Miyoo Mini Plus vs. the Original Mini

TLDR: The Miyoo Mini Plus is a beautiful, solid, near-perfect piece of hardware.  Charming? Not really. Competent? Extremely.  Worth the upgrade from the Original? Probably.

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I ordered three v2 Miyoo Minis in March of 2022 (along with 2 Powkiddy V90s) with the intent to give out the lot as gifts to my buddies.  The second I opened the Miyoo Mini (OG Mini) case, I fell in love.  The compact, purposeful shape, the minimal bezels, the button feel, and of course, the catalog of games the Mini could play.  Somehow, the retro gray model never made it out of my house.  Soon, Onion OS was installed on all of the units and the Minis were transformed into a dream machine.  The ultimate pick up and play retro emulator.  

For the last year plus, I would play my Mini and when I powered it down and lay it on the table next to me I constantly said to myself "I love this thing" or "this is frickin' incredible".  Maybe the best gaming device I've experienced next to my first force feedback racing wheel.  However, given my advanced age, sometime last summer my Mini gained an accessory: reading glasses. If I knew I would be playing my Mini, I'd have to also bring my reading glasses (or narrow the types of games I planned to play). Enter the Miyoo Mini Plus (Mini+).

There's really no reason for a Gen 1 Mini owner to buy a Mini+, on paper, unless the Mini form factor was impossible to adapt to.  Supply issues should probably have pushed those buyers into the Anbernic RG35xx, anyway. It had been an easy decision to hold off "upgrading" to the larger Plus, but I finally got too annoyed always taking out the reading glasses to enjoy a quick gaming session.  In the interest of my long-term eye care, the Mini+ is no more expensive than a decent pair of prescription reading glasses.

Before ordering the Mini+, a youtuber described it perfectly as the size of a 2.5" portable hard drive.  I happened to have one in the drawer next to me so I picked it up and fiddled with it in my hands.  It seem like the perfect size, at least linearly when looking at height and width, but some of the major dimensions that differ from the Mini+ do so for very practical reasons, to be described later.

I ordered my unit in transparent black from Amazon, and for an acceptable premium, but with the luxury of having it delivered to my door within 36 hours.  In the meantime, I downloaded the version of Onion OS that is reported to work with both devices.  I upgraded the OG Mini with the intent to take my SD card straight from that device and drop it into the Mini+(with roms, saves, cheats and settings all ready to go). 

=== As an aside, that process worked flawlessly.  I upgraded both units to the same beta version.  I slid in my old card and I was up and running almost seamlessly.  The Recently Played and Favorites tabs had some games, but not all, from my OG Mini, and the activity tracker does not seem to work in this build. Otherwise, this is another feather in the cap of Onion OS. ===

Unboxing the Mini+ revealed a couple surprises: 1) the weight of the unit, and 2) the thickness of the base of the unit.  These are the two major differences from the HDD I mentioned above.  The thick base allows the trigger and shoulder buttons to rest on top of them, and houses a larger battery, so that is an acceptable reason for that surprise.  And the weight: while substantially heavier than the OG Mini, it is still not *heavy*.  It is slightly weightier than a decent smartphone, but extremely well balanced.  

This leads to the source of my strongest feelings towards the Mini+.  It is tactilely one of the greatest things I've held in my hand.  The OG Mini is nice and fun to roll the small piece of retro greatness between your fingers, but it feels almost cheap compared to the Mini+.  The rattle-y shoulder buttons never bothered me...until I held the Mini+.  Its tightness and solidity is very satisfying to hold, and a pleasure to play on. The face buttons and D-pad feel the same but tighter, and I could chalk that up to use and wear of my OG Mini. But there are three other changes from the OG, and they vary from minor to major, that enhance the gameplay experience immensely.

1) The menu button: it is slightly more raised out of the body.  Also, it features a slightly shorter, firmer throw which makes it easier to press and provides more feedback.  It feels like the almost-hidden and recessed button on the OG was something that was not to be pressed unless you really, really wanted it to be.

2) The volume buttons: I know that reviewers love volume wheels, and I do too, generally. I initially considered the move to buttons to be a downgrade, but it is not the case. The buttons feels good and are easy to press.  The volume goes down to an acceptably low level (which is more important to me than loud volume). But crucially, the latest version of Onion OS has integrated a thin green line on the left edge of the screen to indicate your volume level.  I don't think I've raised it higher than 20-25% yet, and it provides plenty of volume.  But I love that little touch.

3) Shoulder buttons: boo yah. I didn't hate the OG shoulder buttons, but they were without a doubt flawed but an acceptable compromise in light of the whole package.  Somehow I adjusted to them and maybe steered away from games that heavily used them, but not consciously. The Mini+ shoulder buttons are about as good as I can expect on a system that is still fairly small. The triggers are easy to reach, they don't need your thumb to press on the face of the device to counter the weight of pressing on the L2/R2. The shoulder bumpers are still very usuable, though I find myself using the pad of the knuckle to activate the button.  The click is extremely satisfying, a firm, yet dampened click, it provides very positive feedback. If I have the Mini+ in my jacket pocket, I even find myself reaching in and casually clicking those buttons.  Its like a retro gaming fidget cube.  And that feeling applies to several of the interface buttons.  And finally, the back edge of the shoulder buttons have a 2-3 millimeter vertical surface that blends smoothly into the lower half of the device.  It feels great on the fingers, it makes the buttons pressable by just pushing on that back surface, and also it makes the back of the device completely smooth where the OG Mini has little sharp edges on the buttons that, while that doesn't make it less pocketable, made it less elegant.

Wrap-up: We all know what and how it plays.  The changes incorporated into the Mini+ without a doubt make for a more enjoyable gaming experience.  Is it as cute as the OG Mini? Not by a mile.  Is it a beautiful device? My opinion is heck, yes. The whole thing feels more quality then the OG, and for that reason, I can justify paying the premium I did.  (That, and the price on eBay I will likely get for my OG Mini...) Is it pocketable? For me, who lives in the Northeast US and wears jeans that fit properly, not really.  I can't wear RGC Russ's baggy shorts on the reg, so in pants pockets it's uncomfortable.  When it gets to cargo short season, I could see it going into the thigh pockets.  Definitely fits into a jacket pocket, though.  But if you're carrying any sort of bag, you can get a Amazon Basics HDD drive case, throw the Mini+ in there and have it with you in a safe and secure pouch.

If you love your OG Mini and plan to continue using it regularly, but you want/need a bigger screen, I believe the overall upgrades to the device justify the addition of a Miyoo Mini Plus to your hardware collection.