Action Pi: Retro gaming handheld with Linux-based OS set to launch in early July

Helegaly revealed its Action Pi retro gaming handheld earlier this year, powered by the Linux-based Batocera operating system and decently powerful internals. The company has now revealed that the Action Pi will go on sale on the 5th of July, priced relatively affordably.

At its heart, the Action Pi retro handheld is equipped with an Allwinner A527 ARM SoC. This is the same SoC that was found in the Cubie A5E SBC, and boasts decent performance thanks to its octa-core setup consisting of Cortex-A55 cores (up to 2 GHz) paired with 2 GB of LPDDR4 memory. A Mali G57 iGPU takes care of the graphics side of things.

Of course, the display is arguably one of the most important aspects of a quality handheld. The Action Pi boasts a 4.02-inch IPS display with a resolution of 960 x 720, allowing for an impressive pixel density of almost 300 PPI and excellent color reproduction, according to Retro Dodo.

The retro handheld is also equipped with the usual set of physical buttons, along with Hall-effect joysticks. Reviews indicate that the joysticks do a pretty good job, although the L1/R1 trigger buttons are reportedly "on the narrow side", also according to Retro Dodo's review.

A 5,000 mAh battery is also featured, which should last several days on a single charge, thanks to its modest internals. The ports selection includes dual USB-C, mini HDMI, microSD, and an audio jack. Wireless connectivity is taken care of by Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support. The base variant with 16 GB of EMMC storage and a 64 GB microSD card costs $59.99, and the 128 GB (microSD) variant costs $5 more.

Pricier alternative: Retroid Pocket 4 Pro gaming handheld (currently $174 on Amazon)