I Can’t Believe How Good The Retroid Pocket Classic Is At This Price

Retroid Pocket Classic

The Retroid Pocket Classic features a new chipset with exceptional retro gaming performance for the price. Combined with the best screen in the biz, this is the new vertical handheld to beat.

The Retroid Pocket Classic feels like it took second string to the Pocket Flip 2 when they were both announced earlier this year. The Game Boy-esque handheld was tucked away in the back of the promotion image, and details didn’t emerge until weeks later.

Sure, some of that was due to the new chipset, which was still unannounced at the time. However, the Pocket Flip 2 felt like it was getting the lion’s share of attention, with the Classic being a kind of experimental device for the company. After all, it’s the company’s first vertical handheld since its first device in 2020.

After testing both devices, the Classic is easily my favorite. I cannot believe how good this DMG-style handheld is, and it’s made me incredibly excited about the future of Android gaming handhelds in a way I had not expected.

A Game Boy for the modern (retro) gamer

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

When I first opened the box, I was surprised by just how large the Retroid Pocket Classic is. It’s significantly larger than my previous everyday carry vertical handheld, the TrimUI Brick, and roughly the same size as the Pocket Flip 2 when closed.

It’s also incredibly light. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like a Game Boy with the batteries removed. It’s comfortable to hold, to be sure, but it has a strangely hollow feeling, especially toward the bottom.

At this point, it’s worth pointing out that there are several design options. Most have a standard Game Boy-like layout, with a D-pad and four face buttons. However, the Classic 6 variant features six buttons, taking inspiration from Sega consoles.

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That’s the variant that I grabbed for this review, despite falling on the Nintendo side of the aisle when I was younger. I was a late convert to Sega consoles, but I figured the extra buttons would always come in handy as hotkeys when playing consoles with standard layouts. They can also serve as the C buttons for N64, although emulating that console on the Pocket Classic isn’t ideal without a stick.

There are four- and six-button variants of the Pocket Classic.

The Classic 6’s buttons are also different in design, with three concave A B C buttons and three smaller X Y Z buttons. These buttons were my least favorite part of the device. They have very little resistance and a loud clacky sound when pressed. I would feel very self-conscious playing this in a quiet place in public, let alone in bed next to my spouse while she’s trying to sleep.

They’re also fairly small. As mentioned above, the Pocket Classic is fairly large, so there’s plenty of real estate for larger buttons. The volume and power buttons on the side, while not overly important, also feel downright cheap compared to the rest of the device.

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

The triggers and D-pad, on the other hand, are great. I almost wish Retroid had gone with a shield design similar to those used by Sega in the 90s for the Classic 6 model, but I suspect it’s hard to find a matching off-the-shelf component nowadays. In any case, it’s great for everything from platformers to fighting games.

The mono speaker is more than serviceable, and it gets nice and loud considering the size. There’s a handy headphone jack on the top of the device for better sound, plus Bluetooth 5.1 support for wireless audio.

But the real star of the show here is the massive 3.92-inch AMOLED screen. This is the same screen found on the premium AYANEO Pocket DMG, and it’s by far the best screen available on any vertical handheld available today. The colors are incredible, the blacks are perfect, and the aspect ratio is great for most consoles you’d want to emulate on this thing. It’s also very bright, and I had no problem playing in the bright Spanish sun while my son was napping in his stroller.

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

Granted, 16:9 systems like the PSP have large black bars. The bars on 3:2 GBA games (seen above) are still manageable, but I wouldn’t buy this device for PSP games.

The bezels also play a role here. The Classic 6 model I tested and the Retro colorway have light gray bezels, while the other models have darker bezels. I suspect the darker bezels help blend the screen into the body of the device, so you might want to pick one of those colorways if you plan on playing GBA or PSP games.

The chipset of the future

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of performance, since this is the first device shipping with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 processor. The Pocket Classic was actually announced a few weeks before the processor itself, leading to some cageyness from Retroid in marketing materials.

I ran the device through our standard suite of benchmarks (except for anything related to ray tracing, which this chipset does not support), and the results aren’t too surprising. On paper, it’s similar to the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2, a mid-range processor from 2023 that uses the same 4nm process with two performance cores and six efficiency cores.

However, the G1 Gen 2 is designed from the ground up for gaming handhelds, and it shows. It’s not made for high benchmarks but for solid performance on a tight budget, with great heat management. Temperatures never climbed beyond 30 degrees Celsius in my testing, although the fan on the back of the Retroid Pocket Classic does have a slight coil whine when placed in Sport mode. As seen in the Wild Life Stress Test, the GPU is wildly underpowered, but emulation relies almost entirely on the CPU.

The new chipset has a few other benefits not found in cheaper retro gaming handhelds, including fast charging. In my testing, the massive 5,000mAh battery charged from 10% to 90% in just 45 minutes. Once charged, the device sipped power, lasting well over 12 hours for older systems like SNES and Game Boy Color, and roughly five or six hours on more demanding consoles. I’d love to see capacity-limiting battery health features from Android 15 added to this device, but until then, you’ll want to be careful not to overcharge the device.

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

Results on paper are one thing, but after testing emulation performance, I have to say this chipset blew me away. As expected, I got great results when emulating everything up to Dreamcast and Nintendo 64, as well as handhelds like the PSP and Nintendo DS. However, I was surprised that it could easily handle many PS2 and GameCube games. Demanding games will run slow, but the JRPGs and strategy games that I enjoy run at a consistent 60fps. I’m really looking forward to replaying Wild Arms 3 on this device.

Emulation performance is way better than I expected at this price.

In fact, performance was only slightly worse than the Snapdragon 865 found in the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 for relevant games at this aspect ratio. That’s impressive considering the Classic is just over half the price of the Flip 2. Benchmark comparisons are heavily skewed toward the Flip 2, but the most significant difference in practice is that it can’t handle demanding shaders due to the weak GPU. Lightweight shaders work fine, but you might have to do some experimenting to get the best mix of aesthetics and performance.

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

The other asterisk here is Sega Saturn emulation, but that’s not necessarily the fault of the chipset itself. Games like Batsugun and Sakura Wars loaded and ran ok, but there were graphical glitches and occasional crashes. I’m sure there are ways to make it work, but despite the Classic 6’s design, I wouldn’t position this as the ideal device for Sega Saturn emulation.

There are issues with a few other consoles as well, but they mostly come down to the lack of sticks. For me, this isn’t really a bug, but rather a feature. Sticks would make this device far less pocketable and detract from the Game Boy-like design. The small sticks found on these kinds of devices are also generally uncomfortable to use. You can make it work by swapping the D-pad for the left stick and adding an overlay on the screen for the other stick, but that’s not a great experience, either. Just stick to D-Pad-focused games.

The lack of sticks is a feature, not a bug.

Interestingly, while the chipset nailed emulation performance, it suffered from occasional stutters when navigating menus in Android 14. It also lacks compatibility for some Play Store games and apps, both in terms of software and controls. Some apps turned the screen on its side, with no option to rotate it back to its proper position.

I suspect many of these quirks will be fixed over time, but one thing that can’t be fixed is the lack of video out support. I confirmed with Qualcomm that the chipset simply doesn’t support it, so you’ll have to look elsewhere to play on a big screen.

Regardless, it’s extremely impressive how well this chipset performs, and it’s made me very excited to see the Snapdragon G2 Gen 2, which is confirmed for the next flagship Retroid Pocket handheld.

Retroid Pocket Classic review verdict: The best value in Android gaming handhelds

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

With all that said, the most surprising thing about this handheld is the price: it starts at just $119 for the 4+64GB version. I’d recommend bumping that up to the 6+128GB for $10 more, but that’s an incredible value for what you’re getting here.

Sure, you can spend half that on something like the TrimUI Brick ($84.99 at Amazon) seen above, but the Linux-based handheld is smaller, far less powerful, and you lose compatibility with Android games. For more power, you’ll have to pay hundreds more for the AYANEO Pocket DMG ($419 at Manufacturer site), which is frankly overkill for a device like this unless you really want a luxury Game Boy clone.

The Retroid Pocket Classic is unbeatable in its price bracket.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Retroid Pocket Classic, and I suspect it will replace every other vertical handheld in my collection. You’ll still have to jump through some hoops to install emulators and a decent front-end like ES DE, but for $120-130, it’s worth the trouble. Just think about whether or not you really need those two extra buttons from the Classic 6 edition.

This is an incredible first showing for Qualcomm’s cheapest gaming-focused chipset and an absolute home run for Retroid. I love this device, and I can’t wait to see more handhelds utilize these chips.