A new affordable gaming handheld with Hall effect sticks? Yes, please

Sometimes, when it rains, it pours, and that’s true for Android gaming handhelds lately. Hot on the heels of the Zero 40 handheld by MagicX, another low-end device has been announced and released at once, this time by QRD. Called the Vortex F5, this retro handheld is designed with fighting games in mind, thanks in part to its Hall Effect joysticks and triggers, a technology that attempts to prevent joystick drift as much as possible, as well as providing a longer lifespan for these inputs.

Available directly from QRD’s website for $119, the Vortex F5 features an RK3566 Quad-Core 64-bit Cortex-A55 clocked at 1.7 GHz, perfect for mid-range Android games like Stardew Valley and Fortnite. It packs 1GB of LPDDR4X memory and a 5,000mAh battery for roughly six hours of gaming, plus a bright 5.5-inch IPS display with a crisp 1280 x 720 resolution. There’s even an HDMI port, so the Vortex F5 can connect to an HDMI-enabled TV so you can play your favorite games on a bigger screen, a feature that a lot of the top picks from our guide to the best retro handhelds don’t offer.

But it’s the controls of the Vortex F5 that QRD wants to highlight here. Both the joysticks and the analog L2/R2 triggers are Hall effect, meaning they are longer-lasting than other buttons found in the best Android handhelds currently available, which QRD says “ensures precise control, eliminates drift, and provides longer lifespan. Ideal for competitive and precise gameplay.”

While it’s clear from QRD’s marketing around the device that it sees the Vortex F5 as ideal for emulation, we don’t recommend playing ROMs of games you don’t own on the handheld. There are plenty of legal routes you can take instead, such as playing the many homebrew games that are free to use without consequences, and a lot of our favorite retro games are available via the Google Play Store.

With more handhelds being made available for first-time users, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more in this space appear by the time 2025 wraps up. In the meantime, check out our guides to the best gaming phones and the best gaming tablets if you’re thinking of an upgrade, or our Nintendo Switch 2 review if you’re still on the fence there. For more of the latest mobile and handheld hardware news, follow us on Google News to stay in the loop.