It’s been about two months since we covered NextUI for the TrimUI Brick and TrimUI Smart Pro. If you’re not familiar, NextUI started as a MinUI fork for TrimUI devices and then matured into a separate custom firmware in its own right.
I’ve wanted to do a follow-up review as the dev team added new features, but NextUI got updates almost daily for the better part of two months. Things have finally calmed down with version 5.5, so I thought I’d do a quick follow-up to see what’s been added, and if NextUI is still the way to go on the TrimUI Brick!
Quick Recap on Next UI
So when we last left our story, it was the end of March, and NextUI was on version 2.4. They had just added some basic components, like a game switcher, LED controls, and a fix to screen tearing and deep sleep mode. Wi-Fi and advanced systems were teased, but are not yet available.
Much like that sleezy Senator Palpatine, I’ve been watching the NextUI GitHub page with great interest, but unlike the cruel Emperor Palpatine, I’m not plotting the overthrow of the republic. No! I’m just going to show you how to get the latest and greatest version of NextUI on your Brick.
Updating NextUI Updates
Updating NextUI, much like installing NextUI, is probably the simplest custom firmware process you’ll ever do. You grab the latest zip file from GitHub and then unzip it into the root of your SD card. That’s it.
If you want to know how to do a fresh install, check out our earlier video, but it’s pretty much the same process. Dump the contents of the zip file on the root of your card, and start the device. It’s stunningly simple.
If you’re updating, there’s a blink and you’ll miss it 3 seconds of “installing” text, and then you’re up and running. If you’re installing it for the first time, the NextUI text is there for a little bit longer, but it’s still extremely fast.
Pakman Makes Things Easy
NextUI on its own is great, but there are a TON of Pak files with goodies and updates, and tools. You can download them all individually, but with so many different Pak files that need to go in different sub-folders, you might make a goof. Luckily, someone decided to goof-proof this process. That someone is a fella by the name of Jose Gonzalez.
If you go to the Pakman GitHub page, you’ll find two things. One, a hilarious pun on Pac-Man, and two, a comprehensive and up-to-date collection of all the best tools and emulators already preconfigured to deploy into the correct folders on your card.
Just like installing or updating NextUI itself, in order to get all the Pakman goodness on here, just extract the zip to the root of the card. Easy Peazy Lemon Squeezy.
Go Wireless With NextUI
Almost all of these tools leverage the fact that NextUI has Wi-Fi support, which means you’ll be able to do a ton of cool stuff wirelessly. First off, since NextUI has box art, there’s a box art scraper in here.
It’s called Artwork Scraper, and it will do a quick search of your ROM directories and then allow you to download box art for entire systems at a time. It’s quick, easy, and gets you boxart while still keeping some of the minimalistic elements of MinUI.
There’s also an OTA update Pak available. Since this CFW is updated so often, you’re going to want to keep your system up to date. Gone are the days of taking your SD card out like a caveman.
No! Instead, there’s a super-easy-to-use updater that just pings GitHub and downloads and extracts the latest update. If you’re current, it’ll let you know that as well. Super simple. Super easy. Super cool.
There’s also a Pak store where you can download the latest versions of your favorite add-ons or grab some new ones. This store, plus the OTA, box scraping, FTP functionality, and Syncthing, means you’ll never really need to mess with the SD card again. You can update and tweak everything wirelessly, which is super cool.
I wasn’t really a fan of adding things wirelessly until I started using it extensively on my RG35XXSP with muOS, and now I lean on it. I wouldn’t use it for adding my entire game library, but it’s a super helpful tool when you just want to add one new game from your smartphone and then scrape the art. It takes a couple of seconds, and you’ve got a new game ready to run.
Custom Emulation Paks
Speaking of games, let’s talk about the new games you can play on here with custom emulation paks. I’m talking about N64, Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, and even some PSP.
All of these worked on stock, but they weren’t available on the last version of NextUI I tested. Well, they’re back and they’re spectacular, especially since the Allwinner A133P inside of this means you can play these systems without any real issues, outside of the usual suspects.
You can also access emulator settings on a per-game basis, so you can tweak the performance settings and controls as needed. All of the function buttons are mappable now as well. For example, I mapped one of the glowing face buttons as my fast forward button in DS, so I can zoom through Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. Pretty slick!
PortMaster on NextUI
There’s also a Portmaster Pak available, and it’s also pretty easy to use. You just open it up for the first time while on wifi, it downloads the latest updates, and from there on, it’s the same portmaster you’d see on other devices.
You can download a lot of ready-to-play ports if you want, or you could install some of the more complicated games, but you will need to go in and copy game files to the correct locations. It’s not something I went super deep into, but I could see myself using this for a ton of console-y ports, like Ninja Turtles or some awesome Super Metroid hacks.
There are a ton of other tools on here too, but I don’t want this quick article to turn into a changelog, so I’ll leave it to you to check out the Pakman GitHub and see everything that’s available!
What Did We Learn?
Well, dear reader, it’s time for What Did We Learn? We learned that if NextUI is a great custom firmware for your TrimUI Brick or Smart Pro, then it’s certainly an even better option with all of the latest updates! In addition to adding Wi-Fi, there is a wide variety of tools that leverage Wi-Fi, so you’ll hardly ever need to take out the SD card again!
There’s hardly anything missing from NextUI at this point, besides retroachievements, and that’s on their to-do list. It might be a big to-do since you’re not exactly running RetroArch on here, but if they can do it, they probably will.
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