Welcome to the latest edition of Retro Handhelds Weekly. This week, we saw a bunch of news in the world of hardware and software. Our writing team continues to be on an absolute tear, and there’s even a surprise or two sprinkled in! So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and catch up on what’s happened this week in the world of Retro Handhelds.
Table of Contents
Retroid Pocket Nova Pre-orders
8GB/128GB
- Black/16 Bit/GC: $229
- Ice Blue, Crystal, Watermelon, and Clear Purple: $234
12GB/128GB
- Black/16 Bit/GC: $269
- Ice Blue, Crystal, Watermelon, and Clear Purple: $274
Hardware & Industry News
- Mangmi Stands Tall With a New Vertical Handheld: Now there isn’t a lot to say, as so far this is our only information about the Mangmi Air Y series, but there is quite a bit to take in and infer. First, MANGMI is already confirming that the Air Y series is powered by a Qualcomm chip, and second, there will be two models released.
- Bad News? The Retroid Pocket 5 and Flip 2 Just Got an Upgrade: Thanks to an update announcement over in the Retroid Discord, ChrisCovers has confirmed that, just like everything in 2026, both handhelds are about to receive a $10 price bump over where they were just days before. However, unlike most price increases, this comes with the side benefit of an extra 4GB of RAM.
- MagicX Sets Out New Options for the Mini40: It was only a couple of days ago that MagicX put out the announcement that the Mini Zero 28 would be discontinued due to the rapidly increasing cost of RAM. At the same time as that announcement, they decided they would announce a feasibility discussion for a new handheld: the MagicX Mini40.
More Hardware & Industry News
Apps and Software
- Bringing Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies to Portmaster Could Affect Productivity: Enter Producdevity; someone we’ve seen around the scene for a long time thanks to their work in tools like GameHub Lite and EmuReady. This time around though, he’s showing off his work in porting COD: Black Ops Zombies to Portmaster; at least in developmental state.
- Play Field Portal Brings XMB to Your Handheld: Play Field Portal is exactly what it sounds like, an XMB-styled front end that’s been developed as a frontend for your Android device by user JohnnyCallado. Everything from your crossbar menu to your submenus and more, it seems that he’s aiming to give you the full Android experience with just one single page.
- Zelda 3 Now Has a Second Screen with This Port: Originally based on the Zelda3 project from snesrev and Waterdish, user samyost1 has taken the work done before them and expanded it into something even more awesome. Their dual-screen port of A Link to the Past utilizes the same instructions from Waterdish’s original Android port of the game.
More Software News
- Anbernic Goes for Ecosystem With Their Latest Update
- EmuDeck for Android Just Got a New Launcher and a Ton of Upgrades
- eOr Launcher Aims to Be an Organized Frontend for Emulation
- YAPS2 is a PS2 Emulator with a Focus On Linux
- Mario Kart Tour is Shutting Down Permanently Later This Year
- Dustpile is “Tinder for your unplayed Steam games”
Emulation Corner
- KyTyPS5 is a New PS5 Emulator
- SharpEMU is Another New PS5 Emulator
- RPCSX ETK – First RPCSX Fork Built with Claude, Optimizing for Demon’s Souls for Adreno 740
- WinNative v0.3.0 beta
- EmuCoreX v0.2.3
Custom Core
Game of the Month
From the Writers
While there’s always a lot of news to cover and talk about, we also try to take a step back and give everyone something a bit different to enjoy. These are the more editorial-styled articles and reviews that you might have missed over the course of this week.
- KONKR Pocket FIT 8 Elite Review: An Exercise in Excessive Excellence
- Alldocube iPlay 80 Mini Ultra Review: Power, But at What Cost
On the YouTubes
RH Partners
Looking for Deals?
A new sale is upon us, as the “Score Big Sale” kicks off on July 13 offering the opportunity to save some money on a new handheld or two. We’ve listed some of the codes and deals below, but you can head over to Handheld.Deals to grab even more!
AliExpress Discount Codes
- SBUS02 – $2 off $18+
- SBUS05 – $5 off $39+
- SBUS10 – $10 off $69+
- SBUS20 – $20 off $139+
- SBUS23 – $23 off $169+
- SBUS35 – $35 off $249+
Deal Highlights
- DSPico: $12.03 at AliExpress
- Anbernic RG Rotate: $92.99 w/ code SBUS10
- Anbernic RG DS: $100.99.11 w/ code SBUS10
- Miyoo Mini Flip: $45.81 w/ code SBUS05
- AYN Thor: From $330.50 w/ code SBUS35
- Retroid Pocket 5: $191.47 w/ code SBUS23
- AYN Odin 3: From $350.25 w/ code SBUS35
- Anbernic RG476H: $157.99 w/ code SBUS23
- GUSGU H7: $53.74 w/ code SBUS05
Sign Up For the Retro Handhelds Weekly Newsletter
We recently launched the Retro Handhelds Weekly newsletter! This has been a long time coming, but basically, it’s what you’ve enjoyed about this weekly news round-up, just in an email format. You’ll receive ad-free weekly updates on what’s going on around the Retro Handhelds community. We have handhelds, devices, emulation/software, gaming, community news, reviews, deals, current RH games of the week/month/quarter/year, and more! And of course, it’s completely free to sign up.
