GoRetroid unveils the Retroid Pocket Flip, a Nintendo DS-inspired handheld game console

Handheld gaming consoles have exploded in popularity over the past year, led by the likes of Valve’s Steam Deck and the slew of retro-focused handheld consoles. One of the biggest players in this market is GoRetroid, the team behind the Retroid Pocket family of handhelds. GoRetroid this week unveiled their next handheld, but its design borrows heavily from one of the most popular handhelds of all time.

The Retroid Pocket Flip is a clamshell handheld console. It looks strikingly similar to Nintendo’s DS Lite, sans the lower screen of Nintendo’s handheld. The Pocket Flip is very similar in size to the DS Lite, measuring 139 x 82 x 25.4 mm. This makes it a bit thick and perhaps a bit hard to pocket.

The thickness is largely due to the trigger buttons located on the back of the device. Speaking of buttons, the Pocket Flip as a standard array of buttons, including a directional pad, four face buttons (ABXY arrangement), two middle buttons (presumably menu or start/select buttons), and two flat joysticks. There are two shoulder buttons (L1 and R1), the aforementioned triggers (L2 and R2), and two tiny buttons on the back labelled “L3” and “R3.”

The handheld’s joysticks look surface-mounted rather than recessed, implying that they will function much like the Nintendo 3DS’s slider joystick. 

I/O includes a USB-C port, a micro-HDMI port, and a headphone jack. The Pocket Flip will support microSD cards. 

Other specs are currently unknown. GoRetroid stated they will announce the device’s hardware later this week. Presumably, it will be on par or slightly better than the Retroid Pocket 3+, which could emulate most Gamecube games and some lighter PlayStation 2 titles. However, this is merely speculation; we won’t have a good guess at its gaming prowess until we know what’s running under that shell.

The Retroid Pocket Flip will come in five colors: Sport Red, Black, “16Bit US” (which bears a color scheme similar to that of North America’s Super Nintendo), Indigo (which looks like the same purple as the Gamecube), and Watermelon (a transparent red). 

There’s no word yet of a release date.

Buy the Anbernic RG353M retro handheld game console at Amazon. 

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Sam Medley – Senior Tech Writer – 1232 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2016

I’ve been a computer geek my entire life. After graduating college with a degree in Mathematics, I worked in finance and banking a few years before taking a job as a database administrator. I started working with Notebookcheck in October of 2016 and have enjoyed writing news and reviews. I’ve also written for other outlets including UltrabookReview and GeeksWorldWide, focusing on consumer guidance and video gaming. My areas of interest include the business side of technology, retro gaming, Linux, and innovative gadgets. When I’m not writing on electronics or tinkering with a device, I’m either outside with my family, enjoying a decade-old video game, or playing drums or piano.