I’ve spent the last little while properly getting to know the Retroid Pocket Duo Lite, and my review is probably a little more focused on the feel of the thing, the two-screen experience and what it’s actually like to live with than on endless performance charts. I do cover some of the usual emulation stuff, but I was especially interested in what Retroid has managed to do with the form factor at this price, and whether it still has a bit of that dual-screen magic once the novelty wears off and the limitations of the processor kick in.
I also had quite a few people kindly chime in along the way. SapphireRhodonite, the developer of SeedlessDS, talks about building a modern DS emulator around lower-powered dual-screen hardware; the Cocoon and iiSU teams share what this new wave of cheaper dual-screen devices means for their own development; Chris Covers from Retroid talks about coming back to two screens for the first time since Nintendo’s original hardware; and Mr Stephen’s Retro Corner helped with some proper display testing. There are a few other voices in there too, so hopefully it feels a little broader than just me saying whether I liked the thing or not :)
This seems like a great chassis, with a woefully underpowered SOC. That said, it has me excited for the non-lite and the lite plus.
I’m still torn between those two tbh. On one hand I’m drawn to the flat back of the lite plus, on the other the oled screens of the non-lite. For the vast majority of games I play on handhelds I really don’t need analog triggers, but idk, maybe it would be fun to play some old racing games? But the vast, vast majority of what I play is jrpg’s, mostly turn based. So for that, the analog triggers don’t matter at all. Decisions
I love the in-line triggers on this Lite. I'll find out soon enough which I prefer between the Duo and the Lite+, but I'd personally be sticking to DS/3DS titles with either of them, after my reviews are done. So the analogue triggers won't be used at all.
Between the flat back/in-line triggers on the Lite and my two Thors (raised with the bumpy bits below the full triggers), I much prefer the flat of the Lite. It ticks that Nintendo-ish look and feel in my brain, and it is lovely.
I’m leaning slightly towards the normal Duo, for versatility. I’m starting a new job soon which will require a lot of sitting in airports and planes, so a lot of time to try out different games.
But I’ll probably wait for a review on the Duo first, even if it means taking a while to get one. My new 3DS is still holding in there for now lol. But thanks for the input!