GoRetroid have been teasing a lot of information over the last week or so regarding their newly revealed handhelds, the Retroid Pocket Mini and the Retroid Pocket 5. These devices will hopefully be more powerful than their previous devices and feature updated designs to compete with newly released devices on the market.
The specs revealed will certainly not compete with the Odin 2, but it puts it more in line with the original Odin Android Handheld that launched a couple of years ago, a handheld I love.
These specifications are a nice upgrade from what we’ve seen from GoRetroid, and will likely be able to emulate most Gamecube and PS2 games well, but I’m not sure if it will run EVERY GC/PS2 game in your library but only time will tell.
These specifications make me believe that the Retroid Pocket 5 could be priced at $199, which I think is respectable, and the Pocket Mini likely less at $149, but no official pricing announcement have happened yet.
Retroid Pocket Mini Specifications
- 3.7″ AMOLED Display 4:3 (1280 x 960)
- Snapdragon 865 SOC
- 6GB RAM (4GB of Internal Memory can be allocated as virtual RAM bringing the total to 10GB)
- Ardeno 650 GPU
- 4000MAH Battery
- Video Out: 1080p (via USB-C or Dock)
- WiFi//Bluetooth
- Dual Boot Android & Linux OS
- Weight: 215g
- Hall-effect Joysticks
- Colours: 5 to choose from
Retroid Pocket 5 Specifications
- 5.5″ AMOLED Display 16:9 (1920 x 1080)
- Snapdragon 865 SOC
- 6GB RAM (4GB of Internal Memory can be allocated as virtual RAM bringing the total to 10GB)
- Ardeno 650 GPU
- 5000MAH Battery
- Video Out: 1080p (via USB-C or Dock)
- Wifi/Bluetooth
- Dual Boot Android & Linux OS
- Weight: 280g
- Hall-effect joysticks
- Colours: 4 to choose from (with 4 transparent backshells sold separately)
As of now there’s no information regarding the included RAM, what the pricing will be nor when the product will be released, but we’ll update this article with that information when it’s announced, likely later this week.
I personally think these specs are just about reasonable enough to upgrade from the Retroid Pocket 3/4, and the new bezel-less display, ergonomics and modern design will certainly help customers make the jump, but annoyingly, its not the one handheld you buy and don’t have to worry about buying another for a few years, like the Odin 2.
GoRetroid have kitted this out very specifically, hoping that in a year or so they can likely entice users into upgrading again… and this is the issue we face in the industry, nobody really wants to make “the perfect” $199 – $249 retro handheld, because it means you won’t buy more hardware for them in the future.
It’s what the Retro Dodo team and Palmer Luckey (found of ModRetro) was talking about in our latest podcast, there’s very little companies that want to build the perfect handheld, it goes against their business incentives. GoRetroid did state on Twitter that there will be “no Retroid Pocket 5 Pro” which surprised me, as last time they announced a Pro version just 12 weeks after the launch of the original, hopefully they have learned that it didn’t go down well.
We’re excited about these device and can’t wait to test them out for review purposes! Hopefully they’ll ship them in the next month or so!
