I Don't Care About the Retroid Pocket Nova

It usually doesn’t take me long to get excited about a new handheld; especially when a company that I already like announces something breakthrough, like a new technology or manufacturing process that is being freshly applied to the industry. Innovation is awesome, and a firm that cares about what they’re putting out is exactly what I want to see. So then, why do I not care about the Retroid Pocket Nova?

Nearly two years ago now, Retroid released the ill-fated Pocket Mini: A handheld originally launched with what was supposed to be a 3.7” 960p OLED panel, but that was soon outed to actually be the now-common LG Wing’s 1240x1080 3.92” panel, covered with bezels to create a faux 4:3 screen that did not play well with shaders and other graphical effects. The community figured out soon enough what had happened, and they were not happy about it.

The Pocket Mini V1 panel, showing part of the screen covered with an artificial bezel. (Image credit: YveltalGriffin on BitBuilt)

Retroid’s response was initially to deny the issues, or to suggest that they were driver-related, despite knowing full well what was going on. That was obviously not the right response to make at the time, but after the bad publicity from their initial replies, the company buckled down and genuinely fixed the issue. The Pocket Mini V2 came out shortly thereafter, with the fully-exposed LG Wing panel at its regular resolution, offered to customers with the original Mini for free. The original was discontinued entirely in favor of the new version, and that was that, for now.

Another thing that Retroid promised was the development of an exclusive, brand-new 4:3 OLED panel. You see, the reason the LG Wing panel thing happened to begin with is because there’s actually no regular-sized 4:3 OLED panel on the market yet. The only reason the Wing panel gets used so much is because LG happened to design their final phone with a weird sliding form factor that made a 31:27 panel necessary. OLED development is an incredibly costly process, which is why the CEO of Retroid declared that they were taking a second mortgage on their home in order to fund its initial R&D cost.

For the next year and a half, this mythical project became known as the “mortgage screen,” and was subject to many rumors as to its validity or reality. Retroid recovered from the trust shock, eventually. Then, they revealed the Retroid Pocket Nova just a couple weeks ago.

The problem is, I don’t care about it at all.

The idea is a great one at face-value: A 4:3 OLED panel! It’s a brand new innovation; nobody has ever made a custom OLED screen yet (even if Anbernic’s custom 4.7” LCD panel is stellar without AMOLED), and the device it’s in is touting a super-powerful QCS8550 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2?). The problem is that the device itself is entirely boring to me.

4.5” for a 4:3 panel is a great size for a couch handheld. It’s also amazing for 4:3 content, and practically nothing else. I’d rather play on the RP6 or AYN Thor if I wanted 16:9 content, and for 2D content I don’t need something half as powerful as the 8 Gen 2. Switch emulation at 4:3 sounds like a bore, as someone who tinkered with it on their RG477V, even with the benefits of OLED. I’d have preferred a genuine 3.7” panel with minimal bezels meant for the pocket, rather than something I can’t even put in my backpack without snagging the sticks on.

Another issue lies in the plastic body. I’m a fan of devices that feel like they’re made for adults, rather than emulating bulky, toy-like constructions like everyone is raving about now. There’s this huge movement by an incredibly vocal minority against all-glass fronts on handhelds that has been led by influencers like Russ from Retro Game Corps., which has managed to make its way all the way back to Retroid themselves. The Nova is kind of a consequence of that, and is indicative of a backwards trend that is really disappointing to me.

After the total meltdown of the AYANEO Pocket Micro 2 situation, and the seeming disappearance of the other premium-construction handhelds like the GKD 350H Ultra and Yoo Y1, it seems like the glass-and-metal chapter of handheld history might be due to close. I just hope these companies keep my pockets in mind for the future.

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