Retroid Pocket 3+ Review – A rival handheld gaming console for the Anbernic RG505?

In our Retroid Pocket 3+ review we will be comparing it with the recently released Anbernic RG505 which has the same processor. Keep reading for unboxing, benchmarks, comparisons and emulator performance of this handheld gaming console.

Retroid Pocket 3+ Review Video

Unboxing the Retroid Pocket 3+

First we have a user manual, and that’s in the loosest term as it literally an explanation of the handhelds layout and the tech specs. Underneath is a screen protector which you can apply to your screen.

We have the Retroid Pocket 3+ handheld which we will show in more detail shortly. And last but not least is a USB Type-C charge cable.

Overview of the Retroid Pocket 3+

The Retroid Pocket 3+ handheld gaming console is available in several colours, here we have the Clear Purple and Clear Blue models, but it will also be available in 16 Bit and 16 Bit US, Black, Indigo, Retro and Orange colours.

It has the same case as the Retroid Pocket 3 measuring around 7.2 x 3.1 x 0.9 inches (18.4 x 8.1 x 2.4 cm) and weighs around 230 grams.

It also shares the same 4.7 inch touchscreen with a rotated 750×1334 resolution. 

On the front are your usual gaming controls including clickable dual analogue sticks, a D-Pad and four gaming buttons. 

The left side has a volume rocker and the right side has a home button.

On the top are the left and right shoulder and trigger buttons. With the power button and micro HDMI port . 

And as before we have the weirdly located SELECT and START buttons which are not in a natural position to press while playing a game. I wouldn’t have minded them seeing these moved to the front in the 3+ model.

On the bottom is a Micro SD Card slot, the USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone port.

Retroid Pocket 3+ Technical Specifications

CPU	Unisoc Tiger T618 with 2x A75 @2.0GHz and 6x A55 @2.0GHz
GPU	Mali G52 MC2 @850MHz
RAM	4GB LPDDR4x @ 850MHz
STORAGE	128GB internal eMMC 5.1 Micro SD Card slot for additional storage
COMMUNICATIONS	WiFi 5 Bluetooth 5.0
BATTERY*	4500mAh battery

* There is a 4500mAh battery which lasts for up to 8 hours depending on usage. We left the Antutu benchmark running on a loop for 4 hours 57 minutes which is a fair amount of time.

Android Overview

The Retroid Pocket 3 Plus retro handheld emulator runs on Android 11 and has a fair number of emulators ready to go, generally they just need pointing to the respective ROM folders on the Micro SD Card. 

There is a built in frontend which does admittedly take a while to set up from scratch but once you do have it set up, it is very good. Essentially you choose which gaming systems you would like to add, then go through each system to add the ROM path and then scan for recognised games. It is far better than the frontend on the RG505 by a long shot.

Another useful feature is the Pocket overlay which you activate by swiping from the right side of the screen. It gives you quick access to commonly used functions, system information and the built in screen mapping which is very good. The overlay software is a big positive and something we would like to see on future Anbernic devices.

System Benchmarks and comparison

As with all Android based handhelds we run a series of system benchmarks to see their general performance and we can also use the results to compare to other handhelds.

	POCKET 2+	POCKET 3	POCKET 3+
ANTUTU	158319	163702	232752
GEEKBENCH	372 / 741	374 / 747	382 / 1445
3DMARK (SLINGSHOT)	668	704	2184

The Retroid Pocket 2+ and Retroid Pocket 3 share the same processor so we saw fairly similar scores for them both. The Retroid Pocket 3+ retro handheld emulator scores an average 115% increase over the previous two models which is very impressive!

	RG353M	GPD XP+	RG505	POCKET 3+
ANTUTU	69015	670576	229972	232752
GEEKBENCH	125 / 413	845 / 2869	370 / 1453	382 / 1445
3DMARK (SLINGSHOT)	755	Maxed Out!	2164	2184
ANDROID VERSION	11	11	12	11
DUAL BOOT	YES	NO	NO	NO
PRICE	£180	£440	£204	£220

We can see on the comparison that the Retroid Pocket 3+ benchmark scores are on par with the Anbernic RG505 handheld gaming console which shares the same processor. You could run benchmarks on both handhelds again and get better or worse scores than each other. This in my opinion is good to see as it means we could base which handheld to buy on the design, price or features, rather than which has the best performance.

Emulator Performance

We continue the Retroid Pocket 3+ review with a closer look at the performance of the emulators. As with the RG505 the Retroid Pocket 3+ can run up to PlayStation 1 and Dreamcast games with full 60 FPS. This is a good increase compared to say the Retroid Pocket 2+ and 3 which struggled when we got to some Dreamcast and above. So let’s see how much more performance we get from the Retroid Pocket 3+ handheld gaming console.

Dolphin

Like the RG505 we see a mix of speed with the Dolphin emulator. On Burnout 2 we get the full 60 Frames Per Second and quite a few other games run just as well. But for a fair number, including first party titles the frames will drop to as low as 20 to 40 depending on which Dolphin emulator you are using. 

AetherSX2

On AetherSX2 we are getting around 20 FPS on 1x resolution and around 33 on 0.5 resolution on Gran Turismo 3. The graphics quality at 0.5 resolution is pretty bad, and the game is not very enjoyable. You will have more success with less demanding games like Neo Contra which runs well at 1x resolution, but more stable at 0.5

M64Plus FX

On M64Plus FX we were getting full frame rates on all the games we tried. This includes third and first party titles which run at 50 or 60 FPS depending on the region. Everything was fine and we did not have any issues. 

Citra

You will get mixed performance depending on the game you are trying whether or not it will be playable. Sonic Generations has shader cache lag the first time you play through the game but the second time around it is more playable on the Retroid Pocket 3 Plus handheld gaming console. Less demanding games will initially perform better and are playable. Overall the emulator runs well and it’s definitely worth trying some games on it to see which work well or not.

PPSSPP

As always we check out God of War and like on the RG505 we are getting a mostly solid 60 frames per second, with no frame skipping at 1x rendering resolution. Depending on how demanding the game is you can increase the rendering resolution higher and remain at 60 FPS. Overall the PSP emulator is very good!

Final Thoughts

Something that I did want to mention is the very short space of time between releasing the Pocket 3 and Pocket 3+. It is very disappointing especially for those that purchased the Pocket 3, Retroid knew full well what they were doing. We are reviewing the Pocket 3+ on the actual product rather than the company’s business practices, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Like the Anbernic RG505, I am very happy with the Retroid Pocket 3+, there is a good jump in performance over the usual handheld processors such as the RK3566. The Tiger T618 does a very good job up until the PS1 and Dreamcast era and of course PSP. These are the systems you would be purchasing it for rather than the Dolphin, AetherSX2 and Citra emulators which have mixed results, but you can still find some playable games.

There is a nice range of colours for the Pocket 3+ and I do like how well it feels in your hand, it is a good design. But I absolutely hate the location of the SELECT & START buttons. It is not natural to have to move your hand to press either of the two standard gaming buttons. Other than that I have no complaints about the Pocket 3+ itself.

As for which you should buy, the Retroid Pocket 3+ or RG505 from Anbernic, I will leave that decision up to you. They perform equally so it does come down to the design, features, price difference etc.

Where to buy the Retroid Pocket 3+?

Talking about price, how does a discount on the Pocket 3+ sound? Use the discount RP3P5OFF on the Checkout when you buy the Retroid Pocket 3+ here. You can find our range of retro handheld emulators here.

That wraps up our Retroid Pocket 3+ review, we hope you have found it useful.  Let us know what you think of this retro gaming handheld in the comments!