I got a bunch of retro game handhelds that I bought in 2020 and 2021.
I've taken a break from keeping up with the scene since then due to lack of interest and to help save money, but after recently ordering a Retroid Pocket 3+ as a holiday gift for myself I decided now's a good a time as any to revisit what I've got!
I've got other handhelds modded to work as retro devices as well such as PSP and the Vita, but to keep the scope limited I'll just focus on dedicated retro handhelds for now.
These are roughly listed in the order which I can recall receiving them:
1: GPD XD
My first dedicated retro handheld, and for a long time was the only one I had as I really enjoyed my time with it. It runs Android 4.0 and had served me since 2016, right after I had graduated college and was in the middle of enjoying Kill la Kill and digging into the world of anime for the first time (hence why there's Ryuko & Satsuki stickers on it... xP ).
The buttons have become mushy at this point, and the d-pad is especially smooshy-gooshy and not great to use, but I enjoy the clamshell and strangely nostalgic 3DS-like design. The battery also had to be replaced in 2019 as it had begun to inflate, but I was really lucky to find someone online who had a couple spare batteries left for the original unit, which extended its life for a little longer than it was probably supposed to go for. I'm hoping the Retroid Pocket 3+ will be the full replacement for this wonderful little thing that I've been waiting for.
2: Pocket-Go
This cute little handheld was bought sometime in 2019, and was the one that properly sent me down the retro handheld rabbit hole. I had picked it up from Stone Age Gamer for about $20, and I had a lot of fun tossing it into my pocket and playing Game Boy games while waiting for people to show up for gatherings and meetings. Its buttons and d-pad are much more solid to use, even though it also uses a membrane setup like the GPD XD.Despite its very Game Boy Micro shape and size, it doesn't actually handle GBA games as well as I'd like for it to, nor does it handle SNES very well. Honestly though that never bothered me very much, as I always liked to treat it as a tiny GB/Color machine.
3: Ambernic RG350
This was my first Ambernic device, and I really liked it when I got it for Christmas 2020. The dual analog sticks were nice to use, and I could play a decent amount of DOOM on it. The rest of the buttons feel solid (as is common with Ambernic's build quality), though I have yet to get used to the flat side-by-side shoulder button design Ambernic uses on most of their systems.
4: Retroid Pocket 2
I really wanted to like this one when it came in, but it ended up falling flat for both me and my friend who also bought one around the same time.
The Pocket 2 is sorta infamous for the hype it had around its price to performance ratio, then dropped the ball with stiff controls, tiny storage/RAM and a clunky interface (imagine using Android 4.0 without a touch screen, because that's exactly what it asks you to do, wheeeeee)
That said, Retroid seemed to take the feedback to heart and later made the Pocket 2+, which I'm told was a big improvement over the original, then released the Pocket 3 which was a massive improvement. These days they seem to be giving Ambernic and a lot of other retro handhelds on the market a serious run for their money. I can't help but admire Retroid's dedication to improving the Pocket and making it a seriously good deal today.
5: Powkiddy GBA SP-looking thing
Unfortunately Powkiddy doesn't seem to write their model numbers on the unit itself, and I'm too lazy to dig through the Retro Handhelds discord server to find what the model number is, so... uhThis one caught my eye back in the day because it was cheap at around $25, similar to the Pocket-Go. Unlike that unit though, I don't enjoy using this one much. it feels like it could break any time I open the screen, and the build quality as a whole feels cheaper than I'd like for it to be. I could see maybe wiping this unit and giving it to a family member or friend, ideally someone who likely wouldn't handle it too rough.
6: Ambernic 280V
Another very Game Boy-esque design. I really like the screen and buttons on this one, they feel premium. The shoulder buttons are still a pain to use for me personally, though. I don't have much to say on this one as I've hardly got to play much on it.
7: Powkiddy Yellow Linux Thing With The Red Analog Stick Cover (can't remember the model number)
The other Powkiddy device. I was sorta excited for this one as unlike the other handhelds I've shown which usually ran GMenu2X if I recall correctly (same general OS which used to run in late 2000's handhelds like the Dingoo), this one instead ran Ubuntu with Emulationstation hooked up. I ended up not playing this one too much, which kinda surprises me as while revisiting it for this post I found it actually feels kinda nice to play compared to their GBA SP knockoff. The button feel more solid, and the screen displays games nicely.
I also tried compiling SRB2 Kart to run on this thing, as no one else had tried to do that at the time. I couldn't get it working though, and was in way over my head in the first place so I didn't have the know-how to figure out why it was going wrong. dang! Maybe someone else has got it working by now...
8: Ambernic 351P
Similar to the previous Powkiddy device with running Linux/EmulationStation, but with way better build quality. I put my spare set of Switch joystick covers on this one. Again though, I never put much time into using this. I'm told the 351P was immensely impactful on the retro handhelds community though, which sounds believable as it always seemed like a handheld brimming with potential for fun stuff.
9: Ambernic 351V
Pretty much exactly the same as the Ambernic 351P, but with a different form factor and built-in WIFI. I boot up this unit every so often to play Game Boy games and test GB Studio projects, as it plays GB/GBC/GBA really well and has a great form factor & screen for it.
Oh, and did I mention that screen? It's a really nice screen. Like, way better looking than you'd expect to get for something of this price tag. I wish my picture here did it better justice, but the screen and general build quality here has been good enough to make me seriously question whether I'd ever need to bother buying an Analogue Pocket to do virtually the same things this unit already does for me.
10: GPD WIN 2
(Tron Bonne edition)
The WIN 2, from my experience, isn't that great of a handheld to actually use. The ABXY buttons do feel better than on the GPD XD, but the d-pad unfortunately is still mushy. My hands also have a tendency to reach towards the middle of the unit as well, where you can feel with your hands the very warm temperatures the CPU and SDD drives can build up to. It's also very heavy, so I find that I can only play games on this unit for about a half-hour at a time.
But thankfully, none of that is very important, cuz I just own one because the WIN 2 always looked like the coolest thing to me in screenshots and videos. It's Windows! On a handheld!! With control sticks!!! And it plays most Dolphin games mostly okay!!!!
It was a wild concept to me in 2014-16 when the world of netbooks was still not too far behind us, and I think that's why this stood out to me. Its clamshell design also feels like a window into a vision of the future as seen in 2011-2015 when I was in college, which brings back good memories. It's like getting to own one of those concept cars that looks cool on paper and maybe wowed you as a kid, but is very impractical in practice.
I also accidentally spat coffee onto this at one point after failing not to laugh. I quickly cleaned it up and there was no damage, so I got lucky or it's also waterproof to some degree!
either way, you can trust me to take good care of any and all electronic devices
In closing...
I think the two handhelds I have from GPD stand out to me of this bunch (GPD XD & Win 2), and the Pocket-Go also has some good memories tied to it.
Collecting handhelds was fun for the time, and it was also nice to revisit these for this post (in fact I may indeed give some of these away to family and friends as Christmas gifts this year), but I don't think I would fully get into this hobby ever again. Keeping up with such a quickly-moving scene was proving to be tricky, and it's grown a lot since I dropped out of it.
That, and the Steam Deck pretty much turned the scene on its head and has also proven to be my new handheld for all things gaming which aren't related to Android... but that's a topic for another day. xP
Thanks so much for reading my rambles!
