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Best Free VPNs 2022: Our Experts Show You How to Avoid Shady Services and Get Premium Protection

Care enough about your privacy to avoid the malware, ad tracking and slow connections that come with free VPN options.

A free and well-tested virtual private network for your computer and other devices is hard to find. Even the best free VPNs usually limit the amount of data you can use, and may not be as fast as premium services. But when you’re browsing on a budget and want to avoid shady free services that could be loaded with malware, there are a few solid VPN providers that stand up to our rigorous testing.

The idea of using a 100% free VPN might be tempting, especially if you’re on a tight budget and don’t want to cough up the cash for a monthly or yearly subscription fee. But as frequent security issues prove, using even the best free VPN comes with risks. That’s why it’s safer to make use of the free trials or introductory versions available from our list of trusted VPN providers.

Yes, you read that right: If you absolutely must use a free VPN service, your safest bet is to test-drive a free trial or take advantage of a money-back guarantee on a trusted paid VPN service. When choosing a VPN service, quality and your online safety should always come before cost. It’s not worth it to settle for an unsafe free VPN just to save a few bucks every month. With that in mind, all of our top recommended VPN services offer either a free version of the paid service or a 30-day assessment period. Here are the best contenders we’ve found:

  • NordVPN offers a risk-free 30-day trial period. It’s one of the best free VPN services to use for 30 days.
  • ExpressVPN is our current Editors’ Choice VPN. While it doesn’t have a standard trial period, it does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. It also currently has an offer for three months free with a one-year plan, or 15 months for the price of 12. However, there’s an exception: If you sign up for ExpressVPN by downloading the app on an Android or iOS device, you’ll be offered a seven-day free trial. But this only works in certain countries, including the US.
  • If ExpressVPN isn’t in your budget, check out Surfshark’s $2.30 a month offer on its two-year plan.
  • ProtonVPN offers a limited free version of its service (one device only, limited download speeds) as a way of giving people a free test drive of the product. It’s the one narrow exception to the «avoid free VPNs» rule (see below).

Free VPN FAQs

5 reasons why you should never use a free VPN

1. Free VPNs simply aren’t as safe

Free VPNs can be very dangerous. Why? Because to maintain the hardware and expertise needed for large networks and secure users, VPN services have expensive bills to pay. As a VPN customer, you either pay for a premium VPN service with your dollars or you pay for free services with your data. If you aren’t ordering at the table, you’re on the menu.

Some 86% of free iOS and Android VPN apps — accounting for millions of installs — have unacceptable privacy policies, ranging from a simple lack of transparency to explicitly sharing user data with Chinese authorities, according to two independent 2018 investigations into free VPN apps from Top10VPN. Another 64% of free VPN app offerings had no web presence outside of their app store pages, and only 17% responded to customer support emails.

In June 2019, Apple reportedly brought the hammer down on apps that share user data with third parties. But 80% of the top 20 free VPN apps in Apple’s App Store appear to be breaking those rules, according to a June update on the Top10VPN investigation.

Also in June last year, 77% of apps were flagged as potentially unsafe in the Top10VPN VPN Ownership Investigation — and 90% of those flagged as potentially unsafe in the Free VPN Risk Index — still posed a risk.

«Google Play downloads of apps we flagged as potentially unsafe have soared to 214 million in total, rocketing by 85% in six months,» the report reads. «Monthly installs from the App Store held steady at around 3.8 million, which represents a relative increase as this total was generated by 20% fewer apps than at the start of the year as a number of apps are no longer available.»

On Android, 214 million downloads represent a lot of user login data, culled from unwitting volunteers. And what’s one of the most profitable things one can do with large swaths of user login data?

2. You can catch malware

Let’s get this out of the way right now: 38% of free Android VPNs contain malware — despite the security features on offer, a CSIRO study found. And yes, many of those free VPNs were highly rated apps with millions of downloads. If you’re a free user, your odds of catching a nasty bug are greater than 1 in 3.

So ask yourself which costs less: a secure VPN service for about $100 a year, or hiring an identity theft recovery firm after some chump steals your bank account login and Social Security number?

But it couldn’t happen to you, right? Wrong. Mobile ransomware attacks are skyrocketing. Symantec detected more than 18 million mobile malware instances in 2018 alone, constituting a 54% year-over-year increase in variants. And in 2019, Kaspersky noted a 60% spike in password-stealing Trojans.

But malware isn’t the only way to make money if you’re running a free VPN service. There’s an even easier way.

3. The ad-valanche

Aggressive advertising practices from a free plan can go beyond getting hit with a few annoying pop-ups and quickly veer into dangerous territory. Some VPNs sneak ad-serving trackers through the loopholes in your browser’s media-reading features, which then stay on your digital trail like a prison warden in a B-grade remake of Escape from Alcatraz.

HotSpot Shield VPN earned some painful notoriety for such allegations in 2017, when it was hit with a Federal Trade Commission complaint (PDF) for over-the-top privacy violations in serving ads. Carnegie Mellon University researchers found the company not only had a baked-in backdoor used to secretly sell data to third-party advertising networks, but it also employed five different tracking libraries and actually redirected user traffic to secret servers.

When the story broke, HotSpot parent company AnchorFree denied the researchers’ findings in an email to Ars Technica: «We never redirect our users’ traffic to any third-party resources instead of the websites they intended to visit. The free version of our Hotspot Shield solution openly and clearly states that it is funded by ads, however, we intercept no traffic with neither the free nor the premium version of our solutions.»

AnchorFree has since offered annual transparency reports, although their value is still up to the reader. More recently, however, HotSpot Shield was among just a handful of VPN apps found to respect users’ refusal to permit ad-tracking. In a November 2021 study from Top10VPN, just 15% of free VPN apps respected iOS users’ choices when they declined voluntary ad-tracking. The rest of the free VPN apps tested by Top10VPN simply ignored users’ Do Not Track requests.

Even if possible credit card fraud isn’t a concern, you don’t need pop-ups and ad-lag weighing you down when you’ve already got to deal with another major problem with free VPNs.

4. Buffering… buffering… buffering

One of the top reasons people get a VPN is to access their favorite subscription services or streaming site — Hulu, HBO, Netflix — when they travel to countries where those companies block access based on your location. But what’s the point in accessing the geo-blocked video content you’ve paid for if the free VPN service you’re using is so slow you can’t watch it, despite a good internet connection?

Some free VPNs have been known to sell your bandwidth, potentially putting you on the legal hook for whatever they do with it. The most famous case of this was Hola VPN, which was caught in 2015 quietly stealing users’ bandwidth and selling it, mercenary-style, to whatever group wanted to deploy the user base as a botnet.

Back then, Hola CEO Ofer Vilenski admitted they’d been had by a «spammer» but contended in a lengthy defense that this harvesting of bandwidth was typical for this type of technology.

«We assumed that by stating that Hola is a [peer-to-peer] network, it was clear that people were sharing their bandwidth with the community network in return for their free service,» he wrote.

If being pressed into service as part of a botnet isn’t enough to slow you down, free VPN services also usually pay for fewer VPN server options. That means your traffic is generally bouncing around longer between distant, overcrowded servers, or even waiting behind the traffic of paid users.

To top it off, subscription streaming sites are savvy to those who try to sneak into their video services for free. These services routinely block large numbers of IP addresses they’ve identified as belonging to turnstile-jumping freeloaders. Free VPNs can’t afford to invest in a long list of fresh IP addresses for users the way a paid VPN service can.

That means you may not even be able to log into a streaming service you’ve paid for if your free VPN is using a stale batch of IPs. Good luck getting HBO Max to load over that VPN connection.

5. Paid options get better all the time

The good news is that there are a lot of solid VPNs on the market that offer a range of features, depending on your needs and budget. You can browse our ratings and reviews to find the right VPN software for you. If you’re looking for something mobile-specific, we’ve rounded up our favorite mobile VPNs for 2022.

If you’d like a primer before deciding which service to drop the cash on, we have a VPN buyer’s guide to help you get a handle on the basics of VPNs and what to look for when choosing a VPN service.

More VPN advice

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Technologies

Tariff Impacts Are Real: I Found 13 Companies With Official Price Hikes

A popular brand of smart lights is among the latest products to suffer an official price hike in the wake of Trump’s tariffs.

In a lot of ways and for a lot of products in the US, the biggest impacts of President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff plans are still a ways off in the near future. Still, numerous companies have already hiked prices or said that they will be increased in the near future — including, most recently, a popular and CNET-approved brand of smart lights.

The fact of the matter is that tariffs — a tax placed on the importing of certain products into a country — will ultimately cause prices to go up, with Walmart characterizing these eventual price hikes as «inevitable» during its earnings call last month. Given Trump’s push to place historically high tariffs on goods from almost every country in the world, you can also expect these price hikes to hit a huge variety of products.

This truth has begun to sink in for a lot of Americans, if a recent survey conducted by CNET is anything to go by. According to the results, about 38% of consumers feel pressured to make certain purchases before tariffs cause them to go up in price. About 10% said that they had already made certain purchases out of the hope that they’ll avoid a future price hike, and 27% said they had delayed purchases for products that cost more than $500. Overall, these concerns about prices were felt the most around popular tech pieces like smartphones, laptops and home appliances.

To help you keep score, I’ve put together a list of all the companies that have either confirmed or warned of price hikes due to Trump’s tariffs. As other companies make such announcements, you can expect new names to be added here.

Continue on for all those details, and for more, find out why it’s best if you wait on buying a new iPhone.

Best Buy

Without getting into specifics, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told the Wall Street Journal late last month that it has already raised prices on certain products as part of its response to the tariffs.

e.l.f.

Known as an affordable option in the beauty world, e.l.f. announced in late May that it would be implementing a $1 price hike across its product line in response to the tariffs. CEO Tarang Amin claimed that the reaction from customers was positive, on account of the company’s transparency.

«We’re not trying to pull anything over on anyone,» Amin told Fortune. «This is exactly what we’re facing, and they understand.»

Macy’s

Speaking to CNBC in late May, Macy’s CEO Tony Spring said that price hikes will be implemented on some products due to tariffs, while also emphasizing that other tactics — like discontinuing certain products altogether — will also be a response to rising costs.

Mattel

Known for brands like Barbie and Hot Wheels, Mattel sounded the alarm over likely price increases during an early May earnings call. While it’s unclear how much the toymaker’s prices have increased since then, the company told investors that it would be, «where necessary, taking pricing action in its US business,» or to put it plainly, raising prices for consumers to mitigate the impact of tariffs.

Nikon

Camera-maker Nikon will introduce price hikes in response to Trump’s tariffs, effective June 23. This move will only target lenses and accessories the company makes and sells, so the cameras themselves are safe for now.

«We will be carefully monitoring any tariff developments and may adjust pricing as necessary to reflect the evolving market conditions,» a statement from Nikon explained. «We wish to thank our customers for their understanding and know that we are taking every possible step to minimize the impact on our community.»

Philips Hue

Parent company Signify announced that prices for its popular and highly regarded Philips Hue brand of smart lights will see price hikes effective July 1. The company also confirmed that this decision was made «as a direct result of tariffs.»

«Signify reserves the right to modify prices based on new or additional tariffs becoming effective in the future,» the company’s official statement explained. 

Ralph Lauren

Sales at the luxury goods retailer Ralph Lauren have apparently remained steady amid recent uncertainty, but the company is still forging ahead with a plan to combat tariff impacts by raising prices more than it had already intended to, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Shein and Temu

Trump’s tariffs have made a notable target of China, hitting the country with a 30% rate only after initially hiking it all the way to 145%. Online retailers like Shein and Temu rely on direct shipments from markets like China in order to offer the rock-bottom prices that made them famous, so it’s little surprise now that they’ve had to raise prices.

The Trump administration has furthered the issues faced by these companies by doing away with a rule known as the «de minimus» exception, which used to exclude smaller purchases under $800 from import taxes. With that rule gone, Trump’s China tariffs will now apply to both bulk orders of industrial building materials and those shoes you’ve been looking to buy from Shein.

Subaru

Subaru has hiked prices across almost its entire line. The increase ranged from $750 to $2,055, depending on the model, with only the EV Solterra avoiding any change.

As has become a trend with some companies, Subaru avoided attributing the price hikes to Trump’s tariffs, citing only the common refrain of «market conditions.» Trump has notably disparaged companies that explicitly lay the blame for price hikes on his policies.

«The changes were made to offset increased costs while maintaining a solid value proposition for the customer. Subaru pricing is not based on the country of origin of its products,» a Subaru spokesperson said in a statement to Car & Driver.

Stanley Black & Decker

In an earnings report published April 30, toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker addressed «Price Actions in Response to US Tariffs,» stating that it had «implemented an initial price increase in April and notified our customers that further price action is required,» and was also looking into ways to shift its supply lines to minimize the impact of tariffs.

Volvo

The price impact of tariffs at Swedish automaker Volvo are confined, for now, to just one model: the electric EX30. Initially it was set to start at $34,950 in the US — a competitive price for an EV — but tariffs targeted at imported cars forced the company to raise the price to $46,195, a 32% bump.

Walmart

The biggest grocery chain in the US, Walmart is perhaps the most prominent company yet to announce imminent price hikes due to Trump’s tariffs. During the company’s earnings call in May, CEO Doug McMillan said price hikes would begin by the end of May and impact things like food, electronics and toys.

For more, see why buying refurbished tech helps you dodge tariffs and helps the planet.

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Technologies

As Tariffs Have Consumers Worried, Here’s What I’ve Found Watching Key Products for Price Hikes

There’s a lot of concern and uncertainty going around the economy amid Trump’s tariff plans, prompting a lot of early purchases to avoid price hikes.

For CNET’s tariff price tracker, I’ve been keeping tabs on several key products we suspect will be vulnerable to President Donald Trump’s contentious tariff policies, watching their price moves every day for possible long-term price hikes. 

For the most part, prices for these items have remained steady in the last few weeks, aside from notable increases for the Xbox Series X and a budget-friendly 4K TV. A few have also gone on sale for brief periods, but as of now, they’ve all mostly reverted back to normal — though you should expect the sale prices to return as Prime Day approaches in July, a good time overall to make purchases that might get more expensive later.

With all that said, the broader impact of these import taxes is still on the horizon, especially as Trump now claims that tariff rates against China are going back up to 55% soon. The Trump administration has also been working to undo a trade court ruling, which found that Trump has no authority to set tariffs as he has been — a move now being argued before an appeals court. We’ll see how that ultimately plays out, but for now, the possibility that the president’s tariff policies will lead to price hikes remains likely. 

CNET Tariff Tracker Index

Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. 

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. 

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering for each year: the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree. 

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you’ll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you’ll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830.

Apple’s been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn’t move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now.

Apple’s flagship device is still the top-selling smartphone globally, as of Q1 of this year, although new research from the firm Counterpoint suggests that tariff uncertainty will cause the brand’s growth to stall a bit throughout the rest of 2025.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. This model was most recently listed on Amazon at $421, up from the $400 price tag it’s hovered around for most of the year.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. For most of the year, they’ve hovered around $199, which is a notable savings on its list price of $249.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick.

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. 

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. 

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.» 

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.

Other products

As mentioned before, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we’re still keeping an eye on:

  • Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places — including Amazon — since it released in 2017. Whether or not that price will be impacted by tariffs or the impending release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X.
  • Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon for the material needed to run 3D printers. It has held steady around $15 on Amazon all year. This product was replaced above by the HP 962 printer ink.

Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven’t been featured with a graph yet:

  • Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer’s largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump’s tariff plans were ramping up in April.
  • Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus’s Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company’s upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.
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Technologies

Best Handheld Gaming Consoles Right Now

While the Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam Deck are the obvious choices for best handheld game consoles, we test out everything the portable game device market has to offer.

Our Experts

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Written by  Scott Stein
Article updated on June 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM PDT
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Scott Stein Editor at Large
I started with CNET reviewing laptops in 2009. Now I explore wearable tech, VR/AR, tablets, gaming and future/emerging trends in our changing world. Other obsessions include magic, immersive theater, puzzles, board games, cooking, improv and the New York Jets. My background includes an MFA in theater which I apply to thinking about immersive experiences of the future.
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I’ve loved gaming, and particularly gaming handhelds, all of my life. I grew up with every variation of the Game Boy and Sega Game Gear, and more. At CNET, I’ve reviewed mobile gaming and handhelds going back to the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita, through the launch of the iPhone and iPad, and up to the Switch 2. There are more handheld gaming options than ever, especially if you count phones and tablets. Here below are the best options right for dedicated handheld devices of all forms, and a look forward at what to expect in the next few years.

What is the best handheld game console overall?

It’s a tough time to pick winners, especially since there are so many types of different handhelds right now, but the Nintendo Switch 2 is a newcomer that’s wowed me with its graphics, its improved design, and Nintendo’s focus on making an already-popular Switch even better. The Switch 2 isn’t a necessary upgrade for everyone yet, and makes tradeoffs: Battery life is shorter than other Switch models, and there aren’t that many exclusive Switch 2 games yet. Still, the handheld’s got tons of new perks. 

But I still love the Steam Deck, which remains one of the best-performing and versatile ways to play PC games on the go. The Steam Deck’s big and bulky — and a few years old now — but as a vehicle to play tons of interesting and well-optimized games on Steam, it’s a great option too.

Best gaming handhelds of 2025

A Switch 2 on a table with controllers detached and Mario Kart World on the screen

Photo Gallery 1/1

Best Overall Gaming Handheld

Nintendo Switch 2

Pros

  • Slim design
  • Large 1080p display
  • Notably better graphics
  • Great-feeling magnetic-attaching controllers

Cons

  • MicroSD Express cards are hard to find right now
  • Battery life is worse than the Switch’s
  • Still needs more unique exclusives

Nintendo’s first true console successor to the Switch, the Switch 2 comes with all sorts of welcome upgrades, while keeping the concept and game compatibility with Switch mostly intact. The feel is more like a Windows handheld or Steam Deck, but slimmer, and its graphics upgrades both on handheld and TV-connected are notably better.

A new audio/video GameChat feature could be great for friends and family, the Joy-Cons are easier to snap on and off and double as versatile mice now for supported games, and the included 7.9-inch 1080p LCD display is a welcome improvement from the original Switch. It’s also still a unique perk over other handhelds that the Switch 2 comes with a TV dock and its detachable, shareable Joy-Cons, and the Switch 2 is backward compatible with Switch games and wireless controllers. It also looks capable of running games as advanced as those on Windows game handhelds and Steam Decks. And as always, Nintendo’s new console is family-friendly.

There are downsides, though, besides the price: Battery life is considerably worse than that of other Switches, lasting only a few hours before needing a recharge, and expandable storage requires more expensive and harder-to-find microSD Express cards. 

You just may not need to make an upgrade yet, but the Switch 2 still stands out as the best new handheld system, and upcoming Switch 2 exclusives like Donkey Kong Bananza should make it even better. Just keep in mind you’ll need to live in Nintendo’s world and play games from Nintendo’s eShop.

  • Display: 7.9-inch, 1,920×1,080 LCD IPS (up to 120Hz)
  • Storage: 256GB included, microSD Express card expandable
  • Games: Switch and Switch 2 compatible
  • TV connection: Yes, dock included (4K output)
  • Size: 4.5 x 10.7 x 0.55 inches
  • Weight: 1.18 pounds
  • Wi-Fi: Yes (Wi-Fi 6)
  • Bluetooth: Yes
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Steam Deck game handheld with No Man's Sky on screen, and yellow background

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Best PC Handheld

Steam Deck OLED

Pros

  • Vibrant HDR OLED display
  • Runs many Steam games well
  • Excellent controls, improved haptics
  • Better battery life

Cons

  • Large size
  • Doesn’t have removable controllers
  • Some Steam games don’t run on it
  • Screen can sometimes feel small for some games

Valve’s big and versatile Steam Deck is still a marvel. Although it’s three years old now, it can still play a wide variety of PC games surprisingly well, and is the dream portable for any hardcore Steam fan, or anyone who has a big library of PC games. The Steam Deck can get expensive for the larger storage tiers, but for what it’s capable of, it’s not a bad deal. And, while third-party hardware manufacturers are starting to make SteamOS handhelds (the Lenovo Legion Go S is the first new option, and CNET’s Lori Grunin’s preferred pick over Steam Deck), the Steam Deck still has a standout set of controls, haptics, and trackpads that make it feel great for me.

The model to buy is the OLED version: while more expensive, its more vivid, slightly larger display, better haptics and improved battery life are worth it. The LCD model costs $399 with 256GB of storage, while the OLED models ramp up to $549 and $649, with 512GB and 1TB of storage, respectively. Steam game downloads can eat up a lot of space, so larger storage sizes are recommended unless you’re playing smaller indies.

While the Steam Deck runs Linux as opposed to Windows and Valve’s own SteamOS, you can load other software and hack other solutions onto the Steam Deck if you’re up for the effort. You can play local PC games or stream cloud-based games, and connect to a monitor, keyboard or other accessories, too.

One of my favorite parts of Steam Deck is how Valve indicates which Steam games are Steam Deck optimized in the store, helping remove the guesswork that can make Windows handhelds so frustrating. More options for PC gamers are popping up every month, but for now, Steam Deck is the best way to go.

  • Display: 7.4-inch, 1,280×800 HDR OLED
  • Storage: 512 or 1TB included, microSD card slot
  • Games: Steam compatible
  • TV connection: Yes, dock sold separately
  • Size: 4.6 x 11.7 x 1.9 inches
  • Weight: 1.41 pounds
  • Wi-Fi: Yes (Wi-Fi 6E)
  • Bluetooth: Yes
  • Processor: AMD Zen 2 APU
  • RAM: 16GB
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Best Handheld for Retro Games

Analogue Pocket

Pros

  • Crisp LCD screen makes old games look great
  • Plays Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridges
  • Adds Game Gear, Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket with extra adapters
  • USB-C charging
  • Other extras include TV dock

Cons

  • No Wi-Fi means sideloading OS updates via microSD card
  • A little too big for most pockets

The Pocket looks like a totally remade Game Boy, and it is, in a sense. Analogue’s gorgeous handheld can play original Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges perfectly, and can even play Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket and Turbografx-16 games using separately sold adapters. It has a high-res color screen and USB-C charging, and there’s a separately sold dock for TV play.

There’s also support for FPGA cores that can replicate classic game hardware and play ROMs. There’s no game store for buying games: Pocket is a system to play classic cartridges or other games in amazing quality, if you want to tinker around with FPGA. There’s also a big library of Pocket-compatible software in indie gaming channels like itch.io that can be sideloaded to a microSD card, too.

The Pocket also comes in a lot of different colors, many of which sell out fast as limited editions. It still stands on its own as a wonderfully complete retro-capable handheld for collectors of classic cartridges.

  • Display: 3.5-inch 1,600 x 1,440-pixel LCD
  • Storage: microSD card slot
  • Games: Plays classic Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance carts, or Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, Neo-Geo Pocket or Turbografx-16 carts with separately sold adapters. Can also sideload games.
  • TV connection: Separately sold dock
  • Size: 5.86 x 3.46 x 0.86 inches
  • Weight: 0.6-pound
  • Wi-Fi: No
  • Bluetooth: Yes
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Best Tiny Novelty Indie Handheld

Panic Playdate

The tiny, yellow, black-and-white-screened Panic Playdate looks like a weird Game Boy with a mechanical crank sprouting from its side. But this system, made by the game company that developed Untitled Goose Game, plays its own indie-developed games. Twenty-four of them come included with the purchase and appear over time like weekly presents, and a new second season of games has been equally good. More games can be bought on the Playdate’s on-handheld store (the tiny gadget has Wi-Fi), or sideloaded via sites like itch.io. Alas, the Playdate doesn’t have any backlighting — you’ll have to find a lamp instead. 

Even three years into its debut, the Playdate has been a constant source of weird little mini-games. If you ever loved Nintendo’s classic Game and Watch and wanted something new that could fill a similar magical desire, and don’t mind being limited to the mysterious games and apps that developers have cooked up for this, the Playdate is a bit of genius that no other handheld can match.

  • Display: 2.7-inch 400 x 240 pixel black-and-white reflective LCD (no backlighting)
  • Storage: 4GB included
  • Games: Plays games from Playdate online store or can sideload games installed via Playdate website
  • TV connection: No
  • Size: 2.99 x 2.91 x 0.35 inches
  • Weight: 0.19-pound
  • Wi-Fi: Yes
  • Bluetooth: No
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Panic Playdate review

Other gaming handhelds we’ve tested

Nintendo Switch OLED
This used to be our favorite Switch, and its battery life and vivid OLED are still good. But we’d recommend a Switch 2 purchase now over this expensive Switch model, unless you find it on sale.
Nintendo Switch Lite
The most affordable (and smallest) Switch lacks detachable controllers and TV docking capabilities, but it’s still a great pick as a lower-cost way to bring along Nintendo games on the go.
PlayStation Portal
Sony’s oddball streaming-only handheld companion to the PlayStation 5 is actually really good as an in-house way to extend your games on a remote screen with haptics and force-feedback triggers, but performance depends on internet connectivity.
ModRetro Chromatic
Possibly the best pure Game Boy recreation available, this well-built handheld has a great display and build quality, but it’s also pricey and can only play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.
Lenovo Legion Go S with Steam OS
An excellent Steam Deck alternative (and Lori Grunin’s preferred pick over the Steam Deck OLED), this handheld benefits from a larger display and a different control layout.
Lenovo Legion Go S with Windows
Laggy performance and an awkward Windows-on-a-handheld experience made this one feel forgettable.

How we test the best handheld gaming consoles

There are lots of ways to play games on the go, and many of them are extremely different from each other. Since the common threads are often pretty different, our goal is to think about the whole play experience as a relative versus other options. Price comes into play, as does gaming libraries. But also, we pay attention to battery life, which we judge by playing games over time. Ideally, that’s for at least a week, preferably more.

When appropriate, we’ll also look into benchmark testing, although that currently comes into play for Windows-based handhelds because of common benchmark apps that can run on the hardware.

Is the experience family-friendly? Is it portable enough? Is it possible to connect to a TV, and would you do it? These are all parts of the equation. Most importantly, it’s key to look at each gaming handheld on its own terms, versus direct comparisons to products it’s not really trying to emulate. For instance: the Panic Playdate and Steam Deck are extremely different beasts.

What’s the difference between all these gaming handhelds?

Phones and tablets already do a fine job of playing tons of great games and streaming games from consoles or the cloud. Dedicated devices can provide unique features, exclusive games or extra power to do things your phone can’t. The difference between types of game handhelds at the moment can feel vast, but let’s break it down into some clear categories. Handhelds can be full TV-connectable consoles, tinier versions of full PCs, or smaller, purpose-built ways to play retro games, indies, or even novelty experiences. Some are, like PCs and phones, built on more standard OS forms. Others are locked down.

The Nintendo Switch and Switch 2

Nintendo’s consoles are a platform all unto their own. Nintendo locks down its hardware to only work with games bought in physical game card format or on Nintendo’s eShop, and the Switch and Switch 2 also require subscriptions for online play.

The Switch 2 can play nearly all the games that work on the Switch, with the exception of ones that either needed the original Switch dimensions (Nintendo Labo, if you can find it) or the original Joy-Con’s IR camera (Ring Fit Adventure, which works with Switch 2 if you pair original Joy-Cons to it wirelessly). It does have its own accessories and added functions: GameChat for talking to other Switch 2 owners, USB-connected camera support for games and chat, and the new Joy-Cons can work as optical mice with supported games. It works the same way the Switch does, but has better graphics and a larger screen, and worse battery life. To expand Switch 2 storage, you need to buy microSD Express cards, which are different from standard microSD.

PC game handhelds

A growing number of beefy handheld systems can run either full Windows OS onboard, or specific Linux-based SteamOS software. The Steam Deck, Asus Rog Ally and Lenovo Legion Go are the best current options and come in several forms and flavors.

Most of these handhelds run similar-performing types of AMD-based processors with integrated graphics which deliver surprising functional gaming on the go provided the games you’re playing are properly optimized. Valve makes this super easy on Steam Deck and on the new Lenovo Legion Go S with Steam OS, making it very clear on its Steam store which games are optimized to play well. On Windows handhelds, you gain the freedom of full Windows OS, and its complications. You could run any game from any source (and on SteamOS handhelds, with some tinkering, you could do this too), but your mileage will definitely vary. I’ve often had some games not run at all, or run so badly they were unplayable. Indie and smaller games are often great choices on handhelds for this reason.

Still, games like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Spider-Man 2 and No Man’s Sky are a few of the games that are great to play on the go with these handhelds. Expect battery life to vary based on the type of game, and many of these handhelds are pretty heavy, too (up to 1.5 pounds). They can connect with monitors and accessories, too, but don’t come packaged with docks.

Retro handhelds

The Analogue Pocket and ModRetro Chromatic are remastered Game Boys for playing classic cartridges you might still have or buy. The Pocket can also play other game cartridges, and even emulations of games that can be sideloaded. The Evercade series of handhelds, alternatively, plays rereleased compilations of games on custom cartridges.

While the Pocket and Chromatic and Evercade models are geared towards physical cartridges, there are also tons of small handhelds that can play ROMs and emulated games. CNET doesn’t review those at the moment, but know that there’s a big space there to explore. 

There’s also the weird stuff: the Panic Playdate is its own beast, a custom mini-handheld that plays its own library of games. There’s nothing else quite like it, but Nintendo’s limited edition Game & Watch re-releases come to mind. 

Streaming handhelds

While Windows handhelds can stream games from sources like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now, so can your phone or tablet. Another streaming option to consider is the PlayStation Portal, which only plays either PlayStation Plus streaming cloud games or streaming games via your PlayStation 5, but also adds haptics and force-feedback triggers. The future of gaming might be increasingly streaming, but for now, it’s a tool that lots of devices are throwing in the mix.

Your phone, or tablet

Tablets and phones are extremely valid game consoles: The iPad has tons of games on the App Store, and hundreds more on Apple’s subscription-based Apple Arcade. The iPad can pair with Bluetooth game controllers, too. iPhones and Android phones have tons of games as well, obviously, and a number of great game controller cases are available, including the Backbone and the Razer Kishi.

Phones and tablets also offer other advantages, including an ability to cloud-stream games on a growing number of services including Microsoft Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation Plus.

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