MANGMI AIR X | A Casual Gamer’s Review

A budget handheld that looks and feels far more expensive than it is. Just don't ask it to do more than it was built for.

A Throwback to Genuinely Fun Handhelds

Despite being relative newcomers to the handheld scene, MANGMI have produced what feels like a throwback to the days of genuinely fun portable devices that could play a decent array of titles. That doesn’t make the Air X free of limitations, and we’ll drill into some of them. First, though, a note on how this review came about. MANGMI sent me the Air X you can see here. They haven’t seen any of the content before it went live, and they’ve left you a little extra discount, which you can find in the video description.

Know Its Limits

Let’s start with the limitations, because this is ultimately a budget device running a fairly mid-tier chip, the Snapdragon 662 with an Adreno 610 GPU. Systems like the GBA thrive on the Air X, but once you reach the PSP, it becomes a bit of a coin toss for any individual game. Lighter titles such as Valkyria Chronicles run perfectly, and it’s an amazing system for a game like that. Push up to something like Colin McRae and you’ll notice crashes and compatibility issues, and Assassin’s Creed is a stuttery mess. Anything that aims for 60 frames per second or needs more thermal headroom is going to struggle. That even seems to include some Android titles, and Pokémon Champions really struggles to get going here, although it could simply be poorly optimised for Android at the moment.

I’m careful not to hold the device to too high a standard, since it has an older chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It isn’t the kind of handheld you want to push into your Steam library with. The real story is that it’s so well built that it creates the illusion it should be able to reach those titles, and that’s an unfair expectation. Getting carried away with power misses the point. If you play within its comfort zone, this is an incredible little package.

Looks and Feels Far More Expensive Than It Is

The Air X looks and feels so much more expensive than it really is, and that’s a huge part of the appeal. It’s a fun little device you instantly want to jump into. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the Retroid Pocket 3 and appreciate the power packed into it. But if you don’t want to pay extra for a more performant chip or an OLED display, this device sits at a real sweet spot.

The design is sleek and minimalist. You can get it in a more retro colourway, but I’m always a sucker for a safety orange pop on any device, and I think it looks really clean, especially with the arrow details on the D-pad and the RGB backlights underneath the joysticks. There’s basically no wasted space, yet the joysticks are still inset a little compared with the D-pad and face buttons, which gives you a nice pivot when moving between the two. That’s possible because the joysticks are quite small.

Built for the D-Pad

The D-pad sits up top, so if you’re like me, you’ll naturally default to systems like the PSP, where you rely more on the D-pad than the sticks anyway. Prolonged play on the joysticks can tire your hands, because you’re forced to hold the device in a kind of crimp position. The back is moulded into a grip that’s meant to fit your palm, and that works if you’re playing mainly with the D-pad. If you hold the controller a little lower, you end up in a pinching position, so it’s best suited to the D-pad and face buttons. That’s part of what makes it so pocketable, since the flat profile slides easily into a flat pouch or pocket.

The dimensions also put Start and Select underneath the right joystick, with Home and Back under the left. I found those positions odd. I’m used to Start next to the face buttons and Select next to the D-pad, and in a game like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, where I’m constantly pressing Start to retry a level, I kept searching for the button up top. It’s unintuitive for me.

Buttons, Triggers and Screen

The face buttons and D-pad are very good indeed. The D-pad has quite a lot of tension, which I appreciate, and it’s raised almost to the level of the joystick, so it’s easy to find, and reaction times have felt really good. The face buttons have less tension and a sticky feel, with a satisfying click, and I like the varied colours of the Y, X, A and B buttons. The shoulder buttons and triggers are also really nice and clicky. They don’t curve so far round the device that you mispress them, and you get a good connection wherever you press. The triggers have a rotating, Dreamcast-style feel with plenty of tension, so they aren’t as flappy as the AYN Thor’s.

The power button and volume rocker sit along the top, a common placement on handhelds built on a mobile phone platform. I don’t always find it the best spot for volume, because you have to reach over and can easily mispress if you’re not used to it. The top also has the airflow vents, and you’ll need them, because the device gets quite warm even in undemanding games. It draws air in and pushes it out through the top. The fans can also whirr at quite a high pitch when you really push it. The bottom has a TF card slot, a headphone jack and a USB-C port.

It’s a really well-built device for the price. The smooth plastic doesn’t feel cheap, and it hasn’t scratched much despite being carried in bags. I’m also a big fan of the display, a 1080p IPS panel of around 5.5 inches that’s really sharp with quite good colour accuracy. It could be a little more vibrant, but at this price you’re getting a great deal, and with the device potentially costing under £100, there’s nothing to moan about.

Final Thoughts

The heat and the fan noise are where you run up against the limits of the Air X, but dwelling on them misses the point of what is essentially a great little device for casual gamers. If you pay substantially more for something like the Retroid Pocket 6, you’ll get better performance and can reach even into Steam titles, but you might start to feel too precious about it to take it out on the bus. So although MANGMI sent me this device, I can absolutely recommend it. We should all be excited about what MANGMI have to offer if this is the starting point for their devices going forward.

My recommendation: If you want a stylish, well-built handheld for games up to around mid-tier PSP level, the MANGMI Air X is a great buy at this price. If you want PSP-and-beyond performance or Steam streaming, look at something more powerful like the Retroid Pocket 6.