Retroid Pocket 3 Plus vs. RG405M vs. Odin Lite vs. Switch Lite: Comparison and Reviews 2024

Retroid Pocket 3 Plus Reviews

Arguably the most prominent handheld emulator on the market today, the Retroid Pocket 3 Plus is one of the best option for most people. 

While Retroid does not ship the device with games, it does ship the Pocket 3 Plus with the Google Play Store where you can download all of the emulators you ever need. 

The biggest highlight of the Pocket 3 Plus is the Unisoc T618 processor, which is one of the most advanced chips found in the most popular handheld emulators. Paired with 4GB of RAM and Android 11, the Pocket 3 Plus can deliver big performance and can emulate all the way up to the Nintendo Wii. 

The 4.7-inch display isn’t the largest in the space, but its 450 nits of brightness is another stand-out feature, as is micro HDMI out to a television or monitor. Paired with a 4,500mAh battery, you can fully expect to get hours of gaming fun on the Pocket 3 Plus. And there is a huge community on Reddit that supports the device and posts tweaks to get the best performance out of games. 

Pros & Cons

ANBERNIC RG405M Reviews 

A staple name in the handheld emulator community, the Anbernic 405M is a serious competitor for the top spot with excellent performance and premium build quality. 

From the moment you unbox the Anbernic 405M, it’s easy to see why it’s such a handheld emulator favorite. The “M” in the name stands for metal, which is the casing you receive and it feels very premium. Inside this casing is a 4,500mAh battery, which is good for 8 hours on a single charge with USB-C fast charging. 

Aside from the casing, the rest of the internals offer similar performance to the Retroid Pocket 3 Plus, with the same Unisoc T618 processor. However, where the 405M differs is that it only offers a 4-inch touchscreen, which is slightly smaller than the Pocket 3 Plus. 

However, the Anbernic 405M shines with its excellent pocket-friendly build, which is great as you’ll be able to take the 3,172 games it comes with on the go whenever you want to go somewhere. Similar to the Retroid device, the 405M also has a large online community that works to tweak the device to get the most out of its Android 12 interface. 

Pros & Cons

Odin Lite Reviews 

The $200+ (depending on configuration) Ayn Odin is a new Android handheld that builds on that approach. It’s made by a small company in Shenzhen without any aspirations to create a brand new gaming platform, instead entrusting you to run whatever game you want on the device from the start. But it’s powerful enough to play more types of games than any of its Android competitors, while its design and control layout give it much more flexibility.

The Odin’s design inspiration is pretty obvious: it’s basically a Nintendo Switch Lite running Android. As someone who used a Switch Lite for a couple of years, though, I actually think Ayn’s hardware is better. The 5.98-inch 1080p LCD is bigger and sharper. The grips are more comfortable and house useful customizable rear buttons. The D-pad appears to be identical to the PlayStation Vita’s, which is a very good thing. The sticks are a little lower-profile than the Switch’s, but they’re comfortable and easy to use. 

Overall, build quality is impressive for this kind of device. There’s blue LED lighting on the sides of the device and underneath the analog sticks, which can be turned off. Up top, there’s a flap similar to the one that hides Switch game cards, except here it covers a microSD card slot and a Micro HDMI port. 

Pros & Cons

Switch Lite Reviews

If you’re on a tight budget or looking for something for the little gamer in your life, the Nintendo Switch Lite is a great access point to portable gaming. It’s got all the games from the Nintendo Switch library. It also comes in a great range of colors (blue, pink, yellow, grey, plus a bunch of special editions) and has decent buttons for such a little thing, making it one of the best handheld gaming consoles on a budget.

The Switch Lite looks like a Nintendo Switch in handheld mode with both Joy-Cons attached, but in a slightly smaller and slimmer design measuring 3.6 by 8.2 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 9.8 ounces. That's nearly an ounce lighter than just the Switch tablet itself, and five ounces lighter than the Switch with two Joy-Cons attached. The system's matte plastic shell feels very solid in the hand despite its lower weight, since it's a single device with no seams between the screen and controls and no rails designed to let its different components come apart.

Please note that the Switch's Joy-Cons occasionally suffer from control drifting, where the analog sticks start to send directional inputs to the system when they aren't being touched. Since the controls on the Switch Lite are part of the system itself, you can't simply replace them if they start to experience drift. 

Pros & Cons

Where to Buy Handheld Gaming Consoles?

You can buy handheld gaming consoles at brands' official website (like Goretroid.com, Ayntec.com, Nintendo.com, and Anbernic.com). You can also go Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart.com, or Amazon.com to purchase handheld gaming consoles. 

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Retroid Pocket 3 Plus vs. RG405M vs. Odin Lite vs. Switch Lite

Below we will look at these four handheld gaming consoles from top to bottom. This includes their specs, price & avaliablity, designs, pros & cons, dispaly, software, controls, features, battery life, and more!

1. By the Specs

2. Color Options: Retroid Pocket 3 Plus offers the most color options 

3. Price: Retroid Pocket 3 Plus Strikes Again

Retroid Pocket 3 Plus: $125/$130

ANBERNIC RG405M: $167.99/$182.99/$197.99 

Odin Lite: $199.90/$229 

Switch Lite: $199.99

4. Display: It's up to You

Retroid Pocket 3 Plus

The Pocket 3+ packs a 4.7-inch, 1334 x 750 IPS display with deep contrast and rich colors (in part because of how glossy and reflective the finish is). I had no problem streaming Control, Elden Ring, or Hades to the Retroid Pocket 3+ from my personal PC, and all of them looked great thanks to the screen’s dark blacks. I wouldn’t suggest running a text-heavy game like Disco Elysium or Baldur’s Gate 3, but I was able to stream Spider-Man: Miles Morales at 1080p at max settings to the Pocket 3+ with low enough input latency that it felt like native gaming.

The Retroid Pocket 3+ tops out at 450 nits, which is bright enough to play outside, and drops to nearly black when the brightness is lowered to its minimum. Retroid has also upped the pixels-per-inch (PPI) of the Pocket 3+ to 326, which is what Apple considers “retina quality,” or the point where your eye can’t discern individual pixels any longer. That’s likely not a coincidence given that the display has suspiciously similar specs to the screen used in the iPhone 6.

ANBERNIC RG405M 

ANBERNIC RG405M with a 4” IPS touchscreen display with a resolution of 640 x 480, making it the perfect 4:3 ratio for playing most of your retro games. Even though the display is big enough to play large consoles like the PS2 and small enough to make it feel pocketable.

Odin Lite 

The front is a 5.98-inch FHD (1920X1080) resolution IPS screen, and the left side of the screen is the microphone, left joystick (including L3), cross keys and Odin LOGO from top to bottom. 

As with any portable gaming console, the screen determines its display qualities and your gaming experience. It is s 57.77-hertz screen, an improvement from the Odin Pro, which had a 61-hertz display that often caused micro stuttering when playing retro games.

Similarly, the screen has excellent brightness adaptation settings, which make it perfect for playing in pitch-dark and highly lit environments. You can also set your console to night mode.

Switch Lite

The Switch Lite has a 5.5-inch LCD with 720p resolution. Even with a smaller 5.5-inch screen, I haven't seen a game that doesn't look good on it. I've played Super Mario Maker 2, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8,  Super Mario Odyssey  and of course Animal Crossing: New Horizons on it, and they're all good. The more compact size is also great. The Switch Lite isn't as small as a Nintendo 3DS , but it feels a lot more portable -- it's about one Joy-Con width shorter, and not as wide. The display ends up looking better, too, since the identical 720p resolution on a smaller screen means higher pixel density. Occasionally, some smaller text makes me squint.

5. Design: It's up to You

Retroid Pocket 3 Plus

The Retroid Pocket 3+ looks suspiciously similar to the Nintendo Switch Lite at first glance. Apart from the smaller size and left thumbstick placement, the two gaming handhelds are nearly identical.

The Pocket 3+ with two full short thumbsticks that you can click for L3 and R3 functionality, a D-pad on the left side above the stick.

The volume rocker has been shunted to the left edge, the home button moved to the right, and the power, select, and start buttons moved to the top. Although the volume and home buttons now sit under where your left and right index fingers rest while playing, they’re stiff enough that I never accidentally activated them. In fact, apart from the D-pad, all of the buttons on the Pocket 3+ are uniformly excellent, even if the travel on the triggers is a bit short.

The rubber dome switches used under the A, B, X, Y buttons give them a snappy and responsive feel without the rattle found in modern controllers, and have a surprising depth. If you don’t like the face buttons and want to change the colors or swap between rubber dome switches or conductive pad switches (which are softer and less clicky), Retroid sells $5 kits for changing them out.

ANBERNIC RG405M 

ANBERNIC RG405M, the shell has had a redesign, moving away from the squared corners and instead they have now gone for a more rounded approach which makes it slightly more comfortable and gives it a Gameboy Advance like aesthetic. 

• Below that you have your analogue stick and your plastic start/select buttons which are easy to press and have a clicky feedback to them. You’ll find no buttons or ports on the sides of the device, this is because your fingers naturally rest here, so you’ll find everything you need on top or on the bottom.

• Up top you’ll find your USB-C port, volume buttons, a LED light and your power button. On the bottom you’ll find a headphone jack, your sd card slot and your dual speakers.

• On the back you’ll find your signature ANBERNIC grips which is useful for placing it on a surface without it slipping off.

Odin Lite 

The joystick feels pretty good. The ABXY buttons use lavender/purple color matching. However, the ABXY buttons have a slightly longer keystroke and are hard. Personally, I like the slightly softer feel of the PS4 handle buttons.

A complete L1/L2/R1/R2 is placed on the side, and L2/R2 supports both digital and analog modes, which can well support racing games. Below the top cover is the Micro HDMI interface and TF+SIM card slot. When using the Micro HDMI interface, it can output 1080P/720P images. The TF card slot can be used for external expansion cards. normal call).

In addition to heat dissipation and speaker openings on the back, there are two additional customizable buttons M1 and M2, which are very convenient for emulators and streaming games.

The joystick and grip part are also equipped with blue lights, which are good as the appearance of the handheld, and the system also provides options to turn it on and off. 

Switch Lite

The Switch Lite comes with integrated controls rather than Joy-Cons. While you can connect up to four separate Joy-Cons wirelessly, you won't get an additional pair out of the box with the Lite. 

Despite the controllers being fixed, they offer mainly the same buttons as the original Switch – except the left, right, up, and down buttons, which have been replaced by a D-Pad, or Plus Control Pad, as Nintendo calls it. The D-Pad replacement feels natural, like it's always been there – and is undoubtedly more suited to handheld play.

The ZL and ZR triggers feel perfect and help cement that snug fit. However, the L and R buttons are thinner than on the original Switch. Arguably a bit too thin, as we sometimes found our fingers slipping off them. Both models also allow wireless connectivity, Bluetooth headphones, and MicroSD cards to increase the 32GB internal storage.

So, you aren't losing too many features aside from docked mode – which means no TV play. Due to the Switch Lite only being a handheld device, the console doesn't come with a dock, HDMI cable or kickstand. 

6. Operating System: Android or Proprietary OS, Again, It's up to You?

• The Retroid Pocket 3+ & Odin Lite runs the Android 11 operating system which has full support for the Google Play Store to download new apps as well as updating existing.

• ANBERNIC RG405M runs Android 12 which works well on here, and ANBERNIC have even added their own shortcuts to the quick menu, for example, you can swap to ANBERNIC’s front end, making it easier to skim through your games library and you can switch between Xbox and Switch mode too should you want to switch the A/B button layout.

• The Nintendo Switch Lite does not use any version of Android, it uses instead a propietary OS derived from the 3DS. The OS does use some components from Android drivers and looks like it was originally going for a Nvidia Shield-like look (Shield is based on android). Nintendo Switch Lite supports all Nintendo Switch software that can be played in handheld mode.

7. Battery Life: Odin Lite Has Biggest Battery Capacity

Retroid Pocket 3 Plus

• The large and vibrant screen is big enough to handle game streaming and newer console emulation, and battery life is decent, with about five to seven hours per full charge depending on what you're playing.
  

ANBERNIC RG405M 

• Normally, the handheld is good for 6-8 hours, but if you try to emulate PS2, you could drain full battery in just 2 hours. You can use the normal USB-C cable for the Anbernic RG405M, and it needs 3 hours to be fully charged.
  

Odin Lite 

• There is an asterix on the 6 hours, total life depends heavily on what you are playing. Gamecube, PS2, and COD Mobile suck battery down a lot.
  

Switch Lite

• For Nintendo Switch Lite, model number: HDH-001, the battery life is approximately 3 to 7 hours.

8. Features: Odin Lite Has the Most Features

The joystick and grip part of Odin Lite are equipped with blue lights, which are good as the appearance of the handheld, and the system also provides options to turn it on and off. 

Verdict: Which One Is Best For You?

I think the Switch Lite is not your best choice because the Switch's Joy-Cons occasionally suffer from control drifting. So which one is best for you? Retroid Pocket 3 Plus or RG405M or Odin Lite?

• If you're looking for the handheld gaming console with best value, then the Retroid Pocket 3 Plus is for you.

• If you want a better gaming experience and more features, Odin Lite is undoubtedly the best choice.

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