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The Thumby is a 0.42 inch 9:5 Proprietary handheld, made by TinyCircuits. It came out in January 2022 at $19. Inside is the Raspberry Pi RP2040 with 264 KB of RAM.
Thumby videos
What it plays
Plays up to: 8 and 16-bit. Chip: Raspberry Pi RP2040.
Scores out of 100. 100 means the system runs at full speed with no known issues on this device. 80 or more plays well (green), 50 to 79 plays partly (yellow).
What the specs mean
No headphone jack
Audio goes over Bluetooth or the speakers. Bluetooth adds a delay you can notice in rhythm games.
Based on: Layout data; Bluetooth audio latency is a known limit of the standard
Rating
How we score: what it plays 30%, how many players own and recommend it 20%, screen 15%, price compared with handhelds that play as much 10%, controls 10%, size and weight 10%, battery size for its chip 5%.
Good
- OLED screen with deep blacks
- Low price
Not so good
- No analog sticks
- PS1 games do not run reliably
- No Wi-Fi
- No video out
Specs
| Performance | |
|---|---|
| Chip | Raspberry Pi RP2040 |
| CPU | Cortex-M0+ |
| Cores | 2 |
| Clock speed | 133 MHz |
| RAM | 264 KB SRAM |
| Cooling | No |
| Screen | |
| Size | 0.42" |
| Type | OLED |
| Resolution | 72 x 40 |
| Refresh rate | 60 Hz |
| Pixel density | 196 ppi |
| Aspect ratio | 9:5 |
| Dual screen | No |
| Controls | |
| D-pad | Cross, Lower placement |
| Analog sticks | No |
| Stick layout | No Thumbsticks |
| Shoulder buttons | No L2/R2 |
| Rumble | No |
| Gyroscope | No |
| Connectivity | |
| Storage | 2 MB |
| SD card | No |
| Wi-Fi | No |
| Bluetooth | No |
| USB-C | No |
| Video out | No |
| Headphone jack | No |
| Build | |
| Form factor | Vertical |
| Dimensions | 18 x 29.5 x 8.5 mm |
| Weight | 5 g |
| Battery | 40 mAh |
| Shell | Plastic |
| Speakers | Back |
| Software | |
| Operating system | Proprietary |
Questions
Can the Thumby play PS2 games?
Not well. PS2 scores 0 out of 100.
Does it have a headphone jack?
No. Use Bluetooth headphones or the speakers.
How big is the battery?
40 mAh. The middle Linux and other handheld in our database has 3,000 mAh.
Can it connect to a TV?
No, it has no video out.
How much does the Thumby cost?
It launched at about $19 in Jan 2022. Prices on the used market change, so check current listings.
Price and newer models
$19 at launch
Similar handhelds
Specs and emulation scores from the retrocatalog.com handheld database. The score out of 10 is our own.