Even older emulation-focused handhelds can’t escape RAMaggedon.
Retroid, creator of a growing number of Android-based handhelds, is striking a deal with recent buyers of its Retroid Pocket 5 and Flip 2 handhelds. Anyone with an unfulfilled order of the company’s entry-level models with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will get an upgrade to 12GB of RAM at no additional cost. Retrooid handhelds reports. After July 14, both handhelds will also cost $10 more.
While these aren’t Retroid’s newest devices – that honor goes to the upcoming Retroid Pocket Nova – the Snapdragon 865 chip in the Pocket 5 and Flip 2 means they’re capable of emulating consoles as recent as the Gamecube or PlayStation 2. Adding more RAM into the mix should theoretically make them even better. If this change were not accompanied by an increase in prices, it would be easy to rejoice. Given that an extra 4GB of RAM costs an extra $10, the change is best understood when Retroid eliminates its cheapest tiers altogether.
You still have until July 14 to buy a Pocket 5 or Flip 2 at their current prices, but after that the two handhelds will start at $209 and $219, respectively. Retroid hasn’t explained what’s driving this change, but given the state of the rest of the tech industry, it seems safe to assume that the cost and availability of RAM played a role. Demand for memory from AI companies has prompted component makers to radically raise prices. For many companies, including Microsoft, Apple and Framework, this in turn means raising their prices.
While reducing low-cost tiers is a strategy Apple has already deployed to slow the bleeding, Retroid’s situation is probably more comparable to Framework’s. Both companies sell popular products, but they don’t do so on the scale of Apple or Samsung, meaning they don’t have a RAM reserve to fall back on, nor the wiggle room to negotiate a better deal. Removing a cheaper tier is probably the most logical solution for Retroid.
