Hands-On with the MagicX One 35, a $55 Handheld That Fits in Your Pocket

The MagicX One 35 handheld starts at $55 and sits squarely in the sweet spot between mimicking outdated systems and the reality of a pocketbook that doesn’t cry. Whether you put it in your pocket or backpack, you’ll be ready for some retro gaming fun.

For the time being, pre-order pricing is generous, with the base model costing $55 and featuring 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage until October 25, 2025. After that, it’s $59 until November 25th, then $63. The updated variant with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage costs $65 currently, $69 until November 25, and then $73. Those pricing come from the MagicX store, where the device is currently sold out in black for $71—though this could be a higher configuration or a snapshot taken before the pre-order went live. There are three color options, but the renders reveal a sleek black that would look perfectly at home in your pants pocket.

The One 35’s dimensions tell the true story of portability, as it measures 153 x 70 x 19mm and weighs 189g, making it small enough to forget it’s there until you need it. That thin shell includes a 3.5-inch IPS display with 960×640 resolution and 700 nits of peak brightness, sharp enough to see pixel-perfect sprites in broad daylight without washing away the hues of a sunset-colored Zelda game. That much brightness eliminates the need to squint on a park seat, and the screen’s 4:3 aspect ratio is compatible with everything from Game Boy Advance games to vertical fighting games.

Powered by a MediaTek Helio G85 chipset, an improvement from the originally planned Helio P65, which MagicX mentioned on their Discord server earlier this year. This chip contains two ARM Cortex-A75 cores and six Cortex-A55 cores, as well as a Mali-G52 MP2 GPU for graphics processing. Benchmarks reveal that the G85 surpasses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 in rivals like as the Mangmi Air X, with greater results in AnTuTu, 3DMark Wild Life, and Geekbench – practically doubling in several GPU tests due to the faster clock speed. Loading times are rapid, and multitasking across emulators is flawless, thanks to up to 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB of eMMC 5.1 storage, as well as microSD expansion.

A 4,300 mAh cell provides power via 10-watt USB Type-C charging, rounding out the battery life. Expect hours (possibly a long haul international flight) of play time from a single charge, enough to last through a Metroid marathon without needing to find an outlet. Controls are also solid: a Hall effect joystick that does not drift throughout long sessions, and two D-pads for vertical shooters that demand a rotating grip. Stereo speakers produce crisp audio, transforming solo runs into immersive soundscapes, and the entire system runs on Android 12 with the Dawn Launcher skin for rapid access to your library. Pre-orders are already available on their website, and global shipping begins November 26, 2025.
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