MagicX Zero 40 Review - A Single-Screen Nintendo DS?

It feels like the handheld emulator scene has become more exciting over the last couple of months, thanks to the release of one of the first sliding screen emulators known as the RG Slide, and now this, the MagicX Zero 40.

An affordable retro handheld dedicated to emulating Nintendo DS and Arcade classics... that's it.

No attempt at trying to be the jack of all trades. MagicX wants to please Nintendo DS fans, and that's it. It's a ballsy move, but one I respect. They've kept the price at a reasonable $75, too, which is fairly cheap in comparison to many other devices with this power capability and larger production quantity.

But that said, does this "newish" brand have what it takes to stand out, and does the market actually want something like this?

Product Details

• Available From: Mid 2025
• Pricing: $75
• Where To Buy: MagicX & AliExpress
• Competition: An Original Nintendo DS (Half The Price)
• Our Video Review

MagicX Zero 40 Specifications

• 1.8GHz AllWinner Cortex-A53 A133P CPU
• 2GB DDR4 RAM
• 4" IPS Display (480x800)
• 4300mAh Battery (4 - 6 Hours)
• WiFi & Bluetooth
• Hall Joystick

In The Hand

Once you open up the fairly well-designed box, you will be greeted with the very wide and very tall Zero 40. At first glance, I was confident this would feel somewhat awkward in the hand, but I was quickly mistaken.

The large, certainly not pocket-friendly device feels incredibly comfortable because of the sheer land mass that this device takes up, as if you're holding a small plate or an old Nintendo 2DS.

The shell quality is pretty average, with very little rattling of the internals (which is an easy way to determine if a handheld is built poorly).

The buttons, located naturally on the face of the device, are smaller than I am used to but felt very familiar, and that's because MagicX have tried to replicate the button size from the Nintendo DS.

They've replicated them well, although slightly more firm, additional gloss finish to the action buttons and a firmer DPAD, which does have a slight issue. The directional force on the DPAD is so easily spread that I can use left or right to also move up and down with enough force.

This does become even more evident when playing fast-paced games with force, or, for me, it made Pokémon games slightly annoying at times. It only happens when you're using a slightly above average force, so you can get around it, but nonetheless, it should not be possible for me to press multiple triggers of the DPAD in one single direction.

The analogue stick feels a little lonely in the bottom left-hand corner, but it is a hall joystick and feels comfortable with a good amount of motion to it. The rubber does touch the plastic instead of reaching its full movement capacity, but you only notice this when you get a close look. I worry that the rubber will wear away after months or years of use, but only time will tell!

The shoulder buttons are certainly cheap and require a tiny bit of force to press. There have been numerous occasions where my finger weight will press them down, so I can't even rest them up top without it causing issues.

These are not great shoulder buttons at all, and I wish they took a bit more time to perfect them, or change them entirely to flared shoulder buttons, as this device is too big to fit in a pocket, so the extra thickness wouldn't sacrifice portability at all.

But that aside, in the hand, this is a very comfortable device, with very little weight to it, good distance for adult hands and the buttons do their job!

The vertical display

This features a 4" IPS display with a resolution of 480 x 800 in a vertical format, likely taken from cheap smartphones from back in the day and used innovatively in a handheld form factor for vertical and dual-screen games.

What's great about it is that it's somewhat small, to add to the form factor and is touch-screen straight out of the box, meaning there's no setup to get the touch part of Nintendo DS emulation working. Perfect for those giving this as a gift to retro noobs.

If you combine both screens of a Nintendo DS, it is larger in comparison to the Zero 40 here, so you are losing some real estate, about a 15% size reduction in comparison, but it still keeps its cuteness.

The resolutions also don't pair up perfectly for flawless 2x native resolution either, as the Nintendo DS had a resolution of 256 x 192 pixels per screen, so you're getting closer to 1.8 or 1.9x, which does look good and far crisper in comparison on this device.

The display is bright enough for outdoor use, has great touch response and good viewing angles too. I've seen better displays, but on a $75 device, from a fairly new company this is a good choice, I have no complaints.

The OS/UX

This is technically an Android handheld, running on Android 10 with a custom front end called Dawn Launcher, designed to make it as easy as possible to jump into Nintendo DS and Arcade games. And that it does.

From the moment you turn it on, there are over 1400 ROMs already pre-installed on here within the DS and vertical arcade niches, which Nintendo will not like, and I personally don't believe handhelds should be pre-installing ROMs on their devices, because... well, it's illegal in most countries.

You can (and should) install your own, but it's a pain in the backside. It will not recognise or organise my ROM files from my external SD card, I had to drag and drop these ROM files onto the internal storage for it to notice them.

This is a step too far for consumers who receive this as a gift if they want to add their own ROMs or explore new consoles, so it's a shame that MagicX has overcomplicated it here, as it should be as simple as adding in an SD card and reading it like most other devices in the space.

But once you get past that, the Dawn Launcher organises them all nicely with displayed box art if you have the time and patience to add these too. It will get some file names mixed up as it reads ZIP file names in some consoles, but it just means even more organisation is needed from the user when setting up, which I don't have the patience for.

Or you can load a ROM from your external SD card using the Android emulator apps, which is what I found myself doing. This worked fine and allows you to explore more console,s should you be willing to accept that odd screen ratio.

Gaming Experience

Now, I want to make it very clear from the get-go that this is not a good retro handheld for those wanting to emulate anything other than Nintendo DS and vertical arcade games.

The wasted screen real estate adds big black borders and crops the screen size down to around 2.5" when using half of the screen... that ain't fun.

So, this review is only going to focus on what its actually good at, and that's Nintendo DS. DS emulation doesn't take a lot of processing power, which is good news for the Zero 40 as it doesn't have much.

That said, Nintendo DS emulation is a bunch of fun on here; the unique screen ratio fits two screens nicely, usually with a small menu border or chin to take up the extra space and to remove black borders.

The touch screen works flawlessly, you can switch around the screens if you're a little crazy, and you can even use the emulator's extra features, such as fast forward, to add a unique perspective to this that the original hardware cannot do.

Colours are well saturated, with contrasts being on the slightly darker side, but there's nothing for me to complain about here in terms of visuals. Would I like it to be a little brighter, yes, but I've got by with this, and it beats the Nintendo DS by far in terms of brightness.

What I would have liked to see was an added stylus. I know this may go against certain Nintendo patents that are still in action, but that hasn't stopped China before. A stylus would add to the fun on certain games and be a neat way to play those classic puzzle games of the past.

Overall Opinion & Is It Worth It Over Original Hardware?

I don't hate this device. It does what it's meant to do, and it doesn't have a care in the world for emulating other consoles.

It's small enough to be portable, DS games look incredibly crisp thanks to the integer scaling, and games are fluid if you can past the slightly annoying DPAD.

It's one of the best handheld emulators for those who want to focus on Nintendo DS games. It's also worth noting that this is one of MagicX's first mass-produced handhelds and their first shot at making something good, which they have done.

It's not going to blow you away with quality when it comes to the build, but its comfortable and is a lot of fun to use. The OS and front-end ain't bad either.

That said, is it better than using original hardware... no, not in my opinion. The original hardware comes with a few more benefits, but the Zero 40 has the option to use Android emulation, fast forward, and obviously keep a multitude of DS ROMs on one console, so I will leave that to you to decide if it's worth "upgrading".

If you don't have a Nintendo DS, then yes, it's worth giving it a go if you want something different.