The NDS is still a solid choice. I just finished playing Puyo Puyo 7 this week.

If you've got the disposable income for it, yes, it's a great device. The value isn't as great since the price increases, but the slowing market also means hardware at that level will stay relevant much longer.

More powerful handhelds have come out since, but I agree on not putting too much focus on the numbers. Most comparisons seem to miss how important ergonomics and UX are for actually using devices like this, and nobody else seems to have figured those out quite to the degree Valve has.

That said, the power is still enough for a lot of people to play AAA games with it. I'm a bit too spoiled by easy, frequent access to better hardware to quite enjoy that myself, but I can see myself still using it as a AA/indie/backlog machine for many years.

https://swappa.com/listings/steam-deck

https://swappa.com/listings/steam-deck-oled