Retroid Pocket 5 to shake up retro gaming handheld market by combining 1080p AMOLED display with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, 5,000 mAh battery and Linux support

Retroid has not yet delivered on its promise of sharing full details about the Pocket 5 yet. However, it has now provided greater clarity on the potential performance that the Pocket 4 and Pocket 4 Pro (curr. $249.99 on Amazon) successor will provide.

To recap, Retroid already confirmed that the Pocket 5 would feature an AMOLED display that outputs at 1080p in a 16:9 aspect ratio while measuring 5.5-inches across. Added to that, it revealed last week that the gaming handheld would be available in four colour options and with another four DIY translucent back shells. Moreover, the Pocket 5 is said to tip the scales at 280 g with a 199.2 x 78.5 x 15.6 mm footprint, which would make it only marginally larger than last year's Pocket 4.

Now, it has outlined that these compact housing will also host not just a 5,000 mAh battery but also a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. While the Snapdragon 865 is almost five years old, it averages 1.43x and 1.29x higher benchmark scores than the Dimensity 900 and Dimensity 1100 that power the Pocket 4 and Pocket 4 Pro, respectively.

Furthermore, Retroid claims that the Pocket 5 will support Armbian and Batocera with an open Linux kernel. An ensuing thread between Retroid and Batocera suggests that the former's support for the latter's OS should currently be considered unofficial, though.