hashtag notsponsored
this always has been and probably always will be a website more or less entirely paid out for of my own pocket. ive been pretty damn committed to keeping this place bullshit free from the onset since it doesnt cost too much to keep it afloat and i take being able to write candidly on whatever im inevitably stewing about in the moment "seriously" i guess? but i also cant promise you that if a complete heap of cock like raid shadow legends gave me five grand to speak positively about their heap of cock i WOULDNT take it. but im also telling you that its a heap of cock right now before this unlikely scenario pans out, so you know not to trust me in that particular moment. but the bottom line is that i dont really go around seeking out sponsorships or paid promotions for products (besides gfuel but thats because gfuel is literally funnier conceptually than jenkem to me, please sponsor me gfuel.) but if i sell out it needs to be on my own terms and that wont be by indirectly murdering people by blabbering about betterhelp.
but when theres some new thing i get my mitts on and im allowed to be as honest as i want about it AND i get it for free.
i get the retroid pocket flip 2 in my hands. this unit was sent over to me for review by retroid themselves. and yeah as you probably couldve guessed by now theyre not paying me a cent to talk about this thing.
(image)
the first time i ever picked up an android-based handheld was when i was a 5th grader who pooled all the money from birthdays and christmases and pool-cleaning i had to buy the nvidia shield portable from thinkgeek.com. a shockingly capable handheld with an unbelievably comfortable but chunky design which was in retrospect way ahead of its time and needs to come back. eventually ended up selling it to get a ps vita. then, through a convoluted timeline of purchases, returns, and facebook marketplace ventures to make more purchases and more returns, i ended up with some variant of most other retroids. but how does their latest tchotchke hold up.
pretty damn good actually. my "daily driver" for playing shit up until i got my hands on a flip 2 was the retroid pocket mini. so i guess ill also be asking myself if i think the flip 2 is an upgrade or not. it is, in case you were wondering
i guess the easiest way to do this is to structure this like an actual review. so lets break it into chunks
build quality
ok so from the onset i wasnt that impressed here. first impression were like. damn this plastic feels kinda cheap. its not as bad as those $5 walgreens 8000 in one handhelds, but i still feel like using some plastic with a little more structural integrity wouldve gone a long way. in spite of that its something i expected to be an actual problem i had using the thing day to day, but it really wasnt. nowadays i dont even think about it when i pick the thing up. ive seen some people be like "i like the shit plastic because it feels more like a toy" but the only real verdict you can give on that front is that its fine. something i was a little more worried about though was the hinge. tech with hinges inexcrably hinge on them which is why im relieved to report that the hinge on mine is completely fine. but although i havent also seen much proof to say many others are getting hinge issues, only time can really tell how much mileage youre gonna get out of this thing before something gives.
the ergonomics of this thing are decent, but nothing to write home about. youll probably be right at home if you liked how the ds felt, but there are some aspects of this things design thatve been rubbing me the wrong way as of late and id feel dishonest for leaving them out. firstly, the triggers feel really weird and unnatural to press. its less about their position and more a problem with how the plastic is actually shaped like its expecting your fingers to be pressing it strictly from the top and not from an angle. its something wide controllers can get away with because of their more ergonomic spread-eagle shape, but its a major fail on the boxy flip 2s part. secondly, and this is the big one, i really really wish the face buttons and the right analog stick swapped places with each other. when pictures of this thing initially released i was sorta apprehensive about the layout but told myself it wasnt gonna be an issue. memory serves that the wii u pro controller was decently comfy (because yeah lets take design cues from the most successful console of all time) so i figured id get over it pretty easily, but the more and more i used this thing the more i was just thinking like. why did they do this. this is worse for basically everything. most people dont really bring it up as an issue because maybe it just doesnt matter that much to them but its completely thrown off my flow for practically anything involving heavy use of both sticks and the face buttons. what do i mean by that. fps game controls have more or less been standardized. right stick moves the camera. left stick moves you around. triggers/shoulders shoot. but then theres the face buttons. and for most of the shooters i play, those controls have been standardized too. more specifically, the bottom-most face button (a on xbox layouts, b on nintendo layouts) is the button you use to jump. ok now what. see the problem im having is how that bottom-most button in question here is usually the button closest to the right stick. this makes taking your thumb off the camera controls to jump something you dont even need to think about. but now that button is literally the furthest button away. it fucks with how you think. it fucks with your muscle memory. and worst of all that fucktitude carries over to when youre trying to use a normal controller again. the dualshock and xbox controller debate is raging on but at least those two agreed that buttons are on top, camera stays on the bottom. is this something you get used to? yeah. but man it really wouldnt have been hard to just not fuck with it in the first place.
SOUND QUALITY
the sound quality is fine but theres this problem ive been running into at lower volumes specifically where the speaker volume oscillates really weirdly and its something i cant ignore to save my life. it seems like a software thing so all i can really do is grit my teeth and wait for a fix hopefully, but its not something i particularly enjoy needing to deal with. bluetooth headphones are also a bit of an issue, audio latency is incredibly noticeable on my nice JBLs and brand new pair of soundcores that isnt there at all when i use
AESTHETICS
my review unit is black, and ive gotta say it looks fuckin good. its modern but not obnoxiously so. that logo on the top looks kind of bad but the vitriol ive seen towards it has frankly been a little disconcerting. consumers are always gonna find one stupid inconsequential thing to bitch about though. its as certain as somebody leaving a dislike on a video of a baby laughing.
SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE
its android
SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE, CONT.
retroid still manages to do android better than anbernic though. being able to dock your shit and rock with a controller on the big tv so its considerate of them to have features like video-put while its closed and a janky yet usable virtual mouse for controlling menus that need touch screens (dude if these guys made a controller with a ps4like trackpad id be hopping on that shit day one). android being android though means that if you want everything to feel real cozy its gonna take a while to get all your apks, set up your frontend, scrape all your box art, config your emulators, all that junk. took me a few hours before i was totally down with it, but ever since i picked up ES-DE its been hard to go back to anything else. weirdly enough though ive sorta come to the realization that this thing is also kind of a beast for doing way more stuff besides playing games. sturdy hinge makes it good for watching stuff while propped up on a desk or your bed, and the bluetooth headphones problems dont really matter if youre just listening to music, and even if you want to use headphones, the existence of a 3.5mm jack in 2025 on anything is a breath of fresh air. its especially nice because since it only goes into sleep mode, media players and spotify still work when its closed or even in the background of other shit you might be doing or playing. the screen is in the goldilocks zone. doesnt feel unweildy but it also doesnt feel too small, so youtube and any other video streaming shit youve got are great + vlc media players android build on the play store is stellar. this thing is my go-to for streaming games when im in calls and im not at my shitty laptop. discord on android has pretty good screen sharing, and the performance usually doesnt tank what im showing the class, so its let me comfortably play basically any game i want, be able to stream it, and ALSO be able to take it with me wherever i go. i dont need a capture card anymore since theres a screen recording feature in android. i dont need a capture card to stream to friends because of how easy it is to screenshare in discord. i dont need to use my phone to look up gameshark codes because android has a chrome browser. youre doing something wrong if youre strictly using this jawn to play games, dude. it also gets a fuckload of points too for not just feeling like a phone with a gamepad tacked on, it genuinely feels like its own thing. im so tired of the uniformity that every facet of technology seems to funnel itself toward, so the flip 2 stands out. the only other thing that really comes close is the anbernic rg cube, but i had to get rid of that one on account of the video out completely sucking and discord cropping to 16:9 making screen sharing crazy sub-optimal. i still stand by the rg cube being the most comfortable handheld ive ever used though. anyway. like i said closer to the beginning, yeah i recommend this thing for playing all the good stuff you want to play. but i also recommend getting this thing to get crafty with android. i recommend it so you can upload 3d models for peripherals i can print out. with the exception of those B+ ergonomics and sound issues, this thing checks off pretty much every box for me, and theres a good chance it will for you too. it feels unique.
retroid pocket flip 2 review
hashtag notsponsored
this always has been and probably always will be a website more or less entirely paid out for of my own pocket. ive been pretty damn committed to keeping this place bullshit free from the onset since it doesnt cost too much to keep it afloat and i take being able to write candidly on whatever im inevitably stewing about in the moment "seriously" i guess? but i also cant promise you that if a complete heap of cock like raid shadow legends gave me five grand to speak positively about their heap of cock i WOULDNT take it. but im also telling you that its a heap of cock right now before this unlikely scenario pans out, so you know not to trust me in that particular moment. but the bottom line is that i dont really go around seeking out sponsorships or paid promotions for products (besides gfuel but thats because gfuel is literally funnier conceptually than jenkem to me, please sponsor me gfuel.) but if i sell out it needs to be on my own terms and that wont be by indirectly murdering people by blabbering about betterhelp.
but when theres some new thing i get my mitts on and im allowed to be as honest as i want about it AND i get it for free.
i get the retroid pocket flip 2 in my hands. this unit was sent over to me for review by retroid themselves. and yeah as you probably couldve guessed by now theyre not paying me a cent to talk about this thing.
(image)
the first time i ever picked up an android-based handheld was when i was a 5th grader who pooled all the money from birthdays and christmases and pool-cleaning i had to buy the nvidia shield portable from thinkgeek.com. a shockingly capable handheld with an unbelievably comfortable but chunky design which was in retrospect way ahead of its time and needs to come back. eventually ended up selling it to get a ps vita. then, through a convoluted timeline of purchases, returns, and facebook marketplace ventures to make more purchases and more returns, i ended up with some variant of most other retroids. but how does their latest tchotchke hold up.
pretty damn good actually. my "daily driver" for playing shit up until i got my hands on a flip 2 was the retroid pocket mini. so i guess ill also be asking myself if i think the flip 2 is an upgrade or not. it is, in case you were wondering
i guess the easiest way to do this is to structure this like an actual review. so lets break it into chunks
build quality
ok so from the onset i wasnt that impressed here. first impression were like. damn this plastic feels kinda cheap. its not as bad as those $5 walgreens 8000 in one handhelds, but i still feel like using some plastic with a little more structural integrity wouldve gone a long way. in spite of that its something i expected to be an actual problem i had using the thing day to day, but it really wasnt. nowadays i dont even think about it when i pick the thing up. ive seen some people be like "i like the shit plastic because it feels more like a toy" but the only real verdict you can give on that front is that its fine. something i was a little more worried about though was the hinge. tech with hinges inexcrably hinge on them which is why im relieved to report that the hinge on mine is completely fine. but although i havent also seen much proof to say many others are getting hinge issues, only time can really tell how much mileage youre gonna get out of this thing before something gives.
the ergonomics of this thing are decent, but nothing to write home about. youll probably be right at home if you liked how the ds felt, but there are some aspects of this things design thatve been rubbing me the wrong way as of late and id feel dishonest for leaving them out. firstly, the triggers feel really weird and unnatural to press. its less about their position and more a problem with how the plastic is actually shaped like its expecting your fingers to be pressing it strictly from the top and not from an angle. its something wide controllers can get away with because of their more ergonomic spread-eagle shape, but its a major fail on the boxy flip 2s part. secondly, and this is the big one, i really really wish the face buttons and the right analog stick swapped places with each other. when pictures of this thing initially released i was sorta apprehensive about the layout but told myself it wasnt gonna be an issue. memory serves that the wii u pro controller was decently comfy (because yeah lets take design cues from the most successful console of all time) so i figured id get over it pretty easily, but the more and more i used this thing the more i was just thinking like. why did they do this. this is worse for basically everything. most people dont really bring it up as an issue because maybe it just doesnt matter that much to them but its completely thrown off my flow for practically anything involving heavy use of both sticks and the face buttons. what do i mean by that. fps game controls have more or less been standardized. right stick moves the camera. left stick moves you around. triggers/shoulders shoot. but then theres the face buttons. and for most of the shooters i play, those controls have been standardized too. more specifically, the bottom-most face button (a on xbox layouts, b on nintendo layouts) is the button you use to jump. ok now what. see the problem im having is how that bottom-most button in question here is usually the button closest to the right stick. this makes taking your thumb off the camera controls to jump something you dont even need to think about. but now that button is literally the furthest button away. it fucks with how you think. it fucks with your muscle memory. and worst of all that fucktitude carries over to when youre trying to use a normal controller again. the dualshock and xbox controller debate is raging on but at least those two agreed that buttons are on top, camera stays on the bottom. is this something you get used to? yeah. but man it really wouldnt have been hard to just not fuck with it in the first place.
SOUND QUALITY
the sound quality is fine but theres this problem ive been running into at lower volumes specifically where the speaker volume oscillates really weirdly and its something i cant ignore to save my life. it seems like a software thing so all i can really do is grit my teeth and wait for a fix hopefully, but its not something i particularly enjoy needing to deal with. bluetooth headphones are also a bit of an issue, audio latency is incredibly noticeable on my nice JBLs and brand new pair of soundcores that isnt there at all when i use
AESTHETICS
my review unit is black, and ive gotta say it looks fuckin good. its modern but not obnoxiously so. that logo on the top looks kind of bad but the vitriol ive seen towards it has frankly been a little disconcerting. consumers are always gonna find one stupid inconsequential thing to bitch about though. its as certain as somebody leaving a dislike on a video of a baby laughing.
SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE
its android
SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE, CONT.
retroid still manages to do android better than anbernic though. being able to dock your shit and rock with a controller on the big tv so its considerate of them to have features like video-put while its closed and a janky yet usable virtual mouse for controlling menus that need touch screens (dude if these guys made a controller with a ps4like trackpad id be hopping on that shit day one). android being android though means that if you want everything to feel real cozy its gonna take a while to get all your apks, set up your frontend, scrape all your box art, config your emulators, all that junk. took me a few hours before i was totally down with it, but ever since i picked up ES-DE its been hard to go back to anything else. weirdly enough though ive sorta come to the realization that this thing is also kind of a beast for doing way more stuff besides playing games. sturdy hinge makes it good for watching stuff while propped up on a desk or your bed, and the bluetooth headphones problems dont really matter if youre just listening to music, and even if you want to use headphones, the existence of a 3.5mm jack in 2025 on anything is a breath of fresh air. its especially nice because since it only goes into sleep mode, media players and spotify still work when its closed or even in the background of other shit you might be doing or playing. the screen is in the goldilocks zone. doesnt feel unweildy but it also doesnt feel too small, so youtube and any other video streaming shit youve got are great + vlc media players android build on the play store is stellar. this thing is my go-to for streaming games when im in calls and im not at my shitty laptop. discord on android has pretty good screen sharing, and the performance usually doesnt tank what im showing the class, so its let me comfortably play basically any game i want, be able to stream it, and ALSO be able to take it with me wherever i go. i dont need a capture card anymore since theres a screen recording feature in android. i dont need a capture card to stream to friends because of how easy it is to screenshare in discord. i dont need to use my phone to look up gameshark codes because android has a chrome browser. youre doing something wrong if youre strictly using this jawn to play games, dude. it also gets a fuckload of points too for not just feeling like a phone with a gamepad tacked on, it genuinely feels like its own thing. im so tired of the uniformity that every facet of technology seems to funnel itself toward, so the flip 2 stands out. the only other thing that really comes close is the anbernic rg cube, but i had to get rid of that one on account of the video out completely sucking and discord cropping to 16:9 making screen sharing crazy sub-optimal. i still stand by the rg cube being the most comfortable handheld ive ever used though. anyway. like i said closer to the beginning, yeah i recommend this thing for playing all the good stuff you want to play. but i also recommend getting this thing to get crafty with android. i recommend it so you can upload 3d models for peripherals i can print out. with the exception of those B+ ergonomics and sound issues, this thing checks off pretty much every box for me, and theres a good chance it will for you too. it feels unique.