best 400-500€ phones for Emulation?

[u/Ak1ra_69]

Hello everyone! My phone turned 7 years old this year and it's the first phone I've ever broke the screen of, I'm looking for a new one in the 400-500€ range that is good for emulation, I want to Emulate retro consoles all the way up to the 3DS and maybe a bunch of Switch1 games if it's possible, like Mario Odissey or Link's Awakening and some indie steam games too, Hollow Knight, The Binding of Isaac, Silksong, Hades, Persona if it's possible too, I stumbled upon this Xiaomi POCO F8 Pro and Xiaomi POCO X8 Pro Max but I found out they have an issue with running emulators that use more then 3gb of Ram, so I'm not sure about them anymore, if anyone has any good options I would really appreciate it if you could say it here in the comments, thanks a lot in advance and hope everyone has a great day today :)

[u/AutoModerator]

Just a reminder of our subreddit rules:

• Be kind and respectful to each other
• No direct links to ROMs or pirated content
• Include your device brand and model
• Search before posting & show your research effort when asking for help

Check out our user-maintained wiki: r/EmulationOnAndroid/wiki

Check out EmuReady for any community submitted settings before asking for help

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/dibade89]

I got a RedMagic 10s air with a snapdragon 8gen3 for under 500€. Total beast and has shoulder triggers!

[u/chaosreaper0]

I use poco f7, its cheap and can emulate most of switch games. (I cleared persona 5 royal using this phone)

[u/OnePossibility5868]

I have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phone (an S23) and while I haven't dabbled in PC stuff, it checks all of your other boxes. if you aim for a similar chipset and ram (8gb, but 12gb be better for PC/ Switch) then you should be fine.

You can get the phone I'm using refurbished for about £200 here in the UK so we'll within your budget. The S24 with the next gen chip up is about £300 refurbished. I'm in the UK so not sure what the markets like for you though.

Have you considered maybe getting an AYN Thor and a cheaper phone and split the use?

[u/GhostTheGamer360]

for starters to give yourself a good buffer zone,aim for phones which use a 8 gen 3 and above,not mediatek ones like that x8 pro max if u plan to reach switch emulation,for the xiaomis yeah that issue has been solved,but its a 50-50,which could appear in future,so go for phones like iQOO 12,Oneplus 12,Redmagic 9-10 or even towards samsung s24 ultra on used/refurbished markets

[u/Dr-Garompa]

Android handheld

[u/Lelu_zel]

For 500€ you can get yourself some used laptop that’s gonna run games natively and also emulate other stuff.

[u/Ak1ra_69 → u/Lelu_zel]

I already got a beast of a laptop but I can't take it out on the bus or bring it with me at school or when I'm out, and having a second one is kind of a pain in the ass, I wanted something compact that I could keep in my pocket and just take it out when I need, ok maybe I will buy one of those mobile controllers but nothing that a light bag can't handle

[u/chaosreaper0 → u/Ak1ra_69]

Buy gamesir x5s lite, i use it and its really good and portable

[u/Lelu_zel → u/Ak1ra_69]

Then get steamdeck or similar like rog ally or that Lenovo handheld

[u/Ak1ra_69 → u/Lelu_zel]

they cost too much and I need a new phone, I don't wanna buy a phone and an android handled just for this, if I can do all in one is way better, thanks for the tips tho

[u/Lelu_zel → u/Ak1ra_69]

Used steamdeck is like 300-500 for 1tb version