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


Hardware

Software

Custom Firmware Updates

Emulator Updates

From the Writers

On the YouTubes

Looking for Deals?


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.

AYN Odin 3: Everything You Need to Know

AYN Odin 3 Official Image - Front and Back

With the dust settling a bit following the announcement and pre-order launch of the AYN Thor, the company gave us a bit of reprieve before getting the Odin 3 ball rolling. After about a week or so, bits and pieces of information were revealed about what AYN’s Odin 2 successor would bring. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, here’s everything you need to know about the AYN Odin 3.

AYANEO’s KONKR Pocket FIT Surprises With Aggressive Pricing and More

KONKR Pocket FIT in Yellow Black and White - 2

It didn’t take long for AYANEO to offer a response to the Odin 3, as the company revealed everything else that we needed to know about the KONKR Pocket FIT. Not only that, but the Indiegogo campaign is also now live, complete with a couple of surprises.

Anbernic RG476H Looks to Take on the RP Mini V2 and Pocket ACE

It looks like Anbernic is gearing up to release yet another handheld, as the Anbernic RG476H has been officially announced and shown off in a teaser video. While the video may be short and only offer a slight glimpse of the upcoming console and no other specs or formal announcements, we can try to deduce what we’re viewing.

Lenovo Legion Go 2 is The Most Powerful, Expensive PC Handheld You Can Buy

Lenovo Legion Go 2 is The Most Powerful, Expensive PC Handheld You Can Buy

The Lenovo Legion Go 2 is now official and is the most expensive PC handheld on the market. Lenovo announced its follow-up to the Legion Go early Friday during IFA 2025. The device has a 144Hz 1200p OLED screen, an optional AMD Z2 Extreme chip, 32GB of RAM, a larger trackpad, and a nearly 9-inch screen.

AYANEO Unveils the Pocket Air Mini

AYANEO Pocket Air Mini - 16x9

During the Ayaneo Sharing Session on August 29th, a last-minute mention was made about a 4:3 device coming soon from Ayaneo. While not much was shared on the Sharing Session (ironic, I know), it was later shared during a livestream on September 2nd that the new device will be the Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini.

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.

Retroid Releases Pocket 4 Pro OTA for Dual-Screen Compatibility

It seems that the latest Retroid Dual Screen Add-on saga is finally being put to rest. This week, the company released an OTA update for the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro making it compatible with the Dual-Screen Add-on. This is great news, but also potentially disappointing if your previous pre-order was already canceled.

ChimeraOS dev announced Kazeta

Kazeta Celeste Cartridge

Do you miss the days of actually playing games using cartridges? Well, Kazeta is here for you, as its a new operating system from the developer of ChimeraOS designed to bring back that nostalgia. But instead of cartridges, games are loaded onto SD cards and then inserted into your device.

Check out Kazeta

ROM Tools

ROM Tools Screenshot

When it comes to managing your ROMs, it can get really frustrating, really quickly. There are a bunch of different tools out there, some that work, some that don’t, but you don’t know the difference. Not to mention that some of these tools only work with Windows or Linux, leaving macOS fans out to pasture.

ROM Tools is a new website that aims to make managing your ROMs so much easier. It’s comprised of eight different tools, including things such as the CHD Compressor, ROM Patcher, and more. Best of all, it works right from your browser.

ROM Tools

N64, NES and PS2 are now in Folium

If you were wondering why Sudachi development has slowed so much, it’s because Jarrod’s been working on big things for their Folium launcher. Case in point, Jarrod recently shared that Folium will soon gain support for N64, NES, and PS2.

Folium on App Store

EmuReady Beta on the Play Store

If you’re using Android and are trying to figure out the best settings to get emulation working properly, you’re in luck. After the EmuReady website launched earlier this year, there’s now a beta version of the EmuReady app on the Play Store.

But it offers much more than just showing you what settings to use. There’s built-in integration with a handful of emulators that will let you download and apply the appropriate configs and drivers, so you can just select a game and start playing. As this is still a beta, you might run into a few bugs, so be sure to report them so they can be be fixed.

Download EmuReady

More Software News

Custom Firmware Updates

andr36oid
  • 20250902
    • Upgraded to GPT partiton scheme for more than 4 partitions per SD card.
    • Added an exfat-formatted partition that will be accesible to your PC more easily. It will be created after allocating 16GB of storage to userdata partition used in Android.
    • Added support for some more WiFi dongles.
    • Initial support for the R50S, has all of the above.
ArkOS R3XS V2.0
pakman
  • v0.21.3
    • chore(deps): bump Artwork Scraper from 0.6.0 to 0.7.0
  • v0.21.2
    • chore(deps): bump Terminal from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1
    • chore(deps): bump Artwork Scraper from 0.4.1 to 0.6.0
  • v0.21.1
    • docs: add note on supported platforms
    • chore(deps): bump NDS from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1
    • chore(deps): bump PSP from 2.3.0 to 3.0.0
minui-artwork-scraper.pak
  • v0.7.0
    • feat: allow selecting the boxart size in the ui when downloading artwork
rockbox
  • v4.0.92
    • Updated key lock method.
      • Can now set lock key exemptions in Advanced Key Lock settings, allowing you to use media keys (bluetooth/usb) while the device is locked.
      • You can find these settings in Settings > General Settings > System > Advanced Key Lock.
    • Added additional media key controls (SEEK).
    • Added lid override so music can continue playing while lid is closed.
screenshots.pak
  • v0.1.2
    • Minor updates in preparation for new release for Pak Store

Emulation Updates

Eden
  • v0.0.3
    • platform parity improvements, especially for Solaris and *BSD,
    • several incremental bug fixes to Vulkan, JIT, and CMake
    • minor UI fixes
    • improvements upon changes introduced in prior RCs
    • and support for some new games and updates
GameNative
  • v0.3.3 (pre-release)
    • Added turnip 25.2.0, 25.3.0-devel, changed default, fixes for vkd3d
    • Fixed Dx12 games
    • Correctly set dxwrapper automatically for games on first boot
    • Start building compatibility database by collecting user feedback
    • Set default frame rate to 60 instead of 30
DolphiniOS
  • v4.1.0 Beta 3
    • Metal Renderer Optimizations
    • Audio Enhancements
    • Settings & Interface
    • Controller & Input
    • Cheats System
    • Graphics Backend
    • File Management
    • CPU Overclock Range
    • VBI Range
    • Default Region
    • Bug Fixes
Iris
  • v0.14-alpha
    • Buckle up for a big release! We’ve finally implemented the IPU which is the hardware component that allows the PlayStation 2 to play Full Motion Videos, or FMVs for short, this in turn fixed a big batch of games that were hanging on FMV playback and opens the door for DVD playback emulation in the future.
Nostlan
  • v3.2
    • initial support for PlayStation 1 and the DuckStation emulator
    • new title matching algorithm with improved region handling
    • updated emulator download links
    • new AVIF image databases for Nintendo GameCube, Wii, DS, and 3DS
GameNative
  • v0.3.2
    • Added ability to emulate keyboard and mouse with onscreen and physical controllers
    • Added frame rate cap of 30 by default
    • Some more fixes to Steam cloud for games without a UFS location
    • Ability to force language for container and game
Fujisan
  • v1.0.3
    • This release focuses on improved ROM management
winboat
  • v0.7.5
    • Added a pre-requisite check to ensure the version of FreeRDP is 3.x.x and refactored existing FreeRDP check
    • Added a pre-requisite check to ensure Docker is running
    • Improved the styling of the version select screen to not have any overflow

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.

RetroAssembly Setup Guide: How to Play Your Retro Games From Anywhere

RetroAssembly - Banner

We’ve seen a bunch of frontends, but a new service called RetroAssembly is offering a new way to access classic titles by offering a “retro game cabinet” directly in your web browser. The platform allows users to upload their legally obtained ROM files and play them on demand from anywhere via in-browser emulation, with saves automatically synchronized to the cloud.

Anbernic RG477M Review: It’s Better Than You Think

Anbernic RG477M Review: It’s Better Than You Think

The two devices that I remember most fondly as my “First Emulation” handhelds were the original Odroid Go and the Anbernic RG350M; two devices on opposite ends of the spectrum for the time. Fast forward about 4-5 years, and we’ve seen the release of hundreds of devices, the rise of x86, and 5 more metal handhelds to come from the Anbernic assembly lines. That was until this year, when Anbernic put out their biggest, most powerful, and heaviest metal handheld yet, the RG477M.

NFL Street Reborn: Taking it to the Streets

NFL Street Feature Image

With the release of NFL Street Reborn and the 2025 season of the National Football League starting this week, I want to take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about the NFL Street series of games. A collection of three football games released under the now-defunct banner of EA Sports BIG, these games brought a bombastic playstyle and attitude to the world of professional American football.

Nintendo Switch GameCube Controller Review: It Isn’t Great

Nintendo Switch GameCube Controller Review: It Isn't Great

Click-clack, our favorite controller is back. If you are familiar with the internet in the 2010s, you already might know how we feel about this GameCube controller: It was the single best and most ergonomic controller ever to exist, and no one else stood a chance against it. Gaslighting aside, it is a one-of-a-kind controller with a plethora of thoughtful design choices that make it a prime choice for gaming.

Radical Retrospective: Tony Hawk’s Lost Mobile Games

Tony Hawk Bnner

Tony Hawk’s skateboarding series was no stranger to portability, and this isn’t even close to the last column I’ll be writing on the topic (covering the Java releases is a topic worthy of an encyclopedia). Every mainline release received a totally unique handheld companion game on devices like the PSP, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS (the DS and GBA versions were notably developed by Vicarious Visions). Once gaming on your cell phone graduated from Snake and Breakout clones, it was only a matter of time before the Hawk-man himself tried cramming four wheels and a slab of maple into one.

GotX: Second Chance September Serves Up More Classics

Summer is over, and people across the United States are celebrating Labor Day. This must mean it’s time for another set of GotX games.

 

For September, the GotX community decided on the theme of “Second Chance September” for GotM, these are games which have previously been nominated for a GotM theme, but which have not yet won. This is the second time we’ve used this theme in GotM, with the first being my favorite ever GotM month, so I have high expectations.

  • GotX: Second Chance September Serves Up More Classics

On the YouTubes

Don’t think that the writers are the only ones getting things done. The RH video team is constantly working on new videos, and now’s the best time to subscribe.

Looking for Deals?

Retro Handhelds Deals of the Week - 8-22

Another week, another set of deals to be had. Hit the button below to check out our favorite deals of the week. We know how much everyone loves a good deal, so we’ve been cooking up something to help you get the best deal possible.

Retro Handhelds Deals of the WeekHandheld.Deals

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