Retroid Pocket Nova launches as 4:3 Android handheld with a $229 starting price

After a handful of teasers, Retroid has finally announced the Pocket Nova as its latest Android-powered handheld. It arrives as Retroid's first handheld this year, following a rough start that included price increases for the Pocket 6 and Pocket Classic, and the discontinuation of the Pocket G2.  

The Retroid Pocket Nova has a 4.5-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with a 1280 × 960 resolution for a 4:3 aspect ratio. It also has a peak brightness of 500 nits, a 100,000: 1 contrast ratio, and a 150% SRGB color gamut. Also, unlike the Pocket 6, the new handheld doesn't have glass covering the entire front, a design that many Retroid fans prefer.

Powering the Pocket Nova is the Qualcomm QCS8550 which is an IoT version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It is paired with 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There's a microSD card slot for adding more storage.

The new handheld runs Android 13 out of the box with a promise of incremental software upgrades. It also has stereo front-facing speakers, an audio jack, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, and a USB 3.1 Type-C port for charging and data transfer. The USB port can also be used to connect it to an external display as it has DisplayPort support. The maximum supported output resolution is 4K at 60Hz.

Retroid's new handheld has its D-pad on top, symmetrical Hall Effect thumbsticks with RGB LED rings, and analog trigger buttons. It also has a cooling fan and packs a 5,000mAh battery that charges at up to 27W. It fits all of the features mentioned above in a plastic body that measures 169.9 × 84.1 × 15.6 mm and weighs 255 grams.

The Retroid Pocket Nova has a starting price of $229 for the base model with 8GB of RAM, and goes up to $269 for the 12GB RAM version. These prices are for the Black, 16 Bit, and GC (Indigo) opaque colors. The translucent colors, which are Ice Blue, Crystal, Watermelon, and Clear Purple, are more expensive at $234 for the 8GB RAM version and $274 for the 12GB RAM version.

Retroid has not announced when pre-orders will begin, but it says that those who pre-order will receive a free bumped back shell to replace the flat back that comes with the device by default. They will also get a tempered glass screen protector.