Exciting news making the rounds in the retro gaming community today about the highly anticipated PiBoy CM4X by Experimental Pi. Well, new photos at least!
Of course, we know Experimental Pi from their incredible work on the PiBoy DMG and their most recent console kit, the PiBoy XRS.
We ranked the PiBoy DMG as one of the best retro handhelds of 2020, and there’s a cult following for these custom console cases that house a Raspberry Pi computer used for emulation.
The new leaked image for the PiBoy CM4X looks drastically different from the images we saw back in early 2021.
As they should!
It’s been nearly two years since that leak, and Experimental Pi have released new products since that time.
Perhaps they learned some things in the development and launch of the PiBoy XRS and made some big changes to their original plans for their next horizontal console kit.
What’s new with the PiBoy CM4X
The most obvious feature of the PiBoy CM4X is that it is intended to house the Compute Module 4 from Raspberry Pi. This will be the main hardware inside the PiBoy CM4X shell.
The CM4 is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.5GHZ.
And the CM4 is a more compact and minimized version of the Pi4, and removes most of the ports for space.
Both Pi computers and PiBoy kits will offer the same power with many of the same basic functions and buttons.
They did opt for a larger screen on the PiBoy CM4X; a 4 inch 1×1 aspect ratio screen!
So we should not expect the PiBoy CM4X to be significantly smaller than the PiBoy XRS. It will likely be thinner though.
The button configuration is a little different, but still all the same buttons.
And the new button configuration is quite different than the original leak of the PiBoy CM4X.
One of the less common features of the PiBoy CM4X is that 1×1 aspect ratio screen.
This seems to be a new trend in the retro gaming scene, as we are also getting a 1×1 screen in the upcoming Retro Pixel Pocket.
Perhaps this makes for an interesting viewing port for many retro games that all have slightly different aspects, all receiving their appropriate black borders.
It certainly accommodates many retro consoles, but is gonna be best for things like Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, SNES, NES. 8-32 bit type stuff.
But 32 bit era is certainly not the limits on a Pi computer. We should anticipate being able to play Dreamcast, Playstation 1, PSP. All the normal stuff of the current gen budget emulators.
PiBoy CM4X Specifications
Everything inside the new PiBoy CM4X should be much more compact and custom tailored version than its bigger brother, the PiBoy XRS.
Here’s the stuff we expect to see:
- Raspberry Pi CM4
- 1.5GHZ Quad-Core Cortex-A72 CPU
- 1GB-8GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM
- Options for 0GB (“Lite”), 8GB, 16GB or 32GB eMMC Flash memory
- Micro SD Card Slot
- 4″ IPS Display (720×720 1×1 aspect ratio)
- 3500 – 4000 MAH Battery
- Micro HDMI Out
- Stereo Audio Out and Stereo Headphones Jack
- Tempered Glass Display Lens
- USB-C
PiBoy CM4X Price and Release Date (anticipated)
Considering the PiBoy DMG Kit sells for $139.95usd and the PiBoy XRS Kit sells for $149.95usd…
We anticipate the new PiBoy CM4X to sell for right around that $150 mark. Being the new product in the lineup, perhaps closer to $160.
Because it’s been nearly two years since we first heard about the PiBoy CM4X, it’s hard to guess when we will see them for sale on the Experimental Pi website.
However, with new images popping up now, it’s safe to say that we will likely start seeing more soon.
As per usual… check back here for more info as it becomes available!
