That a home game console might accurately reproduce an arcade game experience became credible toward the tail end of the second generation of those devices (ColecoVision, Atari 5200) and picked up significant steam when Nintendo entered the market. But SNK’s Neo-Geo Advanced Entertainment System broke ground by running essentially the same code on the same hardware found in arcade machines. In fact, a variant of the hardware was designed for public coin-op play. However, the exorbitant price of the device and the games themselves were far beyond what most home users could afford, and the Japanese genre-skewed game library (weighed heavily toward fighting games) made it a niche status symbol in the U.S.
The 2026 remake from Plaion Replai is shaping up to be an excellent full-sized recreation that uses ASICs to create a better gaming experience than emulation and promises build quality worthy of the original gaming experience. The retro remake specialists has scored big points with its full-size recreations of the Spectrum ZX and Intellivision although it has had to delay recent products such as the The Spectrum Collectors Edition (which ships with a thermal printer), and The A1200, its generically branded Amiga follow-up to The C64 Maxi. With Atari registering a trademark for 800XL, a popular model from the brand’s 8-bit era, and independent hardware developer Dennis Shaw announcing completion of the MiniST (a modern recreation of an Atari ST-series 16-bit computer), few retro home computers and game consoles are being passed over for a 21st Century revival.
E-paper displays had long been part of phone screens from Chinese vendors such as HiSense before Onyx Boox, Bigme and others started putting them on phone-sized devices here. The latest Palma from Onyx Boox includes stylus support, enabling it to make a run at the pocket notepad that stylus-based phones never really cracked. The DuRoBu Kronos, on the other hand, includes a side-mounted button/dial used for scrolling and other shortcuts and transcription capabilities designed to offer a quick taking of notes without having to juggle a stylus. The device also supports Google Play so you can read Kindle books or stream music although it does not show apps’ standard icons for some reason.
After Astrohaus reignited interest in the writing appliance (or “writerdeck”) with its first product, the Hemingwrite, it took a stab at a clamshell variant with the less expensive and less stylized 
Lenovo, ever a company to push form factor boundaries, has made the biggest push in the Steam Deck-like handhelds with the Legion Go series. Those powerful products, designed to run the latest games, command premium prices. Not so for the Linx-based G02, which is more in the tradition of a Game Boy than a Nintendo Switch, or at least modern portable game devices from companies such as Ambernic (such as the recent 
The first 
Long before fitness tracking migrated to smart watches and relegated fitness bands to a niche, Fitbit started out as a nearly screen-free lump that slid into a small plastic holster and clipped to one’s waist. Now, Google, which has been trying to forge a path forward for the venerable fitness device line as it focuses on Wear OS (and its recently announced update to version 7), has taken the sensor back to its roots with the Fitbit Air, a screen-free device so small that it is worn inside a number of fashion-conscious bands. One bit of the Fitbit world you won’t find it in, though, is the Fitbit app, which Google is rreplacing with 
After the release of its much-improved second generation “paper tablet,” reMarkable pushed into the high end with the color-capable Paper Pro and then downsized into a unique “reporter’s pad form factor with the Paper Pro Move. The 
Traditionally, you’ve been far more likely to find Chrome OS powering a PC-like device than Android. That’s even been true for all-in-one devices, where even Chrome OS has been a rarity. But for those who want something that’s like an Android tablet experience that stays put and is always plugged in, AliExpress offers a 10″ 1280×800 Android 13 touchscreen device that includes two USB-A ports, HDMI out, Ethernet and a microSD slot in white or black finishes for a bit under $170 in a configuration that includes 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash. Bumping the specs to 4 GB of RAM, 32 GB of flash, and Android 14 brings the price to almost $210. There’s also an option that includes the display in a portrait orientation. The devices are marketed as being for signage and kiosks, but could likely serve as a basic general computer.
Back in 2023, an Australian team created a Kickstarter campaign for the radically customizable