Seen above is the Mangmi Air X, an Android-based retro gaming handheld released in 2025 for middle tier retro gaming and emulation at a price range of $79 to $100 depending on where you shopped and what color variation you wanted. The price increased with inflation soon after and now sits in the $100-$150 range.
The $100-150 budget tier handheld has typically been the best tier for a good SNES emulation experience that doesn't involve a ton of setup time or any major headaches. The Mangmi Air X released into the lower end of this tier's budget right before inflation made this budget less obtainable, but that's both a bad thing and a good thing for this handheld, because it means you get a slightly more expensive price overall but relative to its competition, the price is still very reasonable.
The Mangmi Air X is a great emulation handheld, but there's a lot of opportunity with this handheld to also play virtual consoles and mobile games. The systems the Air X supports well and runs smoothly include PS1, N64, and Dreamcast. Dreamcast needs some frameskip sometimes but it runs pretty well. PS1, if using the right emulator app with the right settings, runs incredibly smoothly. N64 is hit-or-miss but mostly hit with all the most popular games. Air X also runs some PS2 titles at an almost playable framerate, but it's not quite as enjoyable as I'd like. PSP emulator apps have some trouble on the Air X for some reason, but the hardware can technically run PSP games very well... just not without a ton of headaches, including missing controller input and random crashes.
The Mangmi Air X sports a 5.5-inch full HD IPS touch screen with 400 nits brightness and a 16:9 ratio. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor and Adreno 610 GPU, paired with 4GB LPDDR4X RAM, more than enough for PS1 and N64 emulation on top of Android OS version 14. The 5000mAh battery lasts quite a while with typical usage and charges easily enough to feel confident that this will last through a lengthy car ride, especially if you have an additional battery to charge on the go. The weight comes in at just 286g with a very comfortable grip, and the 9mm headphone/aux jack is very reliable but you can use Bluetooth 5.1 devices with this handheld if preferred.
The touchscreen on the Air X is a welcome addition, because it helps with Nintendo DS emulation as well as makes this basically a tiny tablet that can play mobile games and browse the internet. Unfortunately, the DS emulation doesn't work well with only 1 screen to work with, but it's technically playable. I also found myself wishing this had a 3D toggle for 3DS games and for just having a nice pop to the visuals on menus, but alas, it does not have such features, and I doubt you'll find those features elsewhere, especially at this price. The touch screen is comparable to a budget smartphone: not great but passable. You'll definitely want a stylus (not included) if you plan to play DS games on this thing.
The Mangmi Air X can be found at Amazon for ~$150 USD and should include a USB-C power cable and a manual. It does not include a micro-SD card, but it has some internal storage (64GB eMMC, very slow but good enough for most files/apps), and the micro-SD card acts as extra storage, which you'll likely need for your PS1 library. You may be able to find the Mangmi Air X cheaper on AliExpress or Temu with new customer discounts or similar deals, but I recommend getting it from a reputable seller. The Mangmi Air X is a great handheld for the price and well worth consideration as long as you don't plan to get a Steam Deck or something similarly powerful. Obviously, you can get more bang for your buck with something that costs just $50 more, but this is a great option within the $150 tier if you don't plan to push the hardware much.
