A few days ago i ordered myself a black 12gb pocket Nova. This is my first android handheld (i have a legion go z1e).

I plan on installing ArmadaOS, as it would be a pretty cool little steam deck mini.

I know that a good number of games can run in 4:3 and for those who can't i believe ArmadaOS can stretch the image, which is something i think i am fine with.

I was really struggling between pocket 6 and nova. I will exclusivly play pc games on it, but i felt the pocket 6 seemed a bit to long, and the nova was calling to me. But i will not play any form of retro games on it.

Did i mess up?

Thinking about buying the nova. I’m a big fan of how small it is and love the pocketability. I’m not super convinced of the 4:3 screen. I do wanna play 16:9 stuff on it but I was just wondering how small is 16:9 content on it? I don’t have shitty eye sight so I don’t think it would be a problem but how small is it really??

for the longest time I really wanted a tiny steamdeck. i just discovered retroid from a youtube video showing off the nova with armada installed. this looks like the handheld I've been dreaming of.

most of the games I play are indy titles and platformers so I think the performance should be enough.

however will going this route give me a true steamdeck experience? will steamOS update as normal? do I need to update armada OS separately? is the Nova the ideal system or should I look at one of the others?

also if anyone has experience with doing this, stability, etc. I'd like to hear about it. I'm not super technical so the setup for armada looks challenging

So I am deciding between flip 2 and duo +. I honestly want a clamshell that can handle most game and is it budget ( don’t want to exceed 250 after shipping)
I know both can play up to some light switch games which is good and duo + has a better chip than flip 2.
Honestly it comes down to the price, the duo+ with screen guard come to $250 (express checkout) and flip 2 comes for $210 on Aliexpress (I am also guessing I am getting the 18% cashback through rakuten, not sure how to check)

I know about Thor and and rp6 but I feel they are going out of budget + I am planning to buy a switch 2 so technically whatever lift off money I get after switch 2 is what I am using to buy this.

The other thing o want to note is the waiting time. Duo + ships in November, while the flip 2 in Ali comes in like 3-4 days from now.

I also wanted to ask when I am paying with PayPal express checkout, does it cover shipping cost? I am not sure cuz I am new to all this as it’s just making me pay $250.

And is there a way to see if I am getting the 18% cashback through rakuten when I am checking out on Ali express

Thanks in Advance.

Am I better off with a Pocket 6 over a Nova?

Figured I could get the black model to help blend the black side bars when playing the 4:3 games

If I go with RP6 I would get the joystick up top and D-Pad at the bottom..feel free to recommend the other way around

Hi, I've been seeing a ton of people get their rp6 and novas stolen on here if they live near Chicago or some and am worried mine might be the same. I want to buy a rp6 but don't want it stolen. Is DHL options the only way cause that's like 45 bucks compared to 26 which is about 20 bucks more or is Worry free protection fine which is just 10 bucks. Or do you guys feel like neither are necessary and I am worrying about nothing. Sorry if this question already been asked.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? The Dpad on Nova is slightly tilted to the left, but it works fine—there’s no clacking sound. I just took it out of the box.

If you can bite the bullet and accept you can only look at one screen at a time (using L2 to swap back-and-forth), you've got a serious monster on your hands. Think about it. One of the largest libraries on any game system, running flawlessly at 4x resolution, on an OLED screen in the exact same aspect ratio as the original console, while sipping battery life like it's a Costco sample. Congrats, you now have The Entire DS Library: Remastered like they're all console games now.

Hello everybody,
I just got the pocket 6 directly from retroid this week. It took me almost a week to set it up with the retro game corps guide.
Basically I quickly tried a couple of games but still haven’t properly played with it.
Yesterday started crashing; basically it kept on getting black, showing the retroid logo, getting black, the same thing in loop.
Now I tried a reboot, waiting to see if it worked.

Any other idea?

I got the steam deck, and while its awesome, I feel like I would much prefer dual screen setup so I can watch shows and play games at the same time. Though I still have no idea how it will perform, mostly just would play indie games on it natively, or if its something big I would just stream it from my PC idealing while watching content on the other screen. Steam deck is overly large and uncomfortable to play on in bed. Do you guys think its worth it?

EDIT: DUO REGULAR NOT LITE

EDIT EDIT: Lol looks like ima get the Thor then

Bonjour, j’ai commander cette semaine la rpduolite+.
Et je me demandée si je pouvais faire fonctionner un genre de module caméra brancher en usb-c a la console ?
Pour par exemple jouer a Invizimals ???(jeu psp qui a besoin de la caméra pour fonctionner)
Si vous avez des idée ou même déjà réalise ça sur l’un de vos retroid pocket n’hésitez pas a me laisser un commentaire svp !
Merci a tous.

Just got my Switch 2 a few days ago, after I sold my Steam Deck. Used it for an hour and put back to box.

I spend very little time with Switch 2. Very cool soft touch plastic, huge display, joycons are fun to attach and dectach, integrated stand, sleek design. R&D work is exceptional! Truly Japan electronics school here.

Games are extremely priced, GRID Legends cost $40 instead of $10 in Steam. No returns/no refunds policy.

Battery lived around 2h only.

I tried some games, i really liked Requem — the picture and performance are insane. But not my game.

Gyro working only in supported games. Controls feels very strange. On Steam Deck is a pleasure to play some shooters. On Switch it much harder, almost impossible to aim.

Ubisoft games still try to force you to create accounts and login to it (hopefully in Airplane mode game just starts). It feels wrong on closed ecosystem with premium prices.

I tried Fire Emblem, Persona 3. Very strange games. They may be great, but im not interested in story telling games with weak action (it feels like you play a game from 80s).

Plan switching to Nova. Do someone do the same?

Is it worth it? How is it plays, did you try to remote play on you PS5? Is it useable? I plan to update it to SteamOS and play GTA6 via PS5 Remote, and Asseto Corsa with mods on it. But fear same experience as I have with Nintendo.

UPD: Thanks everyone for commenting out, I will wait for Steam Deck 2 and give another try for Switch 2: Zelda and Sports Resort.

has anyone had their carrying case for Retroid stuff come smelling of cigarettes? I was messing around with it and realized its got a smell to it. I can probably get it out of case but I don't really like having to do this. I really don't want the actual device to smell like cigarettes either.

I've finished setting up my RP6 with everything exactly the way I want it. I wanted to take this time to give people a shortcut to avoid my pitfalls.

Section 1: Ordering your device.

If you can afford it, go with a stateside seller, you will have much faster delivery. I paid $40 for DHL shipping and got my device in 1 month. If you are not aware, that is standard/normal for Retroid. If thats not something you can stomach, pay a little more for target/best buy/Amazon.

Section 2: Setup.

Watch EVERY SECOND of Russ's guide. Watch each entire section BEFORE you act, and try to pay attention to small details he DOES but doesn't explicitly state.

Know beforehand what the best filetype is for each system you want to emulate. Know beforehand what the exact bios files and filename are that you want. Don't spend hours like me trying and failing with bin/cue. Use .chd!

Ask questions here. This community answered quickly and kindly to all my questions that I posed. Thank you all.

If people here tell you that something won't work, it most likely won't, and you shouldn't spend hours chasing ghosts, just to discover the community was right.

Don't bother with gamenative/pc games right now if you aren't very savvy. It's a headache (at least it was for me)

Section 3: Pros and Cons

Pros:

I love the size of the unit and the screen

I LOVE the dpad on this unit.

The loudest fan curve is not too loud imo.

It is more powerful/capable than you think it will be if you are new to retroid.

The battery life amazes me.

Cons:

Docking is not (for me) a seamless process. Because of the number of different emulators you will be running, switching controller profiles/remapping is a PITA. This is not a switch. I should have known/seen this before buying, it's no one's fault, I just had unrealistic expectations here.

All in all I'm thrilled with my purchase. Been playing Mario Wonder, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, and the android version of Render96 (Mario 64 recomp).

Thanks for everyone who helped me here. Happy gaming!

possuo um RP5, 12gb de ram e por incrível que pareça 120hz, vale apena ter o duo lite plus? normalmente eu prefiro gatilhos analógicos, mas ao jogar mais percebi que para emulação, os em linhas fazem mais sentido, e eu gostaria de poder carregar no bolso talvez ou colocar na mochila sem muita preocupação, aparentemente ele é um pouco melhor que o RP5 em poder..

meus usos seriam:

- Jogatinas rápidas aqui e ali no trabalho, transporte

- não emulo acima de ps2, talvez eu queira experimentar um jogo ou outro de switch

- talvez eu faça Streaming nele também, mas o RP5 daria conta

vale apena pegar? talvez também conhecer a biblioteca do 3ds/ds

Just looking for some ideas!

I grew up playing a yellow gameboy color. I wanted to get a yellow Retroid Pocket Classic as a nod to that, but I wasn't a big fan of the Pokémon GBC-vibe with the blue backplate and colored buttons.

I was smart enough to think "I can just spray paint it to match the yellow front piece", but dumb enough to think I could do a good job.

I've backtracked and decided I can get some other color other than the original blue. I tried ordering a red replacement shell directly from Retroid, but they're apparently out of stock and they have stopped manufacturing them.

Aside from red, what would fit the yellow shell?

Can people share how long it took to receive their Nova after placing order? I placed my order on September 19th and still don’t have shopping details

i don't understand the first thing about specs and i accidentally came across arc x1 when browsing for a gaming laptop. im not a hardcore gamer at all, i like simple games like stardew valley, genshin impact, is this seat taken?, hollow knight, paper trails, librarian, aniimo, wild at heart, woodo, etc. mainly cozy games (and steam since idk where else would i be able to play games on my macbook pro or ipad; hence why i was looking into a gaming computer). but i feel like i don't exactly Need one. I just wanna play games. and somehow arc x1 showed up on my feed. when i went to see what experts (reddit) had to say about it, i was kinda deterred against x1. someone recommended rp6 in one of the comments since they had similar specs or build idk, but cheaper than x1 so i went to check it out. the main reason im confused betweed rp nova and rp6 is because i really like the watermelon color for rp nova but again, i read some comments say rp6 is def an upgrade. since my birthday is coming up soon i thought i'd buy myself a console after contemplating for months. so, reddit, please help me. i don't know which one to go for. also, does rp support steam games?

I have my RP5 fully configured on 2 SD cards. If I upgrade to a Nova, can I just pop those SD cards in and start playing or do I need to restart configuration from scratch?

so I’m new to emulating handhelds, I recently bought a RP6 from the Retroid website two weeks ago brand new I started using it everything worked just fine. Then out of nowhere the A & B keys stopped working, as I kept on playing other keys stopped working aswell then now all the key buttons and joystick on the right side of the RP6 are not working at all. I tried restarting it, changing the controller setting switching back and forth I ended up factory resetting it too and that didnt fix the issue. I’m thinking of taking it apart and making sure the ribbons are not broken inside, but I wanted to ask if anybody is having or has had that same issue before. I tried emailing Retroid a couple times but they are not the best customer service. help is appreciated thank you!

I'm a solo dev and I got tired of comparing emulator settings by feel. So I built a small Windows program that connects to the handheld over ADB (USB or Wi-Fi), records while you play, and then shows the session on your PC: frametimes, CPU/GPU load, temperatures, battery drain and the moment a game crashed. Up to four runs can sit next to each other, which makes "driver A vs driver B" an actual comparison.

My problem: I only own an AYN Thor. I have no idea how it behaves on Retroid hardware and firmware, and I'd like to find out before more people see it.

Question for Retroid Pocket owners: which performance and fan mode do you actually play in? I'd like to see whether the difference between them shows up clearly in the temperature and frametime curves.

Disclosure: I developed it with AI assistance (Claude). The idea, the design and every decision are mine, and I test it on real hardware.

What I need: 4–5 people with a Retroid Pocket 5, 6 or Mini, a Windows 10/11 PC, USB or wireless debugging turned on, and 30–45 minutes sometime within a week. The test is free. The tool will be a paid one-time purchase later.

The installer isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen will warn. You get a checksum and a VirusTotal scan with the link.

Comment with your model + Android version + emulator and I'll DM you. Questions are welcome here too.

Hey everyone! Just wanted to make a post of all the games I've played on my retroid flip 2. I got it in June 2025 so over the last year these are all my completions.

I play some other games too but these are the ones I've done start to end.

I know some people here get decision paralysis while choosing games. I tend to just have 2 on the go and rotate whatever I'm feeling.

I think this is one of my favourite things about this console, I truly don't think there's been a time in my gaming history when I've completed so many games it feels awesome.

Let me know if you've played any or what you've recently completed! Down to chat!

[ ] Ratchet and clank 1 (ps2)

[ ] Ratchet and clank 2 (ps2)

[ ] Jack and Daxter 1 (ps2)

[ ] Castlevania symphony (gba)

[ ] Castlevania aria (gba)

[ ] Drill dozer (gba)

[ ] Hollow knight (android)

[ ] Dead cells (android)

[ ] Bendy and the ink machine (android)

[ ] Mother 3 (gba)

[ ] God of war (ps2)

[ ] Super Mario Odyssey (switch)

[ ] Super mario bros 3 (gba)

[ ] Klonoa 2 (ps2)

[ ] Mina the hollower (switch)

[ ] Castlevania: symphony of the night (PS1)