Which handheld runs GBA?

Game Boy Advance (Nintendo, 2001) tested on 11 devices, cheapest first.

11 of 11 tested handhelds run GBA well enough to play, starting at $60.

11 of them hold full speed. Ratings come from 9 publishers who had the hardware; the comparison across all of them is ours.

Cheapest device in this data that handles GBA

Nearly flawless across everything from 8-bit through PS1.

Every tested device

Miyoo Flip

Rockchip RK3566 · ~$60
Full speed

Nearly flawless across everything from 8-bit through PS1.

Tested by: Retro Handhelds Online, RetroHandheldHQ

TrimUI Brick

Allwinner A133P · ~$65
Full speed

Runs near flawlessly.

Tested by: Retro Handhelds Online

Anbernic RG35XX H

Allwinner H700 (quad-core Cortex-A53) · ~$65
Full speed

Everything through PS1 runs without effort on the H700.

Tested by: Retro Dodo

Miyoo Mini Plus

Dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.2 GHz · ~$70
Full speed

Handled without compromise.

Tested by: Playhouse

Anbernic RG35XX SP

Allwinner H700 (quad-core Cortex-A53) · ~$70
Full speed

8-bit and 16-bit systems run without compromise on the H700.

Tested by: Retro Dodo, Time Extension

TrimUI Smart Pro

Allwinner A133P @ 1.8 GHz · ~$70
Full speed

Well within what the A133P handles.

Tested by: Retro Handhelds Online, RetroResolve

Anbernic RG40XX H

Allwinner H700 (quad-core Cortex-A53) · ~$75
Full speed

PS1 and everything below it runs flawlessly.

Tested by: Time Extension

Anbernic RG CubeXX

Allwinner H700 (quad-core Cortex-A53) · ~$75
Full speed

Comfortably below the H700 ceiling, and the 1:1 panel suits 4:3 output.

Tested by: Joey's Retro Handhelds, RetroSpecGame

Anbernic RG406H

Unisoc T820 (1x A76 @ 2.7 GHz, 3x A76 @ 2.3 GHz, 4x A55 @ 2.1 GHz) · ~$150
Full speed

Far below what the T820 can do.

Tested by: Retro Dodo, Joey's Retro Handhelds

Anbernic RG556

Unisoc T820 (1x A76 @ 2.7 GHz, 3x A76 @ 2.3 GHz, 4x A55 @ 2.1 GHz) · ~$180
Full speed

Far below what the T820 can do.

Tested by: Retro Game Corps, Retro Dodo

Retroid Pocket 4 Pro

MediaTek Dimensity 1100 (4x Cortex-A78 @ 2.6 GHz, 4x A55) · ~$199
Full speed

Flawless, with headroom up to 4x internal resolution.

Tested by: RetroResolve, Retro Handhelds Online

Reading this page

Devices are ordered by price, not by score, because the useful question is usually the cheapest thing that clears the bar rather than the best thing available. “Playable” is where most people should stop reading upward: past that you are paying for headroom and upscaling, not for the game running.

Devices absent from this list have no published GBA testing found. That is a gap in the data, not a verdict on the hardware.

Sources (18)

Every rating on this page traces to one of these. The compilation is ours; the measurements are theirs.

Other systems