The mystery of the Retroid Pocket Mini's display issues may have by an intrepid hardware modder behind last year's homemade PlayStation 1 gaming handheld. In short, the display inside the Pocket Mini is not all that it seems.
On the face of it, Retroid equipped the Pocket Mini with a 3.7-inch OLED panel that delivers a 1,280 x 960-pixel native resolution. As a result, Retroid compares the Pocket Mini with the Pocket 2S in its marketing materials, rather than the newer Pocket 4 or Pocket 4 Pro (curr. $199 on Amazon).
As we have discussed previously, Retroid blamed a hardware issue for the Pocket Mini being incapable of rendering CRT shaders properly in all instances. While the company has decided against clarifying further, YveltalGriffin appears to have determined the root cause.
Apparently, the Pocket Mini utilises panels intended for use in the LG Wing's secondary display. Although not an issue in itself, the Wing's secondary display measures 3.92-inches and outputs at 1,240 x 1,080.
As Retro Handhelds explains, this panel cannot natively output at 1,280 x 960 with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Instead, it can only reach 1,240 x 930 pixels, which the Pocket Mini then upscales to 1,280 x 960.
Therefore, the display was never capable of hitting its advertising resolution in the first place without the Pocket Mini distorting its image to get there. On top of recent solutions, Retroid has confirmed it will be offering a replacement DIY display replacement kit using the 3.92-inch and 1,240 x 1,080-pixel panel from the recent Pocket Classic.