The GKD mini Plus is a handheld game console with a 3.5 inch display and a compact design that should make the system easy to slide into a pocket. In fact, it looks nearly identical to the original GKD mini, with a D-Pad and four action buttons on the front, plus a few shoulder buttons on the back.

But there are a few key features that set the new model apart. First, the updated model packs upgraded specs including a higher-resolution display, faster processor, and more RAM. And second, it’s designed to work with an optional dock that slides onto the bottom to give you two analog sticks.

The GKD mini Plus features a 640 x 480 pixel IPS LCD display, 1GB of RAM, two microSD card readers for storage, a 3,000 mAh battery, and a Rockchip RK3566 processor, which is a 1.8 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor with ARM Mal-G52 2EE graphics.

On the bottom of the device there’s a USB Type-C port, allowing you to slide the optional analog stick accessory into place, which should expand the number of games you can play on this little device.

If you’d prefer a system with built-in analog sticks, a new GKD mini Plus Classic is also on the way. It has the same processor, display, and battery, but the analog sticks aren’t removable and there are two microSD card readers.

Prices for the GKD mini Plus are expected to start as low as 469 CNY (about $68) in China, although customers in other countries will most likely end up paying a little more. Pricing hasn’t been revealed for the GKD mini Plus Classic yet.

Both models will most likely ship with GameKiddy’s custom operating system with emulators that allow you to play games designed for classic game consoles.

Update: 11/24/2022: The company says the GKD mini Plus will have a retail price of $278, but it will go up for pre-order through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign soon with a limited number of Super Early Bird rewards going for as little as $139.

You can sign up to get an email when the campaign goes live.

via Retrododo (1)(2), Retro Kezins (1)(2) and NotebookCheck

This article was first published August 31, 2022 and most recently updated November 24, 2022.  

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9 replies on “GKD mini Plus is a retro game console with detachable analog sticks”

  1. $278 should be some kind of joke for a device with a rk3566. Even having a rk3588 would be expensive. Seriously, $278? :O

  2. Kickstarter? $279 MSRP for an RK3566 based device? Hard pass. I’ll wait for it to appear on aliexpress for less than the kickstarter earlybird price, if I dont just buy an RG353V instead.

  4. Why the hell everyone is using Retro Dodo’s information while knowing his information is ALWAYS inaccurate. The non-classic plus also has two SD card slots like the classic version. The RAM for both versions are 1GB, not 4GB.

    1. Thanks, I’ve updated the article to reflect those details. At the time I wrote this, there weren’t a lot of English language sites covering the news, and I’d had limited success translating Chinese sources.

      As for the microSD card details, RetroDodo simply didn’t mention storage at all in the article about the Plus, and the only other source I’d found mentioned a card reader but didn’t say there were two.

  5. I’m interested in this thing, but I wasn’t very thrilled with the appearance of the software on the previous GKD Mini, and it didn’t appear that there were any options for custom firmware. The few comments I found online seemed to suggest that it wasn’t open enough for custom firmware.

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