The Analogue Pocket is not cheap. At $249 USD, it costs more than a Nintendo Switch Lite. But for anyone with a love of classic handheld gaming, it might be the most satisfying piece of hardware available in 2026 — and the reasons why come down to how it’s built.
FPGA Handheld Gaming
Like the MiSTer FPGA for home consoles, the Analogue Pocket uses FPGA technology to recreate classic handheld hardware at the silicon level rather than emulating it in software. The result is hardware-accurate Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance emulation that’s indistinguishable from playing on original hardware — complete with original cartridge compatibility.
That last point is key: the Pocket has a Game Boy cartridge slot. Your physical Game Boy cartridges work in it natively. No ROMs, no grey areas. Just your actual games, running on hardware that recreates the original experience with a dramatically better screen.
The Screen
The Pocket’s 3.5-inch LCD runs at 1600×1440 — a resolution chosen specifically to display Game Boy pixels perfectly without scaling artifacts. The result is a genuinely gorgeous display that makes decades-old games look better than they ever have. It’s bright, it’s sharp, and it works in daylight.
openFPGA
Beyond Game Boy, the Pocket supports openFPGA — a platform for community-developed cores. Through openFPGA, the Pocket can also run Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Atari Lynx, and Sega Game Gear cores, among others. The library keeps expanding.
The Dock
The Pocket Dock (sold separately) connects the handheld to a TV via HDMI and adds USB controller support. It transforms the Pocket into a home console. It’s optional, but it’s excellent.
If you have a Game Boy cartridge collection gathering dust, the Analogue Pocket is the best possible way to play it. If you just want the best handheld gaming experience available, it’s a serious contender for that too.
— Chris
