Powkiddy A20 is a 3.5-inch portable Android game console based on the same Amlogic S905D3 processor found in Khadas VIM3L SBC, equipped with 2GB RAM, 8GB storage, and supported 18 different emulators for gaming. It could potentially also be an interesting platform to play with AOSP, as we’ll see below.
Preliminary specifications for Powkiddy A20:
- SoC – Amlogic S905D3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.9GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 and OpenCL 2.0
- System Memory – 2GB DDR4 RAM
- Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card socket
- Display
- 3.5-inch IPS screen with 640×480 resolution
- Micro HDMI port to connect to external monitor or TV
- Audio – 3.5mm audio jack
- Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/ WiFi 4 and Bluetooth
- User input – Rocker, D-Pad, A/B/C/D/X/Y buttons, volume buttons, and power button
- USB – 1x USB-C port for charging
- Battery – 3,000 mAh good for about 3.5 hours of play time
- Dimensions – 14 x 8.7 x 1.8 cm
- Weight – 185 grams
The console runs Android 9.0 operating systems and supports 18 kinds of simulator games including N64, DC, PSP, PS, CPS1, CPS2, CPS3, FBA, NEOGEO, GBA, GBC, GB, SFC, FC, MD, PCE, mame, and WSC. WiFi can be used to download games, and Bluetooth to add up to four controllers.
Note that since Khadas VIM3L is officially supported in AOSP, Amlogic S905D3 platforms could be made to run the latest Android 11, or even the upcoming Android 12, but the company went with the Amlogic SDK, probably for better support and possibly Google services.
Powkiddy A20 is not available yet, but should eventually be offered on the official Aliexpress store.
Via AndroidPC.es
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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I still do not understand why all of these devices are loaded with Android. If they are meant to play retroconsoles, Android is the worst choice. I don’t think it is so complicated to load Lakka or any other RetroArch distros for that purpose, knowing they are already well supported and hardware accelerated. I don’t think there is any legal issue involved, isn’t it?
Actually hardware acceleration often just works better on android than Linux for a lot of hardware. Shipping devices with a AOSP based android could be also (much) “safer” than shipping a full fledged retro system which often relies on binaries which can been seen as “abandonware” and easily lead to legal problems.
Marketability IMO.
Seller: “This run retroarch”
Retro gamer: “Awesome”
General populace: “What is that?”
thou im unsure who this device is targeting. the design is weird;
rocker while the rest is design is only for up to genesis, (maybe PSP with a weird key bind, no shoulder button).
would retro gamer buy this? only curious people and collector buy this.
wont see majority of the retro community buying this
According me it has shoulder buttons, it’s why the device becomes thinner in the second half of the screen.
Android have better emulators, epsxe for psx and overall better n64 performance. I love linux retrogaming systems but they usually do not perform as great as the mupen64plus forks of android, probably bc the blobs work better on the android eco than on linux eco. Also epsx , much better than duckstation and psx reamed isnt available on linux, neither as a free closed source app.
With linux we fan do great things on a device like that so I hope we can boot it from sd.. mainline linux, panfrost powered.
Not agree. Regarding N64 emulation, Linux and Android are on par, and regarding PS1, Mednafen just leaps and bounds ahead ANY Android emulator. Same goes for Saturn, where beetle just obliterates the so much beloved Yabasanshiro on Android. Yeah, mednafen isn’t RetroArch, ok, but you have some Mednafen cores in it. Raw comparison Linux-Android, sorry, there isn’t even a competition as overall Linux is just aeons better.
By the way, pcsx-reARMed is actually working in Linux, I use it in my i3 Intel NUC. It works slower than in native arm device? of course, but it works, and you won’t get any difference since that emulator is focused on low end devices. And I tell you by using it for hundreds of hours for dozens of games. Same goes for Yabasanshiro from Android, as versions match.
I really do not understand why people keep stating that Android is a viable platform for emulation. It is growing fast in the past 3 or 4 years, but it is just that, Android is just Android, terrible for playing on a phone (yes, TERRIBLE), and awkward for playing on TV with a gamepad. It’s just an OS for “playing around”, that’s it, no matter how much effort Google is putting into it, there are many things wrong with it and it needs to die eventually.
There is nothing better for your arm handheld than having Linux-RetroArch, as Windows is also a terrible decission, specially for ARM.
No, epsxe is way better emu than mednafen,there is no way to compare them on performance, scaling capabiltiies, 16 by 9 aspec ratio rendering, etc. its not comparable by any means. An n64 emu is widely known way better on android, but that is more debatable. There is always a fork of a fork. But if you get an n2, android will surpass linux by far on n64. same on every arm sbc. Even very low end chips can do n64 (a mali 400!!!!) Can do great on mupen64 bc of android and android mupen64plus forks.
But again, I prefer linux, but not bc of retroconsole performances bc I know android will surpass it by far.
You confused emulators…epsxe have nothing in common with psx rearmed.
Wonder how much of the software for Vim3L will work on this or be easily transferred