The best gaming handhelds for 2024

Steam Deck OLED – Display: 7.4-inch HDR OLED, 1,280 x 800 resolution, 1,000 nits peak HDR brightness, 600 nits SDR brightness, up to 90Hz | Processor: Custom 6nm AMD APU | RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 6400 MT/s | Storage: 512GB, 1TB SSD | Battery: 50Whr | Dimensions: 11.73 x 4.6 x 1.93 inches | Weight: 1.41 pounds | Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 | OS: SteamOS

Steam Deck LCD – Display: 7-inch IPS, 1,280 x 800 resolution, 400 nits brightness, 60Hz | Processor: Custom 7nm AMD APU | RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 5500 MT/s | Storage: 256GB SSD | Battery: 40Whr | Dimensions: 11.73 x 4.6 x 1.93 inches | Weight: 1.48 pounds | Wireless: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0 | OS: SteamOS

Thanks to a refresh late last year, Valve’s Steam Deck continues to offer the best balance of price, performance and usability in the gaming handheld market. And the new Steam Deck OLED is a thorough upgrade over the original. Starting at $549 for 512GB of storage, this variant features a 7.4-inch OLED display that’s brighter, faster, slightly bigger and more vivid than the 7-inch IPS panel on the now entry-level model. The higher contrast and richer colors of an OLED screen makes every game look better by default, but this display also supports HDR, with significantly brighter highlights at its peak. The maximum refresh rate has jumped from 60Hz to 90Hz as well, which can help many games look smoother.

Due to the less power-hungry display, a more efficient AMD APU and a larger battery, the Steam Deck OLED also lasts longer than before. No handheld can play resource-intensive “AAA” games for too long, but Valve says the new model can run for three to 12 hours depending on the game, whereas the LCD model lasts between two and eight. A larger fan keeps things cooler and quieter, and the chassis feels lighter. Performance is roughly the same, though the OLED model’s increased memory bandwidth can help it gain a couple extra frames in certain games.

All that said, $549 is a big investment. The entry-level Steam Deck, which uses a more basic IPS LCD display but now comes with a 256GB SSD as standard, is still an unmatched value at $399. Newer AAA games are certainly pushing their limits, but both Decks can run tons of games that just aren’t possible on a Nintendo Switch, from Elden Ring to Final Fantasy VII Remake to the Resident Evil 4 remake. While official game support is limited to a subset of the Steam library, the list of officially verified and still-playable titles is massive, diverse and constantly growing. (There are workarounds to access other storefronts as well.)

A near-constant stream of updates has turned Valve’s SteamOS into a flexible yet user-friendly platform. You’ll still need to make tweaks every now and then to get a game to run optimally, but the process is usually straightforward. That power, combined with third-party tools like EmuDeck, makes the Deck superb for emulation as well. Some PS3 and original Xbox games can be tricky, but just about everything else works beautifully. You can also cloud stream Xbox games with a little setup.

The Steam Deck’s biggest issue is its size: At two inches thick and nearly a foot long, it stretches the definition of a “handheld” device, even if the OLED model is lighter by comparison. The LCD Deck can get warm and noisy fairly quickly, too, and the d-pad on each device is somewhat mushy. But the contoured grips on the back help offset the bulk, and both versions feel sturdy, with responsive face buttons and triggers, smooth joysticks and useful dual touchpads.

Display: 7-inch IPS, 1080p resolution, 500 nits brightness, 120Hz, VRR | Processor: AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme or AMD Ryzen Z1 | RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 6400 MT/s | Storage: 512GB SSD | Battery: 40Whr | Dimensions: 11.02 x 4.37 x 0.83-1.28 inches | Weight: 1.34 pounds | Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | OS: Windows 11

If you’re willing to spend extra for more power, you can skip the Steam Deck and buy a Windows-based handheld instead. The ASUS ROG Ally is the one that should work for most people, and it’s a decent alternative if you’re willing to trade ease of use for a higher performance ceiling. Think of it like a more portable gaming laptop.

Note that we’re specifically recommending the model with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, which costs $700. ASUS sells another version with a weaker Ryzen Z1 chip for $100 less, but the power drop-off there is too great. With the Z1 Extreme, the ROG Ally can play more demanding games at higher frame rates and resolutions than the Steam Deck. In our review, we saw fps gains of 15 to 25 percent in AAA fare like Cyberpunk 2077 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. While the Steam Deck officially tops out at a TDP of 15W, the ROG Ally’s Turbo mode boosts its power draw to 25W (or 30W when plugged in), letting it eke out more frames. It’s not the absolute fastest handheld, and the Steam Deck can actually outperform it on occasion at the same TDP, resolution and graphics settings. But the ROG Ally has more overhead going forward, which is important if you mostly play graphically demanding games.

The ROG Ally’s 7-inch LCD display isn’t as bright or color-rich as the Steam Deck OLED, but it has a sharper 1080p resolution and a faster 120Hz refresh rate. Most importantly, it supports variable refresh rates (VRR), which helps keep the image smooth even as a game’s frame rate fluctuates. Despite having a similar-size screen, the ROG Ally is also shorter, lighter and thinner than the Steam Deck OLED. That said, it doesn’t come with a case. And though the hardware isn’t as much of a brick as the Steam Deck, Valve’s handheld has more pronounced grips around its back, which could still make it easier to hold for those with large hands.

The ROG Ally’s upgraded performance and sharper display come at the expense of battery life, however. That usually sits in the two- to four-hour range, but it can be even less with certain games and higher performance modes, somewhat defeating the point of a “portable” device.

Because it runs on Windows 11, the ROG Ally can play games from any gaming client, not just a selection of Steam games. If you’ve built up libraries on stores like Epic, GOG, Itch.io or the Xbox app, you can access them here as you would on any other Windows PC, no special workarounds required. For those who want to play Epic exclusives like Alan Wake 2 or Xbox Game Pass titles, this is a real advantage.

But the biggest issue with all Windows handhelds is Windows itself. ASUS has made more strides than most by turning its Armoury Crate software into a centralized settings hub and game library, but it’s still slapping a bandage on an OS that simply isn’t designed for this device class.

Whether a game works smoothly right away can feel like a crapshoot on a Windows handheld. Sometimes the UI won’t scale properly, sometimes you’ll have to spend several minutes fiddling with graphics settings and key bindings, sometimes you’ll have to alternate between navigating the OS with buttons and with your fingers. I once had to hard-reset the ROG Ally after a driver issue kept the screen from turning on.

ASUS shows a helpful seven-minute tutorial on how to update and use the ROG Ally upon first launching Armoury Crate, but the fact that it needs a seven-minute intro video in the first place is telling. Nobody will confuse the Steam Deck with a Switch, but it’s much simpler to just pick up and use than any Windows alternative.

The ROG Ally has also had some troubles with quality control. Most notably, several users have reported problems with the device ejecting or outright killing their microSD cards, an issue ASUS has since confirmed. The device’s SSD is replaceable with a little legwork, however, so we recommend taking that route if you need more than 512GB of storage.

Display: 4.7-inch IPS, 750 x 1,334 resolution, 500 nits brightness, 60Hz | Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 1100 | RAM: 8GB LPDDR4x | Storage: 128GB UFS 3.1 | Battery: 5,000mAh | Dimensions: 7.27 x 3.25 x 0.62 inches | Weight: 0.58 pounds | Wireless: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 | OS: Android 11

The $199 Retroid Pocket 4 Pro is a great value for those who primarily want a gaming handheld to emulate older consoles. It’s an Android-based device with far less power than the Steam Deck or ROG Ally, so it can only run PC, PS5 and Xbox games via streaming. But if you want something more compact and are willing to go through the rigors of getting emulators to work, it’s the most capable handheld we’ve tested for less than $200.

The Pocket 4 Pro runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 1100 chip and 8GB of RAM, and it has a built-in fan with three different modes you can activate to gain a little extra performance. This provides enough power to play most games from the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, two popular retro consoles that are often tough for mobile handhelds to emulate. Not every game worked — particularly demanding titles like Star Wars Rogue Squadron II and ESPN NFL 2K5 were too choppy — and getting many others to run optimally required tinkering with resolution, rendering and active cooling settings. With some setup, though, it can play a significant chunk of PS2 and GameCube games at full speed and double their native resolution. The fact it can stably play more intensive titles like Gran Turismo 4 at all, even at lower settings, is fantastic for the money.

Almost everything we tested from systems below the PS2 and GameCube on the performance totem pole — PSP, Dreamcast, PS1, N64, etc. — ran flawlessly at a 2-4x upscale. The only exceptions were a few games for the notoriously thorny Sega Saturn. Select games from later consoles like the 3DS and Wii were also playable, though the experience was more touch-and-go. For modern games, Xbox cloud streaming worked just fine, as did native Android games with gamepad support like Diablo Immortal.

The Pocket 4 Pro is built like a shorter Nintendo Switch Lite. It’s a flat slab that lacks ergonomic grips but is still comfortable to hold thanks to its low weight and small profile. It doesn’t feel cheap or creaky despite its plastic frame, and its textured coating is pleasing to the touch. All of its buttons feel right: The face buttons are smooth and have a comfortable amount of travel; the analog triggers are conveniently wide and flared; the bumpers are clicky and easy to distinguish; and the d-pad is firm and precise. The joysticks are on the stubby side and placed a little too low on the device to be truly comfortable with modern games, but they have a comfortable level of tension. And because they use magnetic Hall effect sensors, they should avoid drifting issues over time. Underneath those are handy start, select, home and back buttons. There’s also a micro-HDMI port for connecting to a TV or monitor. The down-firing speakers are perfectly decent, though they’re easy to cover with your fingers by accident.

The 4.7-inch IPS display isn’t the most accurate we’ve tested even after updates, but it’s sufficiently bright, sharp and vivid, and any color temperature issues are hard to notice unless you’re looking at white background. It’s cramped for streaming modern games, however, and its 16:9 aspect ratio means you’ll get hefty black borders with some older consoles by default. Battery life is fine given the device’s size-to-performance ratio: We got three to four hours with PS2 and GameCube games, and around eight or nine hours mixing in older consoles. The active cooling system prevents the Pocket 4 Pro from ever feeling too hot, though it can get noticeably loud at its highest performance setting.

Retroid also sells a non-Pro version of the Pocket 4 with a slower Dimensity 900 chip and 4GB of RAM for $149. We haven’t been able to test it, but if you like this design and don’t care as much about emulating games from the PS2, GameCube and up, it may be a better value. It’ll still be able to play many games from those two systems, and everything below that should be rock solid. But the Pocket 4 Pro casts a wider safety net performance-wise, so it should be worth the extra $50 for those who want to emulate higher-power consoles more reliably.

Display: 6-inch IPS, 1080p resolution | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | RAM: 8GB, 12GB or 16GB LPDDR5x | Storage: 128GB, 256GB or 512GB UFS 4.0 | Battery: 8,000mAh | Dimensions: 8.86 x 3.86 x 0.67 inches | Weight: 0.93 pounds | Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 | OS: Android 13

If you have more cash to burn on an emulation-focused machine, the AYN Odin 2 is the absolute best retro gaming handheld you can buy right now. This Android device can play everything the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro can plus a little extra, with smoother and more reliable performance. That’s mainly due to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which is the same chip used by many of last year’s flagship phones.

The Odin 2 starts at $299 for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is expensive when the entry-level Steam Deck lets you play PC games for just $100 more. Still, among more compact mobile handhelds, there’s really nothing else that runs this well in this price range. It played all PS2 and GameCube games we tested at two to three times their native resolution, while systems like the PS1, N64 and Dreamcast were typically playable at a 3-4x upscale. Most 3DS and Wii games will have little to no slowdowns at 2-3x, either. It’s better than most with the Sega Saturn, and it can play a wider range of Switch games than the Pocket 4 Pro (though Switch emulators on Android are still maturing). More challenging systems will still require some settings tweaks, but you won’t have to tinker on a game-by-game basis as much as you will with lower-cost devices.

It’s not just raw performance, though: The Odin 2 is also a refined piece of hardware. It’s not as compact as the Pocket 4 Pro, but it’s much less chunky than a portable PC and the curved grips on its back make it easy to hold, particularly with newer games. Its d-pad, face buttons, analog triggers and Hall effect joysticks all feel great. Other touches like a fingerprint scanner, a dedicated return button, a micro-HDMI out port and two customizable back buttons are all nice perks, and the front-facing speakers are a clear upgrade over the Pocket 4 Pro.

The 6-inch, 1080p touchscreen is solid and well-sized, though it can stay a bit too bright in darker settings. Battery life is superb: We got more than eight hours of juice emulating systems like the PS2, but that jumped over 20 hours with lighter tasks. The device supports 65W fast charging as well. Cloud streaming and native Android games work as they should, and since the whole thing runs on a lightly modded version of Google’s OS, its stock interface should feel familiar to most.

The base Odin 2 has been in and out of stock, and the Pocket 4 Pro is a genuinely compelling alternative for $100 less. But the Odin 2 is still a step up in performance and overall comfort for those who can afford it. If you want to play the classics or stream modern games without a hitch, it’s the Android handheld to get.

Display: 3.5-inch LCD, 1,600 x 1,440 resolution, VRR 30Hz-62Hz | Chipset: Altera Cyclone V FPGA, Altera Cyclone 10 FPGA | RAM: 3.4MB BRAM, 2x 16MB 16-bit cellular RAM, 64MB 16-bit SDRAM, 256KB 16-bit asynchronous SRAM | Battery: 4,300mAh | Dimensions: 5.86 x 3.46 x 0.86 inches | Weight: 0.61 pounds | OS: Analogue OS

The Analogue Pocket is the ultimate Game Boy. Its vertical design is built like a modernized, premium version of Nintendo’s classic handheld, and it can even work with accessories like the Game Boy Camera. Compared to the original, though, the Pocket adds two extra face buttons, a pair of rear triggers, a microSD slot, a USB-C port and a rechargeable battery rated for six to 10 hours of playtime. Most significantly, it has a gorgeous 3.5-inch display that’s both backlit and incredibly sharp (615 ppi) but can be set to look like an old Game Boy panel with different filter modes. The device can also output to a TV with an optional dock.

Unlike the retro handhelds mentioned above, the Pocket is designed to play actual cartridges, not just ROM files. It works with Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games through its cartridge slot, while games from the Sega Game Gear are playable through an optional adapter. (Eventually, one day, adapters for other systems like the TurboGrafx-16 and Atari Lynx will arrive as well.)

Like past Analogue devices, the Pocket uses field-programmable gate array (FPGA) motherboards to mimic its target systems on a hardware level. In practice, this means the Pocket’s “emulation” of older titles is near-perfect, with a level of responsiveness and visual faithfulness that software-based emulation can’t match. Pop in a Game Boy or GBA cartridge and you can essentially play it as intended. That said, thanks to a big post-launch update and an active user community, the Pocket can also run ROMs off a microSD card and thus play systems like the SNES and Sega Genesis.

The Pocket isn’t cheap at $220, and its shoulder buttons aren’t as crisp to press as the excellent d-pad or face buttons. Still, if you have a collection of Game Boy, Game Gear or GBA games, the Pocket is the most elegant way to play them, and it’s only become more versatile over time. Its biggest flaw is that it can be hard to buy — expect to wait a few weeks for new orders to ship.