MagicX Zero 40 impresses in initial reviews after surprise early release

The MagicX Zero 40 has been out for just over a week at this point after its early release on June 24. Following on from the Mini Zero 28 (curr. $78.99 on Amazon), the Zero 40 features the same Allwinner A133P chipset and 2 GB of DDR4 RAM as its smaller counterpart. However, MagicX has designed the Zero 40 with Nintendo DS and TATE emulation in mind, for which it has a portrait display.

Based on early reviews, MagicX's latest gaming handheld achieves the company's stated aims. According to the likes of Joey's Retro Handhelds, Retro Handhelds and Retro Game Corps, the Zero 40 is relatively comfortable despite its 136 x 105 x 17 mm dimensions. Likewise, the gaming handheld is said to offer decent controls if on the small side compared with many popular standalone controllers.

The inclusion of Dawn Launcher seemingly provides a solid out-of-the-box experience, too. While the Zero 40 focuses on Nintendo DS and vertical arcade games, its pre-installed Android 14 ROM allows it to play any Android game, either in its default orientation or rotated 90 degrees. As it stands, the Zero 40 is only available from MagicX directly, starting at $75 with a 64 GB microSD card. Please see the videos below for more details, as well as our original launch article.