In that case you're in luck.
For a while the poster child for budget handheld that can play up to PSP was the Retroid Pocket 2S for around 100$. Unfortunately that model got discontinued at the end of 2024.
Anbernic released about half a dozen handhelds with similar performance around that time, but they were all pushing up to a price range of 150+$.
Right now there are at least two new contenders for best budget up-to-PSP handheld:
- Mangmi Air X
- Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini
(Yes two devices from two different companies both having Air in the name will not at all create confusion :p )
Mangmi is a newcomer to the market while Ayaneo has been around for a while but all their releases are generally high end machines and half of them run Windows. The Pocket Air Mini is probably their first sub-100$ handheld.
The main difference between the two devices is that the Air X has a bigger wider screen, so if black bars are a deal breaker for you you should keep that in mind.
In case you didn't already know, the Retro Game Corps Youtube channel is generally the go-to for performance demonstrations on these handhelds and he did videos on both devices. The newer Pocket Air Mini video has a small comparison with the Air X. If I were to repeat what I did last year (setting up 4 Retroid Pocket 2S devices), I would do it with one of the above two.
One tiny issue is how you acquire either device. The Air X is available direct from the manufacturer's website (don't know if there's a good reseller for it) while the Pocket Air Mini is still a backer reward from the device's Indiegogo campaign set to ship sometime next month.
The elephant in the room is how much work you're willing to put in to setup these devices. Most of the low-end devices use chipsets that run Linux-based OS and have several all-in-one solutions that you just pop into the SD card along with the games and you're off to the races. The problem is that these chipsets won't reliably play games past PS1. Any N64/Dreamcast/PSP games running will involve alot of tweaks (frame skipping, etc. And often per game), though that's all 2nd hand accounts I read online.
All the mid-high range devices that run post-PS1 consoles reliably out of the box are Android-based. Android requires that you setup each emulator one by one (including Retroarch) on top of setting up a front end (although you
don't have to set one up. It's more of a nice bonus). I posted a bit about this in another
topic and most of what I wrote applies here.
I'm not trying to scare you off. I just want you to be as well informed about this as possible. Do some more research and see other impressions of the devices I recommended.
