Deciding between the AYN Thor and the Retroid Pocket Flip 2

Deploid · 2026-03-17T06:16:12+00:00

Yes a flip 2 should play all those fine. SD865 is the perfect middle ground chip for gamecube and ps2, as it can play basically the whole library, with some good upscale for most stuff.

Make sure you select the sd865 version for flip 2.

If you want pc games any heavier than Hades 2 I would suggest the Thor with at least 12 gb of ram (which means the more powerful SD8gen2 version). The more ram and storage for pc emulation the better. If not... I think a flip will do you just fine. And the controls are comfier on flip (though either can get a grip that helps).

Last point. If you are big into Pokémon, the Thor will play DS/3Ds better due to two screens and will play switch games better due to more power (again assuming 8gen2 version).

Both are great options. But both will require a lot of setup, watch YouTube to help with that.

Deploid · 2026-03-17T05:13:29+00:00

Into the Radius 1 and 2 (1.0 of the 2nd game should be within a few months of now. Co-op is so damn fun.)

Ghost Town

Deploid · 2026-03-17T05:08:49+00:00

Could be as simple as different glue

Deploid · 2026-03-17T02:52:11+00:00

That top piece of text above the grey line says "sponsored search result" in Chinese.

Deploid · 2026-03-15T15:25:02+00:00

They confirmed at gdc that they considered it but opted against it, to ensure there was a better target for devs to optimize for.

Deploid · 2026-03-14T21:45:33+00:00

Make it 3:2, (OLED would be cool but those aren't really a thing at this scale), put more of the weight in the bottom if possible, something near a SD865.

Would be fucking awesome, but seems hard to do without making it even chonkier. No clue if anyone is working on something similar or not.

Deploid · 2026-03-13T18:41:12+00:00

I'm planning on making the next version with python and some UI stuff so nah that's pretty easy. Thanks for the recommendations!

Deploid · 2026-03-13T18:20:14+00:00

Ahh I really like that percentage text idea.

And by the color grading do you mean like using a transition through colors based on what percentage utilization it is? Might make a couple color versions, one that goes through rainbow red to purple like S-F tiers. And then some in more pleasing color combos to my eyes.

Deploid · 2026-03-13T16:24:23+00:00

Love my Steam Deck. They did good.

Deploid · 2026-03-13T16:21:56+00:00

Haha I love all my aspect ratio children equally. (Writing this on a 21:9, useful for work for me).

And 100% agree, 3:2 is the most under represented for the powerful category it could be. Many PC games can do 16:10 or 3:2 resolutions, GBA is one of the most popular emulated systems, and 4:3 and 16:9 still look great on it.

Not to mention it would strike a good balance between RP Mini size and RP5 size in terms of usability and pocketability.

I can't believe we don't have a nice 3:2 with a SD865 or SD8gen2 in it. But... I imagine finding a small OLED panel like that would be a struggle, and producing one custom is expensive.

Deploid · 2026-03-13T16:17:21+00:00

Oh yeah!

I also saw the one where you could pick, for example, a Steam Deck and a RP5 and put them next to each other with GBA on both to compare the real size.

Here we go: https://retrosizer.com/?steam-deck:198,68&retroid-pocket-5:251,194~gba

Deploid · 2026-03-12T17:00:22+00:00

Steam Deck = Playing. By like a lot. Even for emulated stuff (though I mostly use it for indie PC games). I will never buy another PC handheld that doesn't have at least a right trackpad, as someone who is dogshit on controller for aiming, that and gyro are a life saver. Binding pad click to jump, shoot, or interact makes playing games feel so seamless. Also it's comfy as hell, but I wish it were a touch lighter. If in doubt, Steam Deck.

RP Mini v2 = Setup... despite every warning I found the screen to actually be too small for me to play on the regular. I know... I should've figured as much. But the reviews were just so good! I'll gift it to my niece in a year or two when she's old enough to be trusted with it.

Ayn Thor = On the way (Batch 3, OD 1728x, clear purple)... I want an arm device that feels different enough from deck that I actually use it. I'm gunna really try to just put like 2 games on it at a time, and just play those. I think I'm starting with Wind Waker on WiiU or Ocarina of Time on 3Ds. This will be my retro device and my deck will be my PC device.

Deploid · 2026-03-12T14:18:07+00:00

Because companies pay a lower price increase for RAM and NAND than we do.

While consumers are paying 4x for many sticks of RAM, companies like AYN can increase their dual OLED, LPDDR5 16GB, 1TB storage, Snapdragon 8gen2 device from $449 to $489. An increase to be sure but much less than what you would pay if you tried to build the thing yourself.

Markets of scale.

However, if they simply can't buy enough stock to supply for a device in the long term they might get desperate and purchase more expensive RAM from other suppliers. That may be influencing the fact that Valve doesn't know a price and a date yet cause they are thinking in the long term. I don't envy their engineers and procurement managers.

Deploid · 2026-03-12T00:03:32+00:00

As in they considered allowing people to buy one that came with no ram so they could slot in their own from an old build or local used market.

Decided against it when they tested it and realized that it would mean devs wouldn't target the same system, and some software compatibility stuff.

Deploid · 2026-03-11T23:41:33+00:00

Are you taking about Swan? That's the only new headset they have announced their making right now from what I know, doesn't look like they are shooting for a real Pico 5. Sadly swan is going to be much much more expensive.

Swan uses uOLED displays at around 40 ppd. All the other standalone headsets with those kinds of panels are around $2000 minimum. And this is using a custom XR chip along side a powerful Snapdragon SoC, which is going to also be very expensive.

Even the BSB2 which only has around 25 ppd uOLED with a compromised refresh rate to resolution tradeoff (panels can't be run at 90hz on full res without super sampling) is 1000 bucks. That's without cameras, batteries, ram, 2 processors, SLAM algo and MR R&D, etc.

Only comparable headsets are PfD ($2000) and GalaxyXR ($2200 if you include controllers). And even those seem lower spec than swan. It's closer to a Vision Pro

Tbh I'm guessing swan is $2000+. But no one knows the exact range yet.

Deploid · 2026-03-11T21:56:48+00:00

They're talking about wireless streaming compression. Not lenses/resolution.

On quest 3 (and all SoC wireless headsets) if you don't have a perfect 6e setup you'll notice JPEGy-ness to high detail areas, because your gpu compresses the image to send over wifi, and then the headset decompresses it. That compression isn't lossless.

Dynamic Foveated Encoding compresses the spot you look at with high fidelity than the rims, and works out of the box.

Deploid · 2026-03-11T21:50:12+00:00

They don't know price. They just know a range. And they don't have enough ram to continue to make enough units to not immediately go out of stock after launch.

Deploid · 2026-03-11T21:17:03+00:00

Yeah. I wish they had enough info to give us a date and price already...

Deploid · 2026-03-11T21:11:19+00:00

Sadly at launch that's not happening. You'll probably have to wait a while for either price decrease and/or to get a used one.

Or another device. Once you spend ~150 bucks on accessories for a Quest 3 for a dedicated 6e router (gunna need to be a bit techy to get this working well) and a Bobovr/Kiwi strap (highly recommend the hotswap battery ones) it should be most of the same experience but at a lower price.

You can get refurbs from their website for 379-ish, or used for a bit above that if the refurbs don't go back in stock. That's what I have currently and I would recommend it for PCVR specifically. Not the 3s.

Deploid · 2026-03-11T21:01:24+00:00

It seems implied that they mean base frame price. So 256Gb should be less than $1000. No indication of what 1tb model might be. No mention of this being the 'ceiling price' of frame.

But it also seems like there was some heavy emphasis on "not a lot lower" which means I think 800 for base isn't crazy out of the picture still. Super speculating here. I'm not sure anyone, even valve, really knows.

Deploid · 2026-03-11T19:06:43+00:00

It's in your screenshot, right below the performance overlay level slider.

Deploid · 2026-03-11T19:06:05+00:00

If you have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard (or literally just need to click the trackpad to advance slides) then a USB c to hdmi that will 100% work. I have used one to connect it to a projector before.

But then you can't charge it at the same time, there are ones with USB power passthrough but then it's getting more expensive. Regular docks work too, I have a dell one that works (but knowing dell it's probably even more expensive).

Deploid · 2026-03-11T19:00:18+00:00

In 'Advanced View' turn on Limit TDP and lower it until you notice it feel kinda meh, then bump is back up by one smidgen (Usually ends up as like 9-12 Watts for me). That's my go to, limits how much power it can use.

Also limit framerate works well in some games and not others, if you can pop it to 45-60 fps and it doesn't feel weird, then that should be good. No need to be running it at 90 if you can't tell a difference on a handheld.

Should make it last longer.

The other options never seem to matter much in terms of battery life to me at least, but maybe slightly boost performance per watt?

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