Retro Handhelds

[Harrison]

No current handhelds can run all N64 or PSP games. But the 351 can run much better then the 350. But for these the best is currently the Retroid Pocket 2, but although I really like the system it's design and build quailty and button/thumbstick layout isn't as good as Anbernic's. That's why I own both. Play the lower systems on the 351, and the newer systems on the RP2. The perfect solution would be to combine the RP2 inside an Anbernic case design.

If you want the best handheld for PSP, then a hacked Vita is the best solution by a huge amount. It's the only handheld other than the actual PSP that can run God of War perfectly f.ex. in fact a hacked Vita is the best solution as a handheld Sony systems setup as it runs PS1, PSP and Vita perfectly.

[Demon Cleaner]

Yeah I know about the Vita, unfortunately I sold mine some time ago, almost like new.

But I wanna have one single handheld that can play everything, if I go on holiday, I don't wanna take 3 different handhelds with me. That's the whole point.

I just have to wait a bit for the next gen handhelds with upgraded chips, or one with an integrated Pi4, like the N+:



The new GPD Win 3 kickstarter campaign starts today, looks great, saw a review from Linus, looks promising, but here we're probably talking about the 1000$ mark, so not really calling it "handheld" anymore.

https://www.gpd.hk/default

[Harrison]

There are definitely more powerful budget CPUs and hardware starting to appear that hopefully we will see in the next generation of handhelds. These provide the next level of performance needed to run N64, Dreamcast, PSP, PS1 etc really well.

Take a look at this video of a Chinese budget 10.1" tablet review, called the M40. It's only £126 but can handle emulation of PSP at full speed, including God of War. It seems to handle N64 fine too. The big surprise for this price is near prefect Gamecube emulation and even able to handle some PS2 and Wii. Imagine in another year we might see something from Anbernic able to run nearly everything up to the PS2 and Wii. That would be very nice indeed. Would never be able to decide what to play!

https://youtu.be/OSvin0iA3Ug

[Demon Cleaner]

The tablet looks nice, but then again, do I want to carry around another tablet? I like the form factor of handhelds. even my 7" screen JXD was fine, everything bigger I wouldn't want.

We have ace CPUs in every Chinese mobile phone, if they would put something powerful like that, it would be fine, but I guess they want to keep them lowest cost possible.

We will probably see in one year or so.

Btw, GPD Win 3 campaign started over at Indiegogo, I was quite right, price is 949$ for the top model.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/g...game-console#/

[Harrison]

That's the thing. It's all about price. My current Samsung S20 phone is far more powerful than any of these retro handhelds. Even my 3 year old Samsung S8 is far more powerful. But that's comparing a $1000 phone with an $80 retro handheld, and that price difference just highlights what amazing value for money these newer ones are, especially the RG351P, which I got for £72. Amazing price really.

I I suspect you are the same. Although our smartphones are so much more powerful they are just not practical to play retro games on, and the physical controls of these little retro handhelds makes all the difference between watching a game running well and actually being able to play it.

[Demon Cleaner]

I suspect you are the same. Although our smartphones are so much more powerful they are just not practical to play retro games on, and the physical controls of these little retro handhelds makes all the difference between watching a game running well and actually being able to play it.

Exactly. I like gaming on my iPad, but games meant to play on tablets, definitely not retro gaming. There are loads of great strategy, adventure, RPG, puzzle and even racing games that work well on the tablet.

[Harrison]

Have you tried using an 8BitDo controller with a smartphone mount?

Personally I know it would give the best Android emulation preformance far more powerful than any dedicated retro handheld, but I just think it's a too cumbersome a setup to use out and about. I could see me using it if I were camping or somewhere static, but not on a train, bus or sitting in the park.

The other issue is battery life. Smartphone drain their batteries really fast playing games. They are much better with far larger batteries and super fast charging is brilliant these days. I can charge my S20 from 15% to full in 45 minutes, which is quite impressive, but then gaming you would be lucky to last 2-3 hours. On something like the Anbernic handhelds you can easily get 6 hours and being so small can just drop it in your bag or coat pocket.

I also think other than the price point the hardware components in retro Handhelds are lower powered than current smartphones to reduce power consumption to increase battery life.

Although not an Apple fan I'm hoping their shift from Intel to fully adopting Arm based M4 processors in all their Macs could see a big knock-on effect in a year or 2 for more powerful mobile processors that are more enery efficient. And that could greatly benefit the retro Handhelds in the future.

[Demon Cleaner]

There's also the AYA NEO starting on Indiegogo soon, looks very interesting too.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a...atus=confirmed

[Harrison]

Droix.net keep posting previews about this one. Looks interesting, although pretty big for a handheld.

47Wh Battery!

That's quite a battery.. must be heavy. But you would need something quite powerful to power what is basically PC hardware in a handheld.