The PiBoy CM4X is a new upcoming retro pie handheld coming in early 2021 by the same guys who made the original PiBoy DMG. This sits highly as one of the best retro handhelds of 2020, so this new handheld is very exciting!
Not only has one of Experimental Pi‘s handhelds leaked but two, another also known as the PiBoy XRS which in our opinion looks much cooler, you should check it out.
We mentioned in our latest Retrospect Podcast episode that we’d be seeing bigger more expensive handhelds in 2021 and this has confirmed that.
The leak came from YouTuber ETA Prime, who was apparently “sent” these images from a user who goes by the name of “DarkPi”. Whether this is true or not we will not know, could it be a fake name to point the finger at someone else, possibly, but ETA Prime has always been good to the handheld community so probably not.
What Does The PiBoy CM4 Look Like?
As you can see the PiBoy CM4X has a very rounded, small aesthetic to it. It features dual analogue sticks which many will say needs to be below the DPAD on the left hand side, and we agree.
It has four shoulder buttons, front speakers, ABXY buttons, an SD card slot on the side, volume buttons and more. Up top it also has a large vent, this is due to the Raspberry Pi CM4 module getting warm, which means this most likely has a fan inside too.
On top you can get a closer look at how the shoulder buttons are designed. We prefer the Retroid Pocket 2‘s flared shoulder buttons in all honesty, and the R2/L2 look a little tricky to get to seeing how small they are, but we’ll let you know how they feel when we review it.
Images of the pack of the PiBoy CM4X have also leaked and it shows the Experimental Pi plus more air vents. This is mandatory for a CM4 based handheld as they have a tendancy to get very warm.
From the back you can see the the SD card slot and the ports which makes us believe that this is a small handheld. It’s certainly smaller than the newly announced ODROID GO Super, but it could be similar size to that of the RG351M.
You can slo see the back of the handheld pops out a bit, giving more space to the internals and a nice place four hands to fit when playing your best Gameboy Advance games.
PiBoy CM4X Specifications (Rumoured)
- Raspberry Pi CM4
- 1.5GHZ Quad-Core Cortex-A72 CPU
- 3.5″ IPS Display (640 x 480)
- 2GB – 8GB RAM
- 3500 – 4000 MAH Battery
- HDMI Out
- Tempered Glass Display Lens
- USB-C
What Can The PiBoy CM4X Emulate?
With the current specs the PiBoy CM4X can handle a lot, but not everything. This is the compute model so it comes with some limits, but from previous experience with the CM4 it is likely that the handheld can emulate the following:
- NES
- SNES
- GBA
- GB
- GBC
- PS1
- PSP
- Master System
- Mega Drive (Genesis)
- Dreamcast
- Neo Geo
- MAME
- N64
- Capcom
- and more.
Release Date & Pricing
Unfortunately as of now there is no information regarding the price or release date of the PiBoy CM4x.
Between the announcement and release date of the original PiBoy DMG it was roughly 6+ months, so if that’s anything to go by we could be seeing the PiBoy CM4x and the PiBoy SRX in the summer of 2021.
If we had to guess the price of the PiBoy CM4x we’d have to estimate between $100 – $150 and that’s not assembled. Experimental Pi have a history of selling DIY kits and assembled consoles, but if you want it assembled expect to pay an extra $50 on top.
They may even sell a kit without the Raspberry Pi which is even cheaper, probably coming in towards the $75 – $125 mark. We will update this article when we have more information, in the mean time, let us know your thoughts over on Twitter @retro_dodo!
