Portable retro gaming devices

The past few days I've been watching youtube reviews about portable retro gaming devices. Basically these are portable devices, say the size of a gameboy or nintendo switch lite that allow you to run emulators on them using a fancy graphical interface and so play old school arcade games, 8 bit console games, 16 bit console games, playstation 1 games and some also do Nintendo 64, dreamcast and even less Game cube games, Nintendo DS games and very few playstation 2 games. All in one device that fits in your pocket and can work up to 4-8 hours on battery (depending on the model and what you are playing/emulating)

I'm looking for a portable device that I can bring with me or play on the couch while watching tv. I don't want to use my phone for (retro) gaming as I find the touch interface cumbersome and it's annoying to have your phone be out of battery after a big gaming session. And so a dedicated device with real buttons would be much better for my preferences.

The €100 portable retro gaming device class:

There are two gaming devices of around €100 that stood out when watching reviews.

The Retroid pocket 2 plus

The Retroid pocket 2 plus from reviews seem to have somewhat better emulation of N64 and 1st gen 3D consoles. But it runs on android which is a bit clunky on the limited specs. Also the buttons and build quality aren't the reviewers favorite.

The Anbernic RG351MP

The Anbernic RG351MP has very good build quality, slicker user interface, basic emulation is top notch (8bit, 16bit consoles) but newer consoles can be a bit spotty. The device runs on a custom version of Linux and as it's very popular and affordable has a very big community support including custom distro's for on the device.

It's very hard to choose between these two in the €100 class. For both I like the formfactor (4:3 screen), portability. 

The above €200 portable retro gaming device class:

However yesterday I saw reviews of the ayn odin, which is comes in three flavors lite, base and pro. The lite version uses a mediatek soc and isn't reviewed but probably is less fit for complete emulation.

The base and pro costs about €240 and €290, have a snapdragon 845 soc. The base has 4gb ram and the pro 8gb. 

The reviews show that the ayn odin can emulate almost all the consoles mentioned above very well. Including the N64, Game cube, Playstation 2, PSP and Nintendo DS. So I'm keeping my eye on this company.

What I like less though is that it uses a 16:9 format screen as most consoles it emulates still did only SD format output and you'll have black bars and unused screen when playing. 

Conclusion:

If I were forced to buy a portable emulation device right now, I would buy probably the Anbernic RG351MP due to it being a safer bet because it has a large community behind it. 

If I had around €300 to waste I would buy the Aye Odin pro as it has more emulation options but you pay for it.

I think I'm going to try to sit out till the end of this year and see if any new versions/models are released that do what I want, for instance an ayn odin pro with 4:3 screen for around €200. Or maybe next version of Anbernic or Retroid that will also emulate  the N64, Game cube, Playstation 2, PSP and Nintendo DS.

I have time....