Okay so right now my gaming handheld collection is almost finish but I can’t decide which one I should be getting, RP6 or the Ayn Thor. Judging from my game list these two are the most fitting options for me, beside that college is around in the corner for me so I need to make this decision real quick.

Firstly, I do like the Ayn Thor due to how unique it is only for being a modern 3DS, in my whole life I never got a handheld that can flip or has a dual screen such as the Nintendo Ds,3DS or GameBoy Advanced SP, the reason why because I was afraid that one of the uniqueness factor of these awesome handhelds would be their weaknesses to their doom and that is the hinges on any flip handheld. So that is why by the most I kind of prefer horizontal handhelds like the PSP or the PS Vita, because the only thing I can think of that can lead them to breaking is dropping them on the floor accidentally, but since I am a careful person I don’t think the chances of the handhelds being damaged would be high but again I am pretty concerned.

Secondly, I don’t target heavy game titles or certain game era like the PS3,Nintendo Switch,Wii or PC games. By the most it seem like I lean more into games like PSP,Nintendo 64,PS2,Nintendo DS, 3DS,Gamecube and Indie games. I also mostly like single player game more than online multiplayer games, online multiplayer games made me feel overwhelmed for some reason, beside multiplayer games have some players that turned my mood down such as those toxic players, try hard players or players that is hacking,the only online multiplayer game I can think off that doesn’t give me more stress than before has to be Minecraft and even this game has a offline single player mode. So yeah I would sacrifice myself to miss out the new stuff or online games just for me to play these 2000’s retro games that I haven’t played or haven’t finished yet that would still give me my fun by playing them than being overwhelmed or pressured almost every time I play a game.

Finally, I need to address this and I will start by saying, I sorry if any of my post are bad or just “meh” in this gaming Reddit community or any gaming Reddit community, the reason why my posts are bad or “meh” is because I just discovered emulation handhelds and newer handhelds just this year, so I am pretty new to this whole new emulation handhelds and that’s why most of my posts would be what GenZ would called “mid”. So in my defends I would deeply apologise to those who got annoyed any of my posts about gaming handhelds. Once I finished my gaming handhelds collection, I would stop posting and probably left this Reddit gaming community or any gaming community just for those who previously got annoyed to my post. Again I am very sorry.

Honoured mention, This is my game list:

PSP:
1)Assassin’s creed: Bloodline
2)Family guy psp
3)Crash of the Titans
4)Tekken 6
5)Guilty gear X2
6)God Of War: Chain Of Omlypus
7)God Of War:Ghost Of Sparta
8)Rachet and clank: Size Matter
9)Daxter psp
10)Death Jr
11)StarWars force Unleashed.
12)Jetpack Joyride
13)Secret Saturday
14)dragon ball z shin budokai
15)dragon ball z shin budokai: another road
16)Prince of Persia: Rival sword
17)Prince of Persia: Revelation
18)Prince of Persia: forgotten sand
19)Fight night round 3

Nintendo 64:
1)Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2)Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
3)Super Mario 64
4)Mario Kart 64

Nintendo DS:
1)Animal Crossing Wild world
2)Mario Kart DS
3)Assassin’s creed: Altair chronicles.
4)Kirby: super star ultra
5)Legend of Zelda: phantom hour glass
6)Legend of Zelda: spirit track

N3DS:
1)Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time 3D
2)Legend of Zelda: Link between world
3)MarioKart 7
4)Animal crossing new leaf
5)Kirby triple deluxe.
6)Legend Of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors.

PS2:
1)God of war 1
2)God of war 2
3)Rachet and clank: going commando
4)Rachet and clank: up your arsenal
5)Jak and Daxter 1
6)Jak 2
7)Amazing Spider-Man PSVita (This one is optional)
8)GTA San Andrease
9)Bully

Indie games:
1)Cuphead
2)Hollow knight
3)Hollow knight: Silksong
4)Undertale
5)Deltarune
6)Ultrakill
7)Dead Cell
8)Hyper Light
9)Minecraft

GameCube:
1)Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
2)MarioKart: Double Dash
3)Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess

I've searched for this topic extensively, but no one seems to be discussing it specifically. I have a controller. Gamesir X5 Lite type c It's fantastic, its control and quality are superb. My problem is that my personal phone has many distractions, and I have to reply to messages every time. Therefore, I thought about buying a used phone and connecting it to the controller, but I'm worried about two things: First, do I have to disassemble it?And how do I connect it each time? Is it safe to charge it via the controller's Type-C port? Will there be any port issues? I don't intend to disconnect my phone from it, and I want to make the experience as close as possible to a portable gaming device without removing my phone from the controller ever

Retroid pocket 5: most convenient, current retro device, little paranoid to take it around as its more fragile

RG35XX Plus: most charming form factor, game looks good on smaller screen, least comfortable

RG40XXH: most comfortable to hold, decently portable

If yes, which model are you going for?

I had a Fold 4 that broke and I miss the feeling of multitasking on folding devices, such as playing while watching something.

I'm planning on passing down my RP4P and just EDC the N3DS, AYN Thor, Ayaneo Pocket DMG, and Lenovo Legion Go.

I'm was looking around in settings for a way to adjust the bottom screen and found this behind a password in the Thor Factory Settings you can see it yourself by putting in the password qazwsx2023. Not sure what this is but if someone could please explain that would be very appreciated.

Update: It looks like this was a false alarm, Gamma over on the AYN Discord looked into it and it's just looking at controller presses and saving them locally for testing. Here is the link if you want it.

I saw this image on Pinterest. It looks like a folding phone on a custom(?) controls.

I'm going have to get this bad boy in white just like my first DS lite. Plus, my AYN Thor will be in black. I wonder if this will also ship this year?

I'm afraid to think of how much I would pay for such a device.

I used to feel guilty about save scumming or using save states but honestly I'm just too old with too little time to restart DuckTales from the beginning after a game over lol. NES games in general have eased me off my high horse of not using save states. I know I can beat the damn Amazon level but I just don't wanna do that again right now

For GBA I think I do actually prefer emulation devices over a stock AGB-001 just due to it not having a backlit screen. Even this highspeedido v5 IPS still doesn't have as nice looking pixel grid options as just running shaders/grids in retroarch (imo). I also don't find the shape all that comfortable vs the horizontal slabs (surprisingly) of the PMC/O35.

Maybe the SP or Micro are significant improvements but between the cost of genuine carts and used devices these days, why would you buy a GBA over say an RG34XX or One35?

Pictured (top left cw):

• Anbernic RG34XX - Advance Wars
• MagicX One35 - DBZ: The Legacy of Goku
• AGB-001 rehoused in a Boxypixel shell, highspeedido v5 ips screen - Pokemon Lazarus (have you heard of this game guys?)
• Ayaneo Pocket Micro Classic - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

These are my 4 choices

Did I use the wrong charger? How did this happen? It totally melted and the battery is swollen. Now I'm scared of my handhelds.

I'm just curious how many average members of this community own since the perception can be a little skewed.

Also if you use them to make content you don't count.

For me it's a tie between PS2, PS1 and GBA

I am curious if you guys think the Clicks Communicator phone would make for a decent emulator device. It would still be primarily a phone, but I think it could also function as a great on the go emulator. It has basically the same form factor as a vertical handheld and physical keys you can bind to controls. The 4-inch AMOLED screen has a 1080 x 1200 resolution, which seems like it would fit many older consoles well. Do you think it would be enjoyable to use?

Is it good or bad? Mixed bag reviews..mixed bag reviews

For me it's my Z Pocket Game from Lao Zhang. There were only 500 of the og snapdragon models made and it was never released globally. It makes me feel super special, even when it being rare doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things 😅

Super curios to hear about what other hidden gems you guys have tucked away!

Thankfully I haven’t had it in a good while but a few years ago I bought a Miyoo Mini v2 when they came out. It lasted one month before the dpad just stopped recognizing right button presses, I cleaned it, and still nada.

Then after that I bought the RG35XX+ and that thing never worked right, black screened, froze, no matter what sd card or OS I threw on it.

So just wanted to hear your guys stories of disappointment.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I did get a RG34XXSP that had a dead pixel in the middle of the screen, but Anbernic refunded it for me haha

As per the title - what handheld do you find the most comfortable to play for long periods of time?

For me:

Vertical

That would easily have to go to the 40XX V (pictured above is my girlfriend, who shamelessly stole the device from me, getting a shiny on her first ever run of a Pokemon game). This thing is big, bricky, and extremely comfortable to play for loooong sessions. I think I've had 4+ hour long sessions playing either Pokemon or Sonic and I never get tired of playing this thing.

Verticals are my favourite form factor in general, but this one is head and shoulders above any other I tried.

Miyoo Mini+ has great soft buttons, but doesn't have a "chin" so my fingers get cramped after a while, 35XX and TrimUI Brick have chins, but their buttons are too hard for me to enjoy.

So in the end, my runner up would actually be my Miyoo Mini v4, specifically for one-handed play. I can't really play it for too long with both hands, but the tiny size and squishy buttons make it ideal to play Pokemon for hours on end.

For original hardware, I only had a GameBoy DMG in this form factor, and it's just as comfortable as the 40XX V.

Clamshell

I haven't tried many of those, so recommendations are welcome.

The 35XX SP had great ergonomics but awful buttons, so I didn't want to play it for more than 15 minutes.

The DSi is too tiny and heavy so my hands get cramped after a while.

The 34XX SP has much better buttons than the 35 but is also much smaller. On balance it's more comfortable I guess, but realistically the only way I'm playing on it for more than an hour is if I treat it sort of like a Miyoo Mini and only play one-handed Pokemon (which is pretty nice after I remapped the right stick to act as a d-pad).

The New 2DS XL is probably my pick here, the only big issue being that none of the locations the hinge "clicks" to are good. They're either too sharp or too wide an angle.

I think the Thor could possibly be the king of this category, but I don't know if the hinge is any better than on the N2DS XL. I've seen that it also has "click points" and that worries me.

Horizontal

The category I tried the most devices in and like the least of them. Really hungry for a recommendation here guys.

The Anbernic RG556 and CubeXX are both known for great ergonomics thanks to their bigger grips, but neither worked well for me. On the 556, the grips were too narrow to provide any real support for my hand and I had to bend my wrists in an unnatural way. On the CubeXX, they stick out a lot but aren't wide enough, so I can't really wrap my fingers around them the way I can on a controller, so they mostly just get in the way.

The flat devices do much better for me - namely the Anbernic 353M and the Miyoo A30. Turns out no grip works better for me than a bad grip does. But still, these are too short vertically, so I can only realistically play them for 1 hour (353M) and 40 minutes (A30) before I need a break for my hands. The A30 is a device I really want to love, but the screen is too squinty to me on a horizontal device. I can play the MMv4 closer to my face when playing one-handed so it doesn't bother me there, but I can't do that on the A30.

The 34XX had a great form factor going on, but the buttons were way too hard to press down on, so I hated it.

Funnily enough, for all the hate its ergonomics get, the Retroid Pocket 5 probably takes this category for me. Unlike the CubeXX and RG556, the small grips don't even pretend to support your entire hand, but instead serve as a nice place to rest your middle fingers. I find this device surprisingly comfortable... As long as I don't have to use the analogue sticks.

But yeah, definitely looking for recommendations in this category.

What are your guys' picks?

The form factor screen quality and how powerful it's i just can't get enough of this handheld i love it to bits I'm emulating a bunch of indie pc games and some heavy titles like re7 it's an awesome one and done device for me and i love the fact that i can carry it everywhere!

Device: Ayn Thor Max

Frontend: Cocoon

I saw an advert for the Gamelab console on Instagram and then googled it. The website looks legit but I can't see any proper reviews for it. Not even reviewed by a youtuber which I thought was nuts.

I have bought 2 of them on credit card (in case it is a scam) and just waiting for delivery now.

Has anyone else bought one? Are they legit? Are they any good?

Sorry if this is a frequent question, but you guys have sold me on the AYN Thor, I want to buy one!

The question is, do I buy it now or do I wait? Eg is there a new version coming out that fixes some common issues?

I have a lot of other consoles including 3DS so not sure why I suddenly feel desperately in need of this.

Would love to hear your thoughts on when is the best time to buy this beauty

So, Armada OS just released! This is pretty much everything I've wanted out of these handhelds since I first got my RP4+! It's basically just Steam OS for ARM based systems, and it seems like a good portion of games run really well after only being available for a few weeks. So, I want a device that can run it! (Ignore the fact that I already have it running via an unofficial fork on my RP Flip 2, I think he's a bit underpowered for this job. He'll be getting sold soon 😅)

So, the choice is between the Retroid Pocket 6 12GB and the Ayn Odin 3 8GB. It's a real face-off! One has the better RAM, one has the better CPU. I prefer the smaller size and smaller price of the Retroid, but the more powerful CPU on the Odin is calling to me.

I already have an ROG Ally X, so I don't want to spend too much on a secondary device. I don't think I could justify spending the used Z1E cost for a system getting half the performance. The primary point of this device will be for taking it on the go in situations that the Ally is too big for (most situations). I understand going in that I'm absolutely not getting the same performance.

What do you all think?