FunKey Is a Complete Handheld Game Console That Fits on Your Keychain

Portability is the entire purpose of a handheld video game console, and so they’re usually as small as they can be. There are, however, constraints that limit how small they are. The first is technical: it’s simply difficult to pack all of the required hardware into a tiny package. The second is practical: you need to be able to actually hold the console, press the buttons, and see the screen. The new open source FunKey project is a completely custom handheld console that pushes those boundaries as far as possible.

FunKey measures just 42.5 x 44.5 x 13.8 mm (about 1.67 x 1.75 x 0.54 inches) when it’s closed, and easily fits onto a keychain. It’s the successor to the Keymu and the FunKey Zero, which were also open source tiny handheld consoles. Like its predecessors, the FunKey is capable of running multiple video game emulators from the 16-bit era and earlier. The unique Game Boy Advance SP-style folding clamshell design is perfect for a console this small, because it allows for a larger screen and buttons while also protecting the screen while it’s in your pocket.

Notably, FunKey isn’t running RetroPie, like most other miniature handheld consoles. It doesn’t even utilize a Raspberry Pi. Instead it’s running a completely custom Linux operating system based on Debian. The processor is an Arm Cortex-A7 that can reach speeds of up to 1.2GHz, and that’s combined with 64MB of DDR2 RAM on an Allwinner V3s SoC. That’s soldered onto a custom PCB that was designed to be as small as possible. FunKey is still under heavy development, but there are plans to make it available to the public as soon as the team can have it ready.