Analogue Pocket review: The best retro gaming handheld ever

Our Verdict

The Analogue Pocket is probably the best retro gaming handheld always made. Its high quality screen and support for multiple handheld systems substantially solves well-nigh — if non all — of the needs of the retro modding community.

For

• Excellent, rigid blueprint
• Superb sound quality
• Pinnacle-course native game execution
• Great screen

Confronting

• Uses LCD instead of OLED
• Dock is a fiddling pricey
• Finicky Bluetooth controller connectivity

Tom'southward Guide Verdict

The Analogue Pocket is probably the all-time retro gaming handheld ever made. Its loftier quality screen and back up for multiple handheld systems essentially solves most — if not all — of the needs of the retro modding community.

Pros

• +

  Excellent, rigid design

• +

  Superb sound quality

• +

  Top-class native game execution

• +

  Peachy screen

Cons

• -

  Uses LCD instead of OLED

• -

  Dock is a little pricey

• -

  Finicky Bluetooth controller connectivity

ANALOGUE POCKET: SPECS

Price: $220
Chipset: Altera Cyclone V, Altera Cyclone 10
Display: 3.5-inch LTPS LCD Display
Resolution: 1600x1440
Framerate: 60 fps
Ports: USB-C, 3.v mm audio, microSD, HDMI (docked), USB (docked)
Weight: nine.vii ounces (276g)
Battery life: half-dozen-10 hours (4,300 mAh)

The Analogue Pocket is the greatest retro gaming handheld e'er made. For retro gaming enthusiasts that take been modifying former Game Boys with modern LCD displays, end what you're doing. Analogue solves all the hurting points of dealing with archetype hardware by bringing an elegantly designed handheld that does pretty much everything an enthusiast could want, simply amend.

As a handheld modder, I at present see very fiddling reason in hunting down onetime Game Gears and adding custom-made sound boards or battery mods. The Pocket accomplishes the aforementioned tasks, minus whatsoever soldering. And considering the cost to buy various parts, even the Pocket's high $219 price seems reasonable by comparing.

What Analogue has done is fulfilled a collective communal vision of the perfect retro gaming handheld. It plays everything from Tetris on the original Game Boy, Pokémon Yellow on the Game Boy Colour, Metroid Fusion on the Game Boy Advance and Sonic Mania on the Sega Game Gear. And does so all in i sleek, well designed package.

Analogue Pocket review: Design

When you agree the Analogue Pocket, its weight and heft are immediately noticeable. The Pocket feels tank-like, with an nearly brutalist square design. It's likewise bigger than what online photos suggest. It dwarfs a standard Game Boy Colour, with the Counterpart Pro closer in size to the original black-and-white Game Boy. Luckily, the Counterpart Pocket doesn't crave four AA batteries and charges via USB-C instead.

(Prototype credit: Tom'south Guide)

The Pocket has a clean, minimalist look. Information technology most looks like a concept design render brought to life. Information technology has a standard D-pad and four unmarked face buttons, an understandable choice given that the Pocket plays more than than Game Boy games. Around the back are two L and R buttons.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The Counterpart Pocket's body seems to be fabricated of sandwiched layers, with the front-half being polycarbonate and the back using metallic. Around the periphery are a microSD slot, Game Male child link cable port, a USB-C connector for charging and a headphone jack.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

Fifty-fifty then, I wouldn't call the Pocket pocketable. The unit of measurement is about the size of the Nintendo Switch'southward screen, and is well-nigh a centimeter thicker too. At the very least, you can stash information technology in a haversack.

Counterpart Pocket review: Screen

The screen on the Analogue Pocket is massive, encompassing more than than half the device. The 3.v-inch brandish sits at a sharp 1660x1440 resolution, which is exactly x-times that of the original Game Boy (160x144). It means that Game Male child and and Game Boy Color games scale perfectly, stretching from corner to corner.

(Prototype credit: Tom'south Guide)

As someone who has modded a Game Boy Color with an IPS display and is currently working on a second modded unit of measurement with a new larger aftermarket screen, I can say, without a doubt, that the screen Analogue has affixed to the Pocket is undoubtedly better. Resolution bated, colors pop and give breath to classic games such every bit The Fable of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Pokémon Yellow. It feels on-par with emulators which can be downloaded on Android phones.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

As much equally I honey the screen, it doesn't have the black levels of an OLED brandish, like the one found on the Nintendo Switch OLED. This is far from a deal-breaker, only for a handheld that costs $219, information technology would have been a nice addition.

Because of the Analogue Procket's wider aspect ratio, when playing Game Boy Advance games, y'all'll see black bars on both the summit and lesser of the screen during gameplay. If Analogue had gone with an OLED screen, these black confined would be inky black, considering each pixel would literally be turned off. But on the LCD brandish present, there'due south a faint grey glow.

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

If Analogue were to ever make an OLED model, or if modders were able to manufacture such a screen, I'd switch over immediately.

Analogue Pocket review: Features and expandability

Gaming on original retro hardware always comes with caveats. Playing on an unmodded Game Boy Colour ways full game compatibility, but poor visibility thanks to a non-backlit display. Modding an existing Game Boy Advance with an LCD screen will often cause interference with the speaker, requiring an additional amplifier mod. Or, running a Sega Game Gear with a modern screen modern volition swallow away at AA batteries, requiring a lithium-ion battery mod to compensate. Creating that perfect retro handheld becomes a marathon, every bit members of the customs observe new solutions, which means opening up systems and warming up the soldering iron every few months to install new parts.

Analogue claims the Pocket is uniform with the entire ii,780-plus Game Male child library. In our testing, all of our twenty-or-and then games played well after installing a firmware update. And every bit second-hand retro cartridge prices have soared these past two years, our testing showed that reproduction cartridges worked without any issues. Everdrive wink carts, which allow users to load games onto a microSD, also work with the Pocket.

(Epitome credit: Tom's Guide)

Autonomously from the total game compatibility, original hardware doesn't have the benefits of emulation, such as creating save states to chop-chop choice up from where you left off or swapping out games on the wing.

The Analogue Pocket meshes both worlds of original hardware world and emulation. While the Pocket doesn't utilise emulation and really plays the games off the cartridges themselves, it does bring in modern features, similar existence able to add salve states for titles that tin't relieve natively. Yous also gain the ability to put the organization into sleep mode versus turning the system off entirely. These small quality-of-life improvements that we've grown accustomed to over the past 20 years are now bachelor to our library of '90s and early 2000s titles.

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

The Counterpart Pocket can play more than than merely Nintendo handhelds. With additional adapters, information technology's possible to play Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Atari Lynx and TurboGrafx-xvi games. Each one of these adapters sells for $29, so it's not a prohibitively expensive investment, and certainly cheaper than modding each one of these original retro handhelds.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The only downside to these adapters is that games don't sit flush with the back of the Pocket. When playing Game Boy Color games on a GBA, cartridges volition stick out the top. It'southward not the worst matter, but does collide with the system's clean design.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

I wonder if Analogue could have created an adapter cartridge that makes Game Gear and other cartridges sit upside downwards, similar with the Game Shark accessories from dorsum in the twenty-four hour period. This potential design prevents cartridges from sticking out the top.

Regardless, Game Gear playback, with the adapter, worked flawlessly.

Analogue Pocket Review: Sound

One surface area that has connected to evade the odder community is reliable stereo sound without headphones. As the Game Boy line always shipped with one mono speaker, finding the room inside the cramped shell for a second speaker continues to remain a challenge. Some users take been able to practise it with the GBA, but that requires crush modification, which, if done poorly, can come out looking amateurish.

The Analogue Pocket solves this by edifice 2 speakers into the device. Comparing the background music of Viridian Urban center in Pokémon Yellowish between a standard GBC and the Pocket, the difference was immediately noticeable. At that place's substantially more than depth to the MIDI tunes Juinichi Masuda composed dorsum in the mid-to-late '90s.

(Epitome credit: Tom's Guide)

On long road trips, before the days of MP3 players and smartphones, I would turn on the in-game radio in Pokémon Argent equally a mode to pass the time. With my headphones on, I could hear each bleep and bloop every bit I slowly nodded off. Playing the Counterpart Pocket took me back to those days of quiet chiptune contemplation.

Speaking of music, the Pocket has Nanoloop built in, a piece of software used for making chiptune music. I didn't spend a ton of time with this feature, merely for those that are willing to acquire its intricacies, it could brand for a good time. Cables can too be used to link to MIDI stations or other software.

Analogue Pocket review: Dock

In my opinion, the dock is an nigh-necessary buy with the Analogue Pocket. Simply at $99, it's a steep price for just getting video out to a television. Even then, playing my original Game Boy games on an LG OLED television with a proper sound bar was a delight.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

Updating the dock took a few attempts as the instructions on Analogue'southward website could take been a bit clearer. But after the update, I was able to output video without many issues.

(Paradigm credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Bluetooth controller connectivity has been a sticking point, yet. When using an 8BitDo Pro2, getting the dock to search and connect with the controller was a hassle. It required what felt like blind attempts of putting the controller into pairing mode and the dock into search mode. Subsequently a few attempts, both devices linked up and played nicely.

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Upon turning off the pocket and coming dorsum later on for another play session, somehow the connectivity betwixt both devices had mismatched. I was trying to put both into pairing mode over again simply to notice that a connection could non be established. At the very to the lowest degree, things continued to work via a wired USB connection.

Analogue Pocket review: Gaming experience

The Analogue Pocket has a clean and uncomplicated user interface that's not more than complicated than it needs to be. It sports a few menu options for irresolute some minor settings. But overall, the goal of the Pocket is to get players into the game as apace as possible.

Inside games, players can adjust options like frame bending, sharpness, desaturation and size. And for the handful of Game Male child Color games that had a GBA mode, information technology's possible to enable it in the options.

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

I personally left all the options on default. But, for those that don't care to tinker with all of these settings, the UI with the Pocket is clean and bones enough to where users never have to mess with it.

Analogue Pocket review: Verdict

It'due south honestly so rare to run into a company completely fulfill a communal want. In using the Analogue Pocket for the meliorate part of ii weeks, I could feel the level of dedication put forrad past its designers, something that'south frequently indicative of products by Apple. Merely even then, Apple often holds back on obvious features, merely to introduce them in future iterations.

Overall, the Counterpart Pocket has very few shortcomings. An OLED screen would take been nifty, but the LCD screen bachelor is notwithstanding solid. Bluetooth controller connectivity to the dock could be easier, but with enough tinkering, it works. And the toll of the dock, at $99, is a niggling steep.

These pocket-sized quips aside, Analogue has made a tremendous gaming handheld, one that nine-year-quondam me would have been both in awe and tremendously jealous of. Xx-two years after I put easily on my offset Game Boy Color, I tin can't help but appreciate that aforementioned feeling of awe past the Analogue Pocket.

Imad Khan is news editor at Tom's Guide, helping straight the twenty-four hour period's breaking coverage. Prior to working at the site, Imad was a full-time freelancer, with bylines at the New York Times, the Washington Post and ESPN. Outside of work, yous tin can find him sitting blankly in forepart of a Discussion document trying desperately to write the first pages of a new volume.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/analogue-pocket-handheld

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