Retroid Pocket 3 Plus Metal Edition: Refreshed gaming handheld arrives with hall effect joysticks for US$179

Retroid has announced a new version of the Pocket 3 Plus, a gaming handheld that it launched in November 2022. To recap, the Pocket 3 Plus combined a 4.7-inch display with a 4,500 mAh battery, a UNISOC Tiger T618 chipset and 4 GB of LPDDR4x RAM. While these remain unchanged, Retroid has made a few changes from the standard model.

On the one hand, Retroid has swapped the existing plastic shell for a metal name. Appropriately, the company has called the new model the Retroid Pocket 3 Metal Edition, albeit without disclosing the type of metal used. Theoretically, the Metal Edition should offer a more premium feel than the regular Pocket 3 Plus. However, it comes with the trade-off of added weight, with a 21% increase cited on Retroid's website.

On the other hand, Retroid has also added hall effect joysticks for improved accuracy and the elimination of drift errors. Retroid will begin selling the Pocket 3 Plus Metal Edition on June 17 for US$179, US$30 more than the standard plastic edition. Seemingly, the company will open pre-orders at 02:00 UTC; its website only mentions CST and EST time zones. Retroid has not confirmed when it will begin shipping Pocket 3 Plus Metal Edition orders yet, though.

Purchase the Anbernic RG353M on Amazon