Upcoming handheld gaming consoles to look out for in 2023

Mar 13, 2023

Looking for the next upcoming handheld gaming consoles? Here's a list of a few upcoming portable consoles to watch out for this year and beyond.

Since the Nintendo Switch was released in 2017, the handheld gaming console market has not looked back. Since then, we’ve had a wave of portable consoles from the likes of Valve, Ayaneo, GPD, OneXPlayer, and more, rekindling the passion for dedicated portable gaming devices.

We have Valve's Steam Deck at an affordable price, rocking a custom operating system. While a bunch of similar consoles from Ayaneo, and the new Asus ROG Ally, have had people notice this exciting form factor.

Even Sony has announced a re-entry to the handheld market by confirming the presence of "Project Q." Though some might argue that it's not precisely a handheld console but a remote play handheld, it does underline the importance of a growing demand for such devices.

This is why we thought it was a perfect idea to scour the internet and compile a list of upcoming handheld gaming consoles that are expected to release sometime this year.

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Ayaneo is among the first few companies to release a portable gaming console to the market. It followed the release of the highly successful Nintendo Switch. The company has been able to carve out a niche for its Windows-powered consoles.

The company has been known for introducing many devices with iterative hardware updates and fancy designs in a short period of time, often launched via IndieGoGo.

The Ayaneo Next 2 is one of the company's many upcoming handheld Windows gaming consoles and is one of the few to sport an 8-inch LCD display. The company shared a teaser for the Next 2 sometime back, which hinted at the presence of Steam Deck-like trackpads that make it easy for users to play games that require touch input.

This console is also confirmed to come with an AMD Ryzen 7000 series processor and will have discrete Radeon 780M graphics. While the exact details about the configurations of the Next 2 are unclear, it will offer Steam Deck users a Windows alternative.

The company revealed the first looks of the Ayaneo Slide in March this year. This upcoming console reminds you of good ol’ Nokia phones and gaming gadgets from the 90s that came with a slidable display exposing a physical keyboard.

With this retro design, Ayaneo is looking to combine the comfort of a physical keyboard with modern gaming hardware on a portable device, as typing in such a cramped space can be a headache for people with fat fingers. Moreover, the Slide can also double up as a laptop if required. You can also respond to emails or type long messages without getting frustrated.

The Ayaneo Slide will also feature an AMD 7000 series processor, and the angle of the sliding screen will be adjustable according to your preference.

Another Windows gaming console with a retro-inspired design, the Flip will remind you of a Nintendo DS or a GameBoy Advance SP gaming console from yesteryear.

As per the teasers released by the company, the Flip will sport a clamshell design with a screen that can be swivelled up, revealing a full-size keyboard. The clamshell design also ensures that the screen remains protected when closed. The hinge is expected to hold the display in a preferred position, mimicking a small portable gaming computer.

The presence of Ayaneo Pocket Air in the sea of Windows-powered handhelds is like a breath of fresh air. According to the company, the Air Pocket will run on an Android-based operating system and carry retro styling.

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It will have a dedicated Aya space launcher to help users navigate the bunch of compatible games and fine-tune the settings when required.

That said, apart from some images shared by the company executives, we need to get information about the internals of the Pocket Air.

The Sony Project Q is the most anticipated portable gaming console, although it may not qualify as one. With Project Q, Sony is repeating what it has done with the PS VR, introducing a new line of devices requiring a PlayStation 5 to work.

According to Sony, Project Q is a "dedicated device that enables you to stream any game through your PS5 console using remote play."

So essentially, the Sony Project Q will be a low-powered handheld gaming console with an eight-inch HD screen and the same controller design as the PlayStation 5's Dualsense controller.

While it might not be called Project Q when it starts retailing, it will help users play games from the PS 5 using a remote play on WiFi.

The Nintendo Switch started it all in 2017, and while we’ve had a couple of variants – Switch Lite and Switch OLED released in 2019 and 2021, respectively, we are still waiting for a successor to the original Switch.

Various rumors have repeatedly hinted that the company is indeed working on a powerful Switch Pro with a Tegra 9 SoC and will support advanced features such as DLSS 2.2 and ray tracing.

That said, while an upgrade is long due, there needs to be concrete information about the launch or specifications. The most we have currently is that Nintendo does not plan to release a new handheld before Spring 2024.

The community that loves retro gaming consoles is excited about the upcoming release of Miyoo Mini Flip. As the name suggests, the Mini Flip will ship with a flip-out clamshell design. The display on this console is expected to be a 3.5-inch LCD panel. Miyoo makes some of the most popular gaming handhelds in this segment, like the Miyoo Mini Plus.

While not much is known about the specifications or the launch date of Miyoo Mini Flip, as it is expected to run 8-bit/64-bit games, we can anticipate an affordable price tag and slightly more powerful hardware specs than its predecessors.

Orange Pi, known for its open-source microcomputer boards, is rumored to be working on a powerful handheld gaming console. It has a Rockchip RK3588S processor for Android/Linux gaming or AMD Ryzen 7 7800U/6800U for Windows gaming.

It might sport a 7-inch LCD panel, stereo speakers, a couple of microphones, three USB C ports, and two customizable buttons at the back. The top-end Windows variant might come with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard storage.

The handheld is expected to launch in China at an approximate starting price of $217, up to $506 for the flagship variant. There needs to be clarity on its availability in China as well as international markets.