Analogue Pocket

[Nu-Eclipse]

Gutted for all on here who got in on the second pre-order early only to get slapped with a Q4 2022 shipping date.

I do want one of these but there's no way I'm giving Analogue my money right now for something that will come along a year later or maybe slightly longer. I get the chip shortage and pandemic are combining to make producing products like this a considerable arse-ache but Analogue really ought to be generous enough to have allowed for money to be taken at actual point of shipping instead of point of order IMO - the demand and hype for Pocket shows that they would've been good for it and it would've been a considerable PR win IMO.

I'll look at maybe ordering one later (maybe this time) in 2022 if/when the shipping situation becomes a little clearer.

[beecee]

If someone is interested, there's one up for sale on avforums, £480.....

[Nu-Eclipse]

If someone is interested, there's one up for sale on avforums, £480.....

If that's a scalper for the handheld alone, then he can Foxtrot Uncle Charlie Kilo right off.

[speedlolita]

Still less than I've seen some go for on eBay...

[wakka]

Looking at completed listings, someone paid £200 for one of those hard cases for it. Which, uh…

[Ghost]

I’m in group B as well, had all the items I wanted in cart and hit checkout about 30 seconds after they were available, had to wait in line for about 5 minutes before I could finish the order. Thinking about whether to cancel the order now and order again in 2023 when they are (hopefully) instock or just leave it and wait. It would help if Analogue would be a bit clearer, is that Q4 2022 set in stone or are they just covering themselves and are likely to get more stock before then? It seems crazy that they can’t manufacture any more of these for a whole year, I know theres a parts shortage but surely there isn’t a year long waiting list.

[Brad]

Had my cancel confirmation through. I’d never play it anyway. Nice looking device though.

[wakka]

I really want one so I'm going to just hang onto my preorder. I don't want to get to the end of 2022, having cancelled my preorder now, and then have to order one to be delivered in Q4 2023 or something bonkers.

A year is a really bloody long wait though to be honest, especially considering these were first announced in 2019. It's like the Playdate, I've been waiting years for that too.

[fuse]

If you’re looking on with envy at folks who have theirs now, it’s worth remembering that they did the exact same “pay up front, wait a year” dance that the latest round of folks in Group B are being asked to. With Analogue’s relative size, chip shortages, and the demand for the product, I think it’s going to be a long time before it’ll be in stock and ready to ship as soon as you order it.

[Nu-Eclipse]

If you’re looking on with envy at folks who have theirs now, it’s worth remembering that they did the exact same “pay up front, wait a year” dance that the latest round of folks in Group B are being asked to. With Analogue’s relative size, chip shortages, and the demand for the product, I think it’s going to be a long time before it’ll be in stock and ready to ship as soon as you order it.

I do understand this.

I just feel that the exception could've been made this time around to only charge at point of shipping, especially given that the price has now been raised (albeit with some fair justification for the current circumstances).

Again, it's not like the consumer goodwill isn't there for Analogue to do it that way.

[arcnas]

I understand why the charge straight away but it’s a bad practice I’m not worried as it’s paid for and now just a year wait

But what’s happens to Anyones money if they go down the pan. In the next 2 years

[speedlolita]

As I have played a bunch of this last night and today I thought I would post a few impressions.



Pocket

The Pocket unit itself has a good feel to it, it feels sturdy and has a nice weight to it. It feels like a thinner DMG in the hands if I were to compare it to the Game Boy range. Updating the firmware was painless, simply drag the bin file to the Micro SD and it automatically updates the next time the unit is powered on. There has been much discussion surrounding the screen and it is easy to see why. The nature of the unit itself is emulation so the display looks as crisp and sharp as you would expect of an emulator. You also have the option to select "Original" screen modes that attempt to recreate the look of the original hardware displays, I think these can look great and often find myself switching between the crisp emulation look and the "Original" look. Sound wise you have stereo speakers that have considerable volume, much louder than the speakers of a DMG. The buttons are responsive and have a nice tactile feel to them, the d-pad I plenty responsive too. I have tested a few carts and they have worked great, aside from my X5 Mini which apparently is unable to create eeprom saves on the Pocket hardware. There appears to be various issues with EverDrive compatibility and the Pocket but there isn't much concrete evidence to suggest which party is at fault, hopefully things improve on that front as the Pocket receives further firmware updates. Jailbreak wise I'm thinking if one does become available then it will drop with the 1.1 update as it hasn't happened just yet. Right now a lot of the features promised in Analogue OS aren't present which is fine but definitely gives the impression of the Pocket being not entirely finished.

Dock

Currently I think the dock is a bit feature light too. The dock provides video out for the Pocket and has allowed me to sync a Switch Pro controller and a 2.4 SN30, both of which without any hassle. While docked you don't get any of the "Original" screen features that you do in handheld mode as options and by default the video is set to a non-integer scale which is easily fixed. To the surprise of nobody the Pocket and dock together work much like the unit and dock of the Nintendo Switch. The dock itself feels solid and is powered via a USB power brick provided in the box. This is multi voltage so you can adapt the 2 pin connector with a travel adapter for use in the UK, although I currently have mine plugged into my step-down.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the purchase. Perhaps not the best value proposition but I think this product could really evolve into something special over time.

[importaku]

Well that's a bit alarming, someones screen fell out. Guessing the build quality isn't as "premium" as analogue is pushing it as.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHZ_DoxVIAApSgN?format=jpg&name=medium

It's also been tearing up cart labels on insertion into the cart adapters as well, saw someone with a mangled gamegear cart as the adapter is rough on them if it's label not on totally flat and there's even a tiny bit of label raised up on the cart them the adapter can snag it as the clearance is pretty snug.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Well that's a bit alarming, someones screen fell out. Guessing the build quality isn't as "premium" as analogue is pushing it as.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHZ_DoxVIAApSgN?format=jpg&name=medium

It's also been tearing up cart labels on insertion into the cart adapters as well, saw someone with a mangled gamegear cart as the adapter is rough on them if it's label not on totally flat and there's even a tiny bit of label raised up on the cart them the adapter can snag it as the clearance is pretty snug.

Are more Pocket owners coming out and saying that they're experiencing similar issues?

[importaku]

Are more Pocket owners coming out and saying that they're experiencing similar issues?

So far that's the only one so far regarding the screen, not sure how many actually made it out into the wild outside of the youtubers & the people who managed to get one from the first batch could be just a rogue one, time will tell on that. My twitter feed is mainly from gaming peeps so they keep popping up in there, a few people have had problems with labels getting ripped because of the super flush adapters but so far just one screen trying to escape.