Most of the time, when you buy a horizontal retro handheld, you just play your games in that orientation. There are a few oddballs (Retro Tech Dad comes to mind) that also enjoy shmups to the point that they would turn something like the AYANEO KUN into a vertical shmups machine if they could.
The problem is that the overwhelming majority of horizontal handhelds don’t really lend themselves to being comfortable to play those types of games. As it turns out, the MagicX Touch One 35 could be one of the first handhelds to offer the best of both worlds.
Earlier today, a new video was published on YouTube showing off a “preliminary demo” of the Touch One 35 and its display. In doing so, it also gave us a look at what the final design could look like. I put the emphasis on “could” because the video description says the following:
Please ignore the recording technology, enclosures and joysticks and speakers. This is just a preliminary demo and the whole thing is not finished yet.
With that being said, it doesn’t take long to realize that MagicX is designing this to be a multi-purpose handheld. Even before looking at the dual D-pads, you can see the labels for “Start” and “Select” are going the wrong way. But if you turn the handheld 90 degrees, it would be perfect, just with the other D-pad and joystick at the top.
So far, we know that the Touch One 35 will feature a 3.5-inch display with a 960 x 640 resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. But this isn’t going to be like other retro handhelds, as it’s also said to be powered by the MediaTek Helio P65. Considering that Daijisho is being showcased in the video above, we’re in store for a new Android handheld.
The only real “problem” is that we don’t really know when the Touch One 35 will be made available for pre-order. Nor do we have any indication as to when more details are going to be released, as the company is currently off to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
So yeah, MagicX dropped a big teaser for its next handheld before rolling out for the holiday. That’s one way to build up anticipation ahead of a release.
More recently, the official MagicX online storefront opened its virtual doors as you can now buy the Mini Zero 28. Plus, you’ll be able to see a few of the other handhelds that are in the works, such as the Zero 40, Touch One, Mini One 34, and “MagicX SP.”
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