Retro Handhelds Weekly: It’s All About CES 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of Retro Handhelds Weekly. This week saw a bunch of news in both 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.

Hardware

If there’s one thing we know about retro handhelds, it’s that there is always something new around the corner. Seriously, it’s “worse” than smartphones, as some companies release new handhelds every other week. On the bright side, at least there’s no shortage of options.

Lenovo Legion Go S Announced with Windows and SteamOS

The most exciting of the trio, at least for now, is the Legion Go S running SteamOS. This is the first x86 handheld to launch with SteamOS that isn’t a Steam Deck, and that alone is enough to get everyone excited. You can currently pre-order the 32GB/1TB Legion Go S running Windows from Best Buy for $730.

Pre-order the Lenovo Legion Go S

Acer Nitro Blaze 8 and Blaze 11

Acer has announced not one, but TWO new gaming handheld at CES 2025. The Acer Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11 follow in the footsteps of the Nitro Blaze 7 that seemingly never actually materialized. Both of these new Windows handhelds share most of the same specs with the only major difference being the screen size.

Zotac Zone 2nd Gen

Leading up to CES 2025, we heard that Zotac might already be working on an updated Zone, and it turns out the rumors were correct. This upcoming model will be powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 SoC paired with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Unfortunately, we don’t yet know exactly when the new Zone will arrive, but it’s expected to be sometime this year.

Mecha Comet Linux Handheld

There were quite a few exciting announcements at CES, but my favorite of them all was the Mecha Comet. This is a handheld computer powered by an ARM64 SoC while relying on a custom build of Debian Linux. What makes this so incredible comes courtesy of the 40-pin I/O board that lets you attach different “Extensions.” The project will soon launch on KickStarter, and we can’t wait to spend even more time with it.

ASUS ROG XG Mobile eGPU announced

It’s one thing to have the flexibility and be able to play your favorite games from anywhere on a Steam Deck or other x86 handheld. But what if you can turn things up another level? That’s exactly what ASUS is offering with the ROG XG Mobile. It’s the first eGPU to be released with Thunderbolt 5, and the best part is that ASUS dropped the proprietary connector, making it possible to be used with practically any x86 handheld.

GameSir x5 & Game Boy Phone Attachment

After we spent some time at the MyArcade booth, our next stop was at the GameSir booth. That’s where we met up with the CEO and the other GameSir employees that were covering the event. The first thing that we were shown was the upcoming GameSir X5, which is another telescopic controller with a bit of a twist.

While it works just like you’d expect, we’re also slated to see some attachments that slot onto the back. The two attachments that we saw were a heatsink to help combat any potential thermal throttling, along with a magnet battery pack that just attaches to the heat sink.

Arguably even more exciting than that was a prototype of a phone controller that is kind of reminiscent of the Hyperkin SmartBoy. But instead of only working with USB-C devices, this controller works over Bluetooth and just slides over top of your phone.

The picture you see above is just a prototype, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that this ends up being pretty close to the final design. Especially with the ridges on the D-pad which is something that we rarely see anymore from any controller maker.

Valve Says No AMD Z2 Steam Deck Coming

Steam Deck OLED with Steam Deck LCD

A leak from Videocardz showed off two new upcoming AMD processors, the Z2 and Z2E. Within the article, it’s proclaimed that both ASUS and Lenovo devices will utilize the chips in future devices, but also that it will be found in a future iteration of Valve’s Steam Deck.

Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the public facing developers for the Steam Deck, took to Bluesky to dispel any rumors of the chips being used in a Steam Deck at any capacity.

Nintendo Switch 2 Mockup Leaks and Nintendo Responds

We’ve practically reached the point where the Switch 2 could be announced at any time. With that, there have been an onslaught of rumors and leaks, but accessory-maker Genki is ijn a bit of hot water after a 3D printed model was shown off during CES 2025. At first, it didn’t really seem like that big of a deal (it happens all of the time in the smartphone space,) but Nintenedo actually ended up responding.

Speaking to Sankei (a Japanese publication), Nintendo simply stated that “These images and videos are not official.” A similar statement was provided to CNET Japan: “The gaming hardware that Genki [an accessory manufacturer] claims to be Nintendo hardware at CES is unofficial and was not provided to the company by Nintendo.”

Other Hardware News

Apps and Software

Don’t get me wrong, hardware is definitely fun and exciting to talk about. But what good is an awesome handheld if it doesn’t even work? That’s where software and custom firmware come into play, so here’s everything you might’ve missed this week.

Bazzite Gains Support for NVIDIA GPUs, Custom Fan Curves, and more

Bazzite installed on the Legion Go

While there’s definitely a lot of excitement with SteamOS arriving for more handhelds, the truth is that you haven’t needed to wait thanks to the likes of Bazzite. The most recent update is a rather big one, as Bazzite now supports devices with NVIDIA GPUs. Not only that, but GPD handhelds are getting an upgrade to the WinControls integration. There’s definitely way too much cover here, but you can learn everything about the update from the announcement forum post.

Microsoft Handheld May Merge Windows and Xbox

Odin 2 Mini playing Halo via Xbox Game Pass

During a CES 2025 roundtable with The Verge specifically titled “The Future of Gaming Handhelds”, Microsoft’s Jason Ronald shared some pivotal bits of information about its long rumored handheld. “I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together,” he shared. “What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”

Other Software News

Everything Else

CES is always a crazy time of the year, as there’s basically something being announced or shown off for the entire duration. However, there was also plenty of news this week that wasn’t directly related to CES 2025.

GKD Pixel 2 Leaked

Did you wait too long and miss out on picking up the GKD Pixel? Well, it seems that you might be in luck as images of the GKD Pixel 2 surfaced on the RH Discord. Despite the screen not being shown off we can see that the new Pixel will be a little bit larger than the original

Pluvia Aims to Make Playing Steam Games via Winlator Easier

If you have the time and patience, Winlator can really open the floodgates for different types of games that you can enjoy on Android. The biggest problem is that Winlator works best with DRM-free games from GOG or other services, and not so much with Steam versions. Pluvia landed on GitHub earlier this week, and might just be the perfect solution if you have a Steam library full of DRM-free games.

Provenance Finally Available on the App Store

Speaking of opening the doors for more games, Provenance is finally available to download from the Apple App Store. This has been a long time coming, but we couldn’t be more happy to see it actually arrive. In case you forgot, Provenance is a multi-system retro game emulator for Apple devices, offering the ability to play a wide variety of consoles.

Provenance Emulator

Orange Pi Neo Finally Releasing

Last year, we got our first look at the Orange Pi Neo, and it left many of us rather exciting given that it was supposed to be released for around $500. A year later, and it’s still yet to arrive, but according to a post spotted by GamingOnLinux, the Neo is now expected to finally begin arriving in “Q1 2025.” There will be two variants, as the 7840U with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is priced at $499, while the 8840U with the same RAM and storage comes in at $599.

Orange Pi Neo

AYANEO Pocket EVO Thermals

This one might have gotten lost in the wave of CES news, along with the ongoing Pocket DMG controversy, but it seems that the AYANEO Pocket EVO suffers from thermal issues. In response to community feedback, AYANEO published a rather long and in-depth explanation and tutorial on why certain decisions were made and how you can fix the problem if you come across it on your own EVO.

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