I’m trying to figure out if I wanna get one of these for the family to share and they look pretty cheap. I like that the ones I see advertised come preloaded with games so I don’t have to do all the setup and downloading. But I’m capable of doing that setup if there’s a better device that doesn’t come preloaded.
A used Android smartphone with a phone-optimized controller (there are a lot of them) is the way to go. You will likely get more horsepower out of a more modern used smartphone compared to a new handheld.