by 
Still a relative newcomer to the handheld emulation scene, Mangmi has released the Air X and Pocket Max so far, and both devices have impressed enough for the company to gain followers in a market flooded with products from the likes of AYANEO, Anbernic, and Retroid.
Mangmi's next venture is a two-pronged attack with the Air Y and Air Y Pro. I'm reviewing the former, and as the name suggests, it's the weaker of the pair in raw specs. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset, which, Mangmi says, is an "entry-level" option compared to the Air Y Pro's Snapdragon 865 chip.
Before I get onto the power difference between the two devices, it's worth spending a little time talking about the similarities they share. They both have the same vertical form factor, clearly inspired by the DMG-01 Game Boy (the model I have even sports the same colourway). Both have the same display: a bright, sharp 4.2-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 1280x960 pixels. They also have the same 5000mAh battery inside.
The D-pad is larger than I'm used to on these devices, but I found it a good thing. The face button cluster is nice and clicky, and there's an 'M' button in the middle which brings up the M Space 2.0 custom UI. On the side you'll find the power button, volume dial and customisable button. The top edge has the USB-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and MicroSD card slot.
Flip the device over, and you'll find the shoulder buttons, which closely match the ones seen on the AYANEO Pocket DMG (the vent on the back is also very much the same design). They rest underneath your index fingers, and while the L1 and R1 buttons are easy enough to use, the L2 and R2 buttons are effectively 'joined' by the same piece of plastic, and pressing them in a reliable fashion is something of a lottery.
The Air Y I'm reviewing comes with a single Hall Effect analogue stick rather than two, as is the case with the Air Y Pro. This should tell you immediately what the proposed audience is for this device; while the Air Y Pro is capable of emulating PS2 and GameCube titles, its weaker sibling tops out at the Dreamcast – hence the single analogue stick (while we're on key differences, the Air Y has a single speaker, while the Air Y Pro has two).
The good news is that it handles Dreamcast games very well, so if that's your favourite retro system then this is a solid purchase. PlayStation and N64 also perform admirably, but Saturn emulation is a little inconsistent. Anything older than that runs perfectly fine, so if you're looking for decent Game Boy, GBA, Mega Drive, SNES, NES and arcade performance, the Air Y fits the bill.
In terms of general build quality, the Air Y is decent – it certainly feels superior to, say, Anbernic's systems, with solid plastic casing (which sadly shows up greasy fingerprints) and a robust design. The software running on the device is Android 14 (confusingly, the more expensive Air Y Pro is running 13, at least according to Mangmi's site).
Android isn't really designed for a screen with this aspect ratio, and navigating via touch is often maddening, but thankfully you can use the D-pad to make your way around many apps. Mangmi's aforementioned M Space 2.0 software sits on top of Android, and allows you to tinker with various settings – it's very much like AYASpace on AYANEO devices.
Given that the Air Y Pro exists and offers more power than this entry-level model, you might wonder why you'd ever bother with the weaker variant – but, when you consider the Air Y retails for around $95 and its more powerful stablemate is $160 (that's for the 4GB RAM / 64GB storage option – the top-spec 8GB RAM / 128GB storage version is almost $200), the decision is somewhat easier to make.
If you want PS2-level emulation and dual analogue sticks, you'll need to spend a little more on the Air Y Pro, but anyone more focused on Dreamcast and earlier might be better off looking at the cheaper SKU instead.
Thanks to Mangmi for supplying the Air Y used in this review.