Funkey S Review

One of the best things about having Retrogaming as a hobby is collecting different retro handhelds, to date I have an impressive 19 with I’m sure more to come.  A recent acquisition of mine is what is described as the smallest folding gaming handheld measuring just 4.5cm wide, 4.4cm long and 1.5cm deep, this thing is TINY!  However despite it’s diminutive size there are some good things about this machine and equally some not so good things, so here goes…..

The first obviously is the size of it and the close positioning of the buttons, if you have large hands and fat fingers this is probably not for you as you may struggle when playing, but if, like me, you have small hands and thin fingers you shouldn’t encounter any issues, in fact playing games on it is a lot easier than I expected to be and the games on all emulators run perfectly.

The Funkey S supports an impressive set of machines : GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, NES, SNES, Game Gear, Master System, Mega Drive, TurboGrafx, Atari Lynx, NeoGeo Pocket, WonderSwan Color and Playstation 1, pretty amazing for a machine so small!

It is also possible to add box art to the games but be aware that the title of the box art image must match the title of the rom exactly to work.

Adding the games (roms) to the Funkey S could not be easier, simply connect the machine to a PC/laptop, select ‘Mount USB’ from the options menu on the machine and drag and drop your roms to the relevant folder, once done, select ‘Eject USB’ from the options menu and unplug.

Another handy feature of this machine is if you close the machine when playing a game, the next time you open the machine it will automatically resume the game from the exact point you left it, many larger machines don’t do this!  Multiple save slots are also available via the options button however.

Three colours are currently available for the Funkey S - Retrogaming Grey, Atomic Purple and the colour I chose, Original Purple.  The company behind this machine also deserve credit for providing via their website really outstanding tutorials (https://doc.funkey-project.com/) covering everything from adding roms to connecting to a computer, they really are very comprehensive and highly useful if ever you get stuck with anything.

With regards to battery life I estimate you’d probably get a maximum of 3 hours play time from this machine, it is not designed to be a retro handheld you spend long periods of time playing on, it is more meant to be something you can take out and play for a few minutes, say when you’re in a queue.  Charging the machine is very quick and simply a case of plugging the rather short USB cable supplied into a USB charger and the other end into the side of the machine, an orange light is displayed on the machine while charging which disappears when fully charged.  A  battery status indicator is shown on the screen in the top right corner.

It began life as a Kickstarter campaign which has now ended although the machine can be ordered from https://funkey-project.myshopify.com/products/funkey-s - be aware though that the machine is massively popular so expect to wait a while, orders are currently being taken for the next production batch expected to ship during August.  My original machine got lost in customs but fortunately the company sent a replacement free of charge which arrived safely.

To sum up, this is a unique, and very cute little handheld with excellent build quality which is highly recommended providing you’ve not got fat fingers!  TRJ RATING : 4.5/5