Do you still have a pile of Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges gather dust in a drawer somewhere in your house AND do you also have a Samsung Galaxy S8? Then your retro dreams have just come true with SmartBoy.
SmartBoy from Hyperkin is a module that attaches to the bottom of your S8 (and a select group of other Android phones) to turn it into a Game Boy / Game Boy Color device right down to those iconic controller buttons.
This device doesn’t require batteries. It plugs into the Type-C port on the bottom of the S8. You supply the Game Boy cartridge and then all that’s left is to have fun playing your favorite games.
The SmartBoy is priced at $49.99 and will start shipping on 8/21/17. You can read more about it and check the device compatibility list at hyperkinlab.com
Filed in categories: News
Tagged: Game controllers, Gaming Gear
SmartBoy turns your Samsung Galaxy S8 into a Game Boy originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 8, 2017 at 8:00 am.
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There are more features to this little speaker than just playing music via Bluetooth. It comes with Bluetooth, an FM radio, TF (microSD) card slot for playback and recording, and an auxiliary port.
Of course, the FM radio I had to try out first. To do so, you press the ‘M’ button on the back of the speaker until you reach the FM mode. I like to jump into things without reading instructions, so of course, I did that at first. I could not get a signal for the life of me. Well, I pressed the play button (via the instruction manual) and it found several signals that it saved to memory. Not only that, the FM broadcasts that were auto-saved came in pretty darn clear, and I could scroll through them easily with the volume buttons.
The volume buttons actually are volume and forward/backward buttons. Holding down the up or down button will change the volume, while a single tap will change your track or radio station. It might take a few tries to get used to how long to press it for the volume.
Pairing the Bluetooth was very simple. I pressed the pairing button on the back of the speaker and it showed up on my device right away and each time I turned on the speaker, it paired quickly to my phone. It will verbally tell you it is paired as well. Pressing play would automatically start whatever was last playing on my phone which was nice since after the initial pairing, I technically didn’t even need to pick up and use my phone to listen to music.
There is a stand on the back of the speaker to keep the speaker upright but also can double as a phone stand. I thought this was pretty nifty and it worked well to hold the phone. On tabletops, the vibrations from the speaker would make the unit move around, so I had to be extra careful not to let it fall off of an edge. There are rubbery feet on the bottom to prevent it from moving, but they are too far forward when it is angled on the stand, so they do not work.
