r/emulation • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago

Weekly Question Thread

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u/the_naughty_ottsel 1d ago

I keep seeing the pocket era ads on reddit. Caught my interest at least. I know nothing about emulation devices. I just play pokemon on my phone sometimes. Is that pocket era company good? Are handheld emulation devices worth it? Should I just emulate on a steam deck? I would like to separate emulation from my phone cause I like having buttons. But I don't want to just buy the first handheld emulation device I stumbled across.

2

u/toasted_barley 1d ago

Definitely skip Pocket Era (and pretty much any retro console brand you see advertised on Reddit, Instagram, or TikTok). Those ad companies are dropshippers that take a $30 budget Linux handheld off AliExpress (usually an R36S) and mark it up to $90 or $120 with a rebranded name and a cheap unbranded SD card that fails after a couple weeks.

If you mainly want physical buttons for Game Boy, GBC, GBA, and DS Pokemon games in something you can actually slip into your pocket, a dedicated $45 to $55 pocket handheld is way nicer to carry around than a big Steam Deck (though if you already own a Steam Deck, it emulates everything effortlessly). Come check out the pinned recommendation megathread over on r/SBCGaming: devices like the Miyoo Mini Plus, TrimUI Brick, or Anbernic RG35XX SP (which folds up just like a classic GBA SP) all cost around $45 to $55 directly from the manufacturers or AliExpress and have huge community support.