I Tested the TrimUI Smart Pro TomatoOS 1.0.4 Beta 4

I have been a fan of the TrimUI Smart Pro since it was release a few months ago. For a price below $100 it has a premium feel with buttons that don’t rattle. That’s not all that’s great and along with those the screen stands out as well.

Not all was amazing with the handheld at launch however. There are some really tiny joysticks I can only presume are from a PS Vita and a limited operating system not only in appearance but overall performance as well. TechToyTinker has taken on the herculean task of modernizing the operating system for the benefit of the community. If you want to see my initial review checkout the video below:

One of the biggest updates which is coming to the official firmware release from TrimUI is the addition of Vulken. Vulken is a back-end replacement from OpenGL to assist less powerful devices in performance. If you have been around the Retro Handheld scene for a while you are familiar with the difference this can make. It doesn’t go without consequence in some situations with loss to accuracy but the good outweighs the bad when it comes to performance on weaker chip-sets.

Instead of trying to go through each update that I either discovered or was interested instead of doing a breakdown of each feature I am going to paste my notes below:

New Additions with TomatoOS:

*Vulken Support 

  *Not yet working though listed in PPSSPP

*Change music

*Turn background music On/Off

*Add your own background music

*Swap logo/text

*Nearly 100 emulators supported

*Improved N64 performance

*GBA powerhouse 

*NeoGeo need .neo files to read otherwise put them in the Finalburn Neo (fbneo) Folder

*LED’s show CPU temp in game 

Some things I found still need attention:

*Needs a scrapper

*Looking forward to PSP optimization with the addition of Vulken

*LED’s stay powered on when in standby 

*Would like access to Standalone Emulators when not in game 

*OTA firmware updates

*When scrolling through menus should wrap around when you get to end

These are just a few of the additions I noticed and suggestions I would have with this operating system going forward. The thing is I don’t know if these changes I would make are plausible I am not a dev. It’s more of a wish list,

After I got done reviewing this and the Video to YouTube the Vulken back-end support was added to PSP. I have downloaded but haven’t had a chance to try out the new updates yet but I am excited to see improvements through the stand alone PPSSPP emulator.

This is obviously on going but if you want to see this in action as of publishing checkout the video below. Other wise if you want to wait until there are further updates stay tuned because I am following this development closely.

Thank you again @TechToyTinker for making this great handheld even greater.