All the Best Nintendo Switch 2 Alternatives You’ve Never Heard Of

The worldwide masses who jumped done hoops to preorder a $450 Switch 2 earlier its June 5 motorboat day beryllium Nintendo is arsenic beardown arsenic ever—if not stronger. You don’t request a crystal shot to foretell that the hybrid handheld/home console volition beryllium hard to buy, and we cognize that the FOMO is going to deed hard erstwhile everybody is racing arsenic the cattle successful Mario Kart World. But determination are tons of alternate handhelds that tin sate your gaming appetite if you can’t snag a Switch 2. You conscionable request to cognize wherever to look.

Whether you’re conscionable learning astir the weird and fantastic satellite of handhelds that person sprouted retired of obscurity the past fewer years oregon you’ve been waiting for a woody connected a inexpensive handheld, we urge getting 1 present earlier Trump tariffs marque them wholly untenable.

One of the Switch 2’s large motorboat features is its access to GameCube games done Nintendo’s $50/year Expansion Pack subscription, alongside a constricted tally of pricey GameCube controllers. If that’s a large crushed you’re gunning for a Switch 2, determination are respective fantabulous handhelds that could scratch that itch for a fraction of the caller handheld’s price. These devices are usually wrangled unneurotic nether the moniker of “retro handhelds.” They’re typically susceptible of playing immoderate modern titles oregon homebrew games. However, their main entreaty is emulation. This relies connected apps that recreate older gaming hardware arsenic software. These retro handhelds fto you play these homebrew titles, though they besides fto you play ripped integer files of past games, known collectively arsenic ROMs.

While emulators themselves are, for the astir part, harmless from ineligible liability, ROMs beryllium successful a grey area. It takes acold much effort to find and download ROMs and emulators than it does to load up a Switch and download a crippled with the Switch Online + Expansion Pack. That being said, you person a greater assortment of titles if you emulate them. There are a ton of smaller, Game Boy-sized devices disposable that are cleanable for pocketable gaming. However, immoderate of our favourite emulation handhelds are bully for playing titles from retro gaming’s aureate days up done the Nintendo 64 oregon GameCube era, oregon adjacent beyond.

© Jorge Jimenez / Gizmodo

Valve’s Steam Deck is simply a coagulated handheld arsenic a Switch 2 alternative. The mentation you want, the Steam Deck OLED, includes a beauteous and agleam surface susceptible of displaying existent blacks, and SteamOS is elemental and casual to navigate. The large contented is the Steam Deck OLED starts astatine $550 with 512GB of storage. An LCD Steam Deck with a debased 256GB sells for $400. Their worth proposition isn’t arsenic bully arsenic erstwhile they launched, but they’re arguably inactive the astir fashionable PC handhelds if you don’t privation to woody with Windows.

If a Steam Deck is disconnected the table, instrumentality a gander astatine slimmer emulation devices from companies similar AYN, Retroid, Ayaneo, and Anbernic.

Image: AYN

Anbernic, known for pumping retired seemingly endless variants of retro handhelds, announced past week it had started shipping its $250 RG 557 with “U.S. warehouse banal coming soon.” While we hold for that instrumentality to deed the scene, 1 of the astir fashionable handhelds disposable contiguous is the AYN Odin 2. The portable came retired successful 2023, but its 1080p show is sharp, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile CPU is almighty capable to play GameCube games astatine a dependable framerate. If you privation thing a small much sleek, there’s the $330 Odin 2 Portal that sports a 7-inch 1080p and 120Hz AMOLED touchscreen.

🎉 RG 557 is OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE — shipping from China!
💥U.S. warehouse banal coming soon — enactment tuned!
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🚀 Packed with a almighty spot + stunning AMOLED show
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— ANBERNIC (@anbernic_china) April 25, 2025

AYN’s devices tally connected Android, which gives you entree to virtually immoderate mobile crippled connected the Google Play Store, arsenic good arsenic a bully fig of emulators similar RetroArch. You tin technically load emulators into Linux, but if you person capable know-how to bash that, you’re apt already alert of the full retro scene. Otherwise, astatine this terms constituent you could besides cheque retired Ayaneo. It’s a China-based marque with a mind-boggling fig of products released implicit the past year. We suggest you look astatine the Ayaneo Pocket Evo astatine astir $470. It has a bully 7-inch 1080p OLED display, and it’s powered by the Snapdragon G3 Gen 2, a handheld-focused chipset that helps retro games tally great.

If you tin hold a small bit, there’s a caller mentation called the Pocket S2, with a much almighty Qualcomm Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 spot and crispier 1440p screen, that’s expected to travel retired successful May, according to Ayaneo’s CEO (via Digital Trends). We don’t cognize however overmuch it’ll cost, but hopefully it’s not arsenic overmuch arsenic the $590 Retroid Pocket S with its 1440p display.

© Retroid

But if you truly privation thing that’s precocious prime for its price, you request to look astatine Retroid. The premier illustration of the company’s handheld plan is the $220 Retroid Pocket 5. It includes a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED show and has slick Hall effect sticks. The Pocket 5 is powered by an older Snapdragon 865 chip, but that doesn’t substance since it tin play games up done GameCube astatine a coagulated clip. Retroid conscionable precocious launched the Pocket Flip 2 for $230. It’s fundamentally the aforesaid benignant of instrumentality successful a clamshell signifier with the upsides of compactness and extortion for the display.

These handhelds are each coagulated choices, but they whitethorn soon beryllium wholly unavailable. Nintendo weathered the archetypal daze with the handheld’s $450 terms constituent intact. Anbernic, on with Ayaneo and Retroid, each announced they would halt shipping to the U.S. connected April 25. Essentially, erstwhile the companies tally retired of existing banal successful the U.S., it volition beryllium overmuch harder—and apt much expensive—to bid 1 from overseas. In an email to a lawsuit posted to the authoritative AYN Discord (via Android Authority), the institution said it volition effort shipping done “a caller channel” connected May 5.

Some online stores from Retroid and Anbernic inactive fto you spot orders to the U.S., but lone the companies themselves cognize however agelong that mightiness last. If getting a preorder for a Switch 2 was difficult, we whitethorn person an adjacent worse clip buying prime handhelds from smaller companies successful the future.