Welcome to the Retro Handhelds Weekly newsletter! Whether you’re a seasoned modder or just getting started with classic gaming on the go, you’re part of a passionate group that keeps the retro handheld scene vibrant and fun. Dive in for the latest reviews, guides, and community highlights.
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Game of the Month: Join our monthly club to play curated retro titles and compete for RH merch. Get involved by joining our Discord community.
🎮 The guts behind the glory
- Lenovo’s New Legion C700 is Available Now: The Legion C700, a new handheld from Lenovo, is now available for purchase on the Giztop website. While Lenovo has been making x86 handhelds like the Legion Go for a while now, along with the excellent Legion Y700 Android tablet, the C700 marks the company’s first step into the Android gaming handheld space.
- [UPDATE: Apparently, The Duo Lite Does Support 2 Screens] The Retroid Pocket Duo Lite Was Built Around Dual Screens, but Its Chipset Wasn’t: If there’s one thing we can almost always count on, it’s that the community will find answers to unanswered questions at some point. The most recent example is regarding the Retroid Pocket Duo Lite’s processor, which we originally reported did not officially support the use of dual screens. Thanks to a post on the r/Retroid subreddit, this has been disproven, while pointing out other oversights in our original report.
- AYANEO Misses Its September Shipping Target for the KONKR Pocket Advance: While much of the community has been focused on the recent Retroid Pocket Duo series kerfuffle, AYANEO has been kind of flying under the radar. Unfortunately, the company has confirmed what many had feared, as it won’t be shipping all KONKR Pocket Advance pre-orders in the month of September.
More Hardware and Industry News
🕹️ Your gateway to pixel-perfect worlds
- SteamOS on Android Handhelds Just Got a Lot More Interesting: Even though projects like Armada and Thorch began development before the Steam Frame was released, there are now a few more options for those who want SteamOS on Android. This week, Valve released its official SteamOS ARM build for the Steam Frame, and in just a few days, it’s been ported to work with some of your favorite Android handhelds.
- Qualcomm Said To Be Developing Its Own Drivers: For years we've been relying more and more on custom drivers to provide improved emulation and gameplay. However, alongside announcing its latest flagship processor, Qualcomm also confirmed that it will begin development on first-party drivers for its processors.
- ModRetro’s M64 Gets Its First Unofficial Firmware, and It’s Impressive: Reddit user u/fulviov has constructed and released OM64, a comprehensive custom firmware built entirely from ModRetro’s published schematics, designed as a full replacement for the stock M64 operating system. Crucially, the developer argues it actually enhances the console beyond its original capabilities.
More Software News
Emulation Corner, Custom Core, Ports, and More
In an effort to try to make it easier to keep up with the abundance of updates in the emulation scene, we've added something new to Handhelds.wtf. There are now dedicated RSS pages for each category, but we will still continue to post some of the "bigger" updates and releases every week.
👾 Game of the Month: Sleptember
Game(s) of the Week
RPG of the Quarter (7/1 - 9/30)
✍ Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Write
How to Play GoldenEye 007 Natively on Your R36S | Retro Handhelds
Want to get in on running GoldenEye natively on the R36S? Here’s a DIY guide you can follow after Nick spent an afternoon stepping on rakes.
Nick
AceMagic FOCUX F2A Review: A Flagship MiniPC – But It’ll Cost Ya | Retro Handhelds
The AceMagic FOCUX F2A pairs Panther Lake with Arc B390 graphics and strong NPU acceleration, making it a capable but expensive enthusiast mini PC.
Nick
Beitong KP20 Review: One Step Forward… | Retro Handhelds
From low end to high end, Beitong makes controllers for about any price point you could ask for. But how does the midrange KP20 hold up? Is it worth the cost?
Ban
Mangmi Air Y Pro Review: Is 4GB of RAM Enough? | Retro Handhelds
Mangmi is back with their first vertical handheld: the Air Y Pro. With a Snapdragon 865 you’ve got plenty of power. But will 4gb of ram hold it back?
Ban
GKD350H Ultra Review: GKD’s Most Premium Brick Yet | Retro Handhelds
The GKD 350H Ultra is their most recent release in the glass and metal slab market. With a great screen, and solid specs you have to ask. Is it worth the $150+?
Ban
📺 On the YouTubes
RH Partners
💸 Achievement Unlocked: Big Savings
We're just biding our time until the next AliExpress sale kicks off, so in the meantime, be sure to head over to handheld.deals to check out all of the latest deals.
- Retroid Pocket Duo Lite Plus: $199 w/ code LITEPLUS (Save $20)
- Amazon Basics 64GB microSD Card (2-pack): $34.39 (Save 20%)
- Origimagic C3 (i3-5005U/8GB/512GB): $180.79 (Save 20%)
- GENKI ShadowCast 3 Pro: $76.48 (Save 15%)
- Retroid Pocket Flip 2: $189 (Save $30)
- Retroid Pocket 5: $179 (Save $30)
🗣️ Stay Connected
Want more classic gaming goodness? Join the Discord, or follow us on YouTube for live podcasts and reviews every Monday at 6pm Pacific. Your feedback, mods, and stories make this community what it is, so keep sharing!