup like shown in the video above, keep the “System Theme” but in the Theme Configuration section, change the System View Style to “Multi System”. Power button turns off the screen, pressing again turns it on. It now has a true deep sleep mode when you turn off the screen, I've tested it, it's as promised. Over 8 hours I think I lost 3-4% battery.