

Check out the Youtuber Retro Game Corps. Excellent in-depth videos on these devices with a focus on price relative to quality.
This is his most recent overview video of the best handhelds in each price/performance category.
You can feel good about buying any of these, and not feel the need to go any deeper, but the video is 3 months out of date, so if you really want to determine what the absolute best is for you, you may want to watch some of the corresponding more recent vids for the price class you’re interested in.
Edit: My ideal was ultimately to buy a controller to attach around my phone (RGC makes these vids as well, and add-on controllers’ quality is surprisingly high nowadays) instead of buying a dedicated handheld, so you may also want to consider whether you can get the experience you want with the hardware you already have as well.




The one I always heard was “Dead-headed Ed edited it”.