The 5 Best Handhelds of 2023 🏆

This year we saw MASSIVE improvements in the Retro Handheld Emulation space, as well as big companies making great Windows / PC Handhelds. Here are the top 5 handhelds of the year, featuring the Steam Deck OLED, Ayn Odin 2, Lenovo Legion Go, Asus ROG Ally, Miyoo Mini Plus (in no particular order).

0:00 Intro
1:46 Number 5
3:37 Break
4:58 Number 4
6:57 Number 3
8:57 Number 2
11:35 Honorable Mentions
12:50 Dishonorable Mentions
14:00 Number 1

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[melon]

Always talking about handhelds but never about holding hands smh.

[DrummerLocnar]

the great part about the OLED I didn't expect: you don't really get "black bars" when doing 720p or old consoles with pixel perfect scaling, the unused areas of the screen are just OFF, very immersive

[jonwoodland]

love how the handheld market is blowing up. more competition means more variety and pushes companies to innovate. lots of people returning to indies and retro games too.

[mikehorton]

Went for the Legion Go just for the immersive screen size. I had to go through many updates, setups and tutorial videos for performance improvements as well as removing windows log in. It now boots straight into Playnite big screen mode for a more console like experience with my favourite PS1, PS2, PS3 and PC games all in one shop 👍

[Stinky_Rodent]

I don't see people comment on it often, but I appreciate your ad skits, they're actually entertaining and I can see you put work into them. Thanks for the videos

[Mrio]

As an Ally owner, I like this list. I put the Ally as #1 on my personal list, but I have no problem with the steam deck winning this award.

[Eiji___]

I have the miyoo mini + and the limited edition steam deck and I really really love both. I'm not a big retro gamer but I had so much fun playing the original resident evil 1, 2, 3 on the miyoo. Can be annoyingly small for a game like that but I honestly got used to it. It's just so small and convenient to carry. The steam deck on the other hand is a powerful big boi. It's like night and day with those devices. Being able to play classic resident evil with a bigger screen and more comfortable controls for longer game time plus newer ones on the go is just a crazy feeling, I can't believe we live in a time where games I once thought could only be played on a home console now can be taken anywhere. I'm also a rookie in this racket but I found it absurdly easy to get roms running on the steam deck as compared to the miyoo. Both were fairly easy but the steam deck with definitely easier

[peachedpocky]

I was just sitting here thinking about what kinda handheld would be best for me, wanting something like a steamdeck but not a steam deck. This video came at the perfect time

[Rocksteadya]

I thought the OLED Switch would be my only handheld going into 2023, but now at the end of the year, I'm mostly using my Portal & Steam Deck. Crazy year for handhelds

[Chardan]

For me the Go is where its at. Updates are coming thick and fast and oncr youre over the whole Windows thing and you have the games running comfortably, its amazing. I appreciate the Deck allows for you to get to game quickly with its suggested profiles but if you are willing to put time in you get some much more out of the Go.

[mata]

From what I understand the reason they made the Miyoo Mini + is specifically because of the screen on the Miyoo Mini. Those worse screens are all they could get their hands on in that size, they bought up all the stock of the original screens to meet demand

[accountid]

the steam deck has done so much to prove just how user-friendly linux can be if it's just supported properly by the hardware manufacturers. I hope we'll see more of these consolized custom OS PC handhelds in 2024, because the gap in UX between steam OS, and windows is quite frankly absurd.

[killgore]

It's been fun watching your opinion change over time about the Steam Deck, being very skeptical to start, then finding it convenient to now proclaiming it the best of the year. I always appreciate your honest opinion.

[docholiday]

Ayaneo all the way. One man in china during covid started that company and made the worlds first 7nm ryzen apu handheld. After linus reviewed it steam deck came a year and a half later followed by other devices. So I think atleast a honorable mention is in order for the machine that started the competition. Yes there very expensive because it’s a very small company trying to expand but it’s also a premium product and I still love mine as I’m currently waiting for my ayaneo slide

[Lukethebeast]

The Legion GO has been performing amazingly. I like the new steam deck but the Legion has that certain feeling that your playing on a beast of a system and odd enough I enjoy the fan noise. Means it working ha.

[rcinematic]

Rog Ally is my first gaming pc and handheld as an adult. I’m excited for the future of handheld gaming!

[extra]

UX and UI are crucial to a good handheld which is why despite the others being more powerful, the only viable option for me is the SD OLED (which I never would’ve considered until the OLED screen which is stunning). I dont think a feature like sleep and instant resume gets talked about enough, shows how optimized this is for a good user console-like experience. Ofc more performance would be better but I could not live with a handheld that relied on the jank of using windows on such a small screen and with a gamepad. I’m honestly amazed at how well the SD runs despite being less powerful, the fact that cyberpunk 2077 still looks great and runs so smoothly is crazy to me on it

[thegreatscode]

AYN Odin 2 turned out to be perfect for what I always wanted. It's as if all my PS2 games had been remastered, so it's a whole lot of fun to revisit all my PS2 games. I'm some cases some games like as if they were on PS3.

[Servbot]

Can't watch the video right now but just wanted to drop a comment here to say thank you Bob for those videos. I got myself and my 9 years old nephew the Miyoo Mini Plus and I'm enjoying it so much! It's definitely not perfect but it's a good balance between affordability and performance, and Onion OS just makes it even more enjoyable.
My nephew just cried when he discovered his Christmas Gift, he's into retro gaming and his reaction was the best thing I saw this year.
Thanks for helping me choosing my and his first handheld emulating device!
Problem now: I think I'm addicted and wanna get more XD.

Happy holidays everyone!

[androooid]

Just have to say, loveeee the intro Bob. It's totally got this early 2000's sci-fi badass action movie vibe and I'm all about it. I'd be lying if I said I didn't go back and watch it a second time.