I've gone down this route recently too (although I'm tempted by a PS4 Pro for access to things like the Kingdom Hearts series and the FF7 Remake, but I'm also in no rush.
I'm wondering about your experience with the GPD Win 2. I'm pretty sensitive to lag, frame skipping, bad audio, etc with emulation. My last dip into emulation on a portable was the PSP, and I wasn't all that impressed (other than its native PS1 emulation -- that mostly worked great).
How well does the GPD Win 2 do with SNES and GBA? What about PS1 and PSP? How's the screen and how do the controls feel?
I have mostly good things to say about emulation on the device. but it is very much "good enough" for emulation and more accurate emulators have a hard time running on it. Balanced bsnes runs great but accurate variants are sluggish with a lot of games. Most games from GCN on back run quite well, usually full speed, but you will experience frame drops here and there which means of course skipping or crackling audio, especially if you want to increase the internal res on any games. I try to run everything at 720p-ish, but sometimes you just can't get away with that and you have to settle for native res with all the jaggies.
Controls are okay. They aren't as comfortable as a regular controller, but I've been playing it in most of my free time (reliving Gamecube-era gaming) and my hands haven't ever hurt or cramped, it's just awkward sometimes. You have to reach fairly far for the d-pad and buttons, but even with my average-sized hands it's not an insurmountable obstacle, just kind of slightly uncomfortable. The sticks are great though. The d-pad itself mimics Nintendo quality but doesn't quite make it. I find myself accidentally ducking or jumping/looking up in games when I want to go left or right only. Directionals feel slightly off. I feel like I'm developing a sense for it, but it's definitely a flaw in the workmanship. The biggest problem I have with the controls is the buttons sticking. I'm told it's due to the silicone moulding beneath the face buttons and that it will stop happening over time, but it's still a pretty big hindrance while it lasts. I've had it for about a month and A and B have pretty much stopped sticking (as I use them the most). X sticks on occasion but Y sticks a lot still. It's frustrating in a game like Tony Hawk or SSX when you're trying to grind and it's stuck down or you're trying to release your handplant at the last second only to bail because the button didn't pop. Again, it is becoming less of a problem as i use it more but it sucks right now.
The screen is great. It's beautiful and the size-pixel density ratio makes things look wonderful on it. Touch is responsive, but you might want to calibrate it for your particular fingers. At first it felt really inaccurate, but windows touch calibration fixed that right up. Good contrast, great color reproduction, no added lag from the display. It's nice and bright too, so outdoor gameplay is totally possible. At full brightness I experienced 0 glare.
Speakers kinda suck. They're not tinny, in fact sound reproduction is pretty decent, but they're not loud enough for anything but the quietest of rooms. I was hoping to use it to watch a YouTube video or two while I shave, but the buzz from my razor drowns the thing out. Luckily I have a bluetooth speaker in the bathroom, so the plan works.
I'll break down my experience with each of the consoles I've emulated-
Wii U: Can't get most games to display anything. I can hear audio, but no video. Same games I used on my desktop, my personal rips, on the same version of cemu. Only game I can get to display is Super Mario 3D World and it's slowwwwww. Granted there are graphics packs for 540p that I have not yet tried that could alleviate the slowdown, but that's for another time. I'm really not sure why the other games won't display anything, but that's an investigation for the future.
Wii: Some games run very well, like Brawl. Some run like garbage, like Metroid Prime (the Gamecube version runs fine tho?). It's really hit or miss.
Gamecube: I have yet to come across a game that doesn't run well. Some games require me to go down to native res to get good results (True Crime LA), but others have no issues even supersampling (SSX3). Full 60fps in that game.
3DS: Most games run at or close to full speed using the Canary builds at native res, but some have issues maintaining speed (Super Mario 3D Land). I can live with the speed drops there, but you may not be as forgiving based on what you said. Some games can be uprezzed (Ultimate NES Remix) but others soft lock or crash (Pokemon Sun). That isn't a GPD thing, it crashes on my desktop too. But it's something to be aware of.
PSP: Super hit or miss. Some games run well and can super sample (Burnout series) but others struggle to hit full speed at native (God of War). GPD Win 2 can't really brute force this emulator, sadly. Again, some do very well but others require grinning and bearing it.
PS2: Almost everything I've tried has run like trash. People have reported good results with the emulator, but I've had no luck. Could be that I'm just not configuring things correctly, I don't know. I'll probably look more into it when I get the itch to replay Kingdom Hearts. All the DMC games run terribly along with SSX Tricky and Silent Hill 3. I gave up after a while.
PS1: Using the core provided in Retroarch I've gotten full speeds on games like Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Tomba, Crash Team Racing, all your usual stuff. No issues in these games.
GBA: Using gpsp core in RA. Input lag is there and noticeable, but you adjust to it. It's not so severe that it impacts gameplay too much. Other cores have graphical issues in some games.
N64: Using higan core, some graphical issues as you'd expect with N64 emulation, but full speed and ability to upres.
Nintendo DS: Using Desmume and Desmume core in RA, getting full speed most of the time at native res. Uprezzing slows games down far too much. I honestly have a better visual experience with Drastic on Android, though no input lag in Desmume vs very noticeable input lag on Drastic because of Bluetooth on Android being awful.
Dreamcast: Works fairly well in RA's Reicast core. Almost full speeds consistently, minor graphical errors. Some games don't launch but most are fine.
Sega retro family (Genesis, 32x, Master system, CD, Game Gear): Perfect emulation in my opinion. No lag, great sound, great frame rates. Using Genesis Plus GX/PicoDrive on RA.
SNES: As mentioned earlier, runs very well in bsnes balanced with a few games experiencing slowdown on occasion. bsnes speed has some annoying sound issues. bsnes accuracy is fine for some games but too slow for others. I haven't tried other cores, I just stick with bsnes balanced. I've played through Mario World on the thing with no problems, working on Super Metroid now. No real complaints other than occasional slowdown but not often enough to be a huge detriment.
NES, GBC, WS, Atari family, C64, all these handle beautifully, as you would expect on any modern computer.
Finally, when it comes to PC games it works well with most games released before the late 2000's including ports of games from that era (Devil May Cry HD Collection). If you're willing to compromise on frame rates, you can play a lot of contemporary titles on this thing at 30fps. Personally, I need 60, so even turning down graphics options my choices are pretty limited but indie titles tend to run perfectly in parity with the Switch. I've been playing Hat in Time on it with no problems. Yooka-Laylee runs ok on it, but I can't do 30fps so I leave that game to my desktop. Or I could stream it to the GPD Win 2. Steam In-home streaming works great on the device.
Overall it's a great device and I'm glad I bought it. To be clear though I never had a GPD Win 1 and I got the Win 2 at $650. If you already own a Win 1 I'm not sure the power difference would be worth it, especially if you're only emulating older titles. I also bought it with my meager crypto currency gains (no mining, just straight up investment of 100 bucks, being in the right place at the right time) so even at $650 it's a hard sell - its actual price is closer to 900. It all comes down to what you want to do, but you might be totally fine with spending just $300 for the previous model.
. I sell 95% of games when I'm done with them. I have ~40 games that I hold onto. If I get an urge to play an old game randomly that I don't have, I'll buy it again, play until I'm satisfied, and then sell it. That's only happened to me once or twice.
