Finally, after many leaks, and a tease last week the GoRetroid team has officially revealed the Retroid Pocket Flip.
The Retroid Pocket Flip is an upcoming clamshell handheld emulator made by the company behind the infamous Retroid Pocket 3+.
Previous leaks look very similar to the final product, indicating that the rumoured Retroid Pocket vertical GBC style leak could become a reality.
What’s new with the Retroid Pocket Flip?
Well, the most obvious is design. It’s not often we see a new clamshell handheld being released, Powkiddy and GPD have tried it in the past, but its the first time we are seeing a “affordable” take on the design.
GoRetroid have a habit of under pricing their competition and packing their handhelds with enough power to make it a worthy investment.
The clamshell looks like it’s made of a high gloss plastic (or the red variant does at least, it’s likely the other colours will not be high gloss), and shuts flat with added grips around the screen to prevent wear and tear. The lid has a rounded aesthetic to it which I personally dig.
They seem to have kept with the trend and are using flared shoulder buttons for comfortability, alongside smaller M1/M2 buttons for you to map.
The shoulder buttons raise out of the handhelds shell, this is likely to add comfortable ergonomics and allows them to add bigger buttons in general, so it won’t lay flat on a desk.
It features a USB-C port, a headphone jack, and a mini-HDMI port for you to connect it to a display. Hopefully it features bluetooth so that you can hook up a wireless controller too.
Because the lid needs to close, the analogue sticks are flat, and are set within the shell, also known as “sliders”, these aren’t the most comfortable sticks on the market, but it looks like we’re stuck with them as there’s no way around it, unless they twist and pop out somehow?
GoRetroid are using new double injection moulded action buttons for the Retroid Pocket Flip and has publicly stated that they “will not chip, fade, or rub off”.
Hopefully that statement is true!
It looks like we have a start/select button on the chin, with a place to grip your screen to flip it open. Volume buttons are likely to be located on the side, along with a reset button, a headphone jack on the front and a TF card slot.
On the bottom you can get a closer look at the design, alongside a look at screw location and fans.
This Retroid Pocket Flip shows off a “limited edition 001” logo, this is because their “sport red” variant is actually a limited edition model that will be labeled with a number.
There will only be 1500 units available of the “sport red” and it’s on a first come first serve basis. 30 of the 1500 customers will win a bunch of goodies too, including a Retroid Pocket 3+, screen protectors, an 8BITDo controller and more.
These 1500 units will go fast, likely in minutes so don’t get your hopes up.
Overall I am impressed with how it looks, yes I know it’s a render and it’s likely to look a little different upon release, but in terms of design, this is all you need in a clamshell product.
I just hope they don’t release a Retroid Pocket Flip+ six weeks later like they did with the Retroid Pocket 3…
Retroid Pocket Flip Colour Variants
- Black
- Indigo
- 16BIT US
- Watermelon
- Sport Red (Limited to 1500, first come first served)
Retroid Pocket Flip Specifications
- 4.7″ Touchscreen Display (1334 x 750)
- 2x A75 @ 2GHZ & 6x A55 @ 2GHZ CPU
- Mali G52 GPU
- 4G DDR4 RAM
- OS: Android 11
- 128gb Storage
- 5000MAH Battery (With Fast Charging)
- Wifi + Bluetooth
- USB-C Charging
- 270g
These specifications are near identical to their previous handheld, the Retroid Pocket 3+. To give you an idea of what this can power, the RP3+ could emulate Playstation 1, Dreamcast, SEGA Saturn, Nintendo DS and a handful of the best Gamecube games.
Retroid Pocket Flip Pricing
The Retroid Pocket Flip will retail between $149 and $164 and will be available to pre-order on March 21st @ 09:00pm EST.
The Sports Red limited edition variant has only 1500 units available at a first come first serve basis, with 30 out of the 1500 being chosen to win estra goodies.
It also looks like GoRetroid are giving customers and early bird discount, with $10 off the first four days, and then $5 for 3 days after that, so you’ll want to snag one in the first week to get reduced prices.
The Sports Red and the Watermelon colours have a premium, probably because they know they’ll be more popular, but expect GoRetroid to reveal new colours a couple months after launch as they did with their previous models.
Last time they revealed a few new transparent colours.
GoRetroid will begin shipping on April 10th 2023.
We will update this article with more information once we receive it.
A 29 year old fella that’s had a Gameboy addiction ever since he was a child. Brandon is the founder of RetroDodo and created a YouTube channel with 240,000 subscribers dedicated to retro gaming products. He now wants to create the No.1 site to showcase the latest retro products from around the globe.
