Chinese gaming Handhelds thread

[JPF997]

These days a lot of Chinese companies are trying to enter the Handheld market historically dominated by Nintendo , the most successful brands currently are Retroid, Anbernic, Ayn and Trimui ( you can find most of these products on

Ali Express ).

 

The most anticipated Handheld right now is the Retroid Pocket 5, which is supposed to be much more powerful than the Switch and can perfectly emulate all 6th generation consoles and beyond for an affordable price.

 

If you have any experience with these devices go ahead and share your thoughts on the rising Chinese Handheld market.

Edited September 16 by JPF997

[JPF997]

[JPF997]

Somehow I forgot to mention the most popular Chinese Handheld of them all, the R36S, it's very affordable ( only around 30 bucks ) and can emulate everything up to the PS1 perfectly,  this summer alone this handheld sold over 400k units,  very impressive for a device like this.

 

[JPF997]

10 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

The one I've currently ordered is the Trimui Smart Pro,  the specs that it offers  allow for great emulation all the way up  to the Dreamcast and PSP.

 

Edited September 16 by JPF997

[+5-11under]

3 hours ago, JPF997 said:

 

I received one of these a few days ago. So far, so good! It was funny to see some of my old demos on there when it arrived.

I didn't want to spend more than this on a device, and I wanted a horizontal device, and with analog controls.

Edit: it also has a 5" screen. Widescreen, though, so it'll show up smaller for most systems.

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, JPF997 said:

trying to enter the Handheld market historically dominated by Nintendo

We know you hate Nintendo so you (not so) secretly wish they were dethroned by these Chinese companies, but they're not really competing with Nintendo, since they're focused on emulation. And Chinese handhelds have been a thing for a long time, actually.

[JPF997]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

We know you hate Nintendo so you (not so) secretly wish they were dethroned by these Chinese companies, but they're not really competing with Nintendo, since they're focused on emulation. And Chinese handhelds have been a thing for a long time, actually.

You're still running with this conspiracy that I hate Nintendo? Bro I just  preferred the competitions offerings over Nintendos most of the time it's that simple, preferring the Master System, Saturn and PSP over the NES, N64 and DS doesn't make someone a Nintendo hater .

Edited September 16 by JPF997

[Tanooki]

Well I mean I kind of see where he's coming from.  What honestly did the others outside of a lit color screen did they offer that the Gameboy/Color didn't do better already with actual games?  I mean there are some outliers, or maybe you really liked having Sega arcade conversions, or you were loving the whole HuCard on the go thing, but what else?  Lynx was DOA, the Supervision eerrrr..no?  Game Gear had a few paltry exclusives that weren't first party based worthwhile.  I mean sure you're right you are entitled to what you like, but in a sea of offerings on what each system had during those generations, it's very hard to argue that being Nintendo-less you were better off with the NES, Gameboy, arguably the SNES though debable(console wars!) but after that yeah pretty easy on the console side given how that split worked.  Handheld?  Not so much, Gameboy Advance stood on its own supremely well, and the DS may have been a portable N64 (being overly basic) in quality vs a stripped PS2 in quality PSP but that came at a cost too.  It doesn't make you a Nintendo hater sure, but it does raise for I would think many some real questions why you'd choose a clearly inferior system with a capped and crippled line up of games at least with Sega in the NES, GB, and even Saturn eras too, Genesis was their own point of light outside of the DC which was (unknown to most by then) dead on arrival.

 

Yet this topic has nothing to do with that.

 

WHen it comes to the modern Chinese handheld there really have been two tiers.  You have the capable one that can strongly run the 8 and 16 bit and 32bitARM (GBA) or 32bit Virtualboy and arcade games rock solid and usually PS1 as well.  And then you're into too damn much money for what it is going like $300 deep to play Gamecube, PS2, Saturn, Dreamcast stuff like that.  If you don't need 2000~s consoles, you can get a wonderful device down around $50 or up to around $100 that gets the job done very well.  If you go with Anbernic, their firmware/software is shit, poorly setup that gimps capabilities but AmberELEC fixes that to really puff up the quality.  I had a 351p and that thing with the CFW I ran could do full speed n64 for like 2/3 of the library, the more complex and added memory high microcode needing stuff just didn't run at all much like the 10-20+year old emulators that were stuck for ages at, but without the CFW most stuff sucked and struggled.  Yet if you get into the now $220~ (formerly 300+) tier stuff like the RP5 then you can run the heftier stuff in style so it depends on your free time, free money, and how much of both you want to budget.

 

If you want to stick to more traditional retro, get a refreshed model of the older rockchip based Anbernic devices or the Miyoo Mini etc that's in a GBA(og) or GB(vertical) style setup and just have fun.  But if you can't be happy without those beefier optical using systems get the RP5 for now, or see what else is cranked out as a response.

[JPF997]

Just received my Trimui Smart Pro that I purchased last month, it's a fantastic little device well worth the 70 bucks I paid for it.

[+Zeptari]

 

 

@JPF997 You still rocking the Asus ROG Ally? I just started my PC handheld quest with my newly acquired Steamdeck, and I'm loving it!

[JPF997]

45 minutes ago, Zeptari said:

 

 

@JPF997 You still rocking the Asus ROG Ally? I just started my PC handheld quest with my newly acquired Steamdeck, and I'm loving it!

Unfortunately no, I sold my ROG Ally a few months ago, had to buy a few others things that I needed, these days I'm mostly gaming on my Super Console X4 Plus and now my Trimui Smart Pro, of course these are low budget machines, nothing compared to the ROG Ally or the Steam Deck.

 

Next system I'll buy will probably be the Switch 2 or the Steam Deck 2 ( whenever they come out ).

Edited 2 hours ago by JPF997

[Video]

Its amusing how big gaming insists handheld gaming isn't worth pursuing, yet these knock off things are selling in the hundreds of thousands a month. Granted most ARE sub $100 range, and I'm sure having zillions of built in games help.

 

I've been a handheld fan for life, and always have all the current available stuff, switch, evercade, but I'm not above buying less branded, or off brand bootleg stuff. Got tons, some range from garbage to holy shit, wow.