Recommend me a handheld emulation system!

[The Catboy]

I am looking to get a handheld emulation system and I am not sure what I should I get. I did some googling and decided that a thread might get better results. So I am looking for anything that isn’t running Windows and is a reasonably low price, preferably under 200$ but over is fine too. I want to be able to emulate up to the PSP but PS2 emulation would be awesome too but not required! So give me your suggestions so I can have an idea of what to look for.

 

[Hayato213]

PS2 emulation would be hard within that price range, people be charging a lot more for a portable PS2. As for PSP goes it can be done via a PS Vita.

 

[The Catboy]

PS2 emulation would be hard within that price range, people be charging a lot more for a portable PS2. As for PSP goes it can be done via a PS Vita.

Vita would be nice but I am looking for something along the lines of a anbernic or gpd

 

[Rikua]

PS2 emulation would be hard within that price range, people be charging a lot more for a portable PS2. As for PSP goes it can be done via a PS Vita.

Vita would be nice but I am looking for something along the lines of a anbernic or gpd

Welp, here is some good news for you.


There are several that can actually run PS2 at that price range as the Retroid Pocket 2+ is $100. There are even a few that run it perfect in the $150-$200 range.

Here's a nice list for 2022: https://retrododo.com/upcoming-handhelds/

 

[mituzora]

Edit: The person above me gave some great links. But basically aside from those, your best bet is to get an rpi 4 handheld machine, or a controller for your phone as good x86 machines are expensive and are power hungry

 

[The Catboy]

Edit: The person above me gave some great links

PS2 emulation isn’t important but would be cool have. DC and n64 is more my speed and something I know is more doable
Keeping under 200$ is also not required, just preferred. I am open to anything just have a some preferences that would be nice to meet.

 

[Rikua]

PS2 emulation isn’t important but would be cool have. DC and n64 is more my speed and something I know is more doable
Keeping under 200$ is also not required, just preferred. I am open to anything just have a some preferences that would be nice to meet.

Some more good news then lol If it can run PS2 via android then it for sure can do Dreamcast/N64. Depending on the emulator itself of course.

 

[mituzora]

PS2 emulation isn’t important but would be cool have. DC and n64 is more my speed and something I know is more doable
Keeping under 200$ is also not required, just preferred. I am open to anything just have a some preferences that would be nice to meet.

Honestly, if they weren't expensive and a unicorn in the wild, I'd recommend a Steam Deck, but alas, those are pricy and difficult to come across. It's been a minute, but I remember the rpi 2 struggling with N64 emulation, but the pi 4 being better tuned and being arm64 may be better. Those things are amazing.

I will have to try DC emulation and N64 emulation again with my phone, but if I recall, N64 works great on my phone and has for about 6 years now (across multiple devices)

I've heard good things about the Aya Neo, and those aren't too expensive. I'd look into those

 

[The Catboy]

Honestly, if they weren't expensive and a unicorn in the wild, I'd recommend a Steam Deck, but alas, those are pricy and difficult to come across. It's been a minute, but I remember the rpi 2 struggling with N64 emulation, but the pi 4 being better tuned and being arm64 may be better. Those things are amazing.

I will have to try DC emulation and N64 emulation again with my phone, but if I recall, N64 works great on my phone and has for about 6 years now (across multiple devices)

I've heard good things about the Aya Neo, and those aren't too expensive. I'd look into those

I have all of Pi computers but no real means of using them portably. If there’s an affordable kit to make my Ri4 into a portable gaming system, I would love to own that! But that being said, the Aya Neo a bit steep from what I can tell. I would even be cool with a Dingux-based handheld. I am really not looking anything too ridiculously overpowered. I do have a hacked Switch but I found emulation on it to be rather clunky for my liking. My 3DS is better in regards to the aesthetic I am looking for but lacking a decent N64 emulator (I won’t use the mystery “found build” because no source,) and lacking DC emulation is what makes it still incomplete for me

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I have all of Pi computers but no real means of using them portably. If there’s an affordable kit to make my Ri4 into a portable gaming system, I would love to own that! But that being said, the Aya Neo a bit steep from what I can tell. I would even be cool with a Dingux-based handheld. I am really not looking anything too ridiculously overpowered. I do have a hacked Switch but I found emulation on it to be rather clunky for my liking. My 3DS is better in regards to the aesthetic I am looking for but lacking a decent N64 emulator (I won’t use the mystery “found build” because no source,) and lacking DC emulation is what makes it still incomplete for me

The new Aya Neo Air is quite reasonably priced, it's not $200 but you get a much more capable machine than something ARM based. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ayaneo-air-first-ultra-thin-oled-windows-handheld

 

[The Catboy]

The new Aya Neo Air is quite reasonably priced, it's not $200 but you get a much more capable machine than something ARM based. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ayaneo-air-first-ultra-thin-oled-windows-handheld

I’ve been looking at the Aya Neo Air for quite some time and looking it up, it looks like it’s finally coming with Linux instead of Windows. For context, I’ve been avoiding Aya Neo because they keep coming with Windows and a stupidly high price tag. So I’ve been waiting for them to finally stop coming bundled with Windows or sell an OSless or Linux version.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

Honestly a tough call, I would also throw my +1 in on the Steam Deck despite it being both expensive and hard to source at the moment. Not that I have anything against third party emulation handhelds but a lot of the time the advertised specs are usually not as great in practice as they would be on paper. Especially with so many different ones out there support on any of them will probably be up in the air even with community support. The Deck however has become so mainline that the community for it is larger than the current userbase for it at the moment and support for emulation and software is being tested/developed constantly. It's a high bar of entry but doing so you will probably have the most painless and fruitful experience with emulation on it compared to the rest out there.

I was actually in your boat awhile back trying to look into something similar for myself, even thinking of grabbing a Vita for emulation purposes. That said it really could not do all the things I wanted it to and the more I kept looking into it the more the bar of entry (price) got higher until I was staring at the Deck as my only option for sustainable effortless portable emulation.


I decided I do not need a portable emulator, and now I am looking at getting a small PC and shove my old 1050ti in there to make an emulation console that can play up to PS3 games. Still probably cheaper than a Deck and more easier to get a hold of. But I also do not move around too much these days needing anything more than my phone and/or mp3 player. That said this was my conclusion to figuring that out so your assessment may vary.

 

[Taleweaver]

I would suggest saving up for a steam deck. But okay... I understand budget is a thing.

From my systems (psp, vita, gpd win1, gpd xd+, 3ds+), the gpd xd+ certainly was the best one. Perhaps with 3ds as exception, but didn't do much hacking on that thing.

Vita and psp obviously can play psp games and most(everything?) 16-bit,but i just wasn't a fan of those. Or rather: i just preferred the gpd xd+. I mean... Android games are decent if you ignore the free to play garbage and know where to look.

Edit: of, right: gotta+1 your decision to stay away from windows. Not to praise Linux or something, but windows just is so NOT meant for small devices that it would be laughable if i didn't damn payed for the operating system with the device.

 

[The Catboy]

I love the advice and I would love to keep getting more. For the time being, I’ve decided to just run Android on my Switch since it does enough of what I am looking for to hold me off until I have the money to get what I am looking for

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Vita would be nice but I am looking for something along the lines of a anbernic or gpd

The front page https://gbatemp.net/ of would like a word with you

 

[The Catboy]

The front page https://gbatemp.net/ of would like a word with you

That’s actually what made me decide to make this thread. With how often and many are posted, I am not sure what I should go for

 

[Veho]

I second the RP2+ recommendation, it's the best bang per buck out there at the moment. At $100 it can play a chunk of PS2 and even some Wii games. Not all, and not perfect, but at the price it's pretty impressive. Anything more expensive and you're reaching diminishing returns.

 

[shadi]

you can buy a samsung tablet and install emulators on it

 

[Archolm]

There is only one and it's called the Odin.

 

[Veho]

Retroid Pocket 3 just came out and is available to order.
The chipset is the same as the RP2+, but it has (optional) 3GB RAM compared to RP2+'s 2GB.
The screen is slightly larger and is now in 1330x750 (compared to 640x480).
Both analog sticks are now clickable joysticks, also acting as L3/R3 (RP2/+ has one "real" joystick and one 3DS-style slider that everyone hated).
Metal frame and aluminum heat sink (RP2 is all plastic).

$130 (for the 3GB version) VS RP2+'s $100.

Seems like a good deal if you were already planning on getting the RP2+, however, there's no word on the build quality yet, and the much larger screen resolution could be too much for the system to handle and impact performance. I'm 99% sure that's not how that works but the 1% is incredibly influential