The Powkiddy V20 is one of the first releases offering the new Allwinner A133P standard for budget handhelds. Over the past few years, the R36S and its many imitations have been a solid starting point for those looking to get into retro handhelds.

With capable internals that offer solid compatibility with most PS1 games, the barebones R36S became a gateway into the hobby, making handheld gaming more accessible to newcomers at a budget-friendly price.

Now, devices are moving away from the Rockchip RK3326 found in most R36S clones, and onto the Allwinner A133P that we see in devices like the TrimUI Smart Pro and Brick and MagicX Mini Zero 28. The chipset is a bit more powerful, offering nearly full compatibility with all PS1 titles, and can deliver 720p over a 16:9 aspect ratio like in the aforementioned TrimUI Smart Pro.

The V20 uses the same processor, and pairing it with the budget history of Powkiddy, the device may become a standout and future recommendation for those looking to venture into the retro handheld space.

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• What You’ll Need
• Firmware
  • ROMs and BIOS Files
• Themes
• Hotkeys
• Wrap-Up

Getting Started

Booting up your V20, you’ll be presented with the Powkiddy logo, followed by a standard Batocera UI.The device comes preloaded with games, but they share the same issues common to other handhelds — low-quality rips, strange naming conventions, and occasional titles that simply don’t work..

So, this guide will at least show you how to get your bearings straight when it comes to taking full control of the device. If you wish to delete all of the games, I’ll show you where they’re stored. Want to add more? Well, same place, same answer.

What You’ll Need

• • Windows PC
    • macOS and Linux PCs are fine for everything except flashing firmware
  • Powkiddy V20
  • Micro SD Card
  • SD Card Reader

Buy the V20 at PowkiddyBuy the V20 at AliExpress

microSD Cards

• • Micro Center MicroSDXC (16GB – 2565GB)
  • SanDisk Ultra (32GB – 1.5TB)
  • Samsung PRO Plus (512GB)
  • Silicon Power Superior (1TB)
  • SanDisk Extreme (1TB)

SD Card Readers

• • UGREEN 2-in-1 SD Card Reader
  • Anker PowerExpand+ 2-in-1
  • uni USB-C SD 4.0 Card Reader

The only note about the needed add-ons comes by way of the USB-C cable. Currently, using USB-C to USB-C cables to charge the device does not work. Most of these handhelds lack the 5-ohm resistors necessary to make charging via USB-C to USB-C possible. That being said, Powkiddy is also one of the most budget-first companies in the retro handheld world. Wherever costs can be cut without a major sacrifice to performance or usability, Powkiddy will usually take that plunge.

USB-C Cables

• • Anker Powerline 3 USB to USB-C Cable 
  • GREEN 240W USB-C to USB-C Cable
  • Anker USB-C to USB-C Cable
  • UGREEN USB to USB C Cable

Firmware

The Powkiddy V20 firmware flashing process is slightly different than other devices. You are flashing files the exact same way, but the process you go about doing it requires a different app and could result in some pretty jarring errors if not prepared beforehand.

Before we get started, there are two files that you will need to download:

• PhoenixCard
• Batocera firmware for the Powkiddy V20

As a reminder, this only works on Windows PCs since PhoenixCard does not have apps available for any other OS. Running this through a virtual machine might work, but I would strongly advise against it.

Download the firmware and Phoenix Card app from above. It will download a .zip file, and you know what we love to do with a zip file. Extract that sucker.

Windows can natively extract zip files, but you also have the option of using 7-zip as we do in any guide written by yours truly. However, for the sake of simplicity, we’ll just extract it via normal means.

Right-click the file, and at the top of the menu that pops up, hit Open.  You’ll see a list of all the files within the zip file, but that’s not enough. In the upper lefthand corner, you should see Extract All. Go ahead and hit that.

Extract All next to Extract To. We want it all, baby.

Once everything is extracted, you’ll want to browse through the files and navigate to the Tool folder, and inside, you should find the PhoenixCard app.

Tools folder, boom, PhoenixCard app.

Flashing the stock firmware onto your SD card is ultimately the same as it is in any other app, but we have to use PhoenixCard here due to the sight differences in how the A133P reads external storage.

There’s a short list of three things you need to verify before we get to flashing an SD card.

1. 1. 1. • Click the Image button and find the downloaded firmware .img file from above.
         • Make sure the Start up option is selected.
         • Select your SD card in the list that shows in the middle of the app.

Yours should look like mine. File location may be different, file name should be the same.

After doing those three things, go ahead and hit Burn near the top, to the left of Restore and Refresh Drive.

After a few moments, PhoenixCard will say “Burn End…” and you will have successfully flashed the needed V20 firmware onto your SD card.

Burn End with a lot of successes before it.

Now, we’re not done yet. The next bit is crucial.

Boot up your V20 with the SD card inserted, and let it go through all of its various splash screens and menus. After awhile, you will receive an error saying Batocera “cannot find any systems.” This is expected, there is literally nothing of use on your SD card just yet.

Turn off your V20, and plop the SD card back into your computer. Now, you should see a new partition or drive called GAMES and inside, a roms folder, and inside that, all of the shorthand console names.

Should look something like this.

Put some games in those folders, or literally one game inside of one respective console folder, boot your V20 back up, and you should be golden — fresh install of Batocera on the V20 with your own, sanctified, legal backups.

ROMs and BIOS Files

Adding ROMs to the Powkiddy V20 is as standard a process as it is in any other console. In short, plop your games in their respective console folders, and they should appear within Batocera’s console menus.

Unlike some other Linux based handhelds, the games on this device are stored on a separate partition titled GAMES. However, if you’ve replaced the supplied SD card with one of your own, and flashed the firmware onto it as detailed in the Firmware section, then your games will reside in the GAMES partition, but then inside of a roms folder within that.

Inside, there will be a plethora of folders, all named specifically after the console the games are meant to be played on. For example, gb should hold all of your legally backed up .gb Game Boy games.

Below, I have two pictures showing the difference in location.

Now, you have a second, somewhat easier option as well.

After installing and booting into Batocera for the first time, you should see a partition or drive titled SHARE. Within it, a bunch of folders. The roms folder will not be populated, but, if you wanted to, you could drag all of the folders from the GAMES partition and copy them to this separate roms folder and end up with the exact same result — games to play on the V20.

SHARE partition on the V20

Inside the SHARE partition, you will see a folder called bios. I will give you one guess what goes into this folder.

We’ve compiled a list of commonly used BIOS file names — these are just the most popular ones you might need to improve compatibility across the various consoles you’re trying to emulate.

BIOS File Names

Powkiddy ships their devices with BIOS files preloaded on the SD card. Here’s an image of what a populated bios folder looks like when looking at the shipped card directly from Powkiddy.

The folder has a total of 252 files.

Backing up this folder for safekeeping can make it easier to source BIOS files in the future. These files can be difficult to find, and while we cannot and will not provide them ourselves, we want to make you aware of this option as a potential resource.

Once you have games in their correct system folders and BIOS files in the bios folder if necessary, you’re ready to lock in and start playing your favorite games on your new handheld.

Themes

Themes are also a fairly standard affair. The Powkiddy V20 doesn’t veer too off-center from standard; the screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio with a 640 x 480 resolution. Naturally, any downloaded themes should also support 4:3 and a 480p resolution. Luckily, most themes should scale appropriately and not present any problems.

Batocera Themes Repo

Batocera has an official repository hosted here. Download the themes you’d like, or ones you’ve found elsewhere online, and place them in the SHARE > themes folder.

After rebooting or restarting EmulationStation, you can change the theme by pressing Start on any menu to open up the device’s Main Menu, then User Interface Settings, and the Theme Set option should show you all of the various themes you have at your disposal. By default, there should be five: Canvas, Epic Max, Freeplay, Neutral, and Switch Black v2. However, as explained, you can always add more.

Hotkeys

Mikhailov has created a detailed RetroArch guide right here on the site, covering how to optimize settings and tailor the experience to your preferences. From fine-tuning shaders to configuring hotkeys, there are countless ways to customize the V20 and ensure it performs exactly how you want it to, down to the smallest input nuance.

Set Up RetroArch

However, would this be a guide without a list of hotkeys? Probably not, so here are the standard hotkeys for the Powkiddy V20:

• • • SELECT + A: Pause
    • SELECT + B: Screenshot
    • SELECT + X: RetroArch Menu
    • SELECT + Y: Show/Hide FPS
    • SELECT + DPAD LEFT: Change save state slot
    • SELECT + DPAD RIGHT: Change save state slot
    • SELECT + VOL: Brightness

When using the DS or PSP emulator, the above hotkeys will not work. There, you can press the right analog stick (R3) to open up the emulator menu and access the above controls.

Once inside of a game, you can either edit, add, or straight up remove some hotkeys by opening the RetroArch menu with SELECT + X, then pressing B to bring up the sidebar menu, going to Settings > Input > Hotkeys.

By default, your hotkey bind button will be Button 8, which is your Select button on the V20. You can then further edit or add any variety of buttons to the listed actions. For example, highlighting Fast Forward (Hold), pressing A to select it, and then pressing the R2 button will make it so whenever you hold Select and press R2, the game will fast forward.

I would  recommend adding a specific hotkey for save state loading and saving. Doing so can cut out a lot of the tediousness found in older games that would have you start over from a wayward checkpoint every time you die in a difficult area. You can opt to not use the save states still, but having the option can be a literal lifesaver.

Once done there, be sure to head back to Main Menu > Configuration File > Save Current Configuration. This will make sure that you don’t have to set up your custom hotkey(s) after you shut down your console.

Speaking of shutting down, the process is a little different from most handhelds made in 2025. The reliance on both Linux and Batocera makes the shut down process a bit long winded.

You should never just force your console to power off, but, truthfully, I’ve been living on the edge for most of my retro handheld career and have never had problems so long as I saved my game, either by save states or through official in-game means. It is possible to corrupt your SD card this way, though, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

To shut down from playing a game, open the RetroArch menu with SELECT + X, then scroll down and hit Quit. From there, you should be back into one of the device’s menus and not RetroArch. Press Start > Quit > Shutdown System or Fast Shutdown System.

Needing to do this every time you want to power down can be a bit frustrating, and may push you towards just forcing the device down by holding the power button. But remember, I did warn you about the possibility of corruption.

Wrap-Up

There’s not a lot to the Powkiddy V20, honestly. Not in a bad way, but it is a typical retro handheld made to play the classics some of us remember from our childhood. The device lacks onboard wifi, so we are missing out on the ease of updating and potentially moving files to and from the device via SSH or FTP. But that doesn’t make it a bad handheld, just one without those two features.

Getting into the retro handheld world, especially now, is a crazily hectic and sometimes overwhelming task. There are a bunch of devices with many different assortments of letters and numbers that equate to device names. But the V20 gives you a device that just lets you plop games onto its card and play them.

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