Retro Handhelds

[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]

I have absolutely no interest of using a controller together with my phone, the point is being mobile. And when I'm home, what is the point of gaming on a handheld or a tablet with a controller, when I can play on my 75" TV or 108" beamer in 4K?

I have a 12.1" iPad Pro, and the battery drains quite fast when playing, a lot faster than on a normal iPad, I guess it's due to the large screen. Plus charging takes also quite a while until full 100%, only negative thing about it. But I don't mind too much, as I'm never playing longer than 30 minutes or such.