TL;DR

• The AYANEO Pocket VERT is now available for pre-order, starting at $269.
• It’s a luxurious Android-powered Game Boy with hidden touchpads on the front.
• Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, it can emulate almost everything.

AYANEO has made a name for itself making very premium gaming handhelds, but the Pocket VERT takes things to a whole new level. It has an excessively luxurious build and enough power to emulate anything, and starting today, you can finally order one.

The Pocket VERT is now available for pre-order on Indiegogo, with early-bird pricing starting at $269. The campaign faced a few delays in getting approved by the Indiegogo team, which implemented new checks as part of its divisive new platform.

The Pocket VERT is the most luxurious take on the Game Boy yet.

As for specs, it’s powered by a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, which offers enough power to emulate every retro console, as well as more modern consoles like the GameCube and PS2. It can likely run Switch games too, but there will be serious compromises playing on such a small, square screen.

Speaking of the screen, it appears to be the same high-density 3.5-inch LCD panel found on the FPGA Analogue Pocket. The 1600 x 1440 resolution offers perfect 10x upscaling for Game Boy games, which are sure to look phenomenal with the right shaders on this device.

The body of the Pocket VERT features a CNC metal finish, with “diamond-cut” shoulder buttons, a clear D-pad, unmarked face buttons, various function buttons, and a MagicSwitch scroll wheel. That scroll wheel offers quick settings changes in AYANEO’s custom software.

AYANEO

But there’s one more feature that’s literally hidden beneath the surface. A large “MagicTouch” touchpad spans across the open space in the middle of the device. This can be used as a touchpad for mouse-based DOS games or stick inputs for more modern controllers. There is an option in settings to split the pad for dual-stick inputs, making this a very versatile device.

Apart from that, it features a large 6,000mAh battery and an integrated fingerprint sensor in the power button. The all-glass front means it has downward-firing speakers, but there’s also a headphone jack to really enjoy those Game Boy chiptunes.

AYANEO

The Pocket VERT comes in two configurations: 8+128GB starting at $269, and 12+256GB starting at $349. That pricing is for the black and white models, with an additional premium “Lava Red” model running an extra $20 over the top-specced configuration. There’s also a massive price hike after the early-bird period finishes, which is typical for the company’s releases.

AYANEO currently estimates that the Pocket VERT will begin shipping in early February 2026, before the Chinese New Year. However, the company has often missed shipping deadlines in the past, so don’t expect that date to be set in stone.

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