Retroid’s next flagship handheld will have a more powerful chip

The Retroid Pocket 5 is one of the most popular retro gaming handhelds on the market, but Qualcomm just gave us a sneak peek at a key upgrade to its likely successor. As part of the announcement for the new gaming-oriented SoCs, Qualcomm revealed that Retroid’s next flagship device will be one of the first devices to ship with the Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 processor.

While the company did not reveal the device’s name, it is very likely to be the Retroid Pocket 6. It’s been less than six months since the Retroid Pocket 5 was released, but with no date or renders to show alongside this reveal, it may be several months before Retroid finalizes the design.

Despite the recent release, the Pocket 5 shipped with the Snapdragon 865, a now-four-year-old SoC. It’s still a powerful chip that’s capable of running most emulators on Android, but with competitors like AYN and AYANEO opting for more recent chips, the extra power will be a welcome upgrade.

The Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 is a brand-new chipset that fills the middle slot in a trio of gaming-focused SoCs announced by Qualcomm earlier today. With gaming handhelds in mind, it’s designed to maintain peak performance and extend battery life, while eliminating unnecessary components. We’ll test the chipset once it’s more widely available, but it looks like a significant upgrade on paper.

This won’t be the only device to launch with one of these new gaming chips, as it was just announced that the Retroid Pocket Classic will be one of the first devices to ship with the Snapdragon G1 Gen 2. The budget-oriented chip doesn’t offer the same level of performance, but it should be a good fit for the size and design of the Pocket Classic. That device goes up for pre-order later today and is expected to ship in April.