Hyperkin’s SmartBoy phone accessory has hit Amazon at a price of $50 (specifically $49.99) although at the moment it is only available to pre-order with the device set to be launched officially on August 21st, for those who would rather wait till it actually launches before they decide to buy one. The SmartBoy for those that are unaware, though it’s likely to be obvious from the images for anyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s, is a device which basically turns your smartphone into a traditional GameBoy, complete with the D-Pad, the start and select buttons, and the A and B buttons, yet nothing else as this is a call back to the original so there are no extra controls. Though it is worth mentioning that there are obviously some updates, as this doesn’t require batteries like an original GameBoy.
While your first thought might be that this is aimed at those who want a more nostalgic way to play GameBoy game ROMs, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The SmartBoy lets you play actual GameBoy and GameBoy Color cartridges, so if you use to have one or both of those handheld systems when you were younger but can no longer find the systems themselves, Hyperkin’s SmartBoy is your solution to booting up some of your favorite games from that era.
Hyperkin says that these were designed for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus “and up,” while mentioning that compatibility with other devices may vary, so you may want to consider that before snagging one. That being said there is already a list of devices which have verified support, including the ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, the Honor 8, OnePlus 2, 3, and 3T, Xiaomi Mi 5, and more. The SmartBoy is going to be compatible with screen sizes from 5.2-inches all the way up to 6-inches, though it’s hard to imagine it not working for phones with a 5-inch screen as well as there isn’t much of a difference between 5 and 5.2, not to mention the Pixel is on the support list, and it doesn’t have a 5.2-inch screen. The device uses USB Type-C so presumably it’ll work with a wide variety of phones as long as they have this port for charging and data transfer, and it will even upscale the resolution of the games to the resolution of your smartphone’s display. Neat, right? If you’re looking to pick one of these up, you can grab it from Amazon as well as Hyperkin’s own online shop.
Buy The Hyperkin SmartBoy
