Retroid’s Pocket Nova Puts Classic Games Back in Their Proper Frame, This Hands-On Review Proves It

Retroid opened shipping on the Pocket Nova at the end of July, and the early reaction from people who care about older consoles has been unusually consistent. This is the one they have been waiting for if their idea of a good handheld starts with a screen that matches the games instead of forcing them into a modern widescreen box.

The central component is a 4.5-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1280 by 960 pixels. That resolution produces a very clean 4:3 ratio and operates at a smooth 120Hz. Games from the ancient 8-bit and 16-bit eras, as well as the PlayStation 1, N64, GameCube, and a sizable portion of the PlayStation 2 catalog, were all designed with a 4:3 aspect ratio. On most modern handhelds, these classic games are either trapped with black bars or have their pixels stretched to fit, but here the image fills the screen from one end to the other. It’s true what reviewers have said about the early versions of this stuff, as Super Mario Sunshine, God of War II, and even a Dreamcast racing game appear as natural as they did back then. With a peak brightness of around 500 nits, deep blacks, and the deep color saturation that OLED provides, the image remains clear and simple to read even in direct sunlight, and it appears rich and vivid indoors as well.

Qualcomm’s industrial-grade QCS8550 chip provides power, which is essentially a modified Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with the same processor and Adreno 740 GPU but a locked cellular modem. The majority of the GameCube catalog plays nicely at 2x or 3x resolution, as do many PlayStation 2 titles, with the more demanding ones still running after some tuning. Dreamcast, PSP, and anything older simply work as is; no adjustments are required, which makes a significant difference when attempting to increase the resolution. It’s a good thing they have an active cooling mechanism in place because it helps protect the chip from overheating while you play for extended periods of time.

The body measures approximately 170 by 84 by 16 mm and weighs 255 grams, making it tiny enough to fit in a pocket while still providing enough room for the 4:3 screen to breathe. The Hall-effect sticks are on either side, with the triggers behind them and stacked shoulder buttons on top, and the D-pad is securely tucked away in the upper left corner, as it should be if you’ve used a Retroid device previously. Front-facing stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphone port handle audio responsibilities without the need for a dubious converter, and due to USB-C, you can output at up to 4K at 60Hz, making docking it to a larger screen a no-brainer. If you need extra space for all those old games, a microSD card allows you to extend the 128GB of internal storage, and the 5,000mAh battery charges quickly at 27 watts.

Android 13 has been released, and it is, as expected, available on emulator front ends. Next, we have the typical promised updates, which will be delivered over-the-air to keep the system improving over time. You can choose between 8 GB of LPDDR5X and a massive 12 GB, providing you some flexibility in terms of how much you can run at once. The colors available are somewhat modest, a simple black, a sophisticated 16-bit grey, or a deep indigo with a clear homage to the previous GameCube platform. They cost $229 for the 8 GB variant and $269 for the 12 GB. The more translucent alternatives, such as Ice Blue, Crystal, Watermelon, and Clear Purple, will cost slightly more. Shipping began on July 28th in batches of a single color, so if you pre-ordered early, you might already have your Nova in the mail.

On top of that, compatibility with Retroids’ Dual Screen Add-on ($69) is a nice bonus addition. This allows you to add another 5.5-inch AMOLED screen to the rear of your Nova, transforming it into a full-featured 2-screen handheld for all your Nintendo DS and 3DS needs. The add-on is available separately, but it’s a reasonable cost for a more true handheld experience with your older games.