I don't have solid advice for what you SHOULD buy, but I will say this. Whatever device you pick, you're wrong. You made the wrong choice.
Now here's the reason for that. Go on youtube, and watch RetroGameCorps videos about the Retroid Pocket 5. It only came out about a year ago, and he gave glowing reccomendations. He wasn't lying. It genuinely is/was a great device.
Then the Retroid pocket Flip 2 came out. Which only came out a few months later. It is the exact same device just housed in a different shell. Nothing extra. Nothing less. Just a different form factor. It got the same praise.
Then a few months later the Retroid Pocket 6 came out. And now it's the latest and greatest. Agaibln, he's not lying, but I'm sure in a year there will be the next Retroid.
And that's just ONE company. There are dozens of companies. Each putting out half a dozen devices each year.
Because, you see, with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, they release games. Each console is a platform. They want you to buy the console, and stay on that console for half a decade. That way they can sell you a games library. For games that haven't even entered development yet, they want to sell you that game 3 years from now.
With Ambernic, and Retroid, and Miyoo and all the others, they don't sell games. They sell you a console, that you will use to emulate games that you already have. Their sales, and profit lives and dies within a single transaction. So they need to CONSTANTLY be innovating. They need to CONSTANTLY be releasing the newest latest and greatest.
But that formula has some SERIOUS cliffs that will approach very quickly.
You see, I bought a retroid flip 2 last year. Now I see Retroid has the Retroid pocket 6. A vast improvement over the hardware I have. And I'm sure in a few months they'll release the Retroid Flip 3. Which is just the Pocket 6 in a new shell.
So, do I go out and buy the pocket 6? Do I wait for the Flip 3?
No. I've already bought the Flip 2. This is my device. And now we reach the cliff. These companies probably sold these devices like hot cakes the first few years. Because nobody had them. But eventually you'll run out of power. You'll catch up to modern consoles. And theres only so many ways you can emulate the same games. Add that to the fact that consumers aren't going to spend $50-$300 every 4 months, and you have a novelty industry that is being supported currently on a bubble.
Right now, they still have room to grow, but they will approach that cliff of having already sold everybody a console recently. Thats when the market will suddenly fall off a cliff, and the bubble will pop.
But no single company can slow down either, because then they get left behind, as all the other companies continue to release better consoles every month.
So if a company keeps pace, they're headed for the cliff faster, but if they slow down they get left behind and lapped by the other consoles that are already lapping them.
So for consumers, it means no matter what you choose, it's always the wrong choice. I could say I ahould have waited a few months for the pocket 6. But I like the flip form. Should I wait for the Flip 3? And if I did that, would the Pocket 7 be just around the corner?
So I say figure out which generations of hardware you want to emulate, and pick a handheld that can do that. Once you buy, DON'T FOLLOW THE INDUSTRY ANYMORE! Put your blinders on. Forget whats coming out next month, and enjoy what you have.