Retroid Pocket Classic Review: A Modern (Retro) Gamer’s Dream

Retroid Pocket Classic feels like it took others string to Pocket flip 2 When they were both announced earlier this year. The game Boy-esque handheld was hidden on the back of the promotion image, and details did not appear until weeks later.

Sure, some of it was due to the new chipset, which was still unannounced at that time. However, Pocket Flip 2 felt like it was getting the lion’s share of attention, with the classic as a kind of experimental unit for the company. After all, it is the company’s first vertical handheld since the first unit in 2020.

After testing both devices, the classic is easily my favorite. I can’t believe how good this DMG style is and it has made me incredibly excited about the future of Android Gaming Handheld In a way, I didn’t expect.

When I first opened the box, I was surprised at how big the Retroid Pocket Classic is. It is significantly larger than my previous everyday vertical handheld, Trimui brickand about the same size as Pocket flip 2 When it is closed.

It is also incredibly easy. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like a game boy with the batteries removed. It is comfortable to hold, to be sure, but it has a strange hollow feeling, especially against the bottom.

At this time it is worth pointing out that there are several design options. Most have a standard boy-like layout, with a D-pad and four face buttons. However, the Classic 6 variant has six buttons and draws inspiration from Sega consoles.

It is the variant I took for this review, despite the fact that I fell on the Nintendo side of the aisle when I was younger. I was a late convert to Sega consoles, but I figured the extra buttons would always come in handy as a quick keys when I played consoles with standard setup. They can also serve as the C buttons for N64, although it is not ideal to emulate that console on the pocket classic without a stick.

The Classic 6S buttons are also different in design, with three concave ABC buttons and three smaller XYZ buttons. These buttons were my least favorite portion of the device. They have very little resistance and a loud cluttered sound when pressed. I would feel very self -conscious to play this in a quiet place in public, let go in bed next to my spouse while trying to sleep.

They are also quite small. As mentioned above, Pocket Classic is quite large, so there are plenty of properties for larger buttons. The volume and power buttons on the side, although not too important, also feel directly cheap compared to the rest of the device.

The triggers and D-pad, on the other hand, are great. I almost wish Retroid had gone with a shield design similar to those used by Sega in the 90s for the classic 6 model, but I suspect it is difficult to find a matching component off the shelf today. In any case, it’s great for everything from platform players to match games.

The Mono speaker is more than usable, and it gets nice and high in terms of size. There is a practical headphone connector on top of the device for better sound, plus Bluetooth 5.1 wireless sound support.

But the real star of the show here is the huge 3.92-inch Amoled screen. This is the same screen that exists at the prize Ayaneo Pocket DMGAnd it is by far the best screen available on all vertical handhelds available today. The colors are incredible, the blacks are perfect, and the aspect ratio is good for most consoles you want to mimic this thing. It is also very bright, and I had no problem playing in the bright Spanish sun while my son was snapping in the stroller.

Given, 16: 9 systems like PSP have large black rods. The bars of 3: 2 GBA games (seen above) are still manageable, but I will not buy this device for PSP games.

Bezels also plays a role here. The classic 6 model I tested and Retro Colorway has light gray frames, while the other models have darker frames. I suspect the darker frames are involved in mixing the screen into the device on the device, so you may want to choose one of these Colorways if you plan to play GBA or PSP games.

I wasn’t sure what I could expect in terms of performance, since this is the first unit freight with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 processor. In fact, Pocket Classic was announced a few weeks before the processor itself, which led to a little cageynhet from retroid in marketing material.

I drove the device through our standard package with benchmarks (except for all related to beam tracking, which this chipset does not support), and the results are not surprising. On the paper it is similar to Snapdragon 4 Gen 2, an intermediate class processor from 2023 that uses the same 4NM process with two performance cores and six efficiency cores.

However, G1 gene 2 is designed from the ground up for game handed, and it shows. It is not made for high benchmarks, but for solid performance with a tight budget, with large heat handling. Temperatures never climbed beyond 30 degrees Celsius in my testing, although the fan on the back of the Retroid Pocket Classic has a weak coil erection when placed in sports mode. As stated in the Wild Life, GPU is wildly underpowered, but emulation is almost entirely dependent on the CPU.

The new chipset has a few other advantages that are not in cheaper retro game handheld, including fast charging. In my testing, the Massive 5,000 MAH battery from 10% to 90% charged in just 45 minutes. Once, once charged, the unit was charged, and lasted well over 12 hours for older systems such as SNES and Game Boy color, and about five or six hours on more demanding consoles. I would like to see Capacity -limiting battery health functions From Android 15 added to this device, but until then you will be careful to leave the device.

Results on paper are one thing, but after testing emulation performance, I must say that this chipset blew me away. As expected, I got good results when I mimicked everything up to Dreamcast and Nintendo 64as well as handheld as PSP and Nintendo DS. However, I was surprised that it could easily cope with many PS2 and GameCube games. Demanding games will run slowly, but the JRPG and strategy games that I like to run on a smooth 60 FPS. I am very much looking forward to playing Wild Arms 3 on this device.

In fact, performance was just a little worse than the Snapdragon 865 found in Retroid Pocket Flip 2 for relevant games in this page relationship. It is impressive considering that the classic is just over half of the price of Flip 2. Reference assembly is severely skewed against Flip 2, but the main difference in practice is that it cannot cope with demanding shadowing because of the weak GPU. Light shade works well, but you may need to experiment to get the best mix of aesthetics and performance.

The other star here is Sega Saturn -Memulation, but it is not necessarily the fault in the chipset itself. Games like Batsugun and Sakura Wars loaded and run ok, but there were graphic flaws and occasional crashes. I’m sure there are ways to make it work, but despite the Classic 6’s design, I wouldn’t place this as the ideal device for Sega Saturn -Memulation.

There are problems with a few other consoles as well, but they mostly come down on the lack of sticks. For me, this is not really a mistake, but rather a feature. Sticks would make this device far less pocket and impaired the boy-like design. The small pins found on these types of devices are also generally unpleasant to use. You can make it work by replacing the left stick D-pad and adding an overlay on the screen for the other stick, but it’s not a great experience either. Just stick to D-pad-focused games.

Interestingly, while the chipset nailed emulation performance, it suffered from occasional tribes when navigating the menus in Android 14. It also lacks compatibility for some Play Store games and apps, both in terms of software and controls. Some apps turned the screen on the page, without the opportunity to rotate it back to their right position.

I suspect that many of these quirks will be fixed over time, but one thing that cannot be solved is the lack of video out support. I confirmed with Qualcomm That the chipset simply does not support it, so you have to look elsewhere to play on a big screen.

Either way, it is extremely impressive how good this chipset performs, and it has made me very excited to see Snapdragon G2 G2 gene 2, which is confirmed for Next flagship retroid pocket handheld.

With all that is said, it is most surprising with this handheld price: it starts at just $ 119 for the 4+64 GB version. I would recommend bumping it up to 6+128 GB for $ 10 more, but it’s an incredible value for what you get here.

Sure, you can spend half of it on something like the trimui murmon ($ 84.99 at Amazon) seen over but the Linux-based handheld is less, far less powerful, and you lose the compatibility with Android -Games. For more power, you have to pay hundreds more for Ayaneo Pocket DMG ($ 419 on the manufacturer’s website), as honestly overkill for a device like this unless you really want a luxurious boy.

I would not hesitate to recommend the Retroid Pocket Classic, and I suspect it will replace all other vertical handhelds in my collection. You still need to jump through some braces to install emulators and a decent front-end that That is fromBut for $ 120-130 it’s worth the trouble. Just think about if you really need the two extra buttons from the Classic 6 edition.

This is an incredible first view for Qualcomm’s cheapest game -focused piece set and an absolute home -going for retroid. I love this device and I can’t wait to see more handhelds using these pieces.