Whenever I'm picking up a retro handheld, I always ask the same question: What's the price-to-power ratio? The Steam Deck is an excellent device for those looking to play PC games and retro classics on the go, and a $549 asking price for something that capable makes sense. But, flip the script and look at something like the RG35XX Plus, a budget device only capable of up to PSP emulation, and a high MSRP wouldn't work due to its lesser power. That's why Anbernic's $64 price tag works so well. It's all about the price-to-power ratio, baby! Get the price to match the specs and you've got a potential golden goose.
That said, not every handheld maker follows this simple rule. Despite how many of the best gaming handhelds I've played with, I've also had my fair share of needless plastic waste. Sometimes when a price is too good to be true, it’s down to it being a quick nostalgia-fueled cash-in. When a handheld can't even emulate 8-bit systems without crashing and crackling, you know you've been had.
Where am I going with this? Well, I recently picked up the PlayStation Portal-inspired (cough knock-off cough) Project X for $28.24 at Aliexpress. Love the high-quality materials and clever engineering Sony brought to the PlayStation Portal? It’s nothing like that. I've had $1 lighters that use better plastics. The D-pad is also so high and thicc that pulling off quarter-rotations in fighting games is nearly impossible. Seriously, I counted how many times it took me to pull off a Hadouken in Street Fighter II. Once in every 40 attempts! You couldn't design a worse d-pad.
Yet, believe it or not, I actually love the Project X. Hear me out, as I'm very aware it's terrible on almost every level, but let's bring that price-to-power ratio back. For around $30, my hopes were floor-level. I knew it was going to have problems - not just the shoddy design, but the operating system is generic, PS1 emulation is expectedly poor, and some games cause the system to crash. Where's the value, I hear you cry? Here's the kicker: The Project X manages to run 8-bit and 16-bit games surprisingly well, and that 5:3 ratio screen means you can enlarge 4:3 games and they don't look horrifyingly overstretched.
Normally with retro handhelds, they're either vertical and utilize a 4:3 aspect ratio or horizontal and roll with a larger 16:9 screen. That format looks great when you're playing a game that makes full use of it, but for older stuff, you're left with two black gaping voids on either side of the picture and it's fugly as hell.
The Project X is 100 percent the ugly duckling of the retro handheld world. It's got more problems than Jay-Z on a bad day, but being able to play old-school games at full speed on a larger screen that doesn't stretch the image to ghastly lengths is a joy. If this handheld was even remotely close to the Anbernic RG35XX Plus in price, sure, it'd be dead on arrival. However, as a super-budget entry point designed for newcomers, and if you go in with low expectations, the Project X's problems melt away under the weight of what it gets right and a price that simply cannot be beat. Now that's a price-to-power ratio!
As a side note, if you're looking for the real deal, head over to our handy PlayStation Portal stock tracker for a helping hand. Alternatively, have a peek below for some handhelds with a tasty discount.
Already use Valve's handheld for all your needs? Check out the best Steam Deck dock to turn it into a hybrid. Alternatively, swing by the the best gaming monitor or best gaming TVs if you need a big screen to plug into.
