Looking for a good android based handheld.

[The Milkman]

Hey guys, recently my Xperia Play has begun a slow and painful death by broken SD port. I loved that little phone, but im not willing to buy a new one, seeing how out dated it became. Instead im just going to get a free, non-specialty phone when it comes time to upgrade my contract, so this leads me to buy a new handheld that features all the perks of Android such as emulation and large application support.

Anyone know about one with things like physical buttons and ICS?

 

[PityOnU]

Never owned one, but Wikipad? http://www.wikipad.com/

Or basically any tablet or phone + PS3 controller

 

[mrtofu]

deleted

 

[Geren]

I've heard really nice things about the JXDS7300. Supposedly, the stock firmware gives a lot of trouble, but the community has come up with alternatives that makes all emulators up to PSX/N64 have really good playability.

 

[alexei_gp]

i suggest to you buy the jxd s7300 its a good handheld and have as OS Android.You should see prices in willgoo its a good site to buy android handhleds.

 

[The Milkman]

Not very pocket sized, any smaller ones available?

 

[kristianity77]

Based on what ive seen here and reviews ive seen elsewhere I just went for the S7300 and it arrived to today and to say im impressed is an understatement! Out of the box its not great I admit with crashes here and there and slightly ropey performance. But having rooted and gone to a different ROM, this thing is amazing!

Never on a handheld have I had PERFECT Snes, Genesis, GBA, Nes, PC Engine, Master System, Neo Geo, OLDER mame games. But this thing just nails it.

Im a sucker for things running at a full 60FPS and I hate pops and stutters in sound and this thing just does the lot!

Granted, its not the highest resolution device around, but its quick, plays everything Ive thrown at it so far android wise too. This is everything I wanted my PSP to be (and also my Xperia Play) but this is the only device that "does it"

Am now in the process of trying an Amiga emulator, and may dabble in DOS based games also.

Ive been on the handheld scene and on here for well over ten years now, and never has one device impressed me as much as this

 

[TheCasketMan]

Never owned one, but Wikipad? http://www.wikipad.com/

Or basically any tablet or phone + PS3 controller

Looks interesting, first time I heard of it. I wonder how powerful it is to the new s4

 

[Foxi4]

So there's this new thing coming out, it's called Project Shield... you might be interested in that.

If not, Wikipad is a great deal when it comes to gaming tablets.

 

[SifJar]

Most phones with physical gaming controls are Chinese, which generally means lower build quality and poor support in terms of updates etc. My advice would be get a decent, properly branded phone and one of the dozens of bluetooth controllers compatible with Android. Whether a PS3 controller as suggested above or something like an iControlPad which is actually designed for phones. Not quite as convenient as a phone with built in controls like the Xperia Play, but in the end I'd say the end result is better.

 

[The Milkman]

So there's this new thing coming out, it's called Project Shield... you might be interested in that.

If not, Wikipad is a great deal when it comes to gaming tablets.

Nope, I completely oppose Project Shield, and a tablet is a bit too big, if I use that I might as well use my PC

 

[Foxi4]

Nope, I completely oppose Project Shield, and a tablet is a bit too big, if I use that I might as well use my PC

No good gaming phones out there, I'm afraid. You might as well get "the best handset you can afford" and a controller handle for it.

 

[The Milkman]

Most phones with physical gaming controls are Chinese, which generally means lower build quality and poor support in terms of updates etc. My advice would be get a decent, properly branded phone and one of the dozens of bluetooth controllers compatible with Android. Whether a PS3 controller as suggested above or something like an iControlPad which is actually designed for phones. Not quite as convenient as a phone with built in controls like the Xperia Play, but in the end I'd say the end result is better.

I was actually thinking of doing that for the Lucid 2 im getting at the end of the year, but I looked it over and honestly, all the decent pads take up your whole pocket, and I would like to have some sort of armor on my new phone also.

 

[The Milkman]

No good gaming phones out there, I'm afraid. You might as well get "the best handset you can afford" and a controller handle for it.

Not looking for a phone, just a handheld that uses Android, Shield is way too overpriced for my wallet (I might as well buy a PSP Go full price with that) and it doesnt look like it works well for touch screen games.

 

[Daeymon]

Currently I'm using a fully customized PSP 3000, which is good, but emulation development has heavily slowed and customizing it to just the way I like has been a nightmare. Also touchscreen would have made ScummVM far better and even made light gun games still viable to play. So straight off the bat, I want my next handheld to be touchscreen (sorry GCW Zero) and as a benchmark I want it to be able to emulate decently both NDS and PSP games. Some may see this as a tall order but I want to make sure that when I do replace my PSP, I'm replacing it with a handheld which will offer more systems, and increased speed and functionality for systems I already play. I'm currently keeping my eye on the PPSSPP and nds4droid projects, which are active and have made some impressive progress this year. My hope is these emulators will within the year run decent on quadcore Android handhelds, which also should be appearing later this year. This is all optimistic thinking but I say let me dream.