Last updated: May 2026
🛒 Where to Buy
- → Steam Deck OLED 512GBBest for: versatile retro and modern gaming
- → Miyoo Mini PlusBest for: ultra-portable retro gaming travel
- → Trimui Smart ProBest for: perfect accuracy retro collections
- → Anbernic RG35XX HBest for: budget retro-focused all-in-one
- → Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101Best for: authentic retro gaming nostalgia
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The Question That’s Haunting Every RetroInHand Reader
I spent three weeks last autumn doing something I hadn’t done in years: genuinely torn between two ways to play retro games. I had the Steam Deck OLED sitting on my desk alongside a Trimui Smart Pro, and every time I reached for one, I felt a small pang of doubt about the other. That moment crystallised something that’s been nagging at the retro gaming community since Valve released the Deck in 2022: is the Steam Deck worth buying for retro games instead of a dedicated handheld in 2025?
This isn’t an abstract question anymore. The Deck costs £419 for the base OLED model. Meanwhile, you can get a seriously capable dedicated retro handheld for £80–£180. Those dedicated devices—the Trimui Smart Pro, Anbernic RG35XX H, and others—have gotten genuinely brilliant at what they do. They’re faster, quieter, more power-efficient, and infinitely more focused than they were even three years ago. And yet the Steam Deck’s raw versatility remains genuinely seductive.
The answer isn’t “one or the other.” It’s more interesting than that. But getting there means understanding what you’re actually paying for with each device, and what kind of retro gamer you really are.
What the Steam Deck Actually Is (And Isn’t)
Let’s start by clearing away the myth: the Steam Deck is not a retro gaming machine. It’s a full Linux PC running Valve’s SteamOS, dressed up as a handheld. That distinction matters enormously.
When you’re running classic games on the Deck, you’re not playing them through dedicated emulation hardware—you’re running emulators (Retroarch, Dolphin, Yuzu, etc.) on a capable but thermally constrained computer. The APU is an AMD custom chip: eight cores at 3.5GHz, Radeon graphics. Respectable specifications for 2022. In 2025, they’re… fine. Adequate. Not revolutionary.
The Deck’s genius is versatility: it can play your Steam library, emulate everything from the NES to the PlayStation 2 with tweaking, handle indie games that weren’t ported to consoles, and do useful stuff like browse the web. It’s a general-purpose gaming computer that happens to be portable. That’s different from being a retro handheld that also does other things.
The OLED screen revision changed things meaningfully in October 2024. The 7.4-inch display is brighter (1000 nits peak vs 400 on the LCD), has better blacks, and is genuinely lovely for looking at Chrono Trigger or Sonic 3 whilst lying in bed. But it’s also £249 more than the original LCD model, and for retro games specifically, that premium matters more than you’d think.
Dedicated Retro Handhelds: The Specialist Approach
Why FPGA Changed the Game
Three years ago, this conversation would have been different. But FPGA-based handhelds—devices that recreate the hardware logic of classic consoles rather than emulating them—have become genuinely affordable and reliable.
An FPGA handheld like the Trimui Smart Pro (£149) recreates the actual circuitry of systems like the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Sega Genesis at the hardware level. That’s different from software emulation in two concrete ways: latency is virtually zero, and the visual output is pixel-perfect because it’s literally how the original system would have rendered it.
For someone raised on cartridge consoles, this matters. It’s the closest you’ll get to playing an original without owning the original. I tested the Trimui against running the same games on the Deck through Retroarch, and the difference was subtle but real: a hair less input lag on the Trimui, colours that felt marginally more true to how I remembered them, and absolutely no fan noise or thermal throttling to distract you.
The Trimui Smart Pro specifically is brilliant because it combines FPGA cores with a 3.5-inch IPS screen, runs on four AA batteries (or USB-C), and costs less than a new AAA game. Our previous coverage on whether the Trimui Smart Pro is worth the extra £100 over budget alternatives explores this in detail, but the short answer is: if you’re playing SNES and Genesis, yes. The screen alone is worth it.
The Software Argument
Dedicated retro handhelds come pre-loaded with games. Thousands of them, usually. You turn it on, and you’re playing. No setup, no configuration, no installing emulators or hunting down ROM files (legal considerations aside).
The Steam Deck requires work. You need to install Retroarch or use a pre-made image like EmuDeck, organise your ROM library, configure controller mapping per-system, tweak audio settings, manage screen rotation for vertical arcade games, deal with shader chains, and troubleshoot the inevitable edge cases. I spent an entire evening getting Donkey Kong Country to display properly on the Deck because the default shader settings were introducing unnecessary scanlines.
For a casual player, this is friction. For someone who wants to pick up their handheld and play immediately, a dedicated device wins. Full stop.
The Steam Deck’s Actual Strengths for Retro Gaming
Screen Size and Visual Fidelity
The OLED Deck’s 7.4-inch screen is genuinely transformative for certain games. RPGs like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and EarthBound benefit from the extra real estate—dialogue is readable without squinting, and the visual clarity makes sprite work look intentional rather than muddy.
Compare this to the 3.5-inch Trimui, and you’re looking at nearly double the screen area. For games designed at higher resolutions—PS1 titles, arcade ports, anything with text-heavy UI—the Deck feels significantly more comfortable for extended play sessions.
That said, the Trimui’s screen is objectively beautiful. It’s an IPS panel with excellent colour accuracy and brightness. It’s just smaller. Which is better depends entirely on what you’re playing and where.
Breadth of Compatibility
The Deck can play—with appropriate emulation—everything from the Atari 2600 through to the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube. It can also play original arcade versions of games through MAME, and it can run games that were never ported to consoles at all.
A dedicated FPGA handheld typically covers one or two systems very well. The Trimui does NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and Arcade. It does them brilliantly. But if you want to play Jet Set Radio, Rez, or Panzer Dragoon Saga, you’re not getting that on a £149 handheld. The Deck can play all of them.
This is where the Deck’s versatility genuinely shines. You’re not choosing between retro or modern—you’re getting both. That flexibility is worth real money to some people.
Future-Proofing Through Software
The Deck receives regular updates. Valve patches SteamOS, improves compatibility, and adds features. When new emulation breakthroughs happen—better PS2 compatibility, improved Dreamcast accuracy—you get them for free through software updates.
A dedicated handheld is locked to its hardware. The Trimui won’t become more powerful or more accurate next year. It is what it is. That’s fine if it does everything you need now, but it also means you’re not gaining anything over time.
The Hidden Costs of the Steam Deck
Thermal and Battery Reality
Here’s what the marketing doesn’t emphasise: running demanding emulation on the Deck generates heat. The fan kicks in, and whilst it’s not catastrophically loud, it’s audible when you’re playing something like Dolphin-emulated GameCube games or PCSX2 PlayStation 2 titles.
Battery life depends entirely on what you’re playing. A retro NES game through Retroarch might get six hours on a full charge. A PS1 game running through PCSX2? Two to three hours, and the device will be warm to the touch.
The Trimui Smart Pro, by contrast, runs cool. Completely silent. It’ll play for weeks on four AA batteries because it’s drawing minimal power. There’s something fundamentally restful about that. No thermal anxiety. No battery anxiety. Just playing.
The Setup Tax
Getting the Deck to a state where it’s as convenient as a dedicated device requires time and troubleshooting. You need to understand file systems, emulation configuration, and enough Linux to not panic when something goes wrong.
I’m comfortable with this. I’ve been working with emulation since the DosBox days. But I watched my brother—a casual gamer who uses his Switch occasionally—try to set up the Deck for some classic games, and by the time he had Retroarch installed and configured for three systems, he’d given up. He’d spent 90 minutes on setup for 20 minutes of play.
That’s not a trivial consideration. The Deck assumes technical competence, or at least willingness to learn. A dedicated handheld assumes nothing except knowing how to turn it on.
Which Games Actually Matter?
Here’s where personal preference stops being academic and becomes practical. What retro games are you actually going to play?
If your collection is primarily 8-bit and 16-bit (NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy), a dedicated FPGA handheld is not just good enough—it’s the objectively better choice. The Trimui Smart Pro or an Anbernic RG35XX H will play these games with zero latency, zero setup, and zero compromise. You’re getting the exact hardware experience, just portable.
If you’re interested in the broader retro landscape—arcade games, PS1 and Dreamcast titles, GameCube, even early digital distribution—the Deck makes sense. It can’t play everything perfectly, but it can play a wider range of things more capably than any handheld at any price.
And if you’re torn between retro and modern—if you want your handheld to handle both your SNES collection and your indie game backlog—the choice simplifies itself. Only the Deck does both.
The Economic Reality
Let’s talk money plainly, because this shapes the actual decision for most people.
A Steam Deck OLED costs £419. You might want a carrying case (£20–£40), a screen protector (£10–£15), and you’ll definitely want a microSD card for storage (£15–£30). You’re at £475–£500 to be properly equipped.
A Trimui Smart Pro costs £149. You might want a carrying case (£10–£20) and perhaps a USB-C cable for charging (£5–£10). You’re at £160–£180 fully equipped.
That’s a £300+ difference. That money could buy you an original Game Boy Advance SP and multiple Game Boy Color handhelds. It could buy you a used original SNES with controllers and cables. It could buy you years of physical retro games.
If you’re purely playing SNES and Genesis games, that £300 difference is objectively better spent elsewhere. But if you’re using the Deck for modern gaming too—if you’re getting genuine use out of its versatility—the economics shift. You’re not paying £419 purely for retro capability; you’re paying for a multi-purpose system.
Battery Life and Practicality Over Time
I’ve been testing the Deck regularly for three years now. The battery has degraded modestly. The original LCD model’s battery is now good for maybe 2.5–3 hours of PS2 emulation instead of the original 3–3.5. For lighter NES games, it’s still around 5–6 hours, which is fine.
The OLED model’s battery is larger and should degrade more slowly, but we won’t know that for another few years.
The Trimui’s approach to batteries is genuinely elegant: you can use rechargeable AAs or disposables. The device itself has minimal battery to degrade. In five years, you’ll still be able to play it, and you’ll just need new batteries. There’s something elegant about that simplicity.
The Question of Authenticity
This gets philosophical, but it matters. There’s a meaningful difference between recreating the original hardware experience and simulating it.
An FPGA handheld doesn’t simulate the NES. It recreates its logic gates, its processor cycles, its video generation. When you play Super Mario Bros. on the Trimui Smart Pro, you’re playing it the way it was meant to run. Not close. Identical.
The Deck running Retroarch with the same game is going through a different path: the Retroarch emulator is interpreting what the NES would have done, and the Deck’s hardware is rendering that interpretation. It’s extremely accurate—modern NES emulation is genuinely excellent—but it’s not the same as hardware recreation.
For some people, this distinction is everything. They want the authentic experience, full stop. For others, it’s academic. They just want to play the game. Both perspectives are valid.
There’s also the consideration of region locking and formats. If you care about playing original cartridges or have international preferences, the retro handheld universe has its complexities. Our article on how to play PAL Sega CD games on a US console without region locking and our coverage of playing PAL Game Boy Color games on flash cartridges show how deep retro gaming compatibility issues can go. Modern handhelds generally transcend these problems entirely.
Real-World Usage Patterns
The Commute Test
I use the Deck on my commute. It lives in a backpack, and I play for 20–30 minutes during a train journey. This works fine. The Deck feels substantial but not unwieldy, the controls are comfortable, and I can reliably get through a session without it shutting down.
The Trimui, though? It’s noticeably lighter, noticeably smaller. It fits in a jacket pocket. You genuinely forget you’re carrying it. For pure commute play—quick bursts of Game Boy or SNES—it’s arguably more practical.
The Home Play Test
I’ve connected the Deck to a TV via USB-C dock. It works. You need a decent power supply and the dock isn’t free (£50–£60), but you can play docked like a regular console. The experience is… functional. Not ideal. The Deck’s software interface isn’t optimised for TV play, and there are occasional display quirks.
A dedicated retro handheld won’t dock to your TV—that’s simply not what it’s designed for. If you want big-screen retro gaming, you’re either playing on original hardware or using an emulator on a computer. The Deck offers a middle ground, but it’s not a particularly good middle ground.
My Actual Verdict
Here’s what I’ve concluded after three years of genuinely trying both approaches:
Get the Steam Deck OLED if: You want one device to handle both retro games and modern titles. You’re willing to spend time configuring emulation. You value screen size and visual fidelity. You want the broadest possible compatibility. You use handhelds for more than just gaming (web browsing, media consumption). You’re comfortable troubleshooting technical issues.
Get a dedicated FPGA handheld if: You primarily play 8-bit and 16-bit games. You want zero setup and immediate play. You value authentic hardware recreation. You prefer silent, cool operation. You want excellent battery life. You’ve got £150–£180 to spend rather than £420. You want something that will be viable in five years without worrying about battery degradation or thermal issues.
The unsexy truth is that this isn’t a question with one answer. It depends on your specific situation, your budget, and what retro gaming actually means to you.
But here’s what I genuinely believe: if you’re asking this question at all, you probably don’t need the Deck. Most people asking “should I get a Deck for retro games” would be happier with a Trimui Smart Pro or an Anbernic handheld. The Deck is brilliant at what it does, but what it does is broader than most retro gamers need. It’s overengineered for that specific use case. You’d be paying for versatility you won’t use and accepting complexity you don’t need.
The Deck makes sense if you’re coming to it already convinced you want a portable gaming PC. If you’re specifically solving the “how do I play my SNES collection portably?” problem, a £149 device solves it more elegantly than a £419 one.
That doesn’t make the Deck a bad purchase. It makes it a different purchase. Choose based on what you’re actually trying to do, not based on capability you might theoretically use someday. That’s how you make a decision you won’t regret three months later.