Can The Retroid Pocket 2+ Right The Wrongs Of Its Predecessor?

Moorechip have just released a bona fide upgrade to the RP2, utilising the same beautiful shell. If you’re already an RP2 owner, the Retroid Pocket 2+ upgrade might be exactly what you’re looking for.

The Retroid Pocket 2 was marred by a couple of issues, mostly down to design decisions rather than a lack of manufacturing ability. Running Android on that MT6580 processor with just 1GB RAM was always going to be a big ask, and pairing it with a non-touch enabled panel was an unfortunate decision too.

Along with a weird digital slider on the right side we ended up with a handheld that could have been great but ended up being OKish. But Moorechip look to be fixing this in the RP2+, and your old hardware doesn’t necessarily go to waste either.

RETROID POCKET 2+ UPGRADE

The Retroid Pocket 2+ is available to buy as a prebuilt device, but there’s also a drop in replacement kit available for your original RP2 as well. This kit will upgrade your original RP2 with the RP2+ motherboard. Taki has already provided a video of what the kit comprises, as well as how to install it.

Interestingly this kit apparently won’t come with a touchscreen panel by default, but is available as an additional extra. The prebuilt RP2+ will ship with a touchscreen already installed though. The board upgrade looks pretty straight forward, but it remains to be seen what is involved in replacing the LCD.

The prebuilt Retroid Pocket 2+ has the same 640*480 resolution panel as its predecessor, but will be a capacitive touchscreen. It’s also been mentioned that the “digital” slider on the right hand side is actually analog, just that the old hardware wasn’t configured to interpret it as such. According to Taki, the new hardware is able to utilise this properly now.

The upgrade kit also ships with an acrylic case for your old RP2 motherboard. Bundled with it is a daughter board that allows you to power the RP2 motherboard from a USB cable. Plugged into your TV, your old hardware finds a new lease of life as an Android emulator box. In a world of throwaway electronics and e-waste I find this a really nice idea.

Retroid Pocket 2 Android TV Box

RETROID POCKET 2+ RELEASE DATE AND PRICE

The chip being used in the RP2+ is one we’ve not seen in a handheld before. It’s the quad core Unisoc Tiger T310, a budget level cellphone processor built around three 1.8GHz A55 cores and one 2GHz A75 core. Coupled with 2GB of RAM and an 800Mhz PowerVR GE8300 GPU we end up with a pretty powerful little handheld.

Retroid pocket 2+ specs

Taki has posted a few performance videos already, and it’s plain to see that this configuration is far more powerful than the previous generation. In fact it’s possible that single core performance from this chip could be better than that of the RK3399 in Anbernic’s upcoming RG552 flagship. Of course, it’s unlikely we’ll get Linux on the RP2+ though.

The Retroid Pocket 2+ will run Android 9 out of the box, and it looks as though Moorechip have developed a rather nice UI for it too.

Both the upgrade kit and the prebuilt RP2+ units are available to pre-order now, shipping out in around a month. The upgrade kit costs $65, and the prebuilt Retroid Pocket 2+ devices are just $99 plus shipping. For the performance, that price is very competitive and on paper the Retroid Pocket 2+ looks like a worthy successor to the RK3326 based machines.

GORETROID.COM

28 thoughts on “Can The Retroid Pocket 2+ Right The Wrongs Of Its Predecessor?”

  1. I got mine a month ago and, to me, it just does what I expected it to do: right (most of) the wrongs of the original RP2 and add some extra.

    The jump from the old RK3326 is significant while still at a very reasonable price. No crazy performances, but it’s still very nice to be able to do stuff that were out of reach from the old RK3326 such as:

    – Full speed Dreamcast emulation
    – Decent N64 emulation (GoldenEye 64 is really playable now!)
    – Less input lag with Retroarch for all 16bits system (no video threading, run ahead, etc.)
    – High res PSX games

    On the downsides, I’m not a big fan of the D-PAD being below the left stick (I prefer the other way round) and the right stick – but those are minor issues to me.

    Reply
  2. If they still have that fake joystick on the right then it’s a waste of time. Can’t understand why they would do that in the first place. If you’re going to give me two joysticks, one of them real, make them both real!

    Reply
    • Yeah, it’s better now (It’s still a slider but it’s not digital like it used to be – it’s actually analog now – a bit like the 3DS stick used to be). I don’t like it much – but it’s not such a biggie either. How often do you use the right stick on pre-Dreamcast/PSP games? For FPS and so on I think it is just about servicial. Even with the stick how it is, the RP2+ has a lot going on for its price I think.

      Reply
    • None of the games that the device can play would require anything other than the hardware provided. What exactly is the problem?

      Reply
      • Well I use the right stick for the ported games on the rg350. Doom, duke nukem, and quake. The slider just seems silly if there’s already a real joystick on the left. I appreciate having 2 on the rg.

        Reply
  3. This will probably be my next handheld: I (sadly) sold my Retroid Pocket 2 because it was not powerful enough, but this was by far my favorite handheld in terms of design and build quality. And now, RP2+ sounds like the handheld I’ve been dreaming of recently (attractive price, better perfs than good ol’ RK3326)!

    Well, I guess it’s like Marmite: you love it, or you hate it 😉

    Reply
    • The $85 full upgrade kit doesn’t make financial sense, when you can buy the 2+ for $99. Plus there is a risk of snapping the case when installing. IMO would be better to sell your RP2 to fund the purchase of the 2+

      Reply
  4. do you think i can use the new operating system for the old retroid pocket 2 aswell? i mean for the doughterbooard acrylic thingy.

    The old OS was sooooo horrible (i mean the android was to slow) that im not willing to use the old System with it anymore. Its the reason why i stopped configuring my retroid pocket 2 a year ago. but now ive bought the upgrade kit.

    Maybe this time….

    Reply
      • What a bummer. But Theres another solution. Ive Seen Videos of a custom Android 8.1 Version (lineage os). This ist really snappy and quick compared to the Stick Version.

        Only compromise ist that you ganz usw the dual Boot any more. But i was never a Fan of the retroid OS with the preinstalled Games so thats more than OK to me

        Reply
    • No, actually. For PSP/PSX/Vita games there’s no better option, however for anything more advanced than NES, the Vita’s emulation performance and stability leaves a lot to be desired.

      Reply
      • While I generally agree that something like the RP2+ is now a better option for many retro systems, in fairness the Vita can go a LOT higher than NES.

        I get fantastic performance in RetroArch for everything up to SNES (minus the Super FX chip games), TG16, GBA and CPS2. And that screen (Slim not Oled) is still amazing in comparison to more modern screen. The Slim is a marvel and still my most comfortable to hold device, with probably the biggest screen-to-console-size ratio of any gaming handheld.

        Reply
          • You missed the point of the conversation. I was defending the capabilities and other merits of the Vita. I wasn’t saying the RP2+ couldn’t run all those systems. The RP2+ is much more powerful for emulation than the Vita and can easily run all the systems discussed. I was simply challenging the person who said the Vita could only emulate up to NES.

  5. The biggest issue I’m having now is the battery, if that’s the upgrade then it’s going to die 2x faster and it’s already low enough. I’d rather wait for the steam deck for my needs.

    Reply
  6. I was happy with mine and don’t think it was a ‘big wrong decision’. I’ve enjoyed many, many hours on the RP2. Great screen, comfortable design. Very light unlike the RG… Metal handhelds. It wasn’t perfect but I liked the product enough to be excited for the RP2+

    Overall, the RP2 nailed the form factor more than any other retro-handheld I’ve tried – so I’m delighted the overall body remains the same.

    Reply
  7. Does anyone know the specs?

    I could see myself getting the upgrade kit if its 65 dollars and a touch screen if the touch screen is cheap. Hopefull this isn’t a pre-order that will take a couple months or so to get like it did when the retroid pocket 2 first came out.

    Reply
    • I never bought the original, there were too many complaints. But some people seem to love it still, and every reason I didn’t buy the original seems to have been remedied with this version. It remains to be seen but I am quite optimistic (for a change).

      Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.