UPDATE – 9/24: If there’s one thing we can almost always count on, it’s that the community will find answers to unanswered questions at some point. The most recent example is in regards to the Retroid Pocket Duo Lite’s processor, which we originally reported did not officially support the use of dual screens. Thanks to a post on the r/Retroid subreddit, this has been disproven while pointing out other oversights in our original report.
According to the post, the QCS6125 “supports DisplayPort and explicitly mentions applications that require more than one display. Qualcomm also lists the Telpo C1, which is a dual-screen Android device using the QCS6125.” Additionally, the post goes on to call out one of the more egregious inaccuracies, as we previously stated that the “1×1 MIMO Configuration” was evidence to the QCS6125 only supporting a single display. The MiMO referenced in Qualcomm’s documentation is related to Wi-Fi, and has nothing to do with displays.
If there’s one area of agreement between the Reddit post and this article, it’s that Retroid still has some work to do in the software department. These revelations don’t change opinions from early impressions and reviews across the community. Now we just have to hope that Retroid can rectify these issues to deliver an excellent budget-friendly dual-screen handheld.
Gamma has also weighed in on the matter, providing the following:
We apologize for the confusion.
You can find the original article in its entirety below.
Retroid has been vigilant with shipping the Pocket Duo Lite, and finally rectifying the Pocket Duo Lite Plus announcement for those who jumped in before the Plus’ announcement. However, now that the Duo Lite is arriving in the hands of both reviewers and those who pre-ordered, early impressions have not been great.
Various impressions and reviews share a largely-general consensus that performance on the Pocket Duo Lite just isn’t up to snuff, even for DS emulation. There are reports of the dual-screen handheld being laggy when just interacting with the interface, which is compounded when trying to multi-task between both screens.
At first, many of us just chalked this up to it to being the limited performance of Qualcomm’s Dragonwing QCS6125. However, we may have learned the actual reason is because the QCS6125 doesn’t natively support the use of dual-screens. This comes from CarribeanGamerPR on the Retroid Discord, who shared the following message:
When digging a bit deeper, we went over to Qualcomm’s website to see if there were more details. As it turns out, the QCS6125 only officially supports one display being used at a time, with a 1×1 MIMO Configuration. In comparison, the Q-7790 found in the Duo Lite Plus and standard Duo supports a “2x Display Serial Interface (DSI),” meaning that there shouldn’t be issues once those handhelds arrive.
As described in the screenshot above, the Duo Lite is relying on software in order to provide a dual-screen handheld, as opposed to doing so from the hardware-level. You can think of it in terms of emulation to a certain degree, where Retroid is using a “translation layer” to make both screens work, in the same way that a layer is used to make x86 games work on ARM devices.
I’m not quite sure what this means for the future of the Pocket Duo Lite, but it surely isn’t a good look, especially after Retroid scrambled to announce the Duo Lite Plus. If I had to guess, perhaps this is something that can be saved by the community, but honestly, the better bet might just be to spend a few extra bucks and get the Pocket Duo or Duo Lite Plus.
This kind of corner-cutting is what happens when company’s try to release a device to hit a certain price point, whether it be for the sake of competition or just to make headlines. It may take a bit of time, but I won’t be surprised if the Duo Lite quietly just fades away, kind of like the AYN Thor Lite.
3 Comments
Or spend less and get the Anbernic RG DS+ to play DS games. I have a Thor for 3DS, but ordered the RG DS+ for DS… Don’t see a need for any of the Duos with this combo.
Everything besides the inline shoulder buttons was a mistake on the Duo lite.
I wonder if this gives anyone pause when considering purchasing a regular Duo
There is a lot of misinformation floating around about the dual screen capability of the QCS-6125 SoC.
The method Retroid is using for 2 screens is instead Displayport, the same technique they use for their add-on USB-C OLED display uses. Displayport does not introduce notable latency, as long as the display connected is up to task.
1×1 MIMO Configuration is under the Wi-Fi section, as this is a Wi-Fi standard and has nothing to do with displays. To clarify, 1×1 is a configuration with one transmitting antenna, and one receiving antenna.
A few reviewers, most notably Russ from RGC, have demonstrated performance issues spoken about in this article. It is important to note, Russ has since stated on Discord that he’s no longer able to reproduce this issue.
I hope we can all investigate this further to find the true cause of these performance issues. The SoC can indeed run dual screens, but via the DisplayPort interface, not DSI. Because these same emulators can run at 400-500% speed in some cases while running the YouTube app, it’s not an overhead issue, so there may be a software or firmware problem that needs addressed.