managed to grab an rg405m for about $100 not too long ago. HIGHLY recommend if you can get it for that price. better performance than the RP2S and super portable, no bigger than an average phone. find myself taking it everywhere i go
But no analog triggers, which takes DC and GC off the table, even though it can run them. The RP2S has hall sticks and triggers, and the juice to run the PS2 and GC games I actually care about, and the only deal-breaker for me is the screen size/resolution, which make it pretty terrible for the game streaming it can otherwise do...
@@GRIMEYtheFATMANYes that was the main reason i went with the rp2s, better buttons overall. Even though i don't use mine for any gc/ps2, i do play android games on it
Guys, just imagine. This potentially could be last Christmas before Trumps rumoured chinese tarrifs. If it happens, everything could be jacked up as much as 40%. No more cheap Chinese handhelds. Bear this in mind if you are still on the fence.
I totally respect your opinion between the deck and the ally x, but i have to disagree having got the three main Big handhels: Steam deck oled, legion go and the ally x, and those are my conclusions: Both the ally x and the lenovo are the oposite to being a plug & play or user friendly experience...you need between 2-3 hours to set all down, and if you aren't lucky and something goes wrong and you need to restore them, you are going to need another 3 hours just to restore, plus another 3 hours to reinstall and configure all again,so in the worst case scenario you could spend 9 hours to just setup those handhelds, without even playing (was my case with the ally x and an initial corruption installation of the so for whatever reason) but the worst part is that even then, you are going to find that most of the functions doesn't work properly: the fps cap option doesn't work half of the times, so you have to use third party soft like rivatunner to do so PER GAME, and the same goes for the tdp limit, that even when it works properly, it can last about 5 minutes or so to set the correct tdp... . On the other hand, the steam deck installs all it needs by itself in about 15 mins or less, and if you need to restore, it last about another 10 minutes, and all the functions works right out the box, like the tdp or the fps limit, and that right there is a great value compared to the others. And, in my personal experience, the asus handhelds had a poor quality control test, because we all know what happened with the og ally and the microsd slot, and while it looks like the have adreessed this issue in the X one, there are another random hard problems i've experiencied myself like my first ally x that wasn't able to charge while playing (even capping the tdp to 6-7 to avoid the total comsumption to be high), so i returned it and bought another one this time from amazon, and guess what, that second one doesn't had the charging issue but instead the read speed of the SSD was all over the place in less than a month of use , and playing mostly from microsd! so i wasn't forcing the ssd in any case. To me that is more than enought to lose my faith on that brand in the hanhelds fields, mostly taking into account that it cost 900€. And that is the other issue....it can't justify being double the price of the middle steam oled model, because while it is true that it could run better some of the few games that a deck struggles to mantain 30 fps, there are some others that runs poorly there too, and i would expect that paying double the price of my deck oled, it would at least be able to play all the games the deck struggles at least at 30 fps, but.... its not the case. So, i was paying close to 1000€ to being able to play some, but not all of the few games that a deck struggles the most, having to bypass an installation and config proces that is a pain in the ass, and then i found most of its primary functions doesn't work as they should, and then i have also deal with two different hard issues in two different ally x... i'm sorry but i think the best value of the handhelds is still the oled: 100% plug & play, the most polished hard, the best support and comunity, the best price/performance/battery life ratio, and the best controls so far.
Why do you suggest a small companion device with the rog Ally x? Does the rog Ally not cover everything? I'm looking to buy a hand held and I guess I was only hoping to buy one to cover everything I wanted to play. Thanks
@ ah yeah. I understand. But for me, I’m literally just getting it to emulate GameCube games since Nintendo refuses to give us Wind Waker and Twilight Princess on Switch. And it’ll be fun to play other nostalgic games from GC like FF Crystal Chronicles.
For budget, i still think the XX line from Anbernic is now the better buy compared to the Miyoo Mini Plus. Better performance, and the community has also been active. Miyoo Mini Plus is still great, but we are at a point where custom OS on other more powerful devices like the XX line are starting to mature, and have objectively overtaken the Miyoo Mini Plus.
The only caveat is that the performance is spotty on everything greater than psOne. Also I think the TrimUI is making a little bit of a wave. And it's a $50 handheld.
Would you know if the r36s is comparable? Want an introductory lower budget retro handheld to get into the hobby and I found that one for a steal and have heard good things for the price point
@jasondrenner5655 i wouldn't recommend the r36s because the buttons are pretty bad. If you can get something for a little more you should. How much is the r36s you're looking at, going for? Where are you buying from?
@ also I did hear about the button issue but a) that doesn’t bother me for the price and b) I hear there’s a mod I can do to the d pad at least that solves or at least alleviates that issue
Wild how the miyoo mini plus still dominates its price range even with how less powerful it is than other options. Onion os and community mods make it so much better than everything else under 50 bucks.
The reason i will pass the portal and rp5 is PWM oled tend to have this reason why i sold my ipad m4 ,i was low on energy i found out that oled causes fatigue
Awesome list. Thanks for the break down. Mine are R36s for 30 bucks (aliexpress deal). RG40XXV and the Trimui Smart Pro then the RP5 and then Steamdeck cause ROG is more expensive than Steamdeck.
I have an ally extreme and I'm pairing it with the Odin mini 2. Premium handhelds are so much nicer and better to use. I do have some budget handhelds as well which are great for short gaming sessions.
I have an RP2S I got last fall, a Miyoo Mini Plus I got this year, and a Retroid Pocket 5 on the way. So it seems from my research & preferences, my picks align with yours 😁 Thanks for the video man 👍 Interested to see how that Odin 2 Portal pans out. Won't be getting it, but hyped for people who are gonna enjoy that.
@@andrerobberts6892 Maybe the Retroid Pocket 4, non pro. Though, i'm not sure about it's general high end performance. It's at $135, compared to the pro version which is $50 more
12:47 please add a notice, ASUS customer service has been TRASH and near criminal. Until proven otherwise, the name ASUS should mean “purchase at your own risk”.
Yeah, but this is if you buy from Asus which almost nobody does. The big advantage of the Ally against any other device except perhaps the Legion Go is the amazing distributors. Being able to buy it directly from a store instead of the manufacturer itself is amazing.
I thought you were going to put the 556 in the pack, it's true that the joysticks aren't great but with the gammaos fix it's much better and you can find it around 150 $ now.
Hi Joey,what do you think about ANBERNIC's choice to not put AMOLED screen on ALL devices?They made different devices with same specs but they choose only RG556 with AMOLED screen
The only problem with recommending the Retroid pocket 2S is it’s pretty much all sold out and they are not making it anymore. They have a few left of the black 4 gig version and that’s it. It’s a shame because it’s one of my favorite designs.
QC on the rog ally x is horrible first one I bought depad squeaked and down didn’t register. Returned it to Best Buy bought another one again and the right trigger didn’t work after two days done with asus now have a SD for two years no issue at all for me
@Blherrou I didn't know that. Is that true with something like the Retroid Pocket 2s, since it's not more powerful than the other cheap Linux devices? Or are you referring to devices like the Oden 2 that have very powerful chips?
@@Kevin-Schmevin I think even the 2S will play things like gamecube better than the Linux devices. There is a google sheet that lays out what all the devices can do: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1irg60f9qsZOkhp0cwOU7Cy4rJQeyusEUzTNQzhoTYTU/edit?usp=drivesdk
The only Keychain one is the FunKey, as the other options like the RG Nano are too huge. For the "Pocket" category you have a lot of options. The best would be the Retroid Pocket Mini. I don't think we can qualify the Retroid Pocket 5 here, or the AYN Odin2 Mini, as they are way too uncomfortable to store and carry. Most of the "big verticle" handhelds are also disqualified. For the backpack, you can go with a "cheap" Retroid Pocket 4 Pro, or great value AYN Odin2, or an affordable Valve Steam Deck, or bump that up to an expensive SteamDeck OLED, or the luxury ASUS ROG Ally X. For the handheld category that is non-portable, you can go with a Docked ROG Ally. Or a Mini PC with a Controller (Mac M4 ?). And lastly of course, there are consoles like the XSX or even PS5 Pro. If you have the electricity and budget, there is also Gaming PC to consider.
Still rocking my retroid pocket 4 pro. Maybe once 6 releases and it is a significant improvement compared to 4 then and only then maybe if I can waste more money lmao.
The green lights are perfect
managed to grab an rg405m for about $100 not too long ago. HIGHLY recommend if you can get it for that price. better performance than the RP2S and super portable, no bigger than an average phone. find myself taking it everywhere i go
But no analog triggers, which takes DC and GC off the table, even though it can run them. The RP2S has hall sticks and triggers, and the juice to run the PS2 and GC games I actually care about, and the only deal-breaker for me is the screen size/resolution, which make it pretty terrible for the game streaming it can otherwise do...
@@GRIMEYtheFATMANYes that was the main reason i went with the rp2s, better buttons overall. Even though i don't use mine for any gc/ps2, i do play android games on it
@@HOUSTONERS420 any issues reading text on that screen with android games? I'd figure it'd be about as hard to see as game streaming...
This. Apart from great performance is has that premium feel to it. Decent buttons, hall sticks, great 4” screen for 100-120 bucks is just amazing
Guys, just imagine. This potentially could be last Christmas before Trumps rumoured chinese tarrifs. If it happens, everything could be jacked up as much as 40%. No more cheap Chinese handhelds. Bear this in mind if you are still on the fence.
Man, I've been thinking of this nonstop.
As someone living in a country with historically high tariffs, solidarity but also lol
Seethe.
I totally respect your opinion between the deck and the ally x, but i have to disagree having got the three main Big handhels: Steam deck oled, legion go and the ally x, and those are my conclusions:
Both the ally x and the lenovo are the oposite to being a plug & play or user friendly experience...you need between 2-3 hours to set all down, and if you aren't lucky and something goes wrong and you need to restore them, you are going to need another 3 hours just to restore, plus another 3 hours to reinstall and configure all again,so in the worst case scenario you could spend 9 hours to just setup those handhelds, without even playing (was my case with the ally x and an initial corruption installation of the so for whatever reason) but the worst part is that even then, you are going to find that most of the functions doesn't work properly: the fps cap option doesn't work half of the times, so you have to use third party soft like rivatunner to do so PER GAME, and the same goes for the tdp limit, that even when it works properly, it can last about 5 minutes or so to set the correct tdp... .
On the other hand, the steam deck installs all it needs by itself in about 15 mins or less, and if you need to restore, it last about another 10 minutes, and all the functions works right out the box, like the tdp or the fps limit, and that right there is a great value compared to the others.
And, in my personal experience, the asus handhelds had a poor quality control test, because we all know what happened with the og ally and the microsd slot, and while it looks like the have adreessed this issue in the X one, there are another random hard problems i've experiencied myself like my first ally x that wasn't able to charge while playing (even capping the tdp to 6-7 to avoid the total comsumption to be high), so i returned it and bought another one this time from amazon, and guess what, that second one doesn't had the charging issue but instead the read speed of the SSD was all over the place in less than a month of use , and playing mostly from microsd! so i wasn't forcing the ssd in any case. To me that is more than enought to lose my faith on that brand in the hanhelds fields, mostly taking into account that it cost 900€.
And that is the other issue....it can't justify being double the price of the middle steam oled model, because while it is true that it could run better some of the few games that a deck struggles to mantain 30 fps, there are some others that runs poorly there too, and i would expect that paying double the price of my deck oled, it would at least be able to play all the games the deck struggles at least at 30 fps, but.... its not the case.
So, i was paying close to 1000€ to being able to play some, but not all of the few games that a deck struggles the most, having to bypass an installation and config proces that is a pain in the ass, and then i found most of its primary functions doesn't work as they should, and then i have also deal with two different hard issues in two different ally x... i'm sorry but i think the best value of the handhelds is still the oled: 100% plug & play, the most polished hard, the best support and comunity, the best price/performance/battery life ratio, and the best controls so far.
If you buy games steam deck. If you don't buy games rog ally
Someone's playing with fire, showing the big N's first-party games.
Why do you suggest a small companion device with the rog Ally x? Does the rog Ally not cover everything? I'm looking to buy a hand held and I guess I was only hoping to buy one to cover everything I wanted to play. Thanks
Nice shirt 🔥
100-200 range actual recomendation: Anbernic 406 H
Used Ayn Odin pro first model is around 100/120 here
RP5 FTW 🎉
Waiting for mine to arrive. God I need that email confirmation of it shipping!
Can't wait for mine to come in. Pefect middle ground handheld for me to pair with my Steam Deck + RG35XXSP.
I just ordered the RP5 in the GameCube color. I'm really excited.
I wanted that but it can't run NFS MW on more than 1x properly so that bummed me out. Ima go for the Odin 2 portal.
@ ah yeah. I understand. But for me, I’m literally just getting it to emulate GameCube games since Nintendo refuses to give us Wind Waker and Twilight Princess on Switch. And it’ll be fun to play other nostalgic games from GC like FF Crystal Chronicles.
For budget, i still think the XX line from Anbernic is now the better buy compared to the Miyoo Mini Plus. Better performance, and the community has also been active. Miyoo Mini Plus is still great, but we are at a point where custom OS on other more powerful devices like the XX line are starting to mature, and have objectively overtaken the Miyoo Mini Plus.
The only caveat is that the performance is spotty on everything greater than psOne.
Also I think the TrimUI is making a little bit of a wave. And it's a $50 handheld.
Would you know if the r36s is comparable? Want an introductory lower budget retro handheld to get into the hobby and I found that one for a steal and have heard good things for the price point
@jasondrenner5655 i wouldn't recommend the r36s because the buttons are pretty bad. If you can get something for a little more you should.
How much is the r36s you're looking at, going for? Where are you buying from?
@ I bought it for under 30 and that’s including shipping via Ali express
@ also I did hear about the button issue but a) that doesn’t bother me for the price and b) I hear there’s a mod I can do to the d pad at least that solves or at least alleviates that issue
Wild how the miyoo mini plus still dominates its price range even with how less powerful it is than other options. Onion os and community mods make it so much better than everything else under 50 bucks.
I like the Retroid Pocket 2S a lot, just wish the screen were bigger
U the best bro
Heads up to anyone considering an odin 2 mini pro. The black model is in high demand and taking over a month to ship.
The reason i will pass the portal and rp5 is PWM oled tend to have this reason why i sold my ipad m4 ,i was low on energy i found out that oled causes fatigue
😮
My wife would approve of this. Fun fact: she put up all the garland today.
love you joey
Awesome list. Thanks for the break down. Mine are R36s for 30 bucks (aliexpress deal). RG40XXV and the Trimui Smart Pro then the RP5 and then Steamdeck cause ROG is more expensive than Steamdeck.
I have an ally extreme and I'm pairing it with the Odin mini 2. Premium handhelds are so much nicer and better to use. I do have some budget handhelds as well which are great for short gaming sessions.
I have an RP2S I got last fall, a Miyoo Mini Plus I got this year, and a Retroid Pocket 5 on the way. So it seems from my research & preferences, my picks align with yours 😁
Thanks for the video man 👍 Interested to see how that Odin 2 Portal pans out. Won't be getting it, but hyped for people who are gonna enjoy that.
I wanna get it but how trustworthy is indiegogo ?
Great video!
This sounds petty, but I think I'll revisit handhelds when the Retroid Pocket Mini is updated with a better screen to body ratio.
Hi Joey, watching you as Santa is my biggest dream come true.
lmao the emotes are on point
Great List
Santa Joey! 😱
Grabbed a retroid 4 pro on sale for 149.99 still waiting on it hope I made the right choice
As a Canadian i've yet to see the Trim UI Smart Pro under like $80 CAD, and hard to find any CAD codes actually working.
I need to find a handheld that will do PS2 emulation for $200 CAD 😊
@@andrerobberts6892 Maybe the Retroid Pocket 4, non pro. Though, i'm not sure about it's general high end performance. It's at $135, compared to the pro version which is $50 more
Yeah. The cheapest i could find is 77CAD. I bought mine in April for 80. All the cheaper options do not ship to Canada for some reason. Weird...
@@digitizer3627 I found that too, any decent price didnt ship to Canada. Super frustrating as its so much cheaper for Americans.
GOAT
12:47 please add a notice, ASUS customer service has been TRASH and near criminal. Until proven otherwise, the name ASUS should mean “purchase at your own risk”.
Yeah, but this is if you buy from Asus which almost nobody does. The big advantage of the Ally against any other device except perhaps the Legion Go is the amazing distributors. Being able to buy it directly from a store instead of the manufacturer itself is amazing.
I thought you were going to put the 556 in the pack, it's true that the joysticks aren't great but with the gammaos fix it's much better and you can find it around 150 $ now.
Huh I thought under 50$ has some good options the few handhelds I got for under 50$ were the miyoo mini plus, r36s and the anbernic rg 35xx sp
150 range, anbernic 406 H and V
2s is honestly the best budget deal. ill never sell mine even though my mini has "replaced" it haha
It’s sad that the 2s is still the standard at $100
The retroid 4 will replace it soon enough
Why didn't you just pick categories that accurately fit what you were going to recommend 😂
Hi Joey,what do you think about ANBERNIC's choice to not put AMOLED screen on ALL devices?They made different devices with same specs but they choose only RG556 with AMOLED screen
The only problem with recommending the Retroid pocket 2S is it’s pretty much all sold out and they are not making it anymore. They have a few left of the black 4 gig version and that’s it. It’s a shame because it’s one of my favorite designs.
huh?? i can buy a green one right now with the 4 gig....where are you seeing its sold out?
absolute cheapest that plays n64 well and at least one analogue stick?
QC on the rog ally x is horrible first one I bought depad squeaked and down didn’t register. Returned it to Best Buy bought another one again and the right trigger didn’t work after two days done with asus now have a SD for two years no issue at all for me
Is on sale for $500 best buy
Lenovo legion go
Ugreen sponsor/add much… 😝
Still a great video for newcomers tho
Lots of good suggestions, but the retroid pocket 2s wouldn't even make my top 5 for devices under $100. Android totally kills it for me.
Agree android sucks, but it does allow you to emulate more systems than Linux, at least when talking about handhelds.
@Blherrou I didn't know that. Is that true with something like the Retroid Pocket 2s, since it's not more powerful than the other cheap Linux devices? Or are you referring to devices like the Oden 2 that have very powerful chips?
@@Kevin-Schmevin I think even the 2S will play things like gamecube better than the Linux devices.
There is a google sheet that lays out what all the devices can do: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1irg60f9qsZOkhp0cwOU7Cy4rJQeyusEUzTNQzhoTYTU/edit?usp=drivesdk
Retroid Pocket 5 is $220, not sub $200
he said that.. multiple times..
If you actually watched and paid attention to the video, you would know that he mentioned it and not just once
Thanks for recommendation, but I love my Legion Go.
If you think about the devices as form-factors then you essentially have these categories:
- Keychain
- Pocket
- Backpack
- TV / Desktop
The only Keychain one is the FunKey, as the other options like the RG Nano are too huge.
For the "Pocket" category you have a lot of options. The best would be the Retroid Pocket Mini. I don't think we can qualify the Retroid Pocket 5 here, or the AYN Odin2 Mini, as they are way too uncomfortable to store and carry. Most of the "big verticle" handhelds are also disqualified.
For the backpack, you can go with a "cheap" Retroid Pocket 4 Pro, or great value AYN Odin2, or an affordable Valve Steam Deck, or bump that up to an expensive SteamDeck OLED, or the luxury ASUS ROG Ally X.
For the handheld category that is non-portable, you can go with a Docked ROG Ally. Or a Mini PC with a Controller (Mac M4 ?). And lastly of course, there are consoles like the XSX or even PS5 Pro. If you have the electricity and budget, there is also Gaming PC to consider.
Still rocking my retroid pocket 4 pro. Maybe once 6 releases and it is a significant improvement compared to 4 then and only then maybe if I can waste more money lmao.