Buy the Retroid Pocket Classic here: https://joeysrh.link/RP_CLASSIC
Welcome to the Classic
The Analogue Pocket, to this day, years later, is still one of my favorite handhelds.
Not only does it have the best screen in any handheld that I’ve personally used, which is downright gorgeous and beautiful, but it has some of the best speakers with fantastic sound, hits the right nostalgia notes with the different colors and options they’ve sold over the years and is one of the rare vertical handhelds that looks like a gameboy color without compromising that look with sticks or any other weirdness.
For years, I’ve been waiting for an Analogue Pocket competitor with those same qualities and Retroid has finally made one with their new Retroid Pocket Classic.
The Retroid Pocket Classic has a beautiful and gorgeous OLED display, it has a fantastic mono speaker which gives you all the nostalgia vibes you want and they hit the right notes with offering different color options and even a Sega 6 button option.
All of this with a Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 processor, Android OS and for the price of $129 US dollars.
Yep, only $129 US dollars.
The Classic stands out
In a sea of vertical retro handhelds, the Retroid Pocket Classic stands out as being the next step up from the budget options like the Miyoo Mini Plus, Anbernic RG40XX V and so on – for those that want that premium Game Boy Color feeling, with a beautiful OLED screen, great controls, great sound and so on.
If we look at just premium vertical experiences – it’s shockingly the one part of the retro handhelds hobby that is lacking, which you’d find weird given the entire handheld market kind of started thanks to verticals.
You have the Analogue Pocket, like we talked about, there’s the Anbernic RG406V which is a big, bulky device with sticks and more and then there’s the Ayaneo Pocket DMG which requires you to take a mortgage out just to afford.
I’m surprised it’s taken so long, but we finally have a $130 US dollar vertical device that’s just a beautiful game boy color and arguably the best option of the bunch.
Lots of power here
The Retroid Pocket Classic can play more than just Game Boy, of course – this is running Android 13 with a Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 processor and that means you have enough power to even play some GameCube, some PlayStation 2 and all of that – although you wouldn’t, without sticks, but just driving the point home of the power here.
If you’re feeling especially spicy on a weekend, and you want to play Nintendo 64 or any other system that uses a stick in the worst way possible – you can do that here, but let’s be honest, use the right tool for the right job and avoid any systems with sticks.
In reality, you want to see this as a premium experience for essentially PlayStation 1 games and under. I know, I know, you’ve heard that before, but just because a device is more powerful, doesn’t mean it makes sense to force that power, especially on a device without the sticks to go with it.
How I use it
I’ve really enjoyed playing Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on this screen and in this form factor, it fits perfectly, the OLED makes it stand out and this is a premium experience that you just don’t get anywhere else.
There is of course NES and SNES games, which you can adjust to 8:7 aspect ratios and enjoy using up more of the screen. I would consider all of this to be exact reasons to grab this device as it’s what this excels at.
Since this is a weird 31:27 aspect ratio screen, most of the vertical style aspect ratios will work great here, but ironically, you’ll have no issues with 4:3 content either like PlayStation 1 and there’s plenty of power here to push PS1 if you want to – then we can get into Game Boy Advance, Sega consoles and handhelds and so on.
Really, the only negative here for some people is the existence of black bars on some content, but if you can push your way through that – you’ll have a great experience.
Standout features
I’m going to keep going back to the Analogue Pocket comparison here, since the Pocket can do a lot of emulation through openFPGA like what we’ve talked about, but the Classic can do more and cheaper, with a lot more options with WiFi, Android and so on.
As someone who primarily uses the Analogue Pocket for emulation, instead of actual real carts, the benefits here can’t be understated.
During my time using the Classic, there’s been a few standouts.
The screen, of course, is just fantastic.
We have a 3.92” 1240×1080 AMOLED screen – the same that is now being used in the Retroid Pocket Mini V2, or I guess that we’ve always had in that handheld.
But OLED is good, OLED is great and it’s a showcase feature with this device to just show others and be like, look how amazing Link’s Awakening looks on this?
And you never get tired of the screen, it continues to impress and is one of the best parts about the device.
Fantastic audio
I mentioned it before, but the speaker audio is just fantastic and that was a shock to me as typically Retroid has major issues with speakers.
To me, this likely is some of the best sound in the sub $200 category that I can think of, it really is shockingly good.
Comfort & Tour
The overall comfort and ergonomics of the device feel great as well.
It’s a wider vertical handheld, with some thickness, and the nice curved back helps with gripping it nicely.
I like to prop up the handheld using my pinkies underneath and the entire thing feels comfortable – nothing sharp, nothing uncomfortable, everything is in the right positions and feels great.
The Retroid style dpad makes an appearance here along with fairly quiet buttons as well on the front.
One of the best parts about this device is not having any sticks to ruin it with – there are a hundred vertical handhelds out there with sticks, and for people that want a premium, Game Boy Color experience without sticks, there is only the one – the Classic.
That does mean some weirdness for having to map your RetroArch hotkey, but I’ve just used select and it works just fine for most games.
Android OS & No video out
Software wise, nothing special to speak of here.
For those unfamiliar with Retroid’s Android software, you essentially get access to anything and everything that you need. Swipe down, and you can adjust the performance mode if you like, turn on or off the fan, change your controller style from Nintendo to Xbox layout, connect Bluetooth controllers and so on – everything that you’d want.
It’s important to note, this does not support video out at all, so you won’t be able to dock this to a TV which to me, is the handhelds biggest miss in making it super complete as a recommendation.
I’ve stayed in Standard performance mode my entire time using the device, with the fan off, and I haven’t felt it get super hot or uncomfortable at all. The fan, when on and on its lowest setting of Quiet, has a fair amount of coil whine and so that’s not something I want to hear, and I keep it off.
They nailed it
But for me, this absolutely nails what it’s going for.
It’s a beautiful looking device, with a beautiful screen, great sound, great performance and everything and anything that you’d want from a premium Game Boy experience.
I can finally say that I have my Analogue Pocket replacement, and not for any lack of love for the Analogue Pocket as I think that’s one of the best handhelds out there, but this can do so much more, for less and a lot more available.
Against the competition
Some lasting thoughts on competition here and why you might want to buy this, or might not want to.
If you just got the Retroid Pocket Mini V2 screen replacement kit, and you fixed up yours, then I can’t see why you’d want one of these outside of a new form factor – the Mini V2 has the same screen, a lot more powerful, has sticks and a whole bunch more so it’s a more complete device.
If you’ve been wanting a better Miyoo Mini Plus, TrimUI Brick, or any of those types of stickless vertical handhelds – and prefer not having sticks, then this is everything that you want.
I can’t really point to any major negatives to the Classic, it’s a joy to use, joy to play on and is just the quintessential nostalgia game boy experience that you want and hasn’t existed until now.