PocketGo S30 Review

PocketGO S30

$59.99

7

Affordable power, just a tad uncomfortable

7.0/10

Pros

• Affordable
• Up To PS1 Emulation
• Appearance

Cons

• Screen
• Uncomfortable For Large Hands
• Loose Internals

BUY HERE

The PocketGO S30 is one of the latest “ low-cost ” retro handhelds to come out of China. Priced at just $ 59, it has put itself in a first gear rival class, tied coming in cheaper than the Retroid Pocket 2, which as you know is one of the best ex post facto handhelds out there .
For those of you new to chinese ex post facto handhelds, you may think that these are a little “ louche ”, and we ’ ll be honest, at times they are ( customer service ) but there ’ s nothing illegal about buying these ex post facto handhelds. The only “ illegal ” part is downloading ROMs of games you do not own .
The PocketGO S30 look like the classic SNES control, and thats for thoroughly argue, because one of the members of 8BitDo, a company renowned for making radio receiver controllers actually had input when it comes to this handhelds design .
Hence, why they ’ ve named it after the 8BitDo SN30+ Controller .
We ’ re not wholly sure who created the PocketGo S30, it could be the guys behind the Bittboy seeing as they have named their consoles “ Pocket Go ” in the past, but as of now we have no estimate .

PocketGo S30 Specifications

• Quad Core 1.2GHZ AllWinner A33 CPU
• 512MB RAM
• Mali400 MP2 GPU
• 2600 MAH Battery (5 HOURS)
• 3.5″ IPS Display (480 X 320)
• USB-C Charging
• Headphone Jack

How Does The PocketGo S30 Feel?

We ’ re distillery not wholly sure what to think of the PocketGo S30 design. We have a beloved hate relationship with it, but because of the small price tag we can ’ thymine be besides nonindulgent with our opinions .
First of all, we love how this thing looks. It ’ second hands down the biggest selling point of the hand-held. It looks nostalgic, has that “ SNES ” look to it, and the large 3.5″ display transforms it into an eye catching piece of technology .
The analogue adhere is identical to that of the Nintendo Switch, which is much higher quality than the previous Bittboy products, and before you ask, no it doesn ’ t drift !
The DPAD works well and looks precisely like the one from the SNES accountant. On the other side you have your action buttons which are actually quite little. We would have liked them to be slightly bigger, but then again, you ’ d lose a distribute of board on the expression of the hand-held .
They could have besides added the dark shadow of imperial to the A/B buttons barely like the SNES control, and even added the concaved X/Y buttons excessively for lend detail, but they didn ’ thymine .
Below that is the start/select buttons which again, look like that of the SNES restrainer .
Moving onto the top, which is importantly thicker than the buttocks of the handled you will find your triggers, a USB-C port, your on/off buttons and volume buttons .
The triggers are unique, the back two are flared and rather of being pressed down, you kind of have to push them back. We like them a lot but we can imagine many gamers will not, we ’ ll get onto why shortly .
At the bottom of the device you have two LED indicators, a earphone jack and a SD menu slot. We appreciate having the earphone jackfruit at the bottom because it doesn ’ thymine tangle your cables, so its adept to see that haven ’ thymine copied some of the inadequate handhelds with this feature.

On the back there ’ s very minimal featured, fair a dagger .
When we did the “ shake quiz ” a screen where we merely shake the hand-held in order to hear how unleash the internals are we were devastated. It sounds like the battery is about to come idle any irregular. While we shook the PocketGo S30 around all we could hear was the barrage hitting each side of the retainer… not good .
This will most likely not affect the hand-held, but this doesn ’ triiodothyronine give us confidence should we always unintentionally drop it .

Why Is It So Uncomfortable?

Unfortuantely, we find the PocketGo S30 to be fairly uncomfortable for hanker bet on sessions. Don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate get us wrong the plan is stunning and looks very appeal but when you place it in your hired hand, it about dissapears .
Our fingers rest far beyond the triggers to a compass point where it actually rests on the on/off release and the volume buttons. It ’ s not that our hands are boastful, its equitable the means the layout contradicts an adult hand .
To play effectively, we have to balance the PocketGO S30 in our fingers, rather of holding it with our hands. The images should give you an idea of what we mean .
For children, or those with smaller hands you ’ ll be finely but it equitable feels uncomfortable to play on at times, and it feels as if the hand-held should never be fully palmed .
This was disappointing for us as the hand-held was ticking thus many boxes, but holding it merely feels awkward and not correctly .

What Can It Emulate?

The pursue consoles are what the PocketGo S30 can emulate. To see gameplay, watch the video at the top of this article to get an estimate of operation and a look out our “ Dodo Rating ” .

• NES
• SNES
• GBA
• GB
• GBC
• PS1
• PSP
• Master System
• Mega Drive (Genesis)
• Neo Geo
• MAME
• Wonderswan
• PC Engine
• FBA
• Neo Geo Pocket

How Does It Perform?

The PocketGo S30 international relations and security network ’ t the most brawny hand-held on the commercialize but for $ 59, you ’ re getting some nice spectacles. The 1.2GHZ Quad Core central processing unit can handle a fortune that we ’ ve chucked at it .
For exercise, it can play your best PS1 games with ease, Gameboy Advance looks stunning on it and yes, it can even play the best SNES games to fit the style .
Everything is ready to go square out of the box, menus are ready, about 100+ games are preinstalled ( which they should ’ thymine be doing ) and the buttons are all mapped for each copycat, meaning you rarely have to change the settings .
unfortunately due to the 512MB of RAM it struggles to play 3D games from the bigger consoles, such as the Dreamcast and the PSP. N64 international relations and security network ’ metric ton even installed on here because there ’ south precisely no probability of it working .
You can play a identical small handful of 2D Dreamcast games, but it ’ s not the best quality experience you can get, heck if anything its severe, so we ’ rhenium writing Dreamcast emulation off the number .
When playing with the PocketGo S30 for a few days during lockdown 3.0 here in the UK, we noticed an intriguin problem with the emulation .
It ’ randomness as if every copycat hasn ’ t been configured correctly and the pixels look muddy, washed out and equitable a morsel attack, meaning you lose the potent saturation and sharp pixels that you want from a retro game .
We compared it to other handhelds and we were right, it has this boggy count to it. We ’ rhenium not sure if thats the display used, which in all honesty is improbable or if it comes down to how the emulators are configured to the hand-held .
possibly down the argumentation person can fix this, but as of now, straight out of the box the screen is a little wash. And not equitable that, the see angles are pretty bad besides, this is because the filmdom doesn ’ t sit on the display, it has a very bantam gap between them .

Overall Opinion

Look, yes, it has a act of flaws, but that ’ s to be expected from a $ 60 hand-held who ’ south trying to compete with the $ 100 big dogs. The smaller nick stops that competition though, because it can only emulate up to PS1 .
however, we even absolutely love it, it ’ s a great looking hand-held, with a large screen, 5 hours of battery life and it ’ south slowly to play with straight out of the box. This is one we can highly recommend to new-comers in the retro hand-held scene, because its so easy to use.

If anything, it ’ south credibly our favorite retro hand-held under $ 60 as of now and it ’ s creating a new class for ex post facto gamers who want a fresh pocket hand-held. The average hand-held that has came out of China in the concluding 6 months costs round about $ 100, and that ’ s not what a distribute of people can afford, espcially during a time like this .
So it ’ randomness estimable to see companies trying to launch handhelds for those that want something cheaper that can emulate some of the smaller and older retro games consoles .