The newly-announced aluminum Analogue Pocket has us both excited and broke

Single Board Computer (SBC) gaming is all the rage these days. From Android emulation devices that can play almost every single video game up to the sixth generation of consoles (PlayStation 2, GameCube) to cheap, Linux-based products that can emulate some of your favorite 90s retro classics, like the SNES and Genesis, there’s something for everyone. In that niche lies a focused but refined company called Analogue. Its shining creation, the Analogue Pocket, is a handheld system that accepts actual cartridges from the Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance systems, as well as the Sega Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Atari Lynx, and more. Its popularity has led to Analogue’s newest release, the Analogue Pocket: Aluminum Edition.

The Analogue Pocket: Aluminum Edition is everything that made the Pocket such a beloved device, only this time with a premium, precision-designed casing. Its functionality is the exact same, but every piece of the enclosure is fabricated from solid billet 6061 aluminum, a common type of aluminum known for its solid welding traits. The Aluminum Edition will come in four colors, marketed as natural, noir, black, and indigo. Analogue announced that the Aluminum Edition of the Pocket will go on sale on Monday, July 15, at 11:00 a.m. EDT in limited quantities. Shipping will begin two days later, on July 17.

High craftsmanship comes at a steep price

(Source: Analogue)

There’s no question that the Analogue Pocket: Aluminum Edition is a premium product, but its design comes at a high cost. Analogue is asking people to pay $499.99 for it. The Analogue Pocket, meanwhile, costs $219.99 (when it’s in stock, that is). We think that the asking price for the original Pocket is more than worth it. Not only do you get the “ultimate tribute to portable gaming,” but you get a display that has 10 times the resolution of the original Game Boy, the ability to use an incredibly slick dock, the functionality to play wired multiplayer, and the choice between some high-end cases. Comparatively, the Aluminum Edition is for people with a ton of dispensable income.

Handheld gaming and emulation is an ever-growing area that even has Apple joining the party, with the company recently allowing emulators on its App Store. There’s a lot of unique Game Boy clones out there that rely on original cartridges and not emulation, like the ModRetro Chromatic and the Funny Playing FPGBC kit. While the golden age of Nintendo emulators on Android is over following Nintendo’s lawsuits against Yuzu, the most well-known Switch emulator, there are so many good emulators to sink your teeth into with some of the best Android handheld consoles on the market today.