Evercade Nexus Review: A $199 Cartridge-Based Handheld That Stops Gaming Fatigue

I've followed and loved Evercade for a long while now; their products feel like an old friend to me, probably because I've been reviewing their devices for over six years, but I think they've just hit a point in their growth that I can now call them "mainstream". They've built a line of great retro gaming products over the years that take fully licensed physical cartridges and are moving in a direction that the entire industry seems to be moving away from, opening them up to an audience desperate for good, physical media that they can collect and actually own.

Although I have been on the fence with their previous products in the past, rating some of them poorly in places, their latest device, the Evercade Nexus, is one that puts them on the map. This device is an absolute blast to play on and makes me feel like a big kid again, forcing me to disconnect from the internet and the never-ending swarm of hacks, recomps and remasters that fill our feeds to be somewhat kindly placed in my chair to enjoy the physical nature of gaming all over again with a great selection of cartridges to explore.

Though this is a very expensive handheld, putting itself in the premium category, and although it's not technically competing with handheld emulators due to its physical nature, there's going to be a lot of overlap with the customer base who want to spend $200 wisely, because remember, you also have to buy the cartridges for this device, which range from $20 to $40. So here's my opinion of the Evercade Nexus, the biggest and most expensive handheld from the company yet that's launching at the end of October.

• Release Date: October 2026
• Pricing: $199/£169/€199
• Where To Buy: Amazon, GameStop, BestBuy, FunStock, Game

Evercade Nexus Specifications

• 5.89″ (840×512) IPS Display with 500+ nit brightness.
• Quad Core 1.5Ghz Proccessor
• 512mb DDR RAM
• 5000MAH Battery
• WiFi 6 5Ghz/2.4Ghz
• Dual-Joysticks
• USB-C Charging
• 3.5mm Headphone Jack

Product Design & Build Quality

This is a big device, and purposefully so, thanks to the large 5.8" display that consumes the majority of the face, and gives us old folks a screen that we don't need to bring closer to our faces when using it. This design takes a step away from Evercade's smaller handhelds such as the EXP that had a far more rounded form factor to it; instead, they've extended the lower grips to give space for the dual joysticks, larger battery and extra screen real estate, evolving it from a little portable handheld to something far more serious and far more enjoyable to use for longer gaming sessions.

And that it is. The DPAD takes inspiration from SEGA's back in the 90s. Large, rounded, bowl-like, with over-exaggerated movements to make it feel like a retro console, which I do like, and the directional accuracy of this DPAD is very good, offering up a well-rounded DPAD for a multitude of slow and fast-paced genres. Though there are huge gaps between the DPAD and the casing when in motion, so over months and years it may start to accumulate crumbs, dust and dirt inside, so make sure you have an air canister with you to clean this sucker out.

The two new joysticks are of good quality, have nice top concave grips to them, have decent travel, and do not touch the sides of the plastic shell, so it stops any sticky movement from the grip itself. It does click in to provide L3/R3 functionality, but the grips themselves do not pop off; they are static. I think Evercade could have done a little more here with the joysticks, such as hall-effect joysticks, with some LED lights behind them to match the colour customisations of the logo on the front that can be set to different colours, and even perhaps removable grips that can be customised to better match certain cartridges of theirs. I know Evercade fans would love this, and it offers an accessory for Evercade to monetise too, because I do feel like this black variant does need some splash of colour; it's very... black. But aesthetics aside, the sticks are comfortable to use for long periods of time.

The action buttons are also a solid black, and the base dips ever so slightly to give you better reach. The buttons are very nice, have a nostalgic clicky membrane to them with lots of travel, which is slightly different in comparison to the EXP handheld; these are bigger, bouncier, harder and match the size of this device perfectly. Then lastly on the face, you'll find four buttons on the chin, such as Menu, TATE, which switches the display up to TATE mode allowing you to play those games vertically, and finally start/select. The only issue I have here is the fact that my menu button often gets stuck, forcing me to push it in further to get it to pop out. This does get very annoying and happens probably 25% of the time when pressing the button.

Then there are the dual-facing speakers, which do the job well, and your thumbs are not in the way when playing. Up top you'll find your digital shoulder buttons, which I have mixed feelings about. L1/R1 are long, and bend around the top of the device slightly; they're very responsive and require very little force, have a tiny ammount of travel to them and make a nice clicking noise. These I don't have a problem with, but it's the larger, flared R2/L2 buttons that have the same feel, which isn't what I wanted. I would have liked these buttons to have longer travel to them, as if I am pulling a trigger with bigger travel to them. These have so little travel to them that when pushed, I feel as if I could almost damage them due to the flared design putting more tension on the joints. The previous Evercade EXP handheld had more travel and better shoulder buttons, in my opinion.

That's not to take away from the comfort of them or the quality, so to speak; my fingers rest nicely on them, and they work as they should, but because they're so big, you kinda expect more travel and more movement to them. Sitting such a large button with little flexibility makes me worry about its longevity slightly. Between the volume buttons, on/off and your cartridge slot, which is now much easier to insert cartridges, their previous device was incredibly tight, but this one fits them like a charm, which shows they're listening to reviewers. At the bottom a USB-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. I also want to mention that I like that they've hidden the screw holes on the back; not enough handheld manufacturers do this, and it makes the back look far more polished, alongside the nice grippy graphics.

The bigger, better display.

This is a 5.89" IPS display, with a resolution of 840 x 512 and a brightness of over 500 nits, which is a great brightness for those that want to turn this into an everyday handheld that can be used outside without issues. The screen ratio is 16:9, which means it can better suit the array of cartridges on here, most of them 4:3, but they have many which use 16:9 or can be stretched too.

I could compare this to other handhelds in the space under $200 that have bright, crisp AMOLED displays, but in all honesty that would be overkill here when you consider that the Evercade mostly focuses on 8-bit and 16-bit games, and because Evercade is mainstream are still small in comparison to the likes of ANBERNIC and Retroid; an AMOLED display of this size would cost a fortune. It's a really nice display, very bright, high saturation, and I can't see any issues regarding screen tearing, light bleed, dead pixels or awkward viewing angles, and I am thankful that Evercade chose this display, because in their previous devices I have not had a pleasant experience with them, but this display somewhat makes the device.

The size, the brightness, the minimal borders and its colourful nature make these games look absolutely stunning on here, and for me alone, even if you have an Evercade EXP, I believe it's worth the upgrade because it turns this into a device that can play your retro games for longer gaming sessions. It turns it into a device that you want to sink hours into, not minutes in one go.

If I had to be picky, I wish there was no distance between the glass screen panel and the display itself; there is a mm or two distance between them, making it feel a little outdated. This is one of the first handhelds I have reviewed over the last couple of years that doesn't sit flush with the panel, and the distance is noticeable if you are a handheld enthusiast like myself. But overall, my old eyes really like this display and so do my cartridges.

User Experience Once Turned On

Evercade has always made very easy-to-navigate, visually pleasing interfaces for their devices, and it's good to see years of iterations have paid off to create a comforting and nostalgic way to explore what the Nexus has to offer. Turning on the device takes longer than anticipated, and i have yet to find anyway to put this device to sleep, so it's either on or off, which is annoying if I want to step away from the device for 15 minutes or so, forcing to me to either leave it on to drain its battery or to save my game and turn it off completely, which i tend not to do because it takes over 30 seconds to actually get into the main menu onces it's off, even longer if you want to get into a game.

And at times when I turn it off, it will turn the screen off first, and the audio from the game will run for a few seconds before completely turning off, which again doesn't feel natural and makes you hesitant to believe it's turned itself off correctly, but I think they'll eventually iron this out with an update over WiFi eventually.

Once in the main menu, you have a choice to play your cartridge, explore hidden games that you can unlock using cheat codes, you can explore a catalog of Evercade's other which obviously you can't buy digitally, instead it shows a QR code that guides you on where to buy the games, there's a EverSync tab which allows you to play wirelessly with another Evercacde Nexus exclusively, it even lets you both use just one cartridge too which I think is an awesome way to get even more value from your collection with the need for ytour friend having to buy an entire new cartridge just to play with you, and finally settings which offers customisations to your display, games, sound, you can update your firmware here, change language, and more, neatly laid out.

It's a smooth, visually nostalgic user experience that I am glad to see has been refined over the years. It tries not to take your attention away from the cartridge and I'm really digging the background animation that feels very calming and looks as if pixels are floating around the display in the style of The Matrix, just less intense.

Cartridge and Gaming Experience

When you insert a cartridge, it will display the artwork in an easy-to-digest way, and when you press A on it, it dives deeper into more information: its genre, how many players, a description, controls, alongside time played and stats, which is neat. You can select a new game, or load a game's save state from this menu too.

Loading a game is pretty quick, unlike its on/off function, and when you're in-game, a press of the menu button will open up Evercade's custom menu, offering quick save, load, controls, display tweaks, a full reset, and even quitting back to the main menu. In the display settings, you can change aspect ratio, you can add scanlines to get that CRT effect, and even change how your bezel looks should you want to add graphics.

I did notice when opening NEOGEO games, the screen shows a glitching artefact, and the screen goes bright green, which isn't good. Obviously this isn't meant to happen but shows in some areas the software side needs a little bit of work, unless this is again on purpose to more closely resemble the NEOGEO's boot structure? Perhaps it is, as it's only my NEOGEO cart that does this, but man, I don't want to see that. Sometimes it's brief for a second, sometimes it's 4 seconds of green glitching. At l

Once you're in the game, however, that's where the magic happens; the big bright display pulls you in, the comfortable controls make it effortless, and the front-facing speakers add the nostalgic touch that makes it feel like you're in the 80s and 90s gaming as a kid all over again. And because these are fully licensed cartridges, the emulation quality is incredibly authentic, so much so that some games even keep some slowdown in them. For example, in Metal Slug 4, when things get a little chaotic, you'll notice a drop in frame rates; this was what happened on original hardware and is exactly what happens on this officially licensed version, wanting to keep it as authentic as possible even if it is noticeable.

For me, this is a device that has slowed me down considerably, and we're in a moment in time where the retro gaming industry is exploding with decomps, ROM hacks, fan games, and remasters, all trying to take our attention, and it's overwhelming, which is why this device has come at the perfect time for me personally. I have gaming fatigue; there's so much choice, and much of it can now be downloaded for free, played in a browser, and downloaded to an SD card to be emulated in minutes. But the Nexus wants none of the overdosing.

It's here to make you appreciate retro games in a manner that is both physical and expensive, but purposefully. The $20 price tag forces your hand to consume every inch of the cartridge; it makes you want to play the games because you've paid good money for it, and that is an unconscious move to make you thoroughly enjoy this device in a way that most handhelds today just don't and can't do, all while you read the manual while your device loads up.

Evercade has grown its library to over 80 different cartridges now, all compatible with an array of different hardware, handing you a new way to collect your cartridges while displaying them on your shelf like a proud dad, and for some reason that adds to the overall gaming experience I am having with the Nexus. I feel connected to every part of this device and naturally go to it when I have the downtime purely for the reason it disconnects me from the overwhelming clutter of announcements that's filling our feeds.

The gaming experience is one you can trust too, knowing they are officially licensed. The new Banjo Kazooie double pack that this comes with has been completely made for the Nexus itself, offering new features and bonuses that were not in the original, and i think we'll see more of this over the coming years as Evercade gets more and more popular around the globe. They're at this point now that they have so many cartridges, you'll find it easy to love something even if they're missing some of the heavy hitters from SEGA and Nintendo, for example.

Battery Life, No HDMI Out & Wireless Audio

Battery life is reasonable on the Nexus, coming in anywhere between 3 and 5 hours, making it a device that you can take out for the day, but if it's a weekend, it's one you'll have to bring a USB-C cable with. Which is expected because this screen is large and internally it has a 5000MAH battery, which can only get it so far.

There's also no video output or an HDMI port, and for good reason; they want you to buy their other home consoles instead, plus I believe that very few people would have used it anyway, but that said, the reason to not include it is likely to upsell you. Perhaps in the future they'll release a dock that allows you to insert physical and retro controllers, which would be cool, but that's not confirmed.

I did connect up my Bluetooth headphones, and it was very easy to pair them, which was good to see, but the latency and delay between the Nexus and my headphones was very noticeable, almost half a second delay, which makes using this with headphones not very enjoyable, but it's there for those times when you don't want to annoy your partner in bed, etc., but i don't think many will use them willingly due to the latency delay between both pieces of tech. I hope they iron this out in a firmware update too.

Overall Opinion

Overall, I am very proud of Evercade; it's clear they're growing in the right direction all because of their passion and tenacity to develop nostalgic products that this growing niche wants to consume. While the market moves in one direction, Evercade's products stand still, continuing to grow their craft that many are starting to discover.

The Nexus is their best piece of hardware yet, it feels like a premium product, partnered with an array of physical games to collect, a great display, comfortable ergonomics and a well-developed user experience that offers you a way to slow down and to appreciate the incredible pieces of retro gaming art that we all remember playing when we were younger, or the ones we didn't play and now want to explore for the first time on modern hardware, riddled with memorable touches.

This product isn't flawless; my menu button gets stuck all the time, the black version needs a splash of colour, or joystick LEDS to make it stand out in the crowd of modern handhelds, and the software in places is buggy. But I know Evercade will iron out those software negatives over time, which will turn this into a remarkable handheld that does something the hundreds of other modern handhelds I have reviewed don't, and that's playing and collecting physically, fully licensed cartridges.

The Evercade team should be incredibly proud of what they have crafted. I've not been kind to their other devices in the past, but this here is what I have always wanted from them. Evercade were the underdog of the handheld world, but not anymore.