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chuckroI haven’t really done an update on this in two years and I’m in the midst of a proper cull, so time to put something together. As of this writing, 50 handhelds of various levels of quality have passed through my hands and I’ve managed reviews and commentary for the vast majority of them. I’m currently down to 20 remaining, but two of those are up on eBay already, so it’s really 18. (And I bought a second Trimui Smart Pro and a second R36S as gifts for friends.)
In July 2023 I put together an eBay bundle and sold the PowKiddy V90, along with the My Arcade Go Gamer Family Sport 220-in-1, My Arcade Go Gamer Retro, and Pro200 Gaming System for a net $65 recovery. I wonder if the buyer threw away the three cheap systems, given that was still a decent price for a V90 at the time. I had barely used the V90 because I actually liked the candybar Q90 better; the three $10 handhelds each got a thread on Talking Time going through their contents.
In November 2023, I sold the BOYHOM M17 Handheld Game Console on eBay. I got $30 back and the buyer was a pain in the butt about it; though to be fair, that system was kinda crap. (Fiddling with the alternate OS was pretty much the only fun thing I got from it.) That same month, I put the Lexibook Compact Cyber Arcade and the DATA FROG SF2000 (aka VILCORN SNPRO Retro Game) Console into a Talking Time Festivus gift box. The Lexibook also got a Talking Time thread.
In November of 2024, I put together another eBay bundle where the anchor item was the Miyoo Mini+ but it also included the New Project X Handheld, DY14 Arcade Game Machine and Power Bank, Aojiao Handheld Game Console, and Gamplae Retro Handheld. I only netted $36 and that buyer got a real bargain. The Miyoo Mini+ was actively a disappointment—the form-factor was always a little uncomfortable in my hands and once there was a better OS available the RG35XX outshined it in every way. My son and I only collectively played around 20 hours on it. The Project X and DY14 were crappy cheap devices I wanted to try out for their gimmicks and barely used otherwise. The Aojiao and the Gamplae were specifically for the Talking Time examination threads, where they were thoroughly examined.
That same month, I put the Anbernic RG40XX-H into a Talking Time Festivus gift box, which was pretty much what I expected to do with it when I got it, because it was a solid device but an “in-between” size and it didn’t do anything special.
In April of 2025, I gave away the RG50XX Handheld Retro Game Console on the local Buy Nothing list, to someone who said it was for a bored teenager stuck in the hospital. I suspect that was the best possible resting place for it—hopefully he passed it on to some other kid after he was done with it. (I had barely touched it, but also had gotten it for free, so easy come, easy go.)
In August of 2025, I gave away the 23in1 Super Game on Buy Nothing (again, it garnered a Talking Time post that was certainly worth the $6 it cost); and I gave the BATLEXP G350 Retro Handheld to a friend who was also buying my old collection of Hardy Boys books. The BATLEXP was probably the best $30 handheld I’ve seen, and the one I was most comfortable passing off to a friend who I know is a serious gamer. It just didn’t have a place in my ecosystem. (I also finally recycled the original board from the Retroid Pocket 1, acknowledging that I’ll never actually use it for anything.)
In September 2025, I sold the BOYHOM New R36H Retro Handheld and my old Anbernic RG552 on eBay. I netted $22 for the R36H, which wasn’t much less than it cost me. I only netted $62 for the RG552 that had originally cost $250, though I got almost 90 hours of logged playtime on it and it taught me some very useful things about Android handhelds. In the end, it was just inferior to the Retroid Pocket 3. I have the Coopreme R40S Retro Handheld and my old PowKiddy X2 listed as well. I’m never going to use the R40S because of the lousy controls. While I love the terrible translations on the X2, it’s not actually a great system to play on (not least because you can’t rescale the screen, so 1:1 and 4:3 systems are always stretched) and it’s always a crapshoot what game you’ll get based on the title. That also earned its keep with a Talking Time thread and a few hours of logged playtime.
What does that leave me with? In order of age:
Anbernic RG350 – While I doubt I’ll play much more on this because it’s been well-outclassed, I’ve logged over 300 hours on it and it was my first great love in retro handhelds because it was the first genuinely good one. It gets kept for sentimental value.
PowKiddy Q90 – This is still in the rotation of “throw in my pocket to play on the subway” devices, especially since I have a belt holster for it. I suspect I’ll keep using it periodically until it dies.
Retroid Pocket 2+ - I haven’t used this heavily since the project to upgrade it; it’s generally inferior to the RP3 because of the smaller screen, but it’s not small enough to be significantly more portable. But selling it would mean wiping it, because it’s attached to my Google account.
Powkiddy A66 / TRIMUI Mini Handheld – I love this tiny little thing for the gimmickry of it, though I’ve actually used it very little. I should add it to the “subway” rotation for sheer pocketability.
Hyperkin Supaboy – This is a display piece next to my collection of SNES games. I’m never actually going to play it.
Retroid Pocket 3 – My other big workhorse with 300+ hours of playtime, including a lot of KEMCO games. I’ve drifted away from it more recently but it’s still a solidly useful device. Like the RP2+, selling it would mean wiping it, and I suspect something about it will break before I got to that point anyway.
KinHank X3-Plus – Not technically a handheld, this is a game box that I’ve used a bunch of times for 4-player games. I actually brought it to conventions a couple of times with a cheap projector, because it was cheap enough I’m comfortable with it getting lost or broken. I’ll probably want to replace this eventually with something that plays N64 and more reliably recognizes all of my controllers.
Anbernic RG35XX – I think I’ve had more fun testing new OS variants on this than actually playing games; though admittedly I’ve had a lot of fun doing that. (And I still have 60+ hours logged on it.)
AYN Odin Pro – I occasionally wonder if getting this was a mistake. It’s got a bigger screen than anything from Retroid (currently the biggest screen of anything I own) and it should be able to handle PS2 and GameCube, but I haven’t actually felt the urge to set up and play those systems. It would also probably be as good as or better at playing KEMCO games than the RP3, but I haven’t been feeling that urge since the last big batch.
Game Console Power Bank DY19 – This has served as a useful backup for traveling; I actually took it skiing and camping several times. Having a handheld I don’t mind getting broken AND an emergency power bank for my phone in a single pocket is a really nice synergy. I have better things for both purposes individually (I bought a fast-charging C-to-C power bank for $20 and it’s delightful), but this is another device I suspect I’ll pull out periodically for travel until it breaks, and it was cheap enough I won’t be sad about it.
TRIMUI Smart Pro – I irrationally love this device despite the issues I’ve had with it. It has lousy heat dissipation and sometimes freezes and reboots or doesn’t shut down properly. The screen layout leaves sidebars for virtually every system. The N64 and PSP emulation is only okay; in many cases not noticeably better than the Anbernic XX devices. And yet I’m up to 150+ hours on it and I keep reaching for it when I want to play things—it’s got a great form-factor and a comfortable size and does a great job with all the features of the pre-DS retro systems. It’s currently at the closest thing to “workhorse” status.
R36S Game Console – I got a silicone cover for this so it could get added to the “throw in my bag just in case” rotation. It has the advantage of being more comfortable to play on for extended periods than any of the really small devices, but it’s definitely “earned out” so if it dies or gets destroyed I won’t feel too bad.
Anbernic RG35XX-H – I had expected this to replace the RG350 as a workhorse, but I keep either leaning towards larger systems when I’m playing for a longer time, or cheaper systems when I’m just grabbing something. It’s smaller than the Trimui Smart Pro so less ideal for extended play, but feels more “precious” than any of the cheapest devices.
Miyoo A30 – Another common choice for “just toss in my pocket,” this has seen decent use for me in transit and for my son at boring events, because it’s compact but also has a sturdy case. I might want to update the OS again at some point, but the BTN OS works just fine for my current purposes.
Powkiddy V10 – I bought a $20 grip for this, which alleviates the discomfort of playing it for long periods, but reduces portability. I maintain that it’s the best way to play GBA games, with the perfect 2X scaled screen, but also acknowledge that I should use it more or let it go.
GB300 Seven Simulator Plus – The best $12 handheld ever, this lived in the pocket of my winter coat in 2024-2025 and got pulled out when I was randomly bored, which was great for preventing me from doomscrolling. I actually bought a three-pack of these to give away as prizes when I ran a trivia quiz at a convention last year. I wouldn’t want to play anything extensively on it—the emulation of anything harder than NES or Game Boy is sub-par; the saves often fail and the save states aren’t much better; I can’t add games or re-sort the contents; and there’s no way to use cheats or fast-forward. But it loads insanely fast and is loaded with games I want to play for ten minutes at a time; and if I crack it sitting on my coat or drop it onto the subway tracks I’ll shrug and move on with my life.
Retroid Pocket 5 – My son has actually used this more than I have, since it was his gateway to Gamecube Zelda games. I recently bought the second screen attachment for it and get DS emulation set up; my next goal is to get 3DS emulation going because apparently it works really well if you jump through the hoops. Also apparently there’s a new way to play Steam games on it as well. It took me a while to shift the RP3 into being a primary device, and I’m guessing that one of those things is going to be the hook that gets me onto this.
Ampown MagicX Zero 40 – I spotted this months before it was actually available for purchase and thought the gimmick was just too cute to pass up on: This is the one with the long vertical screen so you can emulate DS games without having to side-by-side or flip screens. Like the V10, I feel like I need to actually use this more or let it go.
So, that’s six handhelds in the “throw in a pocket for the subway or just in case I’m bored” category (Q90, Trimui Mini, DY19, R36S, A30, GB300); three workhorse mid-level handhelds (RG350, RP3, Trimui Smart Pro); three under-used all-rounder devices (RP2+, RG35XX, RG35XX-H); two high-end Android devices that I should use for more recent systems (Odin, RP5); and two gimmicky specialty devices I should use more or pass on (V10, MagicX). Half of the devices (the workhorses, all-rounders and high-end) are loaded with my “Ideal ROM Collection” including all of the hacks and fan translations I’ve found interesting over the years; while the others have their original loadouts, often with a handful of games added.
Conclusions: I should try out the expanded capabilities of the high-end systems and spend more time with the gimmicky systems to see if they’re actually worth continuing to keep. And I shouldn’t buy any more devices unless I can come up with an actual use-case for them, because right now everything is pretty much covered several times over.
In July 2023 I put together an eBay bundle and sold the PowKiddy V90, along with the My Arcade Go Gamer Family Sport 220-in-1, My Arcade Go Gamer Retro, and Pro200 Gaming System for a net $65 recovery. I wonder if the buyer threw away the three cheap systems, given that was still a decent price for a V90 at the time. I had barely used the V90 because I actually liked the candybar Q90 better; the three $10 handhelds each got a thread on Talking Time going through their contents.
In November 2023, I sold the BOYHOM M17 Handheld Game Console on eBay. I got $30 back and the buyer was a pain in the butt about it; though to be fair, that system was kinda crap. (Fiddling with the alternate OS was pretty much the only fun thing I got from it.) That same month, I put the Lexibook Compact Cyber Arcade and the DATA FROG SF2000 (aka VILCORN SNPRO Retro Game) Console into a Talking Time Festivus gift box. The Lexibook also got a Talking Time thread.
In November of 2024, I put together another eBay bundle where the anchor item was the Miyoo Mini+ but it also included the New Project X Handheld, DY14 Arcade Game Machine and Power Bank, Aojiao Handheld Game Console, and Gamplae Retro Handheld. I only netted $36 and that buyer got a real bargain. The Miyoo Mini+ was actively a disappointment—the form-factor was always a little uncomfortable in my hands and once there was a better OS available the RG35XX outshined it in every way. My son and I only collectively played around 20 hours on it. The Project X and DY14 were crappy cheap devices I wanted to try out for their gimmicks and barely used otherwise. The Aojiao and the Gamplae were specifically for the Talking Time examination threads, where they were thoroughly examined.
That same month, I put the Anbernic RG40XX-H into a Talking Time Festivus gift box, which was pretty much what I expected to do with it when I got it, because it was a solid device but an “in-between” size and it didn’t do anything special.
In April of 2025, I gave away the RG50XX Handheld Retro Game Console on the local Buy Nothing list, to someone who said it was for a bored teenager stuck in the hospital. I suspect that was the best possible resting place for it—hopefully he passed it on to some other kid after he was done with it. (I had barely touched it, but also had gotten it for free, so easy come, easy go.)
In August of 2025, I gave away the 23in1 Super Game on Buy Nothing (again, it garnered a Talking Time post that was certainly worth the $6 it cost); and I gave the BATLEXP G350 Retro Handheld to a friend who was also buying my old collection of Hardy Boys books. The BATLEXP was probably the best $30 handheld I’ve seen, and the one I was most comfortable passing off to a friend who I know is a serious gamer. It just didn’t have a place in my ecosystem. (I also finally recycled the original board from the Retroid Pocket 1, acknowledging that I’ll never actually use it for anything.)
In September 2025, I sold the BOYHOM New R36H Retro Handheld and my old Anbernic RG552 on eBay. I netted $22 for the R36H, which wasn’t much less than it cost me. I only netted $62 for the RG552 that had originally cost $250, though I got almost 90 hours of logged playtime on it and it taught me some very useful things about Android handhelds. In the end, it was just inferior to the Retroid Pocket 3. I have the Coopreme R40S Retro Handheld and my old PowKiddy X2 listed as well. I’m never going to use the R40S because of the lousy controls. While I love the terrible translations on the X2, it’s not actually a great system to play on (not least because you can’t rescale the screen, so 1:1 and 4:3 systems are always stretched) and it’s always a crapshoot what game you’ll get based on the title. That also earned its keep with a Talking Time thread and a few hours of logged playtime.
What does that leave me with? In order of age:
Anbernic RG350 – While I doubt I’ll play much more on this because it’s been well-outclassed, I’ve logged over 300 hours on it and it was my first great love in retro handhelds because it was the first genuinely good one. It gets kept for sentimental value.
PowKiddy Q90 – This is still in the rotation of “throw in my pocket to play on the subway” devices, especially since I have a belt holster for it. I suspect I’ll keep using it periodically until it dies.
Retroid Pocket 2+ - I haven’t used this heavily since the project to upgrade it; it’s generally inferior to the RP3 because of the smaller screen, but it’s not small enough to be significantly more portable. But selling it would mean wiping it, because it’s attached to my Google account.
Powkiddy A66 / TRIMUI Mini Handheld – I love this tiny little thing for the gimmickry of it, though I’ve actually used it very little. I should add it to the “subway” rotation for sheer pocketability.
Hyperkin Supaboy – This is a display piece next to my collection of SNES games. I’m never actually going to play it.
Retroid Pocket 3 – My other big workhorse with 300+ hours of playtime, including a lot of KEMCO games. I’ve drifted away from it more recently but it’s still a solidly useful device. Like the RP2+, selling it would mean wiping it, and I suspect something about it will break before I got to that point anyway.
KinHank X3-Plus – Not technically a handheld, this is a game box that I’ve used a bunch of times for 4-player games. I actually brought it to conventions a couple of times with a cheap projector, because it was cheap enough I’m comfortable with it getting lost or broken. I’ll probably want to replace this eventually with something that plays N64 and more reliably recognizes all of my controllers.
Anbernic RG35XX – I think I’ve had more fun testing new OS variants on this than actually playing games; though admittedly I’ve had a lot of fun doing that. (And I still have 60+ hours logged on it.)
AYN Odin Pro – I occasionally wonder if getting this was a mistake. It’s got a bigger screen than anything from Retroid (currently the biggest screen of anything I own) and it should be able to handle PS2 and GameCube, but I haven’t actually felt the urge to set up and play those systems. It would also probably be as good as or better at playing KEMCO games than the RP3, but I haven’t been feeling that urge since the last big batch.
Game Console Power Bank DY19 – This has served as a useful backup for traveling; I actually took it skiing and camping several times. Having a handheld I don’t mind getting broken AND an emergency power bank for my phone in a single pocket is a really nice synergy. I have better things for both purposes individually (I bought a fast-charging C-to-C power bank for $20 and it’s delightful), but this is another device I suspect I’ll pull out periodically for travel until it breaks, and it was cheap enough I won’t be sad about it.
TRIMUI Smart Pro – I irrationally love this device despite the issues I’ve had with it. It has lousy heat dissipation and sometimes freezes and reboots or doesn’t shut down properly. The screen layout leaves sidebars for virtually every system. The N64 and PSP emulation is only okay; in many cases not noticeably better than the Anbernic XX devices. And yet I’m up to 150+ hours on it and I keep reaching for it when I want to play things—it’s got a great form-factor and a comfortable size and does a great job with all the features of the pre-DS retro systems. It’s currently at the closest thing to “workhorse” status.
R36S Game Console – I got a silicone cover for this so it could get added to the “throw in my bag just in case” rotation. It has the advantage of being more comfortable to play on for extended periods than any of the really small devices, but it’s definitely “earned out” so if it dies or gets destroyed I won’t feel too bad.
Anbernic RG35XX-H – I had expected this to replace the RG350 as a workhorse, but I keep either leaning towards larger systems when I’m playing for a longer time, or cheaper systems when I’m just grabbing something. It’s smaller than the Trimui Smart Pro so less ideal for extended play, but feels more “precious” than any of the cheapest devices.
Miyoo A30 – Another common choice for “just toss in my pocket,” this has seen decent use for me in transit and for my son at boring events, because it’s compact but also has a sturdy case. I might want to update the OS again at some point, but the BTN OS works just fine for my current purposes.
Powkiddy V10 – I bought a $20 grip for this, which alleviates the discomfort of playing it for long periods, but reduces portability. I maintain that it’s the best way to play GBA games, with the perfect 2X scaled screen, but also acknowledge that I should use it more or let it go.
GB300 Seven Simulator Plus – The best $12 handheld ever, this lived in the pocket of my winter coat in 2024-2025 and got pulled out when I was randomly bored, which was great for preventing me from doomscrolling. I actually bought a three-pack of these to give away as prizes when I ran a trivia quiz at a convention last year. I wouldn’t want to play anything extensively on it—the emulation of anything harder than NES or Game Boy is sub-par; the saves often fail and the save states aren’t much better; I can’t add games or re-sort the contents; and there’s no way to use cheats or fast-forward. But it loads insanely fast and is loaded with games I want to play for ten minutes at a time; and if I crack it sitting on my coat or drop it onto the subway tracks I’ll shrug and move on with my life.
Retroid Pocket 5 – My son has actually used this more than I have, since it was his gateway to Gamecube Zelda games. I recently bought the second screen attachment for it and get DS emulation set up; my next goal is to get 3DS emulation going because apparently it works really well if you jump through the hoops. Also apparently there’s a new way to play Steam games on it as well. It took me a while to shift the RP3 into being a primary device, and I’m guessing that one of those things is going to be the hook that gets me onto this.
Ampown MagicX Zero 40 – I spotted this months before it was actually available for purchase and thought the gimmick was just too cute to pass up on: This is the one with the long vertical screen so you can emulate DS games without having to side-by-side or flip screens. Like the V10, I feel like I need to actually use this more or let it go.
So, that’s six handhelds in the “throw in a pocket for the subway or just in case I’m bored” category (Q90, Trimui Mini, DY19, R36S, A30, GB300); three workhorse mid-level handhelds (RG350, RP3, Trimui Smart Pro); three under-used all-rounder devices (RP2+, RG35XX, RG35XX-H); two high-end Android devices that I should use for more recent systems (Odin, RP5); and two gimmicky specialty devices I should use more or pass on (V10, MagicX). Half of the devices (the workhorses, all-rounders and high-end) are loaded with my “Ideal ROM Collection” including all of the hacks and fan translations I’ve found interesting over the years; while the others have their original loadouts, often with a handful of games added.
Conclusions: I should try out the expanded capabilities of the high-end systems and spend more time with the gimmicky systems to see if they’re actually worth continuing to keep. And I shouldn’t buy any more devices unless I can come up with an actual use-case for them, because right now everything is pretty much covered several times over.
