Retroid Pocket 5 (And Mini) Tips and Tricks!

This is for you, Zu

by Joe

Merry Christmas you filthy animals. You might not celebrate Christmas, you might not actually be filthy, and you might not even be merry. In any case, you probably enjoy your Retroid Pocket 5… or actually not. This device took our writing team by storm and has been a part of my daily use since it was delivered to me a month ago. Spoiler alert: It’s easily my handheld of the year. I’m also not reviewing it since I have absolutely nothing new to add to the myriad of blessings and sins disclosed in our official review.

That being said, I have spent a month in the meat grinder setting this stupid thing up and making it my own, and with that came hours of trial and error I want to save you, the reader. Think of it as an early Winter-solstice-based holiday gift from me to you. Anyways, here are some Retroid Pocket 5 tips and tricks. (To go along with our official setup guide HERE). This is part 1 of 2 so stay tuned and you’ll see even more.

Exterior Mods

Ergonomics

Let’s get to the chase, this console isn’t that comfortable to hold. In the future, we might see a plethora of console scratching 3D printed abominations from Etsy that will fix this, but until then I’d recommend just buying some grip stickers. With the way I grip the device, I used this brand and applied it in the places shown in the picture.

This won’t change how the device fits in your hands, but less resistance can prevent your hand from cramping. Additionally, extra bumpers can prevent your glazed nugget from falling off the table and shattering on the unforgiving floor.

Button Noise

A bit more invasive, but worth it if you can handle console mutilation. RH alumni Aish of Aish Talks Tech invented a mod that significantly reduces button noise by shaving off some of the rubber membrane and applying some tape under the shoulder buttons. He shows it on the RP Mini, but it’s the same process. I didn’t do it on mine because I’m a *checks dictionary* coward. You can find this bold and brash video here.

Developer Mode

You’ll want this. It opens up the device to a bunch of options That you’ll want to use for a few of the following tweaks. Just go to Settings, scroll down to About Handheld Console, and tap “Build Number” seven (7) times until you have “Become a developer”. Developer options are located in the System Settings. Here are a few tweaks you can do in developer mode:

OEM Unlocking

This option opens the bootloader for your RP5. This is used when rooting your device, which will obliterate your 1 year warranty from Retroid (I guess). Unlocking the bootloader is fine to do, but might interfere with web based apps like Netflix and Remote Streaming. I would leave it off unless you’re attempting to root.

Animation Scale

This set of tweaks will affect the time it takes for Android UI items to complete a transition animation. While seemingly pointless, turning these off actually saves your battery a little.

Override Force-Dark

This setting will force every applications UI to have a dark mode on. Notably, this will force the floating icon into dark mode so you aren’t blasted with a blinding white light when gaming in the dark.

Force 4x MSAA

For OpenGl content, this will apply a 4x anti-aliasing filter as a post process. While I recommend using Vulkan when you can, this might be nice if you prefer to stick to the less chaotic OpenGl graphics driver.

There are many more options to select from developer options, but there to me are the safe standouts

Display Tweaking!

If you are like me and are an absolute screen junkie with color accuracy and brightness in mind, this is the section for you. I was very critical of the RP Mini’s lack of real display tweaking and the overall over-saturated color palette. Hopefully, we all remember Jersey Shore Kirby..this time around we have options! We have temperature adjustments! We have… a slight oversaturation still… but it’s much better! There are a few other options you’ll want to use as well. All of these tweaks are under Settings and Display.

• Screen timeout: This affects the time it takes for your screen to go dark.
• Dark theme: Dark theme.

Colors

Here you get 3 options: Intelligent Environment Adaptation, Screen Enhancement, and Standard. I would set it to Intelligent Environment Adaptation, set the color to Cool, and call it a day. The display itself is slightly redshifted on Standard and Screen Enhancement blows the color up and deep fried your image (yikes).

Okay, that’s it. Get lost.

https://rh-go.link/retroid-pocket-5

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