Back when I reviewed the TrimUI Smart Pro in 2023, I found it to be a likeable emulation portable which was sadly held back by a lack of processing power and a particularly poor D-Pad.
You can imagine, then, why I was so intrigued when TrimUI announced it was having a second stab at the concept with the Smart Pro S, which has a more powerful chipset and various other revisions – the most appealing of which is a new, more raised directional pad.
The TrimUI Smart Pro S is powered by an Allwinner A523 chipset, running at 2.0GHz – this trumps the Allwinner A133 Plus found in the original model, and means that smooth higher-level emulation (such as PS1, Dreamcast, N64 and PSP) is possible.
The difference is like night and day when comparing the two systems, although it's worth noting that despite the upgrade, this isn't a device that's going to host PS2 or GameCube games.
The 4.96-inch, 1280 x 720p IPS screen remains unchanged from the original Smart Pro (outside of it offering touch capabilities this time around, so you can actually play DS games), and cosmetically, it's a close match to its ancestor – apart from that all-important D-Pad, of course.
| CPU | Allwinner A523 2.0GHz |
| GPU | Arm Mali G57MC1 744MHz |
| DRAM | 1GB LPDDR4 |
| Storage | 8GB eMMC / MicroSD expansion |
| Display | 4.96 inch, 720x1280-pixel, IPS, Touch |
| Wireless | WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (wifi6, 2.4GHz/5GHz) |
| Bluetooth | 5.4 |
| Audio | Stereo Speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Battery | 5000 mAh Li-polymer battery, 3.7V, with 6 hours battery life |
| Dimensions | Width: 187.4 mm (7.38 inch) Height: 79.8 mm (3.14 inch) Depth: 17.2 mm (0.68 inch) |
| Weight | 256 g |
On the 2023 model, the D-Pad sat too flush in the casing, making it difficult to execute diagonal movements due to the lack of pivot. On the Smart Pro S, it's a different kettle of fish; while it's not the best D-Pad I've ever used, it's leagues ahead of the original version, making 2D games a joy to play.
The analogue sticks remain the same, too – they're pretty small and squat, but still usable enough. The RGB lighting looks great in my opinion, although I'm aware that not everyone is so keen on this feature.
The other bugbear I had back in 2023 was the fact that the Smart Pro gets somewhat hot in use, and TrimUI has clearly been paying attention to user feedback, as it has installed a fan on this revised model, helping to keep things at a more reasonable temperature.
Outside of all of that, there's a lot of like about the Smart Pro S, in all honesty. The streamlined Linux-based UI is attractive and easy to navigate, and it's even possible to sort your games into genre or series categories, complete with unique artwork.
All in all, the TrimUI Smart Pro S is a significant improvement over the original model, yet it retains the $100 price point – making it very attractive for anyone keen to explore low-level emulation on the go.
For a little extra cash, you could perhaps stretch to a more powerful device and thereby unlock PS2 and GameCube-era performance, but if you're keen to remain in the '80s and '90s, then this is just the ticket.
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