u/Serdones

Sorry if this is a common topic. Tried searching a few keywords and didn't see any recent threads, so hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse.

I just got my Capcom Super Pocket earlier this month to dip my toe into the Evercade ecosystem. I also got in the Indie Heroes Collection 3 cart last week, with more on the way.

So far, I'm super enjoying the ecosystem. Already tore through nine of the Capcom games (probably tapping out on the last three though), and Donut Dodo is a crazy addictive delight on the indie cart.

I have the Nexus pre-ordered, but I know it won't be a total replacement for the Super Pocket. I enjoy its pocketability and carry it around with me way more often than any of my other handhelds as a result. Handhelds the size of the Steam Deck, Switch 2 or even the Nexus I always see as more of a living room/bedroom handheld. I might pack one for a trip, but they're not devices I'd carry on me while I'm out and about. Pocketability is something I really value right now as a way to break doomscrolling habits.

Super Pocket will continue to fill that role, but I can't help but think there's unfulfilled potential for this device category in the Evercade lineup. I get with Evercade's whole business model, they have licensing, software development and ongoing support to cover, so you can't exactly compare their handhelds to the third-party Chinese ARM handhelds of the world, whose OEMs are only concerned with eking out the most performance per dollar possible.

I accept Evercade hardware for what it is and still embrace it for all the ecosystem's benefits, but the Super Pocket in particular, I mean ... for one, obviously it's technically under the Hyper Mega Tech sister brand. It looks like more of a toy-like impulse buy you might get for your kid, rather than a true premium, cartridge-based vertical handheld for diehard adult retro gamers.

All that is to say, my hope is that after Nexus has had a smooth, successful launch (fingers crossed) and the dust has settled, maybe one of the next Evercade offerings we'll see is a more premium vertical handheld as a complement to their larger horizontal handheld. When that could show up, I don't know. I assume they've also got to have a new home console in the not-too-distant future.

I think something like the Trimui Brick is a good reference point. Super small and pocketable with a sharp 1024x768 resolution, and actually a larger display at 3.2" despite the smaller form factor, versus the Super Pocket's 2.8", 320x240 display. I'm sure a new Evercade vertical wouldn't be quite as small since they need to accommodate cartridges. Larger might be preferable for ergonomics anyway. But if it could hit that 3.2" screen size and at least double its current resolution, I think that'd be a welcome improvement that'd make it feel like the true pocketable, everyday-carry handheld companion to the Evercade ecosystem.

Price-wise, I think they could reasonably sell all that at ~US$100. Maybe that sounds steep for what it is, but again, you pay a premium for the Evercade ecosystem. I know that puts it uncomfortably close to the EXP-R and VS-R, but based on the Nexus's pricing, I think Evercade's going to trend upward on hardware pricing, while still sitting at least a couple rungs below the soaring prices of mainstream gaming hardware. I actually don't think that's a bad thing. I'd argue they have room to go up on price and quality while still looking like a great value relative to the "big guys."

Thoughts? Inklings of information that might shed light on future plans I totally missed? Sorry for the long post!

Tl;dr - Love the Super Pocket and I'm excited for Nexus, but I really hope Evercade puts out a more premium vertical handheld in the future. I think there's room to improve on the current design while still hitting a reasonable ~US$100 pricepoint. That's a lot by third-party Chinese ARM handheld standards, but you pay a premium for the Evercade ecosystem and their business model, and it's worth it for the curation and physical media.

Just to get this out of the way, for those without context, you can find overviews of each upcoming HMD here:

Xreal Aura product page (reservations opened 6/16/2026, "fall" launch)
Reporting on Meta's rumored Project Phoenix (still only rumored/leaked, first-half 2027 launch)

Also, yes, these devices are more AR/MR oriented, so you may not be interested if you're squarely here for VR gaming.

The tl;dr on this background is Xreal Aura is an evolution of Xreal's tethered AR glasses, up from the 57-degree FOV on the Xreal One Pro to 70 degrees (though the same 1920x1200 resolution of their 52-degree FOV Xreal 1S glasses), and now paired with a dedicated compute puck running Qualcomm's new flagship Snapdragon Reality Elite chip.

Project Phoenix, meanwhile, is Meta's rumored 2.5K-per-eye micro-OLED ultralight MR headset, almost assuredly running the same Snapdragon Reality Elite chip in its own tethered compute puck. Its FOV may actually be a downgrade from Quest 3, closer to 90 degrees diagonal (per Luna), compared to Quest 3's 110-degree FOV.

What I find really interesting about these two projects releasing potentially within less than a year of each other is they're both taking a more spatial computing-oriented approach to XR, but with very different hardware strategies.

Project Phoenix is an MR headset at the end of the day, even if its form factor is a cross between glasses and a sleep mask. Meanwhile, Xreal Aura is pretty much actual glasses affixed with optical see-through (OST) displays, which is a fancy way of saying you can look through them. Advantage? No passthrough overhead.

With OST displays, a lower resolution and lower FOV, Aura should have a massive performance advantage over Phoenix. It's gonna finally feel like the ultimate realization of Xreal's glasses line. The Nreal/Xreal Air glasses using the Nebula app on Android felt like a buggy proof of concept with limited app support. Beam Pro got Xreal closer to a true spatial computing ecosystem, but it was sluggish and the Nebula UI lackluster. Now we're getting a premium compute puck and proper Android XR, which can still feel somewhat nascent, but is more feature complete spatial experience than Nebula.

I don't think I'm overstating things to say that at least for a time, potentially a year or longer, Xreal Aura will be the most powerful standalone XR device on the market ... not hailing from Cupertino, California. If you're into spatial computing and multi-window productivity/media consumption, Aura could legitimately be a powerhouse.

Personally, I can't claim to use any XR device for "work" 'cause I have a company-issued laptop and OIT's been uncool about me wanting to use XR devices. But I do enjoy my multi-window gaming setups. Aura should be able to more than handle a YouTube video podcast open in one window while I play something like the new Android version of Guild Wars Reforged in its own window. I only mention that game in particular 'cause I started it for the first time last night on Steam Deck.

So why even consider Project Phoenix? Few reasons. One, as much as we dunk on Meta and Horizon OS, I do think their ecosystem still has a "special sauce" owing to the fact they've been in the XR game longer and they approach their ecosystem from a mostly spatial perspective, versus Google, which is piggybacking off their existing smartphone ecosystem. Android XR can kind of feel like mobile Android projected onto an HMD. As many issues as Horizon OS still has, there's no question when you're in it that it was designed for XR from the ground up ... even if it doesn't always look/run great.

While Project Phoenix simply can't possibly be as performant as Aura, it should still be the most performant standalone Meta headset released to date. Gone will be the days of Quest Pro shooting for the stars and landing in the dirt. While Phoenix won't be as capable as Vision Pro, it should still be the first headset Meta releases that can actually deliver on that spatial computing vision ... that at least dozens of us care about.

Then there's content. Obviously first-party content's fallen by the wayside at Meta, but it still has a much larger back catalog than what you can find on Android XR, whether we're talkin' immersive video or VR/MR gaming. Considering Horizon OS ultimately still has the much larger userbase, third-party developers/creators are likely to still target it over Android XR for the foreseeable future.

Phoenix will not be great for VR gaming, given its 90-degree FOV. It's also open periphery, but I'm assuming Meta will include or sell official light blockers so as not to exclude users from their existing catalog of immersive content. Even if not, third-party/DIY light blockers should be possible, allowing you to enjoy immersive content, provided you're not bothered by the FOV.

Meanwhile, Aura could also theoretically do immersive content. I know I've seen people making light blockers for previous Xreal glasses. The main issue is the electrochromic dimming still doesn't block out 100 percent of light. But I guess you could just sit in a dark room. Even so, the FOV is even smaller than Phoenix's, and the disadvantage remains that Android XR is light on immersive content.

But maybe we see that gulf narrow over time as Quest headsets age and lose active users. Then third-party developers would have less and less reason to prioritize Horizon OS. Will say I'm more interested in the Fallout Tactics, Project Hail Mary and The Nutcracker: A Spatial Awakening (yes, I wanna watch some ballet in XR, why not?) announcements for Xreal Aura than I was for any content Google had lined up for Galaxy XR's launch, most of which were VR/MR games I already owned on Quest or Steam.

And to be real, I ain't convinced Meta delivers on Quest 4 in late 2027, 2028 or ever. I would not be surprised if Phoenix becomes as headset-y as they'll go on XR products from here on out, as they further prioritize AI glasses, HUD glasses and eventually true AR glasses. I'd love to be wrong. I'll hope for the best, but expect the worst.

I think Aura's main advantages are going to come down to performance, an even smaller form factor, and integration with the Android ecosystem and Google services. Phoenix's main advantage will be a more spatial-first ecosystem, larger existing Horizon OS userbase, higher resolution displays, and a deeper XR content catalog. Either should be a very capable spatial workstation/multi-window media consumption device. Phoenix should definitely have sharper text though.

One thing that could ultimately make the difference for me and a lot of consumers is price, and it's a weird topic. Xreal's confirmed their "base model" will not exceed $1,500, which is objectively pricey. But Xreal's purely a hardware company. Meta's a platform holder and could still subsidize Project Phoenix. Earlier reports (including back when "Puffin" was still the project name we were hearing) put their ultralight tethered MR headset at or below $1,000.

Granted, I thought part of the more recent post-January layoff reporting was that they were getting away from hardware subsidization to promote a more independently healthy hardware business, but maybe that only applies to future Quest plans. Maybe they're still willing to settle for slim hardware margins betting on this more MR-focused spatial computing paradigm for the future of Horizon OS, especially since it arguably feeds better into their long-term AR vision.

But also ... a $1,000 next-gen MR headset sounds like a fantasy in today's hardware landscape. I feel embarrassed even saying it in the context of all the hardware news we've had this week (Steam Machine's $1,000+ launch price, Xbox price increases, Apple price increases). I don't see that price target surviving in today's component market.

First-half 2027 might be too far off for Meta to show anything of substance at Meta Connect in September, but man, it'd be real cool if they did to help me make up my mind.

So what do y'all think? Are either of these devices on your radar? Or are you clutching onto your Quest 3 for dear life and waiting patiently for its successor? Anyone else preparing to not get picked in the Steam Frame lottery in the coming weeks (hopefully)?

Sorry for the long, rambling post. Please be nice to me. My wife won't listen to me rant about consumer electronics anymore.

A year ago when Steam Frame, Steam Machine and Steam Controller were still just a twinkle in Brad Lynch's eye, I was gung ho about adopting all the hardware at launch and fully immersing myself in the Steam ecosystem.

I am still set on that in general, but as the dust has settled from the December hardware announcement, I've found myself having a harder time justifying the Steam Machine in particular.

Also back in December, I finally ran an ethernet cable from my Steam Deck docked to my living room TV to the router in my office. Now both my 4070 Super desktop and Steam Deck are on ethernet. As a result, Steam Link performance has been night and day compared to when I was doing it over WiFi.

Played all of Batman: Arkham Origins that way in December (great Christmas game) and it was honestly hard to distinguish its performance from native. Occasionally it'll look rough at launch, but it usually resolves on its own after a minute. Sometimes if I get a pop-up, like Windows asking me to allow permissions to a game, that gets things out of sync, but either relaunching it or even just going back and forth between the Steam Deck home screen and the game usually sorts it out.

So Steam Deck is already a great living room PC gaming solution for me, now that I've got networking sorted. Of course, a Steam Machine would win on QOL experience and convenience, since you're running more games natively and not having to also worry about waking/updating a separate PC. But that's a minor inconvenience for saving what could wind up being a grand for the Steam Machine.

Hell, even if I actually got a Steam Machine, I'd still probably run into times when I'd rather max out a game on my office PC and stream it to my living room, rather than running it natively on Steam Machine with more graphical compromises. But unlike the Deck, the Steam Machine's only a living room/desktop device. I can't, y'know, just pick it up and play it handheld when my wife and/or son are hogging the TV.

As much as I love the idea of the Steam Machine and want one just to have it and give it my own cute little custom faceplate, it probably makes more sense for me to wait on the Steam Deck 2 as my next living room AND handheld PC gaming upgrade.

To be clear, this isn't meant to dump on Steam Machine. Not everyone's in the same situation. It'll make more sense for some folks depending on their existing hardware lineup or home network. Some people don't care about the handheld option at all, and may just want the best native living room experience possible.

It's also totally valid to really want it even if it is a little redundant. That's still kind of where I'm at, but not for the likely price and when I'll also be buying Steam Frame. For me, my existing PC, Steam Deck, the new Steam Controller that just came in yesterday, and the eventual Steam Frame are probably the way to go.