A lot of power, gorgeous display and clamshell design ticked enough of my boxes. I knew I could be looking at my new favourite handheld…in a sea of fantastic and competitively priced opposition.
| Pros | Cons |
| Gorgeous display Powerful chip A lot of gaming options | Curious design on the lid Potentially awkward and strangely spaced button layout |
What is it?
It feels like only a few months ago I had my hands wrapped around the Retroid Pocket Five. I was falling in love with its OLED display, wonderful controls, and powerful Android gaming experience. But true to the retro handheld market we’re here again. The Retroid Pocket Flip Two is the follow-up to the Retroid Pocket Flip. Which in my understanding was a clam shell version of the Retroid Pocket Four. Which makes this Retros Pocket Flip 2 the clam shell version of the Retroid Pocket Five. Assuming of course you’re purchasing the Version with the Snapdragon 865 chipset as opposed to the Mediatek Dimensity 1100 chipset which is also available at a cheaper price, but leaves it less powerful than the Retroid Pocket 5, but significantly more powerful than the original Retroid Pocket Flip…yeah…
I’ll be taking a look at the Flip 2 with the SD865 processor. Much like the Retroid Pocket Five it comes with a 5.5-inch OLED display an Active cooling system with a fan controlled entirely in software, two hall-effect sticks, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 and a 5000mAh battery. Honestly, I don’t remember listing the specs like this when I did my review for the RP5. It was a smash hit with me then and has been for a lot of players. In my opinion, it’s the best retro handheld device on the market right now. If you don’t want to break that $200-$250 price point, then it’s probably the best handheld you can get, period. So why fix the wheel?
Design and Build
The build quality on this device is fantastic and comes in a range of colours. There’s a standard black, a purple GameCube colour scheme similar to the RP5, a 16-bit grey colour reminiscent of the American Super Nintendo, and the one that Im reviewing which is the transparent ice blue finish. The one thing that can convince me not to go purple is transparent plastic and this feels straight out of the 90s. I adore the look of this handheld. The materials and build quality feel pretty darn good. I have no concerns with the plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap or flexible and is well finished.It certainly doesn’t feel as premium as the RP5. That’s largely due to the entirely glass front of the RP5 which added real value to the feel of the product but that would be almost redundant on a clamshell design like this.
A standard USB-C port, a 3.5 headphone jack, and an SD card slot can be found at the bottom of the device. The latter I have found to be a little stiff, and a bit finicky. I either can’t access it at all or I’m worrying that I might break the little flap, when it is open. It’s recessed just enough that it can be a little bit of a nightmare to get the SD card in and out properly.
The big concern with a clam shell device is always going to be the hinge. People had some issues with the Retroid Pocket Flip in its original iteration; there was some breaking on the hinge over time for some users. It definitely feels a lot better than Nintendo 2DS XL for example. Side-by-side the Pocket Flip 2 definitely has a better hinge. It feels a lot stronger, more secure. It might not be quite as good as the new 3DS XL, but I’d place it comfortably between the two. What did spook me was when I first closed the lid. That hinge has a bit of a spring to it, and it closed with a SNAP! … That was scary. I panicked. I thought I’d broken the display. It was fine. I’m just going to be careful with closing it going forward.
Display
The display on this device is absolutely fantastic. This isn’t news. If you read the review that we put up for the RP5 this will sound familiar, but the display is gorgeous. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do. It always looks great when I’m playing retro games, they can sometimes look a little bit too sharp, but that’s not the displays fault. It’s just the reality of playing retro games that were made for CRT screens or older display tech. On modern displays like this, if you’re want to be playing in a way that offers authenticity, do a little bit of homework. Look into things like shaders and overlays that will make a world of difference because the screen is just too good for those games at times
Android games look fantastic. I played a variety via the Play Store as well as via Netflix Games. The colours on Sonic Mania popped beautifully. Genshin Impact looked gorgeous on this display. I could go on about the screen for ages, but it really is the star of the show. It was on the RP5; it is for the Retro Pocket Flip Two as well.
Controls and Input
Controls are pretty straightforward. There’s full bumpers on the top left and right-hand side, and Left and right triggers that feel a little lighter than I might like. The DualSense controller on the PS5 has spoiled me. I don’t think there’s any problem with the triggers on this device all things considered. The face buttons are great, the D-pad is super responsive, and I didn’t have any problems with missed inputs. Running through Street Fighter and Contra, hitting diagonals felt okay to me.
The analog sticks are also really great. I was really impressed with the way that they feel and played. A little bit of time spent in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker confirmed this for. Running and sneaking around worked wonders and the extra stick is a gift we weren’t given back on the PSP. I know there was some concern initially that the analog sticks are placed above the face buttons. I find it to be quite comfortable, to be honest. From an ergonomic perspective, it’s a little bit better than the RP5; it’s working for me better than on that device but I knew that would be the case when this device was revealed early on.
There are a few standard face buttons like your select, home, and power; they’re right in the middle. There’s a rocker on the side for volume and these buttons all feel good. There’s not much to say other than they feel good. There is definitely an odd element to this device. There’s a lot of empty space on the body around the buttons. It’s not a pro, it’s not a con. It’s just a weird design element that kind of feels that there should be something there, but there isn’t. I don’t know. even lifting the branding for the rear of the device and dropping it here would make sense. Try and grab some stickers or something.
Performance Summary
In terms of performance, again, we’re working with the same processor that we did on the RP5 and, again, it’s great. I think having a processor in a device like this at this price point is really exciting. I gives you so many options when it comes emulating retro games. In 2025 we’re blessed with mobile devices and micro PC’s that will run most games up to PS2 comfortably. One of the most important elements of this device for me is this ability to emulate PS2 and GameCube and it does both wonderfully. I spent some time playing Super Mario Sunshine on the game that ran well at 4x resolution. on PS2 I saw occasional stuttering here and there but otherwise God of War and God of War two run fantastically again at about 4X resolution producing minimal heat that was offset by the fan and caused no performance issues.
Android Gaming
Emulation is obviously what’s on a lot of peoples minds when they pick this kind of device up. It’s easy to forget that you have the entirety of Android at your disposal and so there’s a lot of ways to play. Two of the way that I went about this when I came to native games was the Play Store and Netflix Gaming. Brief side not, when I went into Netflix I put some 4K content on, this display only goes up to 1080p and little bits of Wrestlemania looked pretty good to me. Once you’ve logged into Netflix on your device you navigate to the gaming section when Netflix has a collection of games ready to play as part of your subscription. When you select those games you’re taken into the play store where you download them so in essence it’s Play Store in a sense.
Android games were mostly fine, but there was some odd curiosities here and there that threw me off. I’ve played a little bit of Dead Cells a little bit of Sonic Mania and some Super Meat Boy Forever and they all run really. They’re not demanding games but they do benefit from being played on a beautiful screen.
Vampire survivors is also going to be a frequent pick up for me on this machine I can already tell. I spent a little bit of time on Call of Duty Warzone to see if we can push the graphics little bit and again I was really impressed. It felt stable and played well. I did come across issues was when I tried to play Prince of Persia The Lost Crown from the play store. I just didn’t work. I’d get a little glimpse of the Ubisoft logo and before I got to the main menu the app crashed. I’m not really sure what’s going on there. It’s compatibility thing that isn’t made clear in the Play Store. The game handled Genshin Impact and GRID Motorsport fine so I don’t know what’s going on with this particular title.
I don’t think it’s a power thing. This device will run experimental emulators like Citron, which opens up Nintendo Switch emulation, and I’ve seen Prince of Persia run fine on that
Emulation
When it comes to emulation I suspect you have an idea which way im swaying. It’s fantastic. The amount of Emaultore available in the Play Store know is great and of course with android youre only a step away form an apk that will take your experience even further. Favourites like Retro Arch, Duckstation, Melon DS and more all ran games up to Dreamcst and PS1 wonderfully with little to no friction. A couple of guides later and I had emulation for Gamecube, PS2 and even Wii running beautifully aswell.
As with any emulation solution balancing the display aspect ratios can be a bit annoying if you’re particularly frustrated by black bars. But again, the worlds of shaders and overlays can help smooth that over. There’s also a bit of a process mapping your controllers that takes time, particularly with something like the Wii. What really impressed me however was the next step.
Wii U and Switch emulation is still patchy at best, not just on this device but in general. I wouldn’t recommend buying a Retroid Pocket Flip 2 for these platforms. However. It has amazed me just how far this handheld can go. Certain plumer adjacent kart racers ran brilliantly on the Wii U emulator Cemu. Meanwhile as mentioned Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is a title that actually runs great in Citron. Far better than the non starter App for the same game via Android. These are platforms that are unstable and inconsistent. They often need patience, research and tinkering to get games running well. The fact that they run at all is frankly amazing to me.
Game Streaming
I believe we are blessed to be living in the age of cloud gaming. It’s come such a long way in the last few years. I played far more Oblivion on the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 than I expected. Xbox 360 game’s shouldn’t be running on a device like this. Not unless you dive down the rabbit hole of installing Linux. Im no rabbit and I ain’t going down there. Following the announcement of the Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remaster I did spend about 15 hours playing it via Xbox Cloud Gaming through.
The experience has been fantastic. I’ve had a really good time. I’ve been on really solid Wi-Fi connection so keep that in mind. Your network connection will massively impact your experience. For or me it’s been a really great way to get back into that world.
Using an app called PXPlay I stream my PS5 to this device and that is a little bit more awkward to get set up but it was pretty good once it was up and running. I would see it’s nowhere near as enjoyable as streaming via the Playstation Portal however.
GE Force Now is a pretty relaxed way to access cloud streaming for PC games but I find it to be pretty restrictive unless you’re on their subscription models. Of course things like Steam Link and moonlight would let you stream your PC directly. I didn’t test either of those two for this review but steam link was a pretty poor experience when I tried it back on the RP5
So to wrap up the gaming experience, emulation up to PS2 and GameCube is fantastic. Android gaming is a really good time but you have the normal frustrations that come with the Play Store. Streaming Xbox and PlayStation on this device is fantastic and the display really does elevate all of these experiences. A lot of this you can do on a standard mobile device in 2025. The real draw is being able to do that on a dedicated piece of hardware with great controls and beautiful screen all under $250. You’ll struggle to find a smartphone that offers all of the above.
Worth Mentioning…
The Retroid Pocket 5 does come with the option of its own launcher which I’m not a fan of but it’s a good way to make the whole system a little bit easier to use. In the control centre at the top you have some quick access buttons like controller style. This lets you switch from a retro Nintendo style ABXY to a more modern Xbox style. It also has a couple of different performance modes but honestly it’s difficult to be able to tell you what those do beyond firing up the fan at various speeds. And it’s very loud fan. On ‘performance mode’ it’s noisy. On ‘high performance’ mode it is a ridiculous. When I’m playing SmackDown Here Comes the Pain with a fan this loud in public feel free to hit me with a steel chair.
There’s also some pretty dynamic control over the nice backlit joystick. I’ve said it with keyboards and I’ll say it with anything that comes across my desk. RBG nonsense is too much for me. I think I’m just old and miserable. I don’t need things to glow and flash and in my face. It is worth knowing that if you go for this ice blue finish the colour is gonna be shining through the plastic which will give a slightly skewed hue.
An honourable mention is owed to the battery life and audio experience. The battery life has been really solid. I’m not having to think about charging it all that much. It did definitely take some pretty heavy knocks whilst I was setting things up but generally, I’ve been going through a few hours of gaming a day and don’t recall the battery dropping beyond 50%. On the audio front I was a slightly bit worried that my hands were gonna cover up the speakers but that hasn’t really been an issue either. It’s just sounded really good. Wired headphones work great. Back on the RP5 I had problems using my Beats Fit Pro. Bluetooth can be an issue with some android devices from time to time but that issue isn’t present on the Retro Pocket Flip Two. I don’t know why that is. But I’m happy about it.
Conclusion
The Retroid Pocket Flip 2 is exactly what it needs to be. It is a clamshell version of last year‘s hottest handheld. The controls are fantastic. The design is nice and clean. The materials are solid and feel sturdy. There’s enough power to produce some really great gaming experiences. Connectivity allows you to take those experiences even further. The big takeaway is that beautiful OLED display. It just looks incredible. For less about $200 you get a powerhouse Android device that will play all of your favourites up to GameCube PS2 and Nintendo Wii on a display that more than does them justice. If the RP5 was the one to beat last year, then the standard is set with the Retroid Pocket Flip 2.
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