Handheld recommendation

[destinyduelist]

I'm looking to buy a handheld soon, kind of like the Steam Deck. The thing is, I don't know which is a good handheld that's "budget" (about 300 to 500 bucks) and can do emulation. Particularly stuff like GameCube and PS2, PS3 would be a nice added bonus to that but it's not necessary since I don't know how well handhelds in that price range can realistically do that. Any ideas?
Oh and also you know, the ability to play PC games, I'm not looking to play Cyberpunk or anything like that, I mostly play indie games and some older titles anyway.

 

[DunkeyKong]

I've seen some pretty cheap used Steam Deck around RM600-RM800+ ($135-$180+), but that price is probably much harder to find outside of my country. From what I searched, I saw some of them recommend Ayaneo Odin 2. It's around $300+ (£270 if you're in EU), there's probably more and better option but this is the one under $500 so far

I think you still can find Steam Deck with a lower price though

 

[hazys]

A Retroid Pocket 5 is a pretty good choice as long as you're not looking to emulate anything beyond Wii, PS2 etc

 

[Jotaro]

the best hd graphics one, for years now, many say, its the switch 2, we never knew we had, in full 8bit 8k glory, sheesh :lit

 

[Graw]

An Android phone or tablet, with a snapdragon processor, paired with a controller can emulate every console except ps3/ps4/Ps5 and Xbox/360/One. You can emulate PC games using winlator or Exagear. Also, there are a ton of official/unofficial console and PC ports to android. There's even a port of Cemu now so you can emulate WiiU games.

This is just a small selection of what I've had installed natively on android:

There's tons more out there too.

 

[BinaryMessiah]

I suggest the Anbernic R40XX. IT's around $50 and can emulate everything up to N64/PS1. You can use the custom MUOS (Mustard OS) and download themes and stuff. It has wifi and bluetooth. It's a neat little handheld. I bought one despite owning multiple real handhelds, a Steam Deck, Analogue Pocket, etc. It's nice to have everything on one SD card that's pocket sized.

 

[SpikeSlania]

With a Steamdeck you can get Decky and then run EmuDeck on it or get a Micro SD card and put Batocera OS on it to dual boot to. There is also the Ayn Odin 2 route and installing Batocera on it if emulation is your only goal. Though you will probably want to get a microsd card to increase the storage space if you go that route.

Edit - But I will say probably dual booting a Steam Deck with Batocera would be my recommended route since you do want to also play your PC games. That way you can just switch effortlessly between SteamOS and Batocera OS for gaming. I have that set up on my couch PC rig.

 

[destinyduelist]

With a Steamdeck you can get Decky and then run EmuDeck on it or get a Micro SD card and put Batocera OS on it to dual boot to. There is also the Ayn Odin 2 route and installing Batocera on it if emulation is your only goal. Though you will probably want to get a microsd card to increase the storage space if you go that route.

Edit - But I will say probably dual booting a Steam Deck with Batocera would be my recommended route since you do want to also play your PC games. That way you can just switch effortlessly between SteamOS and Batocera OS for gaming. I have that set up on my couch PC rig.

I've heard about EmuDeck before, so quick questions
I understand how Batocera works through your reply, but I never understood if in the case I put EmuDeck on my Steam Deck, will I still be able to play my Steam library? I'm assuming no
And the final question is say I do the dual boot option, do I get to download ROMs on the SD card AND the internal Steam Deck storage (assuming there exists something like that and it's not like the switch where you got like 64GB of no space)
If the 500GB Steam Deck thing means it has an internal SSD, it would be great if I could boot roms from both there and the SD card, alongside having my Steam library on the internal storage
Oh and real quick, what systems can you actually emulate on Steam Deck properly?

 

[Patches]

The asus rog handheld is a competitor to steam deck, but I second the android suggestion especially if you can get a handset from China a few years back the Poco x3 was way cheaper and just as good if not better for emulation than my samsung note 20. A lot of the emulators on android are very polished too.

 

[destinyduelist]

Poco x3

I had a Poco until last year, I will never in my life buy another Poco
That thing struggled to open Instagram, every time I'd put it on charge and then pick it up it felt like it was going to explode in my hands
But to answer the Android thing, like I said in the main body of the thread, I want to also run some PC games on it
Again, nothing crazy but I do want to play at most indie games and some older PC games

 

[Hotwer]

I believe you can run PC game on Android using Winlator, I use Odin 2 and it can manage indie games and older PC game just fine (eg: Rimworld, Holocure, Fallout New Vegas).

 

[ATenderLad]

I've heard about EmuDeck before, so quick questions
I understand how Batocera works through your reply, but I never understood if in the case I put EmuDeck on my Steam Deck, will I still be able to play my Steam library? I'm assuming no
And the final question is say I do the dual boot option, do I get to download ROMs on the SD card AND the internal Steam Deck storage (assuming there exists something like that and it's not like the switch where you got like 64GB of no space)
If the 500GB Steam Deck thing means it has an internal SSD, it would be great if I could boot roms from both there and the SD card, alongside having my Steam library on the internal storage
Oh and real quick, what systems can you actually emulate on Steam Deck properly?

Well if you don't mind me chiming in, I have a Steam Deck:

Emudeck just downloads and preconfigures emulators, and uses Steam Rom Manager to add whatever you want into the Steam interface. (That part can be pretty finicky if you aren't using a keyboard, fyi). Other than maybe cluttering up your library if you add a metric ton of emulated titles, nothing changes with your Steam library, play on.

If you're going with Batocera, you're going to want to have everything on just the SD card. It has folders already setup for the ROM library that it searches, it's not *impossible* to edit but ideally your Batocera setup will be entirely self-contained. (That said, don't worry too much about not leveraging the SSD in the Steam Deck, emulated games don't really see a major benefit from faster read/write times.)

Finally, the Steam Deck runs just about everything on Batocera without issue. With PS2 games, for example, I never found anything that didn't run full-speed. PS3 is where you'll start to get issues with the more difficult to run titles, but most desktop computers would have the same problem there. CEMU ran Bayonetta 2 pretty well, but you'll get stuttering when it loads shaders anytime you see something new. (That's mostly just a problem the first time you play, though.)

 

[destinyduelist]

Well if you don't mind me chiming in, I have a Steam Deck:

Emudeck just downloads and preconfigures emulators, and uses Steam Rom Manager to add whatever you want into the Steam interface. (That part can be pretty finicky if you aren't using a keyboard, fyi). Other than maybe cluttering up your library if you add a metric ton of emulated titles, nothing changes with your Steam library, play on.

If you're going with Batocera, you're going to want to have everything on just the SD card. It has folders already setup for the ROM library that it searches, it's not *impossible* to edit but ideally your Batocera setup will be entirely self-contained. (That said, don't worry too much about not leveraging the SSD in the Steam Deck, emulated games don't really see a major benefit from faster read/write times.)

Finally, the Steam Deck runs just about everything on Batocera without issue. With PS2 games, for example, I never found anything that didn't run full-speed. PS3 is where you'll start to get issues with the more difficult to run titles, but most desktop computers would have the same problem there. CEMU ran Bayonetta 2 pretty well, but you'll get stuttering when it loads shaders anytime you see something new. (That's mostly just a problem the first time you play, though.)

Thank you man, I'm more or less convinced on getting a Steam Deck now
Thanks for the little bit of read/write info on emulated games especially, I had no idea
Also yeah I'm aware about the whole shaders thing, although can you download the shaders and put them onto the Steam Deck like you would on PC? Or at least transfer them if you already have them on your PC? There's some more light Wii U and PS3 games I'd love to be able to play on the go, and I've got the shaders on my PC already.

 

[SpikeSlania]

Also to chime in on Batocera, you can put it on a USB and boot from that. Convenient if you want to play roms on multiple devices, though for the steamdeck you will also need a USB Type A adapter to plug a USB in and it would take the slot you use to recharge the Steamdeck.

Also a bit more on Decky and Emudeck. If you're having trouble setting them up you can change the OS of your Steamdeck to Bazzite or Nobara which have options to install Decky for you. Bazzite includes a prompt in their Welcome App for installing Emudeck. On the plus side if you find a ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion GO for cheap instead of a Steamdeck you can change them from Windows to Bazzite/Nobara. Think in April we will see the first third party handheld with Steam OS preinstalled on it, Lenovo Legion Go S

 

[ATenderLad]

Thank you man, I'm more or less convinced on getting a Steam Deck now
Thanks for the little bit of read/write info on emulated games especially, I had no idea
Also yeah I'm aware about the whole shaders thing, although can you download the shaders and put them onto the Steam Deck like you would on PC? Or at least transfer them if you already have them on your PC? There's some more light Wii U and PS3 games I'd love to be able to play on the go, and I've got the shaders on my PC already.

You're very welcome!

About the shaders, I've definitely never tried. My best guess is probably not, since I imagine the graphics are compiled different on SteamOS than they are on whichever your PC is running. No harm in trying though, you'd just need to check what folder they go to on your PC and and copy them to the corresponding place on the Deck.

 

[Krazy Kat]

Retroid Pocket 5 is emulation beast smaller than the steam deck but it can run N-tendo Switch

for Steam Deck it can emulate almost anything Ryzen could do but for me it just too big and heavy, don't fit on my pocket

 

[BinaryMessiah]

In the end, the Steam Deck is your best bet when it comes to portable power. With Emudeck you can emulate literally everything. I have a Steam Deck OLED and use EmulationStation through Emudeck and it doesn't get much better than that.

 

[elehayyme]

The Retroid Pocket can do PS2, GC and some other systems however I wouldn't bet on PS3. I believe there are videos out there showcasing PS3 working via Rocknix on the device but from my understanding that's very early stages so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[Bonkers225]

I'm looking to buy a handheld soon, kind of like the Steam Deck. The thing is, I don't know which is a good handheld that's "budget" (about 300 to 500 bucks) and can do emulation. Particularly stuff like GameCube and PS2, PS3 would be a nice added bonus to that but it's not necessary since I don't know how well handhelds in that price range can realistically do that. Any ideas?
Oh and also you know, the ability to play PC games, I'm not looking to play Cyberpunk or anything like that, I mostly play indie games and some older titles anyway.

I have a brand new Anbernic rg 34xx I'm looking to sell. It's a great budget handheld molded after the classic GBA shape. And costs a fraction of what you're looking to spend. Plays all the way to any 16 bit games, and good amount of PSX, N64 and some Dreamcast, and PSP games. lmk via DM if interested.

 

[moonbits]

I want a Retroid Pocket Mini so baad but they don't shop to my country.

 

[TheDuke_11037]

Recommend a R36H, can go up to dreamcast and psp(struggle on more powerful games). Theyre relatively cheap for around 40-50 bucks.