The Best Gaming Handhelds in 2026

Running the tried and tested AMD Ryzen Z1 Exteme Chipset and the Radeon 780M GPU, this handheld is the equivalent of a mid-tier gaming laptop. RAM and battery capacity have been greatly enhanced over the original Asus ROG Ally, going from 16GB to 24GB and 40Wh to 80Wh respectively. These improvements allow the device to handle heavy gaming much more smoothly and over longer periods.

Center stage is a new top of the line 1080p 120Hz screen that looks really sharp and colorful. [...] This handheld benefits from 6 years of iterations by Retroid. The high-resolution AMOLED screen is amazing, the controls are great across the board, and the build feels premium. In terms of gaming performance, this device plays any Android game with ease, and runs any Android emulator to its full potential. You can expect perfect performance on PS2, Gamecube, and all of the older systems. This can even run many Switch games really well.

The Retroid Pocket G2 also has all the bells and whistles you can wish for on your retro gaming handheld: WIFI, Bluetooth, video output, hall effect sticks, gyroscope, analog triggers... [...] PS2, 3DS

Price

~$540

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There are so many good handhelds in this category that have come out from some of the biggest players in the gaming hardware scene in the past couple of years (Asus ROG Ally X , MSI Claw 8 AI+, etc...). Valve, the makers of Steam and a software company at heart, blew it out of the park with the Steam Deck. For this entry, we've chosen to go with OLED model, the amazing screen makes it worth the upgrade over the original LCD model, even though they're pretty similar in most other aspects.

Source Insight: This report was curated based on original coverage from retrocatalog.com.

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