I recently bought the Powkiddy X55 and reviewed it on reddit here. Now that I’ve had it a for a month how is it? Great!

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.

TL;DR at the bottom.

---

Build quality and feel

# Screen

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.

Vertical viewing angles aren’t as good as horizontal, but it’s pretty decent. It also gets very bright, unlike the prerelease models you may have seen on youtube. Extremely bright, in fact. I’m generally only using it at 60% brightness.

The screen is flush with the frame and there’s zero light bleed, which is nice.

Despite being 16:9, it makes for a fairly large screen for any platform, even 4:3 or 1:1 stuff. It’s great, and there’s nothing else near this size for the price.

# Shell

The X55 feels pretty lightweight. I don’t expect it to hold up to any high drops. It is firm though, no flex or creaking. I disassembled it fairly easily, and the shell clips are strong enough to hold it together without screws. The 8 screws probably help to keep it sturdy and prevent any flexing.

# Buttons and sticks

First, the good. I love the feel of the face buttons and d-pad. They work well, don’t stick at all, and are not dissimilar to the 2DS XL in feel. The d-pad is soft on touch, not clicky, and same for the buttons.

The dpad is a bit larger than what I’d consider “normal” and the size makes it a bit difficult for rolling motions for fighting games. I can do something like a hadouken (back-down-foward), but trying to do a dragon punch doesn’t always work unless I do the motion a bit slowly. There are also some false diagonals on up and down. After several weeks of use, the d-pad is breaking in nicely though, doesn’t feel as stiff as when I bought it. It’s getting easier to do fighting games motions and for general use it’s fine.

One complaint with the face buttons: height. They sit high and have long travel. Feels like they should have been a bit shorter for comfort and responsiveness. Also, the distance between the face buttons feels too wide, but that probably has to do with the height, since they have flat sides instead of being largely rounded.

The top (R/L) buttons are pretty good. R1/L1 are a bit narrow, but easy to reach. I do feel like they sit a bit high which can make switching between L/R1 and L/R2 more awkward than it needs to be, but overall they’re good otherwise. The top buttons are clicky sounding, but I don’t mind that, YMMV. This isn’t a powerful enough handheld for platforms that use analog triggers, so I’m not bothered by the lack of analog press.

Many reviews noted that the R and L buttons are very loud. It’s true but they do seem to have gotten quieter with use over time; I guess as they break in.

Start/select and volume buttons are clicky and loud, that’s unchanged from when it was brand new. They’re solid feeling, and flush with the unit. I don’t mind the button style but some won’t like this. Placement of start and select is a bit awkward. I don’t hate it, but it’s far from ideal. Also, volume up is on the left, and volume down on the right. Small thing, but it’s the reverse of what you’d expect.

The sticks are decent. I’m not a fan of these short, Switch style sticks, but they feel good, are comfortable to use, and have a solid click for L3/R3 press. They’re recessed and in motion they feel like they have a bit of 8-way gating. Full range of motion, but they do seem to be a bit sensitive given the short travel distance on them. I’ve had no issues with games that use the analog like for Dreamcast or N64.

# Audio

We have stereo speakers (maybe a first for Powkiddy?) and they sound great. This thing gets very loud without distortion. I like it, and at 100% volume I think I could hear it from the other end of my house and through multiple rooms.

# Ergonomics

The X55 is ergonomic, with a slight curve at the back sides where you’d expect on a gamepad. It’s subdued to reduce thickness, but enough to lend grip and make it comfortable to rest your fingers behind. It’s well balanced, and holding it by either side feels the same, the weight is centered well.

Despite being ergonomic overall, it’s not perfect. The d-pad is below the left stick, leaving your hands offset for most games you’d play on this unless you’re comfortable using the stick instead. I wish the d-pad was on top. Small complaint, but with the d-pad low on the unit I notice my pinky can hang off the frame. Primary stick was an odd choice for this since it’ll mostly be playing d-pad based games.

I’ve noticed over time with using it I’ve adjusted my grip to compensate, and it’s stillcomfortable over longer sessions.

---

Performance

If you’re familiar with the RG353M/P, you’ll know what to expect here. This runs on the same chip (RK3566), and will perform similarly.

Everything 8 and 16 bit plays flawlessly, no tweaking or issues.

PS1 performance is great, and everything runs full speed at 2x resolution on the default emulator (Retroarch PCSX-R). If you use a more accurate emulator like Duckstation, most games will run 2x but some more intensive titles may need to run at 1x resolution or will be around 50-55 fps. Overall good, my recommendation is to just use the default emulator unless you encounter an issue, only change on a per game basis if needed.

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.

Don’t buy this for N64. Lighter games like Mario 64 will be fine even upscaled without tweaking, but if you want to get into more intensive N64 games like Conker, Blast Corps, or F-Zero X, it gets rough. Slowdowns, audio crackling, dropped frames, no matter which emulator you use. It’ll run, but performance is poor enough I’d recommend against it. I still hope this improves with firmware updates as the specs on this should be capable of a good amount of N64, but I’ve accepted it’s not a great system for this handheld for now.

Dreamcast is a mixed bag too, but more positive. In testing, Flycast2021 core seems to be best with built-in frameskip, and most titles I’ve tried ran well. It’s not always full speed, but with frameskip it runs smooth and no audio crackle or stutter. With some games, like Dead or Alive 2, it needs too much skip and is definitely noticeable. This handheld is decent for Dreamcast, but it’ll depend on the game, not all will be smooth.

PSP improved greatly with JELOS updates, and many games run full speed, most at 2x PSP resolution. It won’t do highly intensive games like MGS Peacewalker, Gran Turismo, Ratchet & Clank, and God of War, but anything lighter runs just fine. I’ve tested many games without any issues, some with frameskip, but many without. I’m pleasantly surprised, and majorly impressed with the JELOS devs.

Lastly, the GPU is decent enough to run various shaders, in some cases with multiple passes. I tend to play GBA with a custom shader with two passes (VBA-Color at 0.25 darkening + LCD1x). For 8 and 16 bit games, zfast-crt-standard works great.

---

Software

The X55 runs JELOS. It runs well, EmulationStation themes are supported, and they can be added manually or with Thememaster now as it’s been updated to support the handheld.

Ports work fine and I’ve had success with Doom, Doom 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Sonic CD, and Sonic Mania, no issues, all running full speed. Since the 6/19 update, GZDoom works now too.

OS shortcuts work well, interface is snappy, in the rare issue like an emulator hang, there’s a reset button on the top left of the X55 that will restart the unit quickly.

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.

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.

---

Closing thoughts and TL;DR

I really like this handheld! No buyer’s regret, and it’s an absolute bargain at its price point. I bought it mainly for 8-bit through 32-bit gaming and it’s great for those, especially amazing for GBA. For more PSP/Dreamcast/N64, and higher emulation you should probably consider a T618 handheld. But for the price ($90 currently, $80 with coupon) this thing is a steal, and gets better with every JELOS update. There are some small compromises for the price, but I feel you get more than you pay for. The screen alone makes it worth it; for the first time on a handheld I feel like I can comfortably play shmups and see everything flying at me and react. I feel very comfortable recommending it, either as a first handheld, or if you just prefer a larger device.

---

TL;DR - some compromises for price, but decent ergonomics, big, quality screen, and great performance through 32-bit (including Saturn, surprisingly). N64 and up are “extra,” performance not guranteed. Odd choices and clicky buttons may be a deal breaker for some. This is a great starter handheld, and particularly fantastic for GBA, as well as anything 32-bit and below.