Analogue Pocket Review

Design and Hardware

It’s blue, so I had to buy it.

I’ve had my black Analogue Pocket for a little while now and I absolutely love it, but it’s not something that I can easily recommend to everyone. I was going to do a review on it, but then the transparent blue dropped and I decided to wait until this arrived.

For those that have no idea what this is, the Analogue Pocket is a Game Boy-form-factor device with one of the best screens I’ve ever seen. It can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges directly, without emulation. There are also adapters for Game Gear, Neo Geo, Atari Lynx and other systems, along with a Link Cable that lets you do things like trade Pokémon between devices.

The price is $219 for the black version and $249 for the transparent blue.

And yes, I paid the extra money for the blue because it’s blue.

The Screen

The biggest reason to buy the Analogue Pocket is the screen.

It has a 3.5-inch 1600×1440 display, which is 10 times the resolution of the original Game Boy. I’ve had a lot of devices in my lifetime — OLED displays, different IPS displays, plasma displays and the list goes on — and this screen is by far one of the best I’ve ever used.

It remains my favorite way to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games.

I have the Powkiddy RGB30, which some people refer to as the “poor man’s Analogue Pocket,” but personally, I don’t think they’re even on the same planet.

The same goes for the Miyoo Mini Plus and Anbernic RG35XX. Those are much cheaper options for playing these systems, but when it comes to the actual display, there’s simply no comparison.

I don’t have a single other handheld in my collection that compares to this screen.

Speakers

The screen isn’t the only thing that impressed me. The speakers are fantastic.

You wouldn’t necessarily expect that considering they’re positioned on the sides of the device and point outward, but they sound genuinely great.

Controls

On the front we have the D-pad, four face buttons, Start, Select and the Analogue Pocket button for the menu.

The face buttons have been great and I haven’t had any concerns with them. The X and Y buttons are concave and feel fantastic, while A and B have a more traditional rounded shape.

The D-pad isn’t perfect. I fall into the camp where I don’t really mind it and actually find it pretty nice, but it’s definitely not the best D-pad out there.

There are some false diagonals. In Pokémon, for example, pushing down on the D-pad can sometimes make the character move diagonally, and pushing left or right can also move the character vertically. I haven’t personally had a major problem with it, but if you’re particularly sensitive to false diagonals, it’s something to be aware of.

Transparent Blue vs. Black

One thing I noticed comparing this to my black Pocket is that the material used for the transparent blue shell and buttons feels noticeably better.

The D-pad on the black model was much sharper, while everything on the transparent blue version feels smoother, more rounded and more refined.

For me, the transparent blue was 100% worth the extra money for that alone.

Using ROMs and OpenFPGA

I’m personally not using any of my physical cartridges with the Pocket. I actually prefer using ROMs on it.

The Pocket doesn’t have Wi-Fi or RetroAchievements, so I’ve become fairly selective about what I put on here. For me, this has basically become my ROM-hack machine.

I’ll continually load ROM hacks onto it and play them, especially games that don’t have RetroAchievements.

But the Pocket can do much more than that through OpenFPGA.

I currently have Genesis, Master System, NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Game Gear running on mine. There are plenty of other cores you can add as well.

These use MiSTer FPGA cores, so this isn’t quite the same thing as running RetroArch on a typical Android or Linux handheld. The goal is to get as close to the original hardware as possible.

Some systems don’t have save states — or “Memories,” as Analogue calls them — although the Game Boy systems do.

None of this comes installed out of the box. I used a program called Pocket Sync to add the emulator cores and ROMs directly to the SD card. The process was extremely easy and I think pretty much anyone could follow it.

The end result is that I can pick up the Pocket, jump into a Game Boy game, load my Memory and start playing.

Battery Life

The battery is another area where the Pocket does well. I haven’t had any issues with battery life during my use, and combined with the screen and overall experience, it makes this a fantastic pick-up-and-play device.

Analogue as a Company

Now let’s rant for a bit.

The hardware is fantastic. My problems with Analogue are almost entirely everything surrounding the hardware.

The first problem is shipping.

Analogue is absolutely out of their minds with what they charge to ship to Canada, and even some other regions.

I paid $60 USD to ship this device to my house in Canada.

Then they used UPS, which meant I also got charged duties and taxes. That was another $22 for me in Alberta.

I’ve bought plenty of devices from people in the US through the Discord marketplace, and I’ve never paid anywhere near $60 for shipping. These are just regular people going to a UPS store or their local post office without the kind of shipping arrangements that Analogue presumably has.

I genuinely don’t understand how Analogue can justify charging $60 to ship this across the border.

Stock and Limited Editions

The other problem is how Analogue has handled availability.

The Analogue Pocket originally released in December 2021, and it has spent an enormous amount of time being difficult to actually buy.

Then, after people had been waiting forever for the standard black and white models, Analogue released a glow-in-the-dark version at a higher price.

And then came the transparent models, again at $249.

It just feels strange to have people waiting years to buy your standard product while new, more expensive variants keep appearing.

Maybe there were legitimate supply issues with the original shells. If that’s the case, I’d understand. But from the outside, the whole process has just felt unnecessarily frustrating.

Software Updates

The software side hasn’t been much better.

One of the biggest features Analogue has been promising is display modes for OpenFPGA, and we’re still waiting on that.

There have also been very few firmware updates. At the time of my original review, we’d gone from May back to January without much happening.

For a device this expensive, I’d like to see more active development.

The hardware is good enough that the Pocket doesn’t need constant updates, but there are still obvious things that could be improved.

Who Is the Analogue Pocket For?

So, do I recommend the Analogue Pocket?

Absolutely.

Do I recommend it to everybody?

Not a chance.

There is a very specific use case here.

If you want to play your actual Game Boy, Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance cartridges, there’s really no other option quite like this.

If you have disposable income and want to play Game Boy games on one of the best possible displays, this is also the device for you.

But if you care about Wi-Fi, RetroAchievements, save states across everything, traditional emulation, RetroArch and all of the other features you get from modern handhelds, this probably isn’t for you.

This is an extremely niche device for a niche audience.

And honestly, I think the only reason it has remained as appealing as it has is because of the screen.

If this screen wasn’t this good, I probably would have sold my Pocket a long time ago.

The screen really does the heavy lifting here.

Final Thoughts

Despite all of my complaints about Analogue as a company, I absolutely love the Analogue Pocket.

The transparent blue is gorgeous, the screen is incredible, the speakers are fantastic and the overall experience of playing Game Boy games on this thing is hard to beat.

It’s expensive, it’s difficult to get, and Analogue’s shipping and software support leave a lot to be desired.

But if you know exactly what you’re buying and you’re part of that niche audience that wants the best possible Game Boy experience, the Analogue Pocket is still one of my favorite handhelds.