Kinhank K36 Retro Handheld (Hardware) Review

Retro gaming on-the-go

Retro gaming is at an all-time fervor. It seems there are a million ways to play games from the 8 to 64-bit era. Handhelds have been gaining popularity for a while with devices like the Steam Deck and of course clone consoles such as Analogue’s Pocket device. I admit I am not a handheld guy most of the time. I prefer to game in front of a giant TV, but there is something about having my childhood in the palm of my hand. That brings us to today’s subject at hand, the Kinhank K36 Retro Handheld Console. Not sure what the numbers mean, but the rest is self-explanatory. This device comes in cheap and chock full of a bunch of games. The question is, who is this for?

The K36 is an odd-looking device out of the box. From the front everything seems par for the course. It has four face buttons, a d-pad, start and select as well as a home button. There are two analog sticks at the bottom and the screen looks great. On the back is where things get a little weird. There are four triggers which serve as the triggers as well as…well handheld got back. There are two love handles on the back to give a better grip and well…they work really well. It makes the triggers easier to hit and it is comfortable to hold for extended periods of time.

Baby got back!

MSRP: $72.00
Price I’d Pay: $72.00

The d-pad itself is very nice. I love how responsive it is, and I had no issues pulling off dragon punch motions, which is always the best test. The home button is right where I expect it to be. The face buttons are a little punchy for my tastes, but assuming they will break in over time. I never had issues hitting the right one, and that is what is important. The analog sticks are the sore spot. They are very small and have longer travel making them a little cumbersome to use. Thankfully for older games they are not required, but for things like Dreamcast titles, they are not ideal.

What’s in the box?

Also included in the box are a 64GB SD card, a charging cable, and an SD to USB converter to add new games. It is worth noting that this device does not have any sort of WiFi or internet connection, so updating things such as the emulators or backend is impossible. This is an ‘as-is’ device, so how it works out the box will not change over time outside of tweaking, which this backend allows. You can go into the individual emulator settings to change different settings such as resolution and various buffers. It is limited, but I was able to improve performance on several of the systems out of the box. This isn’t something most people who would likely be using this device would know, so don’t mess with things unless you are comfortable swapping them back.

Now let’s talk about specs. The K36 comes out of the box with the RK3266 processor with an ARM Cortex-A35 CPU running on a Linux core. Which is more than ample for most older titles. It has 1GB of RAM plus an 8GB ROM for performance. The screen is a 3.5-inch IPS with a resolution of 640×480 and it looks very slick. The pixels are clean, and the refresh rate really makes these games pop. The sound quality is decent for a handheld, but I still recommend plugging in some headphones for the best experience. The unit itself lasts around 4-5 hours on a full charge, and charges relatively fast with a simple USB connection, which is always nice. Who doesn’t have a million of those ports lying around?

But, what about the games?!

OK, we have all the specs and details out of the way, let’s get to the most important part of this review, the games! My review unit contained just shy of 10000 games out of the box. This included games from consoles such as the classic Atari consoles, the Wonderswan, Genesis, Sega CD, and even the Sharp X68000. The bulk of the games though are arcade ports running on Final Burn Neo. Needless to say there is a lot here. Sadly, no Nintendo games, but I am pretty sure I know why. Of course, more games can be added, and the unit comes with some QR codes to links on how to do that. I won’t go into that stuff here, there is another venture entirely.

Testing the games I was surprised how many of them ran great. Basically anything 8 and 16-bit runs like a dream. Even N64 games run decently. When you get into stuff like PlayStation, you will notice some hiccups the more you play. This showcases the limitations of the device. Thankfully running on a system like Emulec, there are ways to tweak this if you know how. There are a few games that did not run great, which include Saturn and Dreamcast games, which I was informed during the review would be removed going forward. This is wise as it is better to limit what you play as slow running games are no fun.

The design of this device is really well done.

My experience was great though. Playing some of these older games on a portable device is always a great novelty. As long as you go in knowing its limitations, you can find a ton of fun out of it. Arcade games are great for this device, and they run like a dream. That brings us to who this is for. Serious players are likely to have a dedicated emulator on their PC, so this is mostly an ideal gift for casual gamers. The issue with that comes into what they remember. Who isn’t going to ask if it has “Mario” when it comes to a casual gamer. So, if you know how to add those beforehand, it is great. Otherwise, you might have some weird stares asking what exactly is Bang Bead?

The K36 is a wonderfully designed device that does what it advertises. It has some downsides like no way to connect to the internet and a severe lack of that one company’s games, but outside of that it blew away my expectations. It is much more comfortable than it has any right to be. The d-pad and buttons feel good, and it runs the games well enough. If you are looking for something simple that just works for a portable emulation device, I definitely can recommend it, especially at this price point.

Purchase it here.

Review hardware provided by Kinhank.

Good
  • Design is excellent
  • Excellent d-pad
  • Lots of included games
Bad
  • Missing some obvious choices
  • Analog sticks are not great
8
Great
Written by
Ken is the Editor-in-Chief of this hole in the wall and he loves to troll for the fun of it. He also enjoys long walks through Arkham Asylum and the cool air of Shadow Moses Island. His turn-ons include Mortal Kombat, Metal Gear Solid and StarCraft.