MagicX One 35 Hands-On Review

The MagicX One 35 is finally here! Here is my full hands-on review of this quite interesting new Android-based retro handheld including my first-week experience with it, and a few notes on its rather peculiar design. Let’s get to it!

If you’re here to learn how to get your game files on the One 35, you can skip right to that section using the table of contents below.

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You might also like: Miyoo Mini Plus Handheld Emulator Console Hands-On Review

First – The Specs

All the data in the display above comes directly from the back of the official MagicX One 35 packaging, as well as from the MagicX Discord and official website.

Unboxing & Build Quality

The console shipped inside a very well-protected box, and had another layer of protection inside the package with a foam screen protector resting on the front of the handheld. Bonus points here.

The box in which the MagicX One 35 came in, included a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer, and an instruction manual written in English and Chinese. My unit also came with an additional glass screen protector, which I promptly applied with the help of the included dry and wet wipes which also were included inside the box.

Out of the box, the first things that I noticed were how good the device felt in hand despite it having a simple flat back without any kind of additional “grip” in its design, and how clicky some of the buttons, including the shoulder ones were. More on these below.

The Buttons and Controls

The overall quality of the controls on the One 35 is really good. Both D-pads are very tight and pleasant to use, and the XYAB face buttons are comparable to the vast majority of the other handhelds I own (in fact most comparable to the Miyoo Mini Plus in terms of the overall feel), although they are much less tight than the ones on handhelds like for instance the R36S.

All of the shoulder buttons are mostly flat (with some cutouts that make you easily place your fingers on the right ones by feel), and very clicky. Start and Select also have an audible click to them, and are somewhat tiny. These are positioned on the right side of the unit, so they can be easily used in the TATE mode, mostly in vertical arcade games, or NDS titles.

The console, when shaken, will give off an ever so slight rattle coming from the shoulder buttons (regular and TATE ones), the XYAB, and the Start/Select buttons, which will promptly disappear when you hold them down during the process.

The absolute highlight of the console for me, is the analog stick. It’s very tight and accurate, and is a real pleasure to use. It also has a nice click when being pushed down, and requires a reasonable amount of force to do so.

The vibration motor on the handheld is reasonably strong, albeit it has some grit and rattle to it on my unit, perhaps due to the fact that there are so many buttons/triggers here that can be shaken around by it. I wouldn’t call it the smoothest, although it does its job well.

The TATE Controls

The second D-pad on the right, which is a part of the TATE controls, is exactly the same as the first one, to no surprise. The TATE shoulder buttons (the ones on the top and the bottom of the handheld) are also clicky, and all in all convenient to use despite their unconventional placement, although that will largely depend on the size of your hands.

When it comes to the overall “TATE grip” on this handheld, while it took a while for me to get used to it, it’s very serviceable. The design of the One 35 is well thought-out in that manner, and having tested some NDS games on the system (notably Pokemon Black), I can say that while the size of both of the displays on the 3.5-inch panel can be too small for some, the overall ergonomics of the console in the TATE mode are very good.

3.5-Inch Display Quality

The MagicX One 35 features a 3.5-inch 960×640 IPS front panel, which is a multi-touch display which looks really good, and I didn’t notice any kind of issues with blur, discoloration, or uneven backlight, which is in line with other handhelds in this class.

In addition to that, it’s very bright. So much so that even on the lowest light setting and with the “Extra Dim” mode accessible from the Android system tray enabled, it was slightly too bright for me to play comfortably in a completely darkened room. Despite that, it’s still a solid panel with a great out-of-the-box configuration, and I enjoyed using it throughout all of my tests.

Real-Life Gaming and Emulation Performance Tests

The One 35 with its singular analog stick is a nearly perfect N64 emulation machine, and it also handles systems such as PSP, Dreamcast, and NDS without noticeable hiccups or framedrops. While some PS Vita titles, and even a few simple PS2 games are playable, the MediaTek Helio G85 is maxing out on a number of more demanding titles from their catalogues, often not being able to provide playable framerates in more complex 3D environments. Trying to test games such as Need For Speed Most Wanted, or Black for PS2, quite understandably resulted in framerates which made the games unplayable even after downscaling and tweaking the NetherSX2 emulation settings.

I tested a handful of titles like Paper Mario, Super Mario 64, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day for the N64, Pokemon Black for the NDS, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver for the Dreamcast, and the only game that came with the microSD-less version of the console which was the Dragon’s Crown for the PS Vita, as well as a few simpler titles from GBA, SNES, and MAME. In these tests, as expected, I had no trouble hitting consistent 40-60 FPS in most game segments, which is really impressive for a sub-$100 console like this.

My experience with prolonged gaming sessions (~30 minutes per session) on the One 35 with most games including the more demanding systems was very good overall. Despite the console having rather simple outer shell design, it was comfortable to handle, and the software side of things, including the quick menus for most pre-installed emulators were easily accessible.

The save files/slots were intuitive to make and access in all of the emulators I used, and switching between different games with the use of the Dawn Launcher UI (or their GameSwitcher implementation), didn’t take a lot of time or lag the console out at any point.

I enjoyed how each of the emulators had its quick menu with all of the most important features like game saves and fast forward mode easily accessible after clicking the “Back” button on the left side of the display once, and how quickly I was able to exit the game I was playing by long pressing the same button for about 1.5 seconds.

The one thing I couldn’t figure out easily was how to assign the left D-pad to mirror the analog stick on the N64, but I presume it was somewhere in the settings menu that I have not discovered yet. As on all Android-based handhelds, the settings for each of the emulators will be accessed using different menus, and sometimes you will have to change them either from the Dawn Launcher per-emulator settings view, or inside the emulator’s quick menu or the app settings themselves. This is the part of the experience that needs getting used to the most.

Still, the games from those “edge case” console systems that work, will just work, and with these it’s a question of whether or not you choose a title that’s reasonable for the chipset to handle, and you attempt to do some software optimizations like downscaling, which might help you make your favorite titles easier for the handheld to run with reasonable framerates.

Ergonomics of The “Vertical” Aspect of The One35

One of the main features of the One 35 is it being able to be used in the TATE mode. This simply means rotating the console 90 degrees and using the second D-pad and XYAB buttons which can come in handy if you plan to enjoy vertical arcade games & NDS titles. Here is what it looks like in practice.

The overall ergonomics of the TATE mode on the MagicX One 35 are well thought-out, despite having to position your fingers on the vertical (top/bottom) triggers in what I would best call a “claw grip” being a little bit awkward at first. After playing the classic Capcom’s 1943 for some time, I came to notice that this kind of setup here works out much better than I anticipated. Still, I can see how it could potentially be tiring if you decided to game like this for extended periods of time with larger hands.

As already briefly mentioned, the only downside I can find to the TATE mode on the One 35, has to do with its 3.5-inch display, which in some cases can simply be too small to comfortably enjoy some of the games from the dual-display systems like the NDS. While it’s by no means a real issue, it’s something I couldn’t help but notice.

Android 12, and the Dawn Launcher

Android Version 12

The MagicX One 35 is a device based on Android 12, with the latest security fixes back from 2024 already applied and installed. As you might notice, this isn’t exactly the newest version of the Android system you could go for. Still, as always, I don’t think that this poses a real issue, especially when you consider that this device is primarily a retro game emulation handheld which won’t require the latest mainline patches and fixes when it comes to its Android functionality.

Moreover, the MediaTek G85 chipset used in the One 35 wouldn’t be able to handle most of the “modern” Android gaming titles compatible with newer system versions anyway, even at its relatively low display resolution in comparison to most Android smartphones, so this also becomes a non-concern in this case.

In the price range that the One 35 represents, which is sub-$100 Android retro handhelds, this really isn’t an issue. Especially if you take into account the fact that the latest Retroid Pocket 5 actively makes use of Android 13 – just one version above the One 35.

If you want to be perfectly safe with these kind of devices, try to always use a separate Google account for them, and refrain from installing any kinds of critical applications on them. This is often a reasonable rule of thumb when it comes to all Android-based handhelds, regardless of their price and popularity.

The Dawn Launcher

The Dawn Launcher is the default system overlay created by MagicX for their handhelds, and it’s also the main way via which you will experience the content on the console.

The main view of the Dawn Launcher interface consists of:

• The “Platform” view on which you can browse through all of the systems with games that are ready to play.
• The “Chosen” view with your custom favorites list, last played titles and all games list.
• The “Apps” view, divided into categories including “Emulator”, “Games”, and “Tools” (you can easily assign newly installed apps to any of these categories by pressing the “Y” button while having one of the apps selected).
• And the “Settings” view which contains all of the most important Dawn Launcher options, as well as a quick shortcut to the master Android system settings section for managing everything outside of the governance of the custom system emulation frontend.

You navigate between those views using the device’s trigger buttons, and then select appropriate options using the front buttons. Of course, alternatively, you can just as easily use the touch display.

While there are certainly some minor interface bugs, and during my few days of testing I experienced two “Dawn Launcher has stopped working” popups, it’s par for the course for the Android experience, and the devs on the MagicX Discord are readily collecting bug reports and tickets to fix the most pressing issues of the user base.

All in all, the experience of launching the games and modifying basic emulator settings using the Dawn Launcher, quick system updates, as well as adding the games and managing the game library including box art scraping is on point here, although I wish there was even more customization when it comes to the navigation buttons in the system.

The Preinstalled Apps & Emulators

The One 35 comes with a whole lot of preinstalled apps, most of which are pre-configured and pre-optimized emulators including:

• Azahar
• Dolphin
• DraStic
• DuckStation
• Flycast
• M64Plus AW
• M64Plus FZ
• melonDS
• My Boy
• My OldBoy
• NetherSX2
• Openbor
• PPSSPP
• Redream
• RetroArch
• Vita3K
• Yaba Sanshiro 2 Pro

Aside from that, there are also just a few basic Android apps here that include a calendar and a clock, the Chrome browser, a file browser, a gallery app for browsing your screenshots, the Play Store app, as well as the android settings applet and a neat basic system test utility.

There are pretty much zero unneeded apps or bloatware here, and the toolset the One 35 comes with is very much reasonable.

Getting Your Games Onto The Console

If you want to get your game backups onto the MagicX One 35, you have two options. You can either use a USB-C cable supplied with the unit (or any other cable with data transfer capabilities) to move your games onto the device’s internal memory, or put them on a microSD card and access them from there.

As of the time of writing this review, I was unable to connect the One 35 to either of my PCs using the bundled cable, as the console didn’t show up in my Windows 11 system at all regardless of whether it was on, or off. As this seems to work for some users and others have the same problem as me, I think it’s only a matter of time that this gets fixed in one of the future updates.

I resorted to the easier method of putting my games directly onto a microSD card.

Here is what you need to do to get your games on the MagicX One 35 in the exact same way:

How To Get Your Games on the MagicX One 35

1. First, take your microSD card, and put it in the card slot on the right side of the MagicX One 35.
2. Second, go into the Dawn Launcher settings menu, and select the “Select game library directory” option.
3. There, in the “Rom path management” menu, click the “ADD” button to select a directory in which the Dawn Launcher will look for games.
4. An Android file browser window will open. Here, you need to select a directory in which the Dawn Launcher will in a moment automatically create a “ROMS” folder with a premade folder structure inside for all of the supported systems. You will notice it won’t let you select the main microSD card directory for that. Go ahead and create a folder on your microSD, you can name it anything like for instance “games”, enter it, and then click on “Use This Folder”. Then, you can exit out of the menus.
5. Turn off your MagicX One 35, take the microSD card out of the handheld, and use a microSD card reader to access it on your PC. There you will notice that inside of the folder you’ve just made Dawn Launcher has created a “ROMS” folder in which a whole lot of folders corresponding to different consoles were created.
6. Put your games inside the corresponding system folders, and then disconnect your microSD card from your PC and put it back into your handheld.
7. If Dawn Launcher hasn’t already updated your game list automatically, you can go into the settings menu and select the “Update game list and configuration” button to force it to update the game lists.

That’s it! After that, all of your imported titles should now be visible in the Dawn Launcher and ready to play.

Great Device For Pocket Android Gaming?

Having also tested a few Android titles (installed both from the Play Store and .apk file backups), I must say that I really like the idea of having a dedicated pocket device for playing some older Android titles on the go without worrying about wearing down my smartphone battery early in the day.

As the device is based on Android 12, you won’t be able to play any Android games that require newer versions of the OS to run. That said, having access to hundreds of playable titles from the earlier Android library is a great thing to have on a system like this.

While many older 3D games will run reasonably well here, don’t expect to run all of the more complex, newer 3D games here without slowdowns. While the hardware is reasonably strong for a device in this price bracket, it has its clear limitations which you can easily come across when forcing it to play more graphically demanding Android titles, even those from the years of the Android 12 popularity.

The device, in the case of all the controller-compatible titles I played, automatically recognized all of the controller buttons. For games without baked-in controller support, the Dawn Launcher has a very neat tool for manually mapping touch controls to chosen buttons on the One 35. It’s very easy to use, and it reminds me of that very same feature that I first came across on the now archaic GPD XD many years back.

The Battery Life & Standby Mode

The MagicX One 35 uses a 4300 mAh lithium polymer battery, with an advertised battery life of 5-7 hours, which according to my experience can very well be possible with reasonable screen brightness levels and titles that are not maxing out the chipset’s capabilities during gameplay.

The standby mode on the One 35 works very well, and the battery use upon simply locking the console mid-gameplay by pressing the power button is very reasonable, as far as I noticed being similar to the one of a locked smartphone with an emulator app open in the background, which is typical for most Android-based retro handhelds.

The transition between clicking the power button and getting back into the game is instant, and that’s exactly how things should be.

Is The MagicX One 35 Worth Getting?

All in all, if you’re thinking about getting a sub-$100 Android handheld for comfortable emulation of all systems up to the N64, PSP, and Dreamcast, with many simpler titles from PS Vita also being playable, and a vast library of games compatible with Android 12 also being an option, the MagicX One 35 is a great pick.

When it comes to the vertical gaming experience, it’s very solid for what it is. In my honest opinion, while the general ergonomics of the TATE mode on the One 35 are very well thought out, the 3.5-inch display just doesn’t cut it for dual screen systems like the NDS, which are after all, a large part of vertical gaming one could expect to enjoy on this device. In that regard, the MagicX Zero 40, with a larger, vertical-first display is also a great option to consider.

If however, you’re thinking of purchasing an Android-based handheld specifically for emulating newer systems like the PS2 or the Wii, you would be much better off going, for example, with the Retroid Pocket 5. This way, you’ll be also able to enjoy many games from the Switch catalog, albeit for a much higher price.

Other Similar Handhelds To Consider

The types of pocket emulators I’d personally recommend if you’re thinking of getting the MagicX One 35 but you’ve not decided yet, would start with some more affordable, less powerful, albeit more pocket-sized Android handhelds, like the TRIMUI Smart Pro S (Linux-based), Magicx Mini Zero 28 V2, or the ANBERNIC RG35XX H (also Linux-based).

If you want something with comparable power, the MANGMI AIR X, and the Retroid Pocket Mini V2 with an AMOLED display are other good options.

Another category of handhelds that you might be interested in are other reasonably popular vertical or TATE-mode compatible devices. The first one that comes to mind here is the aforementioned MagicX Zero 40. Feel free to check these out if you’re looking for a comparable experience, in a very similar price range.

Check Out My Other Retro Handheld Reviews Here:

• Miyoo Mini Plus Handheld Emulator Review
• New Powkiddy V90S Clamshell Hands-On Review
• The R36S Handheld Game Console Review
• 12 Best Retro Handheld Emulator Consoles In 2026 – My Personal Picks