The retro edit
Why a retro handheld beats playing on your phone
Your phone is more powerful than most of the consoles these games were made for, and emulators for it are easy to find. So it is a fair question why anyone would carry a second device. We sell handhelds, so we have an obvious answer, but the reasons are practical ones you notice within the first ten minutes of playing.
Buttons you can feel
Classic games were designed around a D-pad and physical buttons. On a phone, those controls are drawn on the glass, over the top of the game. Your thumbs cover part of the screen, and with nothing to feel, they drift off the buttons without you noticing. In a platformer, that is the difference between landing a jump and missing it.
A handheld puts a real D-pad and real buttons where your thumbs expect them. You stop looking at your hands and start looking at the game.
The right shape of screen
Most classic games were made for televisions with a 4:3 shape, close to square. Modern phones are long and narrow, so classic games sit in a small box in the middle with wide black bars either side, often with the on-screen controls taking up the space.
The R36S, the R36MAX2 and the Trimui Brick all have 4:3 screens, so a classic game fills the whole display.
A battery that is not needed for anything else
An hour of games on your phone is an hour less for maps, messages and calls later in the day. On a handheld, playing costs nothing except the handheld's own battery. The R36S lasts about eight hours, and the Smart Pro S about six.
No interruptions
On a phone, a game competes with everything else the phone does. Messages arrive halfway through a boss fight, and one quick reply turns into twenty minutes of scrolling. A handheld does one thing. When you pick it up, you are playing, and when you put it down, you are done.
That is the part people mention most after switching. The game is a break from the phone, not another thing happening on it.
What about clip-on phone controllers?
They are a real improvement, and it is fair to say so. A good one fixes the controls. It does not fix the screen shape, the battery drain or the notifications, and it makes the phone bulky enough that it no longer fits in a pocket.
Which handheld suits a phone player
- The Trimui Brick if pocket size matters most. At 73 by 110 millimetres, it takes up less room than most phones.
- The R36S for the lowest price and the longest battery.
- The Smart Pro S if you like a big widescreen display and want the most power.
For more on the differences, read our Trimui comparison or R36S or R36MAX2.
