Retroid Pocket Duo is now official: dual OLED screens for $250

Retroid took the wraps off the Retroid Pocket Duo today. It’s a dual-screen Android clamshell built for Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS-style play, and Retroid says it’ll start at $270, or $250 on preorder. That puts it under the better-known AYN Thor just as rising memory costs are pushing rival handheld prices higher.

On the hardware side, Retroid says the Retroid Pocket Duo packs a 5.5-inch 1080p 120Hz AMOLED main screen, plus a 4.5-inch 120Hz AMOLED second screen, Dragonwing Q-7790 graphics in the same ballpark as a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, expected Android 16, and a 6,000mAh battery. The idea is DS, 3DS, and a big chunk of PS2 and GameCube. There’s also the $150 Retroid Pocket Duo Lite, which drops down to dual 60Hz IPS panels and a QCS6125 that’s closer to a Snapdragon 665, and the Retroid Pocket Duo Lite still doesn’t have a ship date.

If you want the key emulation workloads without paying AYN Thor money, this feels like a pretty compelling buy. The AYN Thor now starts at around $260 and climbs to $330, $480, and $550, based on AYN’s current pricing, even though it still wins on raw specs with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a 6-inch 1080p 120Hz AMOLED top screen, a 3.92-inch 60Hz AMOLED lower panel, and up to 16GB of RAM. Even so, Retroid is pretty clearly going after value here, taking aim at the AYN Thor, Ayaneo Pocket DS, and Anbernic RG DS Plus, at least until broader side-by-side testing shows what the real-world performance actually looks like.

You can preorder the Retroid Pocket Duo now from Retroid. The Retroid Pocket Duo Lite has only been announced so far.