Fans Are Not Happy With The Retroid Pocket 6 Design - GoRetroid Pulls Landing Page

As you may know, GoRetroid revealed the Retroid Pocket 6 and the Retroid Pocket G2 this week. The RP6 came with a bump in specs and an overhaul to the handheld's design.

And if you're like me, you may have been a little disappointed with what you saw, likely because we are all familiar with GoRetroid pushing the boundaries of handheld design over the last few years.

However, it feels like the Retroid Pocket 6's design has taken a step back, instead of forward, especially when you compare it to its competitors, such as AYN and AYANEO, who are adding fingerprint readers, the world's first displays, and trigger-locking shoulder buttons to their devices in the same price category.

Since the tease of the device, many fans and Retro Dodo readers have shared their thoughts on the redesign, going as far as stating "it looks like something from Temu".

Many of the negative focus points are on the menu buttons below the display, and many are concerned that it looks like every other Android handheld. Two things I personally agree with.

The "front M1/M2 buttons" are essentially all the programmable menu buttons, located on the chin of the device, to provide quick and easy access to specific functions.

This feels like a step back in handheld design, and I believe GoRetroid's designer could have made better use of this, or hidden these buttons elsewhere around the device. I understand this makes the device different, which is what people want, but it feels very 2010.

For example, they could have added touch-capacitive buttons that hide behind the glass of the chin; this would have kept it looking modern and is something not many other handhelds have done, but that's just my personal opinion here!

GoRetroid Responded

Big props to GoRetroid here for responding incredibly quickly to the community feedback. This shows a level of trust and swiftness to their customer service that the likes of ANBERNIC, AYN and even Analogue don't do.

GoRetroid responded by firstly removing the entire landing page of the Retroid Pocket 6, which I believe was going to go up for pre-sale yesterday. So this means they are actually pushing back this date in order to clear a few things up.

Secondly, GoRetroid's impeccable social team shared a post asking what design users would prefer, removing the M1/M2 buttons on the chin and replacing them with buttons around the screen.

They also asked their audience where they'd like the DPAD placement to be, up top or below the aalogue stick, which is another indication that they want to do best for their customers.

This is a great move in my opinion, and shows they want to do better. However, in my opinion, there is nothing visibly unique about this device, which I was hoping for from GoRetroid.

And GoRetroid need to remember that the RP5 sold incredibly well, we all have one, so is the typical RP5 user going to pay another $200 to upgrade to something that doesn't excite them? Probably not. But only time will tell.

Again, big respect to GoRetroid for responding and reacting. That's what we want to see from a handheld company.