Pretty damn good.

First of all, I'd like to thank Retroid for letting this happen and sending me this model over for review. I take a bit of pride in wanting any stuff that I get to review to be things I'm actually interested in using and using often. Luckily, the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 made the cut. There's a lot of good stuff here, but I've also got my fair share of critique. Let's just cut to the chase. Below is the Retroid Pocket Flip 2. It's a handheld game console by Retroid (duh) for playing video games. (also, duh.) It runs a build of Android 13 natively, and boasts enough power to play a solid amount of games not just designed for Android comfortably, but a plethora of other systems via the means of things like translation layers, streaming, and the big E. That stands for emulation. There's no shortage of things like this (colloquially referred to as "retro handhelds,") so it really begs the question. Does this thing stand out? It does. Lemme tell you why.

Let's break this review into chunks.

BUILD QUALITY

From the onset, I wasn't actually all that impressed with how the plastic on this thing felt in my hands. It's nicer than one of those horrid 8000-in-1 handhelds you see by the cash registers at a Walmart, but the structural integrity did, and still does, leave a bit to be desired. Sometimes I think it's a little too much to be asking for these things to feel more "premium," but other times I remind myself that the retail price for one of these things is $220 USD, and for that, I'd hope to be feeling something in my hands that feels about as premium as the original DSi. Luckily for me, this is a problem I no longer really think about whenever I pick the thing up, which is practically every day. Playing the Binding of Isaac on this thing is an absolute delight, and I've also had a ton of fun with N+ for the PSP, and N++ on the switch. The only real gripe I still have with the build quality of the device and not the artistic intent of it's design is the fact that the triggers have an odd habit of getting a little sticky. Not disgustingly so, and the problem goes away pretty quickly after a terse run with a q-tip, but it happens enough for me to think it's weird and notable. I'm also going to be completely sincere and say this thing has taken a bit of a beating in all my time with it. It's battery is still great. It's screen is still vibrant. It's buttons still feel good to press. It's worth noting though, some people are put off by the noise the fan in this thing makes. To me, it's negligible. You have been warned. I don't play a lot of graphically demanding games though, so high performance mode is rarely something I feel the need to turn on.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the elephant in the room though, being the fact that this thing sports a hinge. Hinges are a funny thing, because it's really important to get them right, and even when you get them right, things can go wrong, and once that happens, all bets are off. This is why the word "hinges" in common English slang means what it does. I'm unable to confirm that the hinge in your Retroid Pocket Flip 2 is going to last forever or stay tight, but I can confirm that the hinge on *mine* has not given up yet, and isn't show any signs of failure as far as I'm aware, and this thing gets beat up a decent amount. As far as hinges go, I've seen much worse. The hinge in my childhood DS gave in after one drop. You can't control the future, but I'm gonna go off on a limb here and argue that so long as you take good care of your $220 game system, it won't have too many issues. And hey, Retroid is pretty good about repairs anyway. My experiences with them are good, so I trust them to handle your Flip 2 with care, should things ever come to that.

ERGONOMICS

One of the most enticing things about the Retroid Flip 2 to me when I first saw it was the layout of the buttons and sticks. There are only two things I can really compare it to, the GPD Win XD, and the Wii U Pro Controller. Normally when there's a debate about stick placement, it's almost exclusively over the position of the stick on the left. The Retroid Flip 2 puts the *right* stick on the top though. And this is like. Fine? I haven't seen anyone make a fuss over it, but I do have some issues with it. Mainly in the context of more modern stick-heavy games like Minecraft, having the right stick on top sort of fucks up my muscle memory when I need to use the face buttons. Here, hopefully this can start shedding light on the problem before I go into more detail.

So, usually in FPS games, the button to jump is on the bottom of the face-button-diamond. This is actually completely awesome because that makes the jump button the closest to the right thumb stick, where you're moving your thumb a lot to jump. Obviously, a lot of games can't afford to have bumper jumper, so this is basically law. This isn't even exclusive to FPS games, since this also relates to the locations of the buttons themselves on the gamepad. Now check this out.

When the right stick is on top, the jump button is all of a sudden the furthest thing from the camera. Needless to say, this is a problem. See that jump? You can feel that. You might think it wouldn't trip you up at all. And maybe it won't. But for me, it definitely does. It's not an aspect that I feel can be fixed with remapping things either. In truth, I sort of just wish they stuck to a more traditional layout. Don't get me wrong, it isn't too uncomfortable, it's just that it's a little disorienting for more modern games that make use of every input on the gamepad. So why did it need to be this way?

Another minor but noticeable problem was the angularity of the triggers. They don't seriously hurt to use or anything, but after using them for a while, you really start to wonder why they aren't rounded to the natural curve of your fingers like every other handheld. That being said, it's something I haven't seen a lot of other people complaining about, so chances are you won't notice it. I very much do, and I hope their next clamshell does better. Altogether, despite that little tangent, the Retroid Flip 2 is a very comfortable system to use daily. Above most other factors, I'm really just happy the thing is still pocketable. Chunky? Yeah, but portable? Definitely. I could imagine it being a little uncomfortable if you wear super tight pants, but I don't ever really think twice about taking this thing with me when I'm going out on a trip or just have some time to chill outside.

SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE

It's Android.

SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE, CONT.

Okay, so you've all been here before. Yeah, it's android. That means you get a lot of nice options for a frontend. You get apps. Usually the play store. But like. Hear me out. Retroid does Android better than Anbernic, and they have been for a long time. Whenever I've used a handheld by Anbernic, there's just something about it that feels wrong. It feels jank, even though I know it's probably fine. Retroid's build of Android, on the other side of the spectrum, feels so nice to use. It's the little things. It's being able to assign a key combo to bring up a virtual mouse for when the system is docked. It's being able to dock the system without any problems. It's selling a first party dock that lets you do all of this in the first place. For a lot of people, the ability to dock a handheld and use it on a tv isn't a priority. In my case, it is. I don't have the space for a ton of old consoles. I like not needing to rely on setting up shit like syncthing to keep my saves intact. It's kind of a bitch-Switch. Only better, because I actually use it. The Snapdragon 865 is also just a good ass chipset. I haven't run into many issues with it, it really seems to scrape around the upper limit of the Ps2 and Wii/GCN games that other handhelds of this price point have been able to get a handle on over the past few years. It's cool how far these little emulation handhelds have come. I remember my first one, it was the original Retroid Pocket 2. It didn't have a touch screen. You couldn't plug it directly into your computer to manage files without a degree in compsci. It came with an insanely bad frontend with games that didn't work pre-installed. For whatever reason, you needed to use an alternate version of Retroarch if you wanted to play GBA games. Now look at them though. One of the coolest things about the Retroid Flip 2 I've been able to do is install the Android build of Discord, for no other reason than using the screen share functionality to stream video games I'm playing with my friends, no capture card needed. Sure this is stuff you can do on a computer, but there's this really nice feeling of freedom you get when you aren't tethered to Windows, or sitting in one seat for an extended period of time. Handhelds are cool. They let you move around. Sometimes you don't want to be cooped up in your room to play stuff. The Retroid Pocket Flip 2 hits just enough boxes for me to think the compromises are worth it. It really is a nice system.

AESTHETICS

My review unit is black. Gotta say. That was the right choice. It's a little garish, but I don't hate the RGB stick trend that's been going around the handheld scene as of late, and it looks especially good when the system is black. Retroid is really good at making stuff that feels like it borrows aesthetic choices from the past, and creating something new from that, which feels fresh and exciting. The aesthetics of the Retroid Pocket 5 really didn't do it for me. Maybe it's a little pretty, but it's design doesn't feel all that nostalgic for any era of tech. I used to own a Retroid Pocket 2s. While it wasn't very comfortable in the hands, it knocked the looks department out of the damn park. It sorta looked like a nondescript and generic game system you'd see a cartoon character using. Like this platonic ideal of the handheld. And I know a lot of other handhelds sorta get close to this mark, but not like the 2s did. Genuinely felt "modern-retro." And does the Flip 2 do this? Not really, but I really do feel like its unique formfactor makes it feel much more like an actual game system and not just another android tablet with controls tacked onto the side. It's inviting to me. It wants to be flipped open, and I mean, come on. Who am I to say no?

So where does this leave us?

I really miss when handhelds were actually something you felt like you could take anywhere, so I'm glad Retroid Pocket manages to live up to the name. In lieu of that though, just as an aside, I really think we're overdue for a clamshell handheld that's just as small as the original 3DS or DSi. Every once in a while I hear this push for even bigger screens, but I feel like that's so disingenuous to what makes something called a "handheld" special, so I want to commend Retroid again for hitting what I feel should be their upper limit on screen size. There's compromises sure, but there's still something novel to me about playing higher end stuff on smaller screens. Not too small, but just small enough to bring back the feeling you got playing games on a DS and not a fucking iPad. The Flip 2 is unique. I appreciate what it's doing, even if it isn't all that complicated. They know where to make things simple, and they know where to make things weird. There's gonna be a weird caveat every once in a while. The perfect toy doesn't exist. No matter what, people are always going to find something about anything that they don't like, or at the very least think could be done better, and that's alright. These people aren't owed your money for making a game console, so it's nice finding something you just like, and can sorta agree with. And that's basically all there is to say, I suppose. Recommend.