Best Retro Handheld for Game Boy Games (UK 2026)

TL;DR — the picks

• The value pick, in the Game Boy’s own shape: BATLEXP G350 — from £94.90. A small vertical handheld that slips into a pocket, tested and configured on its replacement dArkOS firmware to run Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, shown on the same sharp 228 PPI 4:3 panel as dearer devices in the range. It is the best-stocked device I sell.
• The clamshell: Anbernic RG DS — from £147.90, with the Game Boy and Game Boy Color among its fifteen platforms configured out of the box, on a 4.0″ 4:3 top screen that closes over itself for travel. One of the two devices I am actively stocking, alongside the G350 — though it is purpose-built for the Nintendo DS.
• Final-stock vertical option: Anbernic RG353V — from £149.90. A lightweight vertical body that echoes the Game Boy’s shape, the same sharp 3.5″ 228 PPI 4:3 panel as the G350, and dual-boot firmware. Four single units remain; I am not restocking it.
• Final-stock metal option: Anbernic RG353M — £184.90. The same panel and chip in a horizontal aluminium body with drift-resistant Hall Effect sticks. Down to two units.

Every device here is dispatched from the UK. Prices are correct on the day this was written.

Why power is not the story

The Game Boy is 8-bit-era hardware, and 8-bit-era work barely registers on any chip in the range — I made that case in full in the Master System article, and the same applies here. Every processor in the range, from the G350’s entry-level RockChip RK3326 upwards, treats 8-bit-era software as light work. You cannot pay extra for a device that runs these games better, and no chip in the range struggles with them. The decision is about the screen, the shape of the device, and what you want it to do beyond Game Boy games.

The screen question — one shape, two consoles

The Game Boy drew its picture at 160×144 — a near-square 10:9 frame — and the Game Boy Color, launched nine years after the original, kept exactly that resolution. That continuity is convenient: one screen decision covers both consoles. The near-square shape means no panel in the range fills it edge to edge. On the 4:3 screens — the 640×480 panels on every device on this page — the picture scales to fill the panel’s height with slim black bars at either side, and on 16:9 widescreen panels it pillarboxes harder still. I walked through the geometry in the Game Gear article, which drew its picture at the same 160×144 — the sums there are the sums here.

The pocket question — the form factor the Game Boy invented

Nintendo launched the Game Boy in 1989, and its vertical body — a machine designed from the start to be held, carried and played away from a television — set the template for the pocket gaming machine. That matters for this platform in particular, because the modern answer to “a better Game Boy” is not only about the screen — it is about whether the device itself fills the Game Boy’s role. The vertical handhelds do: the G350 and the RG353V are small, light, pocket-shaped machines you can carry the way the original was carried. The horizontal devices are built like home-console gamepads — excellent for long sessions, less naturally pocketable — and the RG DS takes a third route, a clamshell that closes over its own screen and slips into a bag.

The picks in detail

The value pick — BATLEXP G350 (from £94.90, in stock)

If what you want is simply a better Game Boy — full-speed Game Boy play, the pocketable vertical shape, none of the original’s compromises — the G350 is the closest thing to buying exactly that. Its RockChip RK3326 is the entry-level chip in the range, and on 8-bit-era software it is the equal of everything above it: Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulation was tested and configured on its replacement dArkOS firmware and runs at full speed. The 3.5″ 4:3 IPS panel — 640×480, 228 PPI, the same sharp screen as the RG353V and RG353M — shows the near-square picture at full height with slim bars either side. There is nothing a more expensive device does on this platform that the G350 does not. What the lower price buys out of is everything past the 8-bit era: the RK3326 is a 2D-first chip, excellent through the Game Boy, the SNES and the Mega Drive, good for the PS1, and honest about where it stops. For Game Boy and Game Boy Color games specifically, it is the best value in the range — and it is the best-stocked device I sell.

• 3.5″ 4:3 IPS screen, 640×480, 228 PPI — the same sharp panel as the RG353V and RG353M; the 10:9 picture fills its height with slim side bars
• RockChip RK3326 — full-speed Game Boy and Game Boy Color, tested and configured on dArkOS
• Small vertical pocketable body
• See the BATLEXP G350

The clamshell — Anbernic RG DS (from £147.90, in stock)

The RG DS lists the Game Boy and Game Boy Color among its fifteen platforms configured out of the box, running full speed on its RockChip RK3568 chip through the mature gambatte emulator. The picture sits on the 4.0″ 4:3 top screen — 640×480, 200 PPI — and the clamshell form is a genuinely good home for handheld-native games: it closes over its own screen, so the machine travels protected in a way a bare slab does not. It is one of the two devices I am keeping in stock alongside the G350. The honest caveat is the one this series has given before: the RG DS exists for the Nintendo DS, and its second screen and touch hardware go unused by a Game Boy game. If dual-screen gaming is a draw alongside Nintendo’s handhelds, the RG DS does both well; if the Game Boy is your only priority, the same money goes further elsewhere.

• 4.0″ 4:3 IPS top screen, 640×480, 200 PPI (near-square picture at full height)
• RockChip RK3568 — full-speed Game Boy and Game Boy Color, configured out of the box
• Replacement GammaOS Next firmware with Daijishou frontend; clamshell, dual-screen, touch
• See the Anbernic RG DS

Final-stock options — Anbernic RG353V and Anbernic RG353M

The RG353V (from £149.90) and its metal-bodied sibling the RG353M (£184.90) share the same RockChip RK3566 chip and — worth saying plainly — the same 3.5″ 4:3 panel as the G350: 640×480, 228 PPI, the sharpest 4:3 pixel density in the range. On that panel the Game Boy’s near-square picture behaves exactly as it does on the G350’s identical screen: full height, slim bars either side. Both ship dual-boot — ArkOS on Linux and GammaOS-RK3566 on Android — each configured in its own right. The difference between the two is build, not screen: the RG353V is a lightweight vertical pocket device whose shape echoes the Game Boy’s own; the RG353M is a heavier horizontal aluminium body with drift-resistant Hall Effect sticks. Both are final stock — I am not restocking either. The RG353V has four single units across its variations; the RG353M is down to two.

• 3.5″ 4:3 IPS screen, 640×480, 228 PPI, multi-touch (the same sharp panel as the G350, plus touch)
• RockChip RK3566
• Dual-boot ArkOS + GammaOS-RK3566
• See the Anbernic RG353V · See the Anbernic RG353M

What about the widescreen devices?

A near-square Game Boy picture cannot fill a 16:9 frame without stretching, so widescreen panels draw the heaviest black borders in this series — the same reason they were wrong for the Mega Drive and the Game Gear, and the opposite reason widescreen suited the PSP.

The PowKiddy RGB10 Max 2 (£159.90) runs the same RockChip RK3326 chip as the G350, and its 5.0″ 16:9 panel and ergonomic grip are comfortable — but a near-square picture puts all that width to work on black bars. It is down to a single Ice Special Edition unit; if it appeals, buy it for its grip and its firmware, not for this platform. The Retroid Pocket 3 Plus, which appeared in earlier articles in this series, has since sold through — it was final stock, and it is gone. The widescreen panel that suited it so well for the PSP would have been the wrong shape here anyway.

How to choose

• You want a better Game Boy for as little as possible: G350. Full-speed Game Boy and Game Boy Color, tested and configured on dArkOS, in a vertical pocketable body at £94.90 — on the sharp 228 PPI panel, and the best-stocked device I sell.
• The Nintendo DS is a draw alongside Nintendo’s earlier handheld: RG DS. Game Boy and Game Boy Color configured out of the box, dual-screen and touch for the DS, and a clamshell that travels protected.
• You want the vertical pocket shape with dual-boot firmware: RG353V. The same sharp panel as the G350 plus multi-touch — four single units, final stock.
• You want a metal body and Hall Effect sticks: RG353M. The same panel and chip in an aluminium horizontal build — two units, final stock.
• You are drawn to the RGB10 Max 2: it is a comfortable machine, but its 16:9 panel shows the heaviest borders in the range and it is down to a single unit — buy it for its strengths, not for this platform.

Why a configured handheld plays Game Boy games better than a factory one

Every device on this page runs a replacement firmware rather than the stock operating system it ships with — dArkOS on the G350, GammaOS Next on the RG DS, and dual-boot ArkOS and GammaOS-RK3566 on the RG353V and RG353M. On each of them the work shows in the places a factory device gets wrong: controls mapped correctly, screens scaled properly, platforms tuned and tested rather than left at the defaults a direct import arrives with. The SNES article covers the same story from a more familiar platform, and the full picture of what changes between a factory handheld and one of mine is on The K-TEC Difference. If you are weighing a pre-configured UK device against a marketplace import, I have put that comparison in one place: K-TEC compared with other suppliers. Every device ships from UK stock by Royal Mail Tracked 48, arriving in 2–3 working days, with UK-based support on the other end of the phone.

Beyond the software, each device 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?.

The short version

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color are 8-bit-era platforms, so power is not the story — both run at full speed on every chip in the range, with the G350 and the RG DS tested and configured to run them out of the box. The screen decision follows the near-square 10:9 shape both consoles share: full height on a 4:3 panel with slim side bars, the heaviest borders on widescreen. The G350 is the value pick — vertical, pocketable, £94.90, the best-stocked device I sell. The RG DS carries both platforms out of the box in a protective clamshell and is one of the two devices I am keeping in stock. The RG353V and RG353M put the same sharp 228 PPI panel in a vertical or metal body — final stock, four units and two units respectively. The RGB10 Max 2 is a single widescreen unit that shows the heaviest borders, and the Retroid Pocket 3 Plus has sold through. If you are unsure which fits you, contact me and I will point you at the right one.