u/lunamu

Left: RG DDS

Right: Imagined RG DDS plus with a 5.5 inch 16:9 FHD 120Hz screen (doesn't matter LCD or OLED)

Some rants (feel free to ignore):

I mean, yeah I get it, people like original 3DS design and integer scaling. But such a small, uncommon aspect ratio and lower-res display on a powerfull and giant body looks really weird to me. 3DS games can look the same, if not better, on a 5.5 inch FHD screen. You can do integer scaling and they are the same size (see my previous post). Or you can totally make the image just bigger to reach top and bottom of the display without using integer scaling and it'll look gorgeous on the higher res and bigger screen. What's more importantly it'll feel so much better for Switch, PC, and Android ports gaming, which you will definitely want with the powerful Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 chipset inside the DDS. It'll also be better for almost anything else, like other retro games will look bigger, no weird aspect ratio problem with your wide screen hacked PS2 and GC games, etc.

Edit: typo

Just picked up a used AYANEO Pocket EVO with 12GB RAM for around $350. After setting it up and playing with it for a while, I didn't expect it being so good, how is this thing so overlooked?

I really like the coating, triggers, sticks, grips, and fingerprint sensor. Screen is gorgeous and it got enough power to run games I'd put on it. Together they make the EVO feel much better in the hand than any of my other larger ones. I think this is going to become my go-to device for lighter PC games and most emulation in the near future.

I got curious about why it wasn’t better received at launch, so I rewatched RGC’s EVO review. He mainly mentioned dealbreakers like price, audio, processor compatibility, and some quality-control issues. Looking at it now, though, most of those concerns don’t seem that serious anymore. The price is reasonable for a used unit (need some luck though), the audio sounds fine to me, seems they did some update in software, and it can also be improved more with ayaneo's built-in equalizer and some tweaking. Processor compatibility has improved to a night and day level thanks to recent development of community drivers. I also haven’t noticed any obvious QC issues with this particular unit.

It’s a better overall experience to me than my Portal. Which reminded me that many reviewers and redditor's comments can make valid points, but sometimes you really need to grab a device in your hands to figure out which one is actually the right choice to you.

This seems really weird to me. The Micro 2 looks gorgeous, yet they only made 100 units initially. Now they’re selling only the much more expensive 12GB version, with shipping not starting until October.

They must still have plenty of those iPhone 4 screens left considering 20000 were used in the Pocket Advance. I also don’t see how they have Snapdragon 865 shortage, or any particular component.

It seems pretty clear that they have a much higher margin on this than on the KPA, this is a very strange business decision to me.

Early bird price for three days. Looks good to me.

Just bought a TrimUI brick Pro, so I don't need this.

Yeah, I don't need this.

TOP: Retroid Pocket Nova

Bottom: Ayaneo Pocket ACE

They have similar performance, with the ACE offering more memory and internal storage.

The ACE feels very premium. Its controls are large and solid, and I prefer its design. It also has a higher resolution screen.

The Nova has an OLED screen with a lower resolution, but its effective screen size is larger for 4:3 content. It is lighter, which makes longer gaming sessions more comfortable, and it is more portable.

I know one of them may end up collecting dust if I keep them both. It's hard to decide...

Edit: Nova's screen looks fine to me, they were quite similar on this perticular scene. It looks like Nova lost some details in the picture maybe is because the Nova is a bit brighter so the camera didn't adjust properly. I didn’t mean to compare the images, didn’t calibrate them to the exact same settings.