Retroid Dual Screen Add-On: Support for Retroid Pocket 4 Pro is broken, fix to take months

When Retroid announced the Retroid Dual Screen Add-On, a second display to supported handhelds, it mentioned that the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro was among the few first-party handhelds that work with the accessory. Now, the manufacturer has released an update that will break the hearts of owners of the 2023 Android device.

Posts on Retroid's social media channels have revealed that the Retroid Dual Screen Add-on isn't compatible with the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro (available on Amazon for $174) despite an earlier announcement and even a demo showing the accessory in use with the handheld.

According to the manufacturer, this is a hardware-level compatibility issue that prevents the display's receiver chip from synchronizing with MediaTek's output clock jitter, which results in PCR errors.

Of the three Retroid handhelds originally stated to be compatible with the Dual-Screen Add-on, the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro is the only powered by a MediaTek processors, specifically the Dimensity 1100 processor. The other two handhelds which are the Retroid Pocket 5 and the Retroid Pocket Mini/Mini V2 are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 processor.

Retroid says that its R&D team is working on a solution which will require an updated DP video receiver chip that is compatible with MediaTek processors. However, the development of this solution is reported to take between 3 to 4 months.

Based on this, Retroid said it has made the decision to make a refund to those who ordered the Retroid Dual Screen Add-On along with the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro. According to the post, buyers won't have to do anything as the customer service team will automatically process the refund to their original payment methods.

The announcement has been met with backlash from those who ordered the accessory which has faced two shipping delays. Some are of the opinion that Retroid lied and didn't properly test the device to be sure of its compatibility with the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro.

While Retroid says that there's a solution, it remains to be seen if it will consider it worthwhile to pursue the solution to the end which will mean launching a third variant of the accessory for MediaTek-powered devices or if it will consider just dropping support for MediaTek devices. Nevertheless, time will tell which decision will the company will go with.