The Retroid Pocket 5 is a true beauty. It’s not just pretty, it’s solid and well-built, and offers plenty of punch both natively and in emulation. Playing games on consoles from the Master System up to the PS2 has been a blast and it’s been one of my favourite gaming experiences in a long time.
| Pros | Cons |
| Beautifully display Solid power Gorgeous design | Potentially uncomfortable if you have bigger hands The normal annoyances with Android Setup required out of the box |
Out of the box and into my hands one thing is immediately clear to me that set’s this little retro device apart from all the others I’ve tried. The hardware is top-notch. The design is sleek, and the gorgeous OLED display is stunning. The buttons are satisfying to press, and the triggers have a nice grippy texture that feels good and tells me that real attention has been paid when designing and producing this device.
Running on Android 13, the Retroid Pocket 5 has a lot of options for games. You can download them from the Play Store, cloud streaming, or use emulation, and no matter which option I chose, gaming on the Retroid Pocket 5 was a blast. Natively installed games ran smoothly, and I never noticed any obvious or noticeable slowdowns playing games like CoD Mobile, Genshin Impact or Diablo Eternal. Cloud streaming works well across PlayStation remote play and Xbox cloud streaming, and again, despite the obvious inconsistencies of streaming technology, I never really saw any issues.
Emulation is at the core of the Retroid Pocket 5 and has been at the heart of Retroid devices since day one. The RP5 never disappointed. It handled everything up to PS2 and Gamecube games at higher resolutions than I expected and ran silky smooth even when running widescreen hacks. Pushing the resolution higher than the 1080p that was necessary on a display like this, and while God of War II (which can prove a challenge on other devices like this) ran smoothly, but newer consoles like the Switch and WiiU didn’t work quite as well. I’m not sure if this is down to the hardware of the somewhat immature and underdeveloped emulators as the CEMU software is still in early development for WiiU emulation and switch emulators like Yuzu and Ryujinx have had their development halted hard by Nintendo. When I could get games running though they looked and played great! I find it hard to believe that any problems with even these more demanding emulators were down to the hardware as it looked like it could perform fantastically given the chance.
The Retroid Pocket 5 is an awesome device that offers great value for money, especially with its amazing display. It’s not quite an alternative to more expensive options like the Steam Deck, but if you’re someone who has been tinkering with emulation on smartphones with more powerful chips and better displays than some of the lower-end emulation machines, this could be perfect.
For me, it sits right in the middle of those two key categories. It’s a step up from some of the handheld retro gaming devices that sit under the $100 price point for sure. The controls, ergonomics, display, and feature set all set it apart, and when you start introducing game streaming, you do find yourself with a device that could offer a full top-to-bottom experience. It’s not quite the native AAA gaming offering of the Steam Decks and ROG Allys of the world, but it’s not too far off either. Depending on the display they’re packing, you might even enjoy it even more.
The other bonus of running Android and offering some pretty wide compatibility options is that I found myself testing this little handheld as a full-docked home console. I ran it into a third-party dock I had sitting around, paired it with my PlayStation DualSense controller, and huzzah. We have a home console. Now, this isn’t particularly mind-blowing, not in a post-Nintendo Switch world. There are handhelds for a lot less and a lot more that can do exactly this, but hey, I’d rather have it than not.
All things considered, I think the Retroid Pocket 5 is without a doubt the best ‘retro handheld’ I’ve ever used. Offering this much power and such a gorgeous display at a very comfortable price point should make it appealing to any buyer. It thrives as a retro emulation device, offers great gaming natively if you can find what you need from the Google Play store, and offers connectivity options that open it up to a lot of streaming options that can turn it into a viable gaming machine for modern AAA titles. This power, this experience, and this screen at that price. I think Retroid nailed it.
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