If you've been biding your time to buy a retro gaming handheld, Retroid may have just helped to seal the deal. In a surprising yet welcome move, the manufacturer has announced a series of permanent price cuts to three of its existing handhelds. The Pocket 5, Pocket Flip 2, and Mini V2 are now cheaper to purchase directly from Retroid's site, but prices on other sites, such as Amazon, will remain the same. However, this has led to some fans speculating that new models are coming soon, but are their suspicions correct?
Announcing the news on the social media site X, Retroid listed the discounts as follows:
- Retroid Pocket Flip 2: Was $229. Now $209
- Retroid Pocket 5: Was $219. Now $199
- Retroid Pocket Mini V2: Was $199. Now $179
This equals a $20 price drop on all three models, but the Dimensity 1100 version of the Pocket Flip 2 remains the same price. Although this may seem like a small discount to some, it means that the Retroid Pocket 5, the company's flagship handheld, is now under that $200 sweet spot.
Despite arriving in 2024, the Pocket 5 still has some impressive specs that put it toe-to-toe with the rest of the top picks from our guide to the best retro handhelds. This includes a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a sharp 1920 x 1080 resolution, a beefy Adreno 650 GPU chip, 8GB of memory, and lots more. It's the ideal device for playing the best Android games on, as well as some of your favorite retro titles.
There's also the Pocket Flip 2, which is essentially a cheaper version of the Pocket 5 with a foldable form factor, despite having similar specs. But if you need something with better grip, the Flip 2's design will be a big help here.
Finally, the Mini V2 is what it says on the tin: a small variant of Retroid's lineup, but it includes a great 1240×1080 AMOLED 3.92-inch display, Snapdragon 865 CPU, and much more. It's the cheapest of the bunch but still has plenty of performance power for running games at low to medium graphics settings.
The elephant in the room asks if these price cuts hint at successors for these devices. We doubt it, as the Pocket 5 is only a year old and shows no signs of going away anytime soon. The Flip 2 has seen an updated model with a more powerful chip inside it in the past few months, and the Mini V2 has also only been available for a short time.
We see this effort from Retroid as a way to drive up sales for the upcoming holidays, and likely nothing else. But, if you've been looking for a retro gaming handheld to buy for yourself or someone else as a gift, now seems like a perfect time to buy one from Retroid.
In the meantime, check out our guides to the best gaming phones and the best gaming tablets if you're looking for something with far more power. Or, if you're looking for something to play, see our guides to the best Switch games and the best mobile games.