I just play Steam Deck and write about gaming + Linux a lot
I get asked this question a fair bit! Each time ive shared a review recently I added a banana pic. I tend to get asked what my review of said banana is.
But I have an autoimmune disease where potassium is terrible for me! So…I never know how good these bananas are :(
Potassium + PerfectDark = doom and destruction. Banana for illustrative and measuring purposes only.
It did look good though?
My friend is a dev for PortMaster (spoiler, interview coming soon with klops and the team!), and he has one of these.
So…‘maybe’? Unsure for now, maybe is all I can say.
Nope. Well, technically it could with a handful of very very light 3DS titles. But its just not powerful enough for the 3DS.
He was right, about a whole lot. But he also ran it and reviewed it as it was sent to him, which was broken and requiring an update.
Thankfully both Anbernic and Gamma have fixes now. Gamma’s is actually far more extensive. But for a retail experience, its fine.
I maintain that as a modern DS, its wonderful. Emulating everything else…not so much. I wouldn’t buy this to play PSX or SNES, but I would for DS.
Thanks for reading my review :)
That’s the one!
Russ had his video out pretty quick, and while some issues aren’t fixed, some were with the update Anbernic pushed out.
Its getting some hate, and some is deserved, but I can’t help but just love this device!
They’re just (basically) two 4" phone screens, one above the other. So its only going to be modern capacitive stylus like is pictured.
That’s the ‘trade-off’ with these. You get modern and bright, upscale screens but you lose that original stylus input.
That said, I’m obsessed with the DSi consoles, and I’ve actually enjoyed using this stylus on it. Or, whatever misgivings I initially had disappeared after an hour or so, when I got used to it.
That sounds super interesting!
Also makes me sad that all that has disappeared now to time. I’d love to have seen it :(
An easy mistake to make!
You’ll be thinking of my good friend Gardiner, whose YouTube channel is well known!
But no, I just write on his site. I used to contribute to a bunch of sites and spaces you might know, but these days I only share articles on his site.
And thank you! I appreciate that, glad you enjoyed this one :)
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy it, I’m really proud of this one :)
I’m so glad to hear my review helped! Youre going to love the Odin 3!
Really interesting review, thank you.
Thank you for saying so! I really appreciate that :)
When you say this isn’t ready for most people, is that because the software needs more time, or the hardware isn’t there yet?
100% its the software. Drivers just aren’t there yet, but they’re being actively worked on as we speak, so early 2026 will be a solid assumption. Most PC games I tried worked incredibly well, out of the box without anything needed. But yes, as drivers improve and release, that compatibility will only get higher and higher.
As it stands:
The hardware is phenomenal and ahead of its time. We’re just waiting for the support for the Snapdragon Elite to play catch-up now. But after spending so long testing it, if you’re someone who likes to be at the forefront of things, then it’s a solid investment. I’d buy one, if I wasn’t sent a review unit. But I have the benefit of testing for so long to come to that conclusion!
If I bought one of these today, could I expect to see better compatibility over the next 6 months to year with Steam games, or will it still be mostly for Android games and old system emulators?
Yes. 100% yes. Keep an eye on EmuReady.com also, there’ll be more and more compatibility reports for the Snapdragon Elite as the days and weeks pass, a good way to know if the PC games you love are running well. And you can always ask me to test out and try some games that you love most too, if you’d like!
Sadly that review will never be posted. Potassium isn’t good for me, due to an autoimmune disease!
Its going to be a very interesting time with these retro handhelds when that happens. Still, its amazing to be able to play full AAA Steam & GOG games on Android before that even happens.
Its exciting!
GameCube and PS2 are a breeze to set up. I never use RetroArch for either of them, all you need to do is set the bios for PS2, change the input (AYN will automatically be set, but I find its better safe than sorry as it can make the odd error when configuring input for you!), choose your upscaling and go!
GCN was even easier, input and upscale, then play!
I’ll be writing up a thorough guide/games/settings post, I’ll find you an link you when I do if you’d like? But for PS2 and GCN its the work of 2 mins at the most on each :)
No RetroArch. At all.
Thank you so much! It’s always a bit of a nervy experience when I’m sharing a review. Even more so when I linked it in their own Discord, because if anyone will rip through details and point out flaws…its gaming fans. So hearing this? SO kind of you!
I’m lucky that I manage to somehow convince all these people (the devs and other creators!) that they should in fact be friends with me, and that they’re all kind enough to listen to my requests. In fact, the PortMaster team are going to let me interview them soon, so that’s something to look forward to!
Battery depends on settings, like always. But one example was Nier: Automata with high settings across the board, for around 1:25 playing, it took just under 20% of battery. But that’s because I pushed the settings. Emulating PS2 it coasts, but best to limit to to say 2.5x upscale (obviously), unless you’re going for a full 4K in a monitor. And further down, the old systems will go for eons. Android native games gave me 7ish hours at the highest settings I could opt for? While running at 120FPS and not dropping a single frame.
Take this with salt, because I’m hopped up on codeine waiting for Tuesday when I can get tooth pain sorted!
(thank you again SO much for the nice comment!)
My article can be pretty easily broken down into:
I don’t think I focused on Twitter’s behavior. I didn’t share any screenshots of tweets, nor did I quote any. There’s not much I can see I wrote here that can be glorified by the losers.
Should I…not write about how shitty the situation is for the developer (and so many others in this space) because a handful of idiots might think they’re being mentioned? I’m struggling to find what I should cut out of my article there!
hahahahhah I like this one! SO true!
I’ll test that game for you!
Will come back here and edit this comment with my findings :)