Are these handhelds any good?

[Commash]

I keep getting these sort of handhelds recomended to me on Temu, but I have never owned or seen any reviews on them yet. Does any of you guys own one of these or do you know if they're any good? If not, do you have any reccomendations, preferably something on the cheaper end, maybe something under 150 euros?

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

The best brands are Anbernic and Retroid.
I recommend you go for either of those brands, your budget is good enough for them.
Here this will get you started

 

[Scotty]

Pretty sure those are scams; it's Temu, after all.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I haven't owned those specifically, but I have had those which looked like PSPs in the past and I can tell you right now that most of those claims are BS -- I remember mine being TECHNICALLY able to play SNES games and up, but at the frame rate of a ViewMaster at best. Very glitchy, too.

I'm not saying these are the same, but experience has led me to believe me that you are much better off investing on a mid-end phone and putting emulators on it instead.

 

[JPchicre]

Speaking as a pro bad financial decision maker,I don't think expending more than 10 Euros on TEMU is a good financial decisions.

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

we got a whole thread about those devices somewhere else on the forum, and lots of communities and reviews of those things (like r/SBCGaming on reddit)

i'd recommand to not cheap out too much, get something that seem solid and play everything that you want, and most importantly don't fall in the trap of getting every single one of them as soon as they come out

edit: also don't buy from random temu vendors go to the manufacturer's shop

 

[Crosser19]

I can't speak on most of those emulation handhelds but I have a Miyoo Mini Plus and after replacing the OS with OnionOS its honestly pretty fantastic for how cheap (I think I paid something like $50 USD for it?) it was. It plays most systems up until the PS1 pretty well. Even games a lot of emulators struggle with for certain consoles, like DDS Megami Tensei 2 and Lagrange Point on Famicom, ran essentially perfect. The only issues I really had with it were strangely MSX system based games which is fine if you're just focusing on console and CD games up until the Playstation. It even played a lot of the MAME arcade games I threw at it, PC engine CD, and Sega CD games perfectly. But if you want to play anything past the PS1 I heard that the Retroid and Anbernic lines are pretty good, just a little bit pricier.

 

[moonbits]

I got a Retroid Pocket Mini, it's fantastic. Though a bit on the expensive side, but in general Retroid does great products.

 

[Not_Red]

Temu is not the best place to buy these sort of handhelds, Aliexpress on the other hand is a lot more reliable. The main problem the Temu ones have is that they use clone consoles with weaker hardware to trim their dev costs but still sell at a profit. You can still use the cheaper ones that are copies of the RG35 ones, but don't expect them to run anything past PS1 games without stuttering, and even some games from that console will be too much for it too.

 

[Heinzu]

Great caution is required with Temu because they only sell junk and they attract people with low prices. Better not buy anything from them.

 

[Boo Man]

buy directly from Retroid or Anbernic sites imo
miyoo mini is good too but cramps my hands

 

[nobitakun]

I wonder why there is so many people scared about these kind of consoles. Not every portable should come from known and famous brands.

The issue is not the device but the site trying to sell it. I own a R36H and a R36S and I assure you both consoles are worth their price. One costed me 26€ and the other 20€, there is nothing as powerful as those for the price. If you don't care about tags and don't want to pay extra just for having a "premium" device which at the end has issues like any other, I would defenitely go for one of these. R36S is GameBoy style and R36H is horizontal style.

Both consoles have exactly the same SoC and the same screen panel (which is surprisingly good for the price), although the R36S has different revisions, but that's not an issue at all.

With them you can play up to PS1, most of N64 games and a few Dreamcast games not very demanding. From GBA going down, everything works perfectly. I use ArkOS and 0 issues. I am not a fan of portable consoles, but when I feel like playing one, these are my ones to go. I used the SF2000 before, and it was really nice, but it struggles with many SNES and GBA games not so easy to emulate, because it's a very basic device without any custom firmware.

I only buy retro consoles that cost 30€ or less, that's my rule and it will remain forever. Being said that, you can get things like these and enjoy tons of games.

So, my recommendation, if you want something cheap, functional and don't care about brands, get one right away, but take care because there are clones here and there.