Last week, we reported on the news that the Retroid Pocket 6, a new Android gaming handheld, was official. Then, following backlash surrounding the design of the device, we scurried to follow up the news with clarification that the listing for the device had disappeared from the brand\u2019s official site. Now, following some social media market research from Retroid, the Pocket 6 is back, with a fresh design and a pre-order date. Are you keeping up? Good, me neither.<\/p>\n
Despite the big reveal fiasco, the Retroid Pocket 6 looks like a pretty impressive potential future pick for our guide to the best retro handhelds, potentially replacing last year\u2019s Pocket 5. The new Android handheld boasts a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which should make it plenty powerful enough to run your favorite mobile games, a 5.5-inch AMOLED display, and a bumper 6,000mAh battery. Considering it\u2019s launching at $229, that\u2019s some pretty impressive value for money from the spec sheet.<\/p>\n
The difference between the new Pocket 6 design and the original is that the revamped model\u2019s analog stick is above the d-pad, rather than below, and the row of buttons under the device\u2019s display has gone. Personally, I didn\u2019t mind the buttons under the screen, but I do think it\u2019s the right call to swap around the placement of the d-pad and the left-sided analog stick. Outside of those two adjustments and the green colorway mysteriously disappearing from the product listing, there\u2019s nothing to separate the original design from the adjusted mode.<\/p>\n