I turned my TrimUI Brick Pro into a personalized music player — NXT Retro Music v1.8.3 (Stock + NextUI)
Hi everyone! I'm Spring Thong (Nguyễn Xuân Thông), and I've been working on NXT Retro Music, a music app for the TrimUI Brick Pro.
I wanted my handheld to feel like a little dedicated music player that I could make my own: different player designs, my own wallpaper and avatar, music for my mood, and controls that make sense on physical buttons.
Hands-on video: https://youtu.be/1eGTT-VCjQE?si=I-3EUkoG6u4UQUw\_
The part I'm most excited about is personalization:
- 36 player themes, including cassette, Walkman, reel-to-reel, MiniDisc, turntable, CRT and softer modern styles. The Original NXT player also keeps your wallpaper visible, with an album-cover or spinning-vinyl view.
- Separate listener profiles with their own appearance, favorites, playlists, listening history and statistics.
- 300 icons and 180 3D emoji, plus your own initials or a photo for your avatar. The avatar also appears in the startup profile chooser.
- A quick mood, genre and country check-in when entering the app, feeding the For you page with local listening suggestions and ways to discover tracks/playlists on Spotify and SoundCloud.
- LED colors and effects that change immediately, plus selectable spectrum styles and color palettes.
It is also a full music player:
- Local music: FLAC, WAV, MP3, AAC, OGG, Opus and M4A, including ALAC; browse folders, artists and albums, search/sort, manage the queue, save playlists and resume listening.
- Spotify Premium playback with QR/code pairing, eligible public SoundCloud tracks/playlists, public Google Drive music links, internet radio, podcasts and YouTube music downloads.
- 12 EQ presets, a simple five-band custom EQ and advanced DSP/parametric EQ controls, with ReplayGain and track-transition options.
- Bluetooth and compatible USB DAC output, with source-quality information kept separate from the actual output/PCM information.
- Full-screen lyrics when lyrics are available, shuffle, repeat, favorites, background playback and remappable button shortcuts.
- Wi-Fi file transfer from a phone or computer browser, so adding music does not require removing the SD card each time.
- 14 interface languages with matching on-screen keyboards, searchable settings and in-app help.
- Separate Stock and NextUI installers, plus in-app OTA updates when a matching release source is configured.
New in v1.8.3: the sleep timer saves your position/settings, stops playback and fully exits the app, including a background session. The firmware then handles screen-off and sleep according to its own settings. It does not force an instant deep sleep.
There are Battery saver, Balanced and Performance modes for the visuals, and the app skips interface/spectrum rendering while hidden or with the screen off. I am focusing on responsive controls and avoiding unnecessary work; I do not have a measured battery-life or temperature comparison to claim.
Why use it instead of the bundled Music app?
For me, the appeal is having a much more personal listening space and putting local music, online sources, EQ/output controls, lyrics and file transfer into one organized app. You do not need to replace your firmware to use the Stock build.
This project builds on the community NextUI Music Player foundation. Credit to its original authors and maintainers for the playback, radio, podcast and download foundations — those deserve recognition too.
The images are native UI previews with demo track/profile/audio data. I'm also recording a hands-on video on the actual device.
Hands-on video: (108) App NXT Retro Music for Trimui Brick Pro - YouTube
Download — Stock / NextUI: NXT Retro Music v1.8.3 - Google Drive
Illustrated feature guide + user manual: Product_Guide - Google Drive
I'd love feedback from other Brick Pro owners, especially on the themes, button layout, Bluetooth/DAC behavior and sleep/wake experience. Which player style would you use?
Support the project ☕
If you enjoy NXT Retro Music and would like to support its continued development, you can buy me a coffee via PayPal:
Your support helps me spend more time improving the app, polishing the themes, and developing future updates.
Donations are completely optional. Feedback, bug reports, and sharing the project are also very welcome.
Thanks for trying NXT Retro Music and supporting a small community project! 💚