So umm well, these are a thing and pretty cool, they have developed a decent "scene". I finally broke down and ordered a RG 351p. It has a 3.5" display. It ran about 100 bucks which for me is the sweet spot on these. The controls were good, display pretty decent. Holding pretty much every 16 bit and earlier game ever in the palm of your hand is so cool in that I'm in the future imagine what kid me would have thought way. I ended up having to return it, it was fine but on certain games the audio, particularly bass, seemed rattly. Most people probably would have kept it, it was not too bad, but I returned it. But I will likely get another unit, maybe a nicer one such as the RG 552 (I believe). Which runs more like 150, but has a big and very high quality 5" screen. My only issue is once you get to 150 I keep thinking "only a little more to a Switch Light". But then truth be told I'd probably rather have one of these. Unfortunately the chip shortages probably hit these like everything else and prices have climbed a bit, but still very reasonable.
I have already learned a few brands. For example Anbernic has become a popular brand, and is apparently known for good build quality (that is of course, relative!). These being Chinese, if you need to return one it can be a problem. Generally you can choose to order one from China direct (alibaba etc) and it may arrive in a month, or pay a bit more to order from a reseller on Amazon or Ebay and get faster shipping and guaranteed returns.
People seem to be waiting currently for the "next gen" expected to sport 5" screens and more powerful chips. Their is a "standard" chip the RK 3326 a lot of them use and it struggles with higher end emulation. People are waiting for the next wave of chips. Personally I do not much care as I am not interested in anything beyond 2D emulation.
Some, increasingly more probably, come with ROMS preloaded. Which I suppose is a legal gray area. Of course these machines are a tinkerers dream, as you can install a lot of different software on them, which I dont know much about.
You can achieve much the same thing for around the same price if you shop wisely, with a cheap prepaid android phone and a controller device that attaches such as a gamesir or Razr Kishi. One advantage to that is you could also stream Stadia, Xcloud etc with the right phone. I have tried that as well and it's fine, but these dedicated handhelds feel a lot more sturdy, more compact and are just better IMO. YMMV. Also, there seems to be a shift to android as the base OS in the Chinese handheld market which I assume could allow streaming as well. The 351p I had was also very nicely compact, you could throw it nearly anywhere easily which I liked. Of course the 5" display models can lose a bit of that portability. There are also really tiny models with 2-2.8" if you value extreme portability, models that have the form factor of a gameboy, and all sorts of stuff.
Retrogamecorps seems to be one of the accepted experts in the area. He has the obligatory YT channel and website. Here is a good basics vid.
I have already learned a few brands. For example Anbernic has become a popular brand, and is apparently known for good build quality (that is of course, relative!). These being Chinese, if you need to return one it can be a problem. Generally you can choose to order one from China direct (alibaba etc) and it may arrive in a month, or pay a bit more to order from a reseller on Amazon or Ebay and get faster shipping and guaranteed returns.
People seem to be waiting currently for the "next gen" expected to sport 5" screens and more powerful chips. Their is a "standard" chip the RK 3326 a lot of them use and it struggles with higher end emulation. People are waiting for the next wave of chips. Personally I do not much care as I am not interested in anything beyond 2D emulation.
Some, increasingly more probably, come with ROMS preloaded. Which I suppose is a legal gray area. Of course these machines are a tinkerers dream, as you can install a lot of different software on them, which I dont know much about.
You can achieve much the same thing for around the same price if you shop wisely, with a cheap prepaid android phone and a controller device that attaches such as a gamesir or Razr Kishi. One advantage to that is you could also stream Stadia, Xcloud etc with the right phone. I have tried that as well and it's fine, but these dedicated handhelds feel a lot more sturdy, more compact and are just better IMO. YMMV. Also, there seems to be a shift to android as the base OS in the Chinese handheld market which I assume could allow streaming as well. The 351p I had was also very nicely compact, you could throw it nearly anywhere easily which I liked. Of course the 5" display models can lose a bit of that portability. There are also really tiny models with 2-2.8" if you value extreme portability, models that have the form factor of a gameboy, and all sorts of stuff.
Retrogamecorps seems to be one of the accepted experts in the area. He has the obligatory YT channel and website. Here is a good basics vid.
