Best Retro Handheld for Nintendo DS Games (UK 2026)

TL;DR — the picks

Best for Nintendo DS — purpose-built: Anbernic RG DS — £144.90, the only dual-screen clamshell I sell, the one handheld designed around the DS.
Best landscape device for DS — if you can still get one: Retroid Pocket 3+ — £214.90, the widest screen I sell, so the best fit for the DS side-by-side layout. End-of-life: only the last units remain.
Best landscape device you can reliably buy: Anbernic RG405M — £199.90, the largest 4:3 screen in the range and the power to run the full DS library well.
Best budget landscape device: Anbernic RG353V — £149.90, the same DS approach on a smaller 3.5″ panel.

Every device here is dispatched from the UK. Prices and stock are correct on the day this was written — a couple of these are selling through their final units, and I note where that’s the case.

What actually makes a good Nintendo DS handheld

This is the one platform in the series where the answer is unusual, because the DS is unlike every other console on these pages. Most retro systems output a single picture to a single screen. The DS was built around two — and that single fact changes what “good” means here more than any chip or price tag.

Two screens is not optional — it is the whole point. Nintendo DS games were designed for a top screen (the action, the 3D view, the main display) and a bottom screen (maps, inventories, menus, and a large slice of touch-driven gameplay). Emulators have been able to run DS games for over a decade. What they could never do convincingly was reproduce that two-screen layout on one panel. A single-screen handheld does it in one of two ways: show only the main (top) screen and swap to the other with a button, or show both screens side-by-side — usually with the bottom screen drawn smaller than the top. The side-by-side view is workable, because you can still see both screens at once, but it is awkward, and you do lose real estate, as both screens now have to share a single panel. The wider that panel, the more room the two screens have, and the less cramped the result. It works, in the sense that the game runs. It does not feel like playing a DS. If the DS is the reason you are buying, this is the decision that matters above all others.

A real touch screen matters more than you might think. A sizeable part of the DS library is built around touch — navigation, puzzles, menu interaction, rhythm timing. The RG405M, the RG353V and the Retroid Pocket 3+ all have touch panels, so touch-driven games are playable on them — but when both DS screens are shown side-by-side the touch areas shrink and shift, which makes touch-centric games awkward to play that way. A handheld without a touch screen at all is worse still: you navigate those games with a stick and buttons where the original hardware wanted a finger or a stylus. The further a handheld drifts from that input model, the more DS games feel like they are being played through a workaround.

The emulator has to be the right one, and it has to be configured. DS emulation is genuinely demanding — more so than PS1 — and the lightweight chip that runs SNES or PS1 flawlessly can struggle here. The emulator that handles low-power hardware best is DraStic, and getting the most out of it means the resolution upscaling, the screen layout, the controller mapping and the save behaviour all have to be set and tested. A DS game that boots and a DS game that plays the way you remember are, again, two different things.

The form factor is the finishing touch. The DS was a clamshell that folded shut, protecting both screens and sleeping in your pocket. A handheld that copies that shape gives you the DS experience in a way a slab never quite manages — close the lid, pocket it, open it and you are exactly where you left off.

The picks in detail

Best for Nintendo DS — purpose-built: Anbernic RG DS (£144.90)

If you are buying specifically to play Nintendo DS games, this is the pick, and it is not a close call. The RG DS is the only dual-screen clamshell I sell, and it was designed around the DS rather than the DS being one platform among many.

It has two 4.0″ IPS displays stacked top and bottom, each at a 4:3 aspect ratio and 640×480 resolution — the layout a DS game was drawn for. The bottom screen is a capacitive touch panel with a matching stylus in the box, so the touch-driven part of the library plays the way it was meant to. Close the clamshell and the screens are protected and the device sleeps; open it and you are back in the game.

The DS library is what this device does best. It runs on the DraStic emulator, which is purpose-built for exactly this kind of low-power hardware, and the replacement firmware I install includes a dual-screen spanning feature that makes DraStic use both panels automatically — no manual toggling, no black bars. A deep DS catalogue is configured and ready to play the moment you turn it on.

I will be honest about the ceiling, because the RG DS is a focused device rather than a do-everything one. Its chip is modest by design, so the DS is its ceiling rather than its middle. Lighter systems (PS1, SNES, GBA and earlier) all run well on the top screen while the bottom screen sits idle, but if you want PS2, GameCube or 3DS, this is not the handheld for those. It is the handheld for the DS, and it is the best one there is at any price I sell.

Dual 4.0″ 4:3 IPS screens, 640×480 each, capacitive touch with stylus
DS via DraStic with automatic dual-screen spanning
Clamshell — screens protected, sleep on close
See the RG DS

Best landscape device you can reliably buy — Anbernic RG405M (£199.90)

If the DS is one system among several and you want the landscape handheld that runs the full DS library and is still readily available, this is the pick.

The RG405M has the largest 4:3 screen in the range — a 4.0″ IPS panel — and a UNISOC T618 chip that runs the full DS library comfortably. On a single screen you play either the main (top) DS display alone — swapping to the second screen with a button — or both screens side-by-side. Its 4:3 panel is generous for retro gaming generally, but it does give the side-by-side DS layout less room than a widescreen device, so the two screens sit a little tighter together. It is touch-capable, though as above, touch-centric DS games are awkward in that side-by-side view. What you get in exchange is a device that takes you well past the DS — PS1 with wobble correction and double-resolution rendering, N64, and the headroom to reach into PS2, GameCube and Wii.

So the honest trade-off: for pure DS play, the RG DS is the more authentic experience at a lower price, and the Retroid Pocket 3+ below gives the side-by-side layout more room when it is in stock. The RG405M is the choice when you want one powerful landscape device that handles the DS well and goes furthest beyond it, and you want something you can actually buy today. It is selling through its remaining stock, but units are still available as I write this.

4.0″ 4:3 IPS screen, 640×480 (largest 4:3 panel in the range)
UNISOC T618 — full DS library plus PS1, N64 and the headroom for PS2, GameCube and Wii
Touch-capable; both DS screens shown side-by-side on the one panel
See the RG405M

Best budget landscape device — Anbernic RG353V (£149.90)

The RG353V is the value landscape pick for DS. It shares the same approach as the RG405M — both DS screens shown side-by-side on one panel, or one at a time via a screen-swap button — but on a smaller 3.5″ 4:3 screen and at a lower price.

DS runs well here, and the headroom goes a long way past it: PS1, N64, Dreamcast and PSP all run, with PSP in particular performing well once it is tuned. I will be plain about the ceiling — a handful of the heaviest Dreamcast titles do not hit full speed on every game — but for the DS specifically this is a capable single-screen device for less than the RG405M.

3.5″ 4:3 IPS screen, 640×480, multi-touch
Dual-boot ArkOS + GammaOS-RK3566
Comfortably past DS into N64, Dreamcast, PSP
See the RG353V

The Anbernic RG353M (£169.90) is the RG353V’s metal-bodied sibling — the same internals and the same 4:3 screen, in a premium aluminium shell. The DS experience is identical; the difference is build and feel.

What about the Retroid Pocket 3 Plus and the G350?

The Retroid Pocket 3 Plus (£214.90) is the landscape device that actually suits the DS best. Because DS play on a single screen shows both screens side-by-side, the wider the panel, the more room those two screens have — and the RP3+ has the widest screen I sell, a 4.7″ 16:9 panel, so its side-by-side DS layout is the least cramped of any single-screen device here. It runs the same UNISOC T618 chip as the RG405M, so the full DS library plays just as capably, and it is touch-capable too. The one catch is availability: the RP3+ is effectively end-of-life with only the last few units left. If you can still grab one and the DS is your focus among landscape devices, it is the one to take.

The BATLEXP G350 (£94.90) is the most affordable device I sell and a superb pick for PS1 and SNES — but its light chip tops out at the DS. DS runs, but only partially, and the G350 is a single-screen device. If you are buying for the DS, spend a little more on the RG DS and get the device actually built for it.

How to choose

The DS is the reason you are buying: RG DS. This is the only dual-screen clamshell, and it is the device the DS library was made for.
The best side-by-side DS layout on a single screen, if you can still get one: Retroid Pocket 3+. The wider 16:9 panel gives both DS screens the most room.
A capable landscape device you can reliably buy, with the widest reach beyond DS: RG405M.
The lowest price on a capable landscape device: RG353V.

Why a configured handheld plays the DS better than a factory one

Every device on this page has had the factory SD card removed and replaced with a brand-name card from SanDisk, Samsung or Kioxia, and every one is covered by my Lifetime SD Card Guarantee — if the card fails or its data corrupts, for the life of the device I replace the card or restore it. A failed card is the single most common way a retro handheld dies, and it takes your saves with it. I wrote about exactly why that happens, and how I remove the risk, in Why Do Retro Handheld SD Cards Keep Failing?.

Beyond the card, each device has the per-platform tuning described above — on the RG DS, the DraStic emulator, the dual-screen spanning, the controller maps and the save testing; on the single-screen devices, the screen layout, the upscaling and the per-game testing — applied before it leaves me. That is the difference between a device that boots a DS game and one that plays it properly. The full picture of what changes between a factory handheld and one of mine is on The K-TEC Difference.

The short version

For most people buying specifically for the DS, the answer is the RG DS, because it is the only dual-screen clamshell I sell and the DS library is exactly what it was built around. Among single-screen landscape devices, the Retroid Pocket 3+ suits the DS best — its wider screen gives the side-by-side layout the most room — but it is nearly out of stock; the RG405M is the readily-available alternative that runs the full DS library, and the RG353V is the value choice. If you are unsure which fits you, contact me and I will point you at the right one.