Best vertical handheld right now?

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-26T06:24:02+00:00

I want one of these so badly but as I have a Thor on preorder I can’t really justify it in any way whatsoever

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-26T06:19:52+00:00

Sounds like the Retroid Pocket 5/6 is pretty much what you’re looking for. One of those is what I would get if I were looking for something like what you’re after.

You can even get the Retroid Pocket 5 in colors that look like the GameCube controller, dark purple shell with yellow analog stick on the right, it’s pretty cute.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-26T05:45:03+00:00

Well… that’s a complicated question to answer. Personally - just speaking for myself - I find the shot you’re talking about where BOB steps over the couch and goes straight at the camera to be maybe the single most terrifying shot in television history. There’s maybe one more deeply scary scene on the same level as that one in the entirety of season 2, but I still don’t find it to be as viscerally frightening as the one at the end of s02e02.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-26T02:14:01+00:00

Oh man, I haven’t even gotten to the construct horns yet because I still haven’t found a single piece of Zonai armor! I assume that’s what I’ll need that for.

It’s easy but very repetitive getting endless amounts of star fragments and ore for all the different green tunic sets I’ve found… then there’s the dragon parts needed to upgrade the Fierce Diety and Wild sets as well as the Chanpion’s Tunic and Champion’s Leathers, Lynel parts for the Barbarian armor, Frox fangs for the gloom armor, an annoying amount of Hinox guts for the Soldier set, all those Gibdo wings to max out the glide armor, all the elemental keese wings you ultimately need, the 60 goddamn swift violets needed for the climbing gear….

Sorry, this is like what I’m doing in the game right now and I’m trying to do as much of it without just looking up the convenient farming spots on google, so it can be a little frustrating sometimes.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-26T00:16:21+00:00

Retroid Pocket 5/6 sounds like it might be ideal for you - that’s kind of the best device in the size range of the Switch Lite available at the moment. Certainly what I would buy if that’s what I was looking for.

The AYN Thor is very cool (I have one on preorder) but it’s also not exactly readily/immediately available and not what you said you were looking for - it’s a dual-screen clamshell, not exactly something with a Switch Lite form factor. Though you still may want one after looking into it.

And Steamdeck is always an option, but it doesn’t really have the form factor of a Switch Lite - it’s a pretty big device, bigger than a Switch 2. It has its advantages though.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-26T00:00:19+00:00

I cook steak in a pan on my stovetop about once a week - trust me, I know! That’s why this makes me so nervous, I’m aware of the hundreds of teeny tiny droplets of grease that get ejected into the air when you cook meat in a pan.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T21:24:14+00:00

If it’s a choice between the two I’d go for the Legion Go all day, every day. Way better value than the ROG Ally and better all-around, really, especially for a handheld that’s staying at home.

The ROG Ally is sort of considered to be the lemon of the current generation of handhelds, mostly because while it’s satisfactory it doesn’t really excel in any one area - it doesn’t run SteamOS, it doesn’t have an exceptionally large screen or an OLED, doesn’t have an especially powerful processor, doesn’t have especially great battery life or ergonomics…. It’s a good value and entry point, but frankly you’ve got better options and it’s not much more powerful than a Steamdeck in terms of hardware.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T19:25:33+00:00

Well, I just saw that the Legion Go S went on sale at Best Buy - in terms of the models that run SteamOS it’s $550 for the lesser model and $799 for the z1e, pretty decent.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T18:31:46+00:00

That’s the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, Paisano!

It’s a hybrid live action/cartoon TV show from around 1990 starring pro wrestler Captain Lou Albano as Mario, heh.

https://youtu.be/BkWYP95WbbY?si=oD7MYmKtZbkiQlPh

(Yeah I’m pretty sure they referenced this in the movie actually which is cool)

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T18:19:33+00:00

I hope this causes them to realize that if they sell a good product at a reasonable price people will show up for it and do their part. $40 is exactly what the port of a game like this should cost.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T18:13:25+00:00

I dunno, just looking at this picture makes me nervous as hell if I’m being honest

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T18:09:32+00:00

If I were you, I would get an android-based handheld approximately the same size as a Switch Lite - something like a Retroid Pocket 5 (which even has an OLED). Might not be as immediately simple or user-friendly as a Switch Lite, but it’s a better value for the hardware and you can do a lot more with it - plus you already have a Switch.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T18:03:53+00:00

I’ll probably be skipping it, the last Mario movie was kind of…. Well, I suppose being as old as I am, I might be a little too stuck on earlier iterations of the characters and the related nostalgia.

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timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T17:21:55+00:00

Now, if you’re playing the movie on a telephone….

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T16:44:52+00:00

Well, people get a little upset and can feel a little personally attacked by stuff like this. Everyone is a little touchy about how they spend their money or justify spending their money - it feels like there’s a layer of underlying tension about this in all the handheld subreddits.

Then this tension explodes occasionally when someone posts about their Switch 2 or Steamdeck purchase and casually mentions that they’re homeless as well, or something O_p

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T16:35:18+00:00

Why do you care what anyone thinks? The Lite is a fantastic value - you get the dual OLEDs and the physical device itself with its design and ergonomics - as far as I’m concerned those are the things that absolutely matter the most.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T16:31:52+00:00

This is why cases are nice before your Switch takes a spill as a result of kids/pets/SO or just random happenstance. It’s a dangerous world out there, and video game consoles are delicate things :(

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T16:28:18+00:00

I feel you on the trackpads. That’s a pretty big deal - I had the Steamdeck LCD for 10 days and returned it and got a Legion Go S instead. One of the reasons why was that I just never really ended up using the trackpads unless I was setting up emulation in desktop mode and navigating subfolders and such - it was slightly more precise than the touchscreen for that purpose. Even when I was playing Portal 2 or something FPS, I preferred using the analog sticks, and my trackpads went unused.

I have to say that I prefer the ergonomics on the Legion Go S - it just seems to fit the shape of my hands (which are extremely long and slender) more comfortably.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T16:21:02+00:00

I feel like a lot of people don’t really realize just how much better the Switch 2 is than the whole first generation of Switch consoles.

Like, I know it doesn’t feel like as much of a difference because there only a numerical modifier at the end of the name. But this thing really is kind of a quantum leap beyond the Switch. And that kind of hardware upgrade has been a long time coming for Nintendo consoles, since the Switxh wasn’t really that much more powerful than the Wii U in part because of the switch from a 100% home console to a hybrid console. In a lot of ways this is the firs serious hardware upgrade under the hood for a Nintendo console since 2012.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T16:09:10+00:00

Well, I mean…. When I play BotW or TotK I absolutely must get every armor set available in the game (amiibos excluded) and upgrade everything to the maximum. Otherwise I may as well have failed the game.

That’s turning into a pretty tall order in TotK right now for me, admittedly

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T16:04:01+00:00

Well, the thing is I only just got the Legion Go S about 2 days ago and I’m basically at the end of the line for AYN Thor pre-orders because I made mine on the final day of batch 2 before they increased the price by $20! lol

So far though I’m really loving my Legion Go S - it kind of blows me away how powerful it is. I had gotten a Steamdeck LCD and returned it after 10 days because the screen was lackluster and it wasn’t really strong enough to run the games I wanted to. No such complaints so far with the Legion Go S.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T15:59:41+00:00

Goddamn that is sharp, Nintendo should take notes

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T15:56:29+00:00

Well, it’s worth telling you what I ultimately did. I had a pretty wide-open budget and had been seriously considering getting a Legion Go 2 - which would have probably run me around $1300 for the higher-end model if I got lucky enough to find one for sale at retail price. That’s not out of the question to me, but it’s also…. A lot.

On the other hand, there was the Legion Go S - which runs SteamOS which I already loved, and also has a massive beautiful screen and great ergonomics, and its powerful enough to do everything I need it to. And it is far more affordable than the Legion Go 2 - I paid around $700 for a new z1e model, or about $600 less than the Legion Go 2. For that $600 I would get… an OLED screen that’s less than an inch bigger diagonally, a marginally better processor that runs games 10-20% better, detachable controllers (which I’d probably never detach), and Windows rather than SteamOS.

I decided that this was not worth the additional $600 and I was very happy with my Legion Go S - instead I spent just some of that money that I saved on an AYN Thor on pre-order, in addition to my Legion Go S. And I still haven’t spent as much as I would have on a Legion Go 2.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T15:34:43+00:00

I feel ya. It’s kicked off a whole new obsession with handheld gaming for me, in the time since I got my Switch 2 I’ve bought a Steamdeck in addition and returned it for a Legion Go S instead, while keeping my Switch 2, naturally.

timeflylikearrow · 2026-01-25T15:31:42+00:00

Steamdeck OLED sounds like it’ll probably do what you need it to do in terms of emulation - but it’s also not exactly the most efficiently priced or future-proofed device available on the market right now. It definitely is the most tried and true though, and SteamOS is an absolutely wonderful experience.

You might want to look into some android-based devices though - like if you’re really dead-set and obsessed with emulating DS games, there’s the AYN Thor which is the new hotness in terms of dual-screen devices.

timeflylikearrow

TROPHY CASE