Are you ready for our 2024 list of the best gaming handhelds? From the Nintendo Switch OLED to the iPad Mini, what do you think is the top device?
From the Nintendo switch to the Steam Deck. Here are cnet's top gaming handhelds of 2024. Cnet's tested a ton of gaming handhelds over the years and I've tested a lot of them myself, but it's a great and transitional time for handheld gaming. A lot of options, but we know a lot of stuff is coming. Nintendo is supposed to have a successor to the Nintendo switch coming in 2025 pretty soon. And Microsoft and Sony are expected to be working on their own handhelds as well, what those will be? We don't entirely know yet. Plus Windows gaming handhelds are continuing to explode in new options and the Steam Deck is going strong. So here are some of the things that we're still playing. The Nintendo switch is still fantastic. It's our favorite gaming handheld. It's my favorite gaming handheld, my favorite console and it plays a lot of great first party games. It's got a ton of indie games, connects with the TV. Does multiplayer goes on the road. I mean, there are not a lot of pieces of hardware out there that do all of that and this does it in the box for a pretty affordable price. It is seven years old so it's getting really long in the tooth. But I still find it's a great option for anything handheld that I want to take with me. The valve steam deck. That's a great second place option for me and for a lot of people, it's a first place option. This gaming handheld has been out there for years. The OLED version that came out last year is the best one. It's got a great display. It's got solid controls with a lot of options and it plays PC games including ones like Elden Ring plus a ton of indie games. And that's the great thing because Steam always has interesting things bubbling up all over the place. It does not have detachable controls, it's pretty big and if you want to connect it to a TV, you need to get a separate dock, but the price is not bad. And UFO 50 which is a recent indie game made me fall in love with it all over again. Now, when it comes to other consoles, there is the Playstation portal, a strange option. That's not a true stand alone handheld, but this device which came out last year has been getting gradually better. It's $200 which is not too expensive and the eight inch display is good. The controls are really nice and have solid haptics but it streams games from the playstation five in your home into that handheld so you can play them in other rooms. It also added an ability to stream PS five and other games. If you have the right playstation plus subscription, uh wherever you are, as long as you have internet, which is a great add on, you can also do that with your phone or tablet as well. The portal is a pretty good option for its price, but it's niche as well if you want Weird and small and Indie, I still love the panic playdate. This little tiny handheld from Panic is a complete little game system and it's so tiny and it has this little weird crank that comes out of the side plus controls. It's like a interdimensional game boy. It comes with 24 Indie games handcrafted for this that come with the purchase price, but there's also a game store to download other games. You can side load games from places like hio and it's adorable. The only thing is that it doesn't have a backlight and the screen is a little small, but I love the spirit of this thing and I carry it all over the place. If you are really into retro games. The analog pocket is the best option for dusting off your collection of classic games and taking them with you. It's basically a game boy with a really beautiful display and controls, but it plays game boy games, game boy color games and game boy advanced games and with an adapter, we'll play things like Sega game Gear games or Atari links games. There are also options in the settings to load in other emulation systems to simulate other platforms and play retro games. You can side load games from Hio as well. It's a really versatile and cool handheld and for a wild card pick that's pretty popular. The ipad mini, I mean, obviously phones or game handhelds already by a controller, you can do a lot of great stuff with them ipad mini. The new model that came out has a nice chip upgrade. It's a great size for carrying around. And if you want to stream games through different streaming app services, you could attach a controller or use a separate controller and the mini is actually a perfect size for that. So those are cnet's top gaming handheld options for 2024. If you want to read more about it, check out our best lists on cnet.com and look at our continuing coverage on gaming handhelds. I hope it helps if you have more questions. Let me know down below. Thanks for watching.
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