The Latest Analogue Pocket Limited Edition Ditches Plastic for Aluminum [CNET]

This is going to be a dense and expensive gaming handheld.

The Analogue Pocket, a retro gaming handheld that can play your classic Game Boy, Game Boy Advance and other cartridges, has a significantly more expensive limited edition variant that ditches the plastic for an all-CNC’d aluminum body, Analogue said in a press release on Friday.

The latest limited edition will retail for $500, more than double the price of the standard plastic version. Like past limited editions, this aluminum version will be very limited, according to Analogue. For the aluminum variant, Analogue says its limited production is due to the expense and difficulty of making an all-metal shell. Apart from the metal body and buttons, the internals of the Pocket remain the same.

Preorders for the aluminum Analogue Pocket go live on Monday, July 15, at 8 a.m. PT. It’ll be available in four colors, including indigo, natural, noir and black. If past limited edition drops are any indication, it’ll likely sell out almost immediately.

The upcoming aluminum version of the Analogue Pocket isn’t the only way to play the system in an all-metal shell. A company called Retro CN released its own aluminum shell kit for the Pocket late last year. But at $190, it’s nearly the cost of the standard Pocket itself. Plus, putting it together is a bit of a challenge, as demonstrated by YouTuber Wulff Den. Analogue has also received criticism from fans for its handling of limited drops. The transparent, glow-in-the-dark or retro classic models have all been difficult to come by, with some landing on resell sites like eBay for inflated prices immediately after release. Analogue doesn’t produce more once the initial limited edition batch has sold out, which can create a bit of a buying frenzy from enthusiasts and resellers.

Analogue has been making retro gaming systems since 2011. It first focused on iterations of early Nintendo systems with its Analogue NT and Analogue Super NT, versions of the NES and SNES that played older cartridges at a 1080p resolution. The Analogue Pocket, released in 2021, is the company’s version of the Game Boy, able to play handheld Nintendo cartridges on a super sharp 1,660×1,440 LCD display. A TV dock is also available, which outputs your classic games to 1080p via HDMI. With special adapters, the Pocket can also play carts for the Sega Game Gear, TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine, SuperGrafx, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx.