There are plenty of high end PC handhelds on the market, everything from more affordable Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go S to higher range ASUS ROG Ally (X) and MSI Claw 8 AI+, to really high end like GPD WIN 4, AYANEO 3 HX 370 and laptop/handheld hybrid OnexPlayer G1, to upcoming downright insane category, like GDP Win 5 and AYANEO Next 2 based on AMD Halo Strix 395 APU for laptops.

On the other end of the spectrum there is a sea of low end retro handhelds aimed at emulating classics like GB/GBA and 3rd and 4th generation consoles.

But interesting thing lately is rising amount of interest (and companies that are trying to cash in on that interest) in proper handhelds for DS/3DS emulation - while emulators for those are in excellent shape, clamshell form factor of DS/3DS hasn't been available...so far. Now, there are (at least) 3 handhelds that are going after this market:

AYANEO Pocket DS




AYN Thor

OneXSugar OneXPlayer

They are all about the similar performance, even being able to emulate Switch 1 fairly good (in addition to playing all Android games of course).

Out of the 3, AYN and AYANEO are very straightforward and solid options (whether one likes bigger or smaller handhelds), but I find OneXPlayer most intriguing due to how it can transform to various form factors:

If I was in the market for one, I'd probably go for AYN Thor, due to form factor, both screens being AMOLED and if I only want up to 3DS capabilities, even Lite model at $249 has more than capable SoC for that.

It would be interesting to see Nintendo making another clamshell design, either with Switch 1 hardware, but with 3DS slot, or maybe even clamshell Switch 2 Lite revision (also with 3DS slot). Naturally, they would need to have emulators for DS/3DS.

My biggest problem with handhelds like these is that I can't take the GBA SP equivalent and plug it into my GameCube. My GBA's are getting any newer :(

With these 3/DS clones, I'd get one if my 3DS didn't work anymore.

Yeah, these are mostly trying to satisfy growing demand for clamshell DS/3DS handhelds (though all of them are actually way above needed specs for emulating just those).

If you're looking for GBA specifically, Analogue Pocket, which is built using FPGA (so it's not software emulation), is probably what you're after - it supports GBA cartridges and it has link port.

Never been interested in handhelds; the only one I ever bought was the 3DS and kinda regretted it as whenever I played it I just wished the games were on a console with a bigger screen and more comfortable controls.

That said, while I wouldn't personally buy one and I don't really expect it to happen, it would be kinda cute to see a clamshell Switch/Switch 2.

Handhelds have never been my interest either, though I do find that games that are made specifically for such a small screens tend to be much more enjoyable than big screen games played on handhelds (I just recently bought Patapon 1+2 Replay for Switch, and that is good example of a game made with handheld limitations in mind).

Clamshell designs, IMO, have big advantage of being more compact, whether it's single or dual screen, especially when screens are in this 6-7" range. Though, quality of hinges is always their weak point.

Thanks for letting me know because I had no idea! Anything to plug into my GameCube(s)!

I would be curious to try them in theory but I guess the problem with these is that they're still not really low end and will cost you as much as a Switch at minimum.

I do like dual screen designs though, so glad that's not dead entirely. I hope Nintendo themselves might make a "3DS classic" someday in the distant future.

Well, AYN Thor is under Switch 1 price - for something that has 2 OLED displays, Hall effect sticks and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that's around desktop GTX 1050 (and powerful enough to emulate Switch 1), I'd say that $299 Early Bird price is more than good (though it's left to be seen what will be retail price). And Lite model with Snapdragon 865 is 249$, though that one is some 3.5x slower than Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, although more than capable for 3DS emulation.

But yeah, they are not low end, and honestly they are not supposed to be. Currently, to my knowledge, there is only MagicX Zero 40 in low end (~$70), in 2DS style sort of thing, so no clamshell, and while it runs DS great, it's not capable enough for 3DS - though it's great for vertical display games, like old arcades.

Anbernic has just announced officially (though it was rumoured already) another contender in this clamshell clone wars:

Under $100, but it will probably not be able to run 3DS, so just DS. Still, Anbernic makes good retro handhelds, so there's no reason to think this one will be any different.

No official specs so far, but some interpolations on the web are that it'll probably be 4 inch 1024x768 screens for 4x integer scaling from DS native 256x192 resolution.