A handheld console is primarily used for gaming while smartphones are primarily used for communication. If you're looking for a device that would satisfy your gaming needs on the go, of course the best choice would be a handheld console like the 3DS or the PS Vita right? IMO, a gaming handheld is not the way to go. If you want to have gaming on the go, then just purchase a quad core smartphone. A Lenovo 5.5 inch quadcore phone costs even less than handheld consoles. Why go with smartphones? Because you can do a lot more with it than just to play games. You'll get your money's worth.
Handheld consoles have exclusive games so if you're looking to play a specific title then they are the best way to go. I got Digimon for example and you can't find that in the app store. In general though you are right. If you just want to kill time and aren't picky then the smartphone is definitely the way to go.
Good point there. If you want great exclusive video games, then handheld consoles are the way to go. But you could also play old exclusive games for handheld consoles on smartphones using emulators. I have DraStic (DS emulator) for Android and it allows me to play every Nintendo DS game that was ever released. I could play Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, and many other games for Nintendo. I also have My Boy which is a Gameboy Advance emulator. But if I want to play 3DS games, probably I'll have to wait a couple more years before an emulator would be developed.
Thank you for that suggestion, it seems like the older I get the less interested I become in playing games, but if I'm on the lookout for a new smartphone then I will definitely check out your suggestion. It would be handy to just carry one device instead of 2 when you go out of the house.
I rarely play games on my smartphone so I choose Handheld Consoles. Apart from having better quality games there are a lot of exclusives on the consoles. And with the current generation of games no emulation is yet possible. Once they become cheaper I plan on buying a 3DS, mostly because I want to play Bravely Default. And let's not forget that the older handheld consoles can be bough dirt cheap online, so I don't see the need for emulation.
That's true but it's also more complicated to play that way. You have to figure out how to get it to start up. I tried playing Spyro on my tablet and the sound cuts out randomly. I can't imagine it being different on a smartphone. One thing you have to do is root your device and some devices are almost impossible to do if not entirely. If I wanted to do it on my Iphone I'm not sure I could.
Yep, there are some compatibility issues when it comes to emulators. I think that emulating the PSP on smartphones is still in the development stage as there are a lot of games that run very slowly even on quad core devices. Another issue is the controls. If you are emulating a handheld that does not use a touch screen like Gameboy advance, it may be hard to control the game because you would be presented with on-screen virtual buttons. But you don't need to root though. They're good on non-rooted devices too.
If someone is a hardcore gamer then obviously handheld consoles are the way to go. The gaming experience is completely different on a PS vita for example when compared to even high end android phones, in my opinion. Also, as said before, there are some exclusive games for the handheld devices which you would find on android devices.
Well there ARE certain games just for smartphones though... But yeah you're probably better off with handhelds if games is your thing. Me? I want both
I don't really care for gaming on smartphones anymore. It doesn't feel right to me. I'll rarely download a game to it. Once in a while I'll play word games, puzzles, or something small that you can start up quickly and stop on a fly. Though I don't do much of that either. What I absolutely despise is emulating games on my phone. The size of the screen (no matter what the phone is) doesn't satisfy me. If I played it on my TV at any point in my childhood and then you try to convenience me to download it to my phone so it can be "on the go" I'll just give you a funny face. -_- Don't like the controls for most emulated games. What I didn't mind at all was emulating from my tab. I could play on my 10" and it didn't bother me much. I also hooked up my PS3 controller through blue-tooth to play various games from other consoles. That and HDMI through the TV was a plus. =p It's like having multiple systems. Anyway... I like my PS Vita on the go. My phone can't replace it. It can play some really graphic intense games, like I'm on my Transformer Prime tab, but that's not enough to make me feel comfortable. Feels much better to play on my handheld.
Well, phones aren't really made for gaming, I mean sure phones nowadays are more than capable of running games but the thing is, it's a phone and not a gaming device. I'm a huge gamer myself but I wouldn't buy a handheld game console, I would go for the phone since it has more than one use as supposed to just gaming, more bang for the buck I guess. But again, phones are phones, their not made for games, if people thought gaming on a phone is great then Nintendo wouldn't have 3DS's flying off the shelves.
As much as I love handheld consoles and conversely dislike touch screen controls for the most part, I'd still most likely side with smartphones in this case. They are just much more versatile and usually fits a lot better in the pocket. It's why I loved the Xperia Play so much because it was a mix of the two, but unfortunately, it just didn't take off enough for the makers to keep making successors to it. I'm still hoping to this day that it someday gets revived because I think current technology would lend so much to making that device a lot better and more practical for gamers to choose over regular types of phones.
