I know what you're thinking, and yes, the name is real. You're probably chuckling as you're reading this, and I'm not surprised that GameMT have shortened it to PSK on the home screen there. I'm going to have to avoid saying things like 'you can carry the super knob in your pocket' because that wouldn't be appropriate, and this is a respectable news outlet!
Yes, news that GameMT's latest Android handheld, the Pocket Super Knob 5000 is releasing this April has appeared online. I've been wondering where Chinese handheld makers were going to go with new designs to stand out from the crowd. There's not much innovation left in the space when it comes to analog sticks and buttons, bar adding a third analog stick, and GameMT's answer is simply to replace a joystick with a knob.
I know I'm poking fun a little here, but I'm intrigued. I mean, I have no idea how this is going to work or if it's even going to be practical in games, Still, we love the PlayDate here at Retro Dodo, so maybe the PSK 5000 will provide a similar quirky gaming experience.
According to leaker Retro Gaming With Deadfred on X, the Pocket Super Knob 5000 is arriving in April 2026 and will come with the Mediatek Helio G85 processor, an entry-level gaming chipset first announced back in 2020 that you'd mostly find in mid-range smartphones. It's not exactly cutting-edge technology anymore, but that means the PSK 5000's price tag will reflect that and shouldn't give us too much of a fright when it arrives.
Hello Pocket Super Knob 5000. Coming April 2026. Mediatek Helio G85.
— Retro Gaming With Deadfred (@RetroDeadFred) February 18, 2026
👉Tap the link https://t.co/8a2gRWE7Xr or enter the search code [AYU6KK] on the AliExpress homepage to see all the amazing items I've handpicked for you. pic.twitter.com/UkqOLOohdl
The handheld (as it will now be known) has a 5" full HD screen and Hall effect joysticks. At 13.2mm thick and just 200g, it's incredibly thin and light. The official marketing images state that it can run PSP games at 60 fps, has a metal backplate for heat dissipation, and boasts a power-saving mode to increase battery life by 5-8 hours. It's all sounding pretty promising, but the picture of the gamer holding the device has me a little concerned.
Where do you put your right thumb because of that knob, and what are you supposed to do with it? The coloured lights make me think you can turn it for varying degrees of power and maybe set it for different settings in your games, but I can see myself wondering what to do with my hand when I should be using it to turn the camera when not using action buttons.
Is this going to be an oddly-named, quirky handheld, or is the Pocket Super Knob 5000 going to shake things up in the handheld market and give it some much-needed innovation? We don't have long to find out, so check back here for more information as it arrives!
