MagicX Mini Zero 28 Review: Pocketable Power?

2024 saw a surge in the amount of mini handhelds we were seeing on the scene. From the RG28XX to the Miyoo A30, and even something smaller like the GKD Pixel, if you were looking for a small handheld it seemed you had options. But one of my favorite options, despite its flaws, was the MagicX XU Mini M.

A handheld that promised one chip but ended up giving us another RK3326. Despite those shortcomings, it was a nice handheld that had surprisingly good controls and ended up being my second favorite sub 3” handheld of 2024.

So when MagicX decided to drop an A133P, Android-powered update of it, I had to see it for myself. So let’s take a look at how the MagicX Mini Zero 28 holds up, and if it’s worth your money in today’s market.

MagicX Mini Zero 28 Specs

To get this out of the way first, you can grab the Mini Zero 28 for between $55 and $65 dollars. For the price, which gets your specs on par with its A133P competition in the TrimUI Brick and TrimUI Smart Pro, but do the rest of the specs line up?

CPU: Allwinner A133P
GPU: PowerVR GE8300
Screen: 2.8” 640×480, 4:3, Non-Touch Screen
Ram: 2GB
Storage: 2x microSD
OS: Android 10
Connectivity: Wi-Fi/BT/2x USB-C
Battery: 2900mAh
Dimensions: 130x64x19mm
Weight:129g

MagicX Mini Zero 28

Hand Feel

When it comes to the ergonomic feel in hand, you’ve gotta remember it’s a small handheld so it may not be the most comfortable thing in the world. However, it’s also good to note that it is a candy bar handheld, which helps it out a little bit. I would place it above most of my other small handhelds like the 28XX, and A30. And especially above any of the small verticals. However, I think if you want comfort and can jump to a 3.5” device, many of those will feel better for longer play sessions.

As for the plastic itself, the purple unit has a nice texture to it compared to the slightly smoother finish on my older orange XU Mini M. Is it premium? Definitely not. Is it cheap McDonald’s grade plastic? Also a big fat no. It’s a solid-feeling device in hand, even for its low weight.

Screen and Controls

While the 2.8” display is small, it isn’t anything unlike what we’ve seen in the past year from other handhelds of a similar size. The only true exception comes from even before that in the Miyoo Mini, which the V4 has that awkward aspect ratio. It’s nice, bright, and lacks any color bleeding which is a nice bonus. My biggest issue comes from the fact that it is not a touch screen despite being an Android-based handheld. Not a deal breaker, but not ideal.

When it comes to controls, outside of the sticks, I think everything is an improvement over the original XU Mini M. The D-pad has a nice pivot to it and doesn’t have the squeak my old unit does. The shoulder buttons, while in-line have nice tactility to them without being loud clicky buttons. The face buttons are now glossy but have a nice light bump to them rather than the dull click of the original. This is probably the smallest change between the two but still.

And the sticks. Oh, they’re so good. Nice and recessed, with light travel that’ll make stick-based games wonderful to play. If you like AYN/Retroid/recent Anbernic Sticks. You’ll like them too.

User Experience

The Not So Good

Let me get off with the bad things first cause there’s only a couple. The USB-C ports on my device, and it sounds like others, are a bit inset. I really do have to push my cables in to get it to connect or charge. It sounds like this will be resolved in future batches, but for those who want it now, just be aware of that.

The other comes from just using Android without a touchscreen. That is the one thing that I think holds the experience back as, despite their attempts at improving the experience with useful hotkeys (that I read after my unboxing video), some menus are just frustrating. And add to that using the mouse mode for inputting text, and I just don’t want to leave the Dawn Launcher.

The Good

The Dawn launcher actually works really well all things considered. But that shouldn’t be a surprise as the team has put in the work to build a front end inspired by Daijisho. Menus are easy to navigate, options are easy to access, and adding ROMs is as easy as plugging the device into your PC. This is a welcome change to the SD Card Shuffle that many of us are accustomed to. Once you get used to the shortcuts, navigating Android on the Mini 28 does get to be a little bit better, but it is not perfect. Overall, the experience really has potential, but not quite yet.

If you’re willing to tinker and mess with Android to get this thing exactly how you like it, this could really be a be-all, end-all small Android handheld.

The Best

MinUI. That’s the entire sentence. In case you weren’t aware, MinUI is an incredibly minimalistic operating system that has been developed over the years to work on a bunch of devices. Just a couple of weeks ago, initial support for the Mini 28 was provided, and the setup is as simple as flashing Moss to the OS SD card and putting your ROMs, saves, BIOS, minui.zip, and MagicX file onto the second SD card. It’s really as simple as that.

While you do lose out on a lot of systems that you can access on Android, the experience becomes a lot simpler and easier to use. I am keeping an eye out for future operating systems as this does support Linux. There are rumblings for muOS, but nothing at the time of writing.

Gaming

When it comes to performance, there’s a lot to cover. With Linux (MinUI for now), everything it has to offer works really well. If you’re looking to cover your bases up to PS1 and you don’t want to cover more, this will be the easy operating system for you and is going to be my pick for that.

If you move over to Android, systems like N64, Dreamcast, and PSP all become available thanks to the built-in emulators. These systems seemed to work better for me than I’ve seen on Linux, and I feel that’s likely due to development for those apps on Android versus Linux. Now while it’s better, I still wouldn’t say expect everything out of them.

Finally, while staying in Android, since you can add an alt store to the Google Play Store, you can add your own Android games and APKs through that as well. I’m always a fan of smaller games like Horizon Chase Turbo, and they seem to boot up and work just fine. Though you would want to keep it to your lighter games. As a PortMaster fan, having some lighter ports on Android will definitely make this an even more versatile handheld.

Final Thoughts

In the end, the Mini Zero 28 could be the answer for you if you’re looking for a number of certain things. If I had a flowchart I could take you right down the path that would land you here. “Do you need a smaller than 3.5” display”, “Do you need two sticks?”, “Do you need Android?”. If you could answer yes to all three of those options, then yes, the Mini 28 is probably gonna be the handheld for you. If you refuse to tinker and are fine with the Android quirks for now, you could still buy it and live your life in the Dawn launcher.

But unless new operating systems come out to help develop the Mini 28 just a little bit more, this is gonna be a device that really feels built for those who want to tinker with it and set it exactly how they want it. Or I mean, you could put MinUI on it. That’s an option.

Do I like it? Yes. Am I going to keep using it? Also yes. You could grab a 28XX, A30, or any number of smaller handhelds in place of this. But something about this one just feels cool. And there’s no better way for me to explain it. Maybe this will end up as my favorite small handheld of 2025 this time. It is only February after all.