Retroid relaunches the Pocket 6 with a major twist — you pick the controls

Retroid isn’t wasting any time fixing its most controversial product launch yet. Just a day after halting Pocket 6 pre-sales following fan criticism, the company has unveiled a redesigned version of the handheld. This time, it’s giving players a choice.

Posted on the official Retroid X account earlier today, the company announced what it referred to as the New Retroid Pocket 6. For the first time, customers will be able to choose between two control layouts: one with the D-pad on top, and one with the left analog stick on top. The M1 and M2 buttons, which previously sat beneath the screen, have also been relocated to the back, significantly cleaning up the front design. Retroid shared four colorways of the two versions in the same X thread.

This quick turnaround follows a week of drama for Retroid. The Pocket 6, which debuted alongside the Pocket G2 on Monday, was met with immediate backlash over its awkwardly placed bottom buttons and D-pad-first layout — a design many felt didn’t make sense for a powerful Android handheld capable of emulating more modern console games. Within 24 hours, the company had pulled it from its website and started polling fans on Discord and X about what they’d prefer.

It seems those polls were decisive. The redesigned Pocket 6 now looks much closer to the Pocket 5 that fans loved, while keeping the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 power and 120Hz OLED display that were already confirmed.

Retroid says more details about pre-orders will follow soon, and that existing Pocket 6 buyers will receive an email from customer service in the coming days. Presumably, they’ll be asked to confirm their preference, and possibly offered a refund if they don’t like the new design.

As much turmoil as this might have caused to the Retroid team, it’s great to see a hardware maker listening to its fans and adapting in double-quick time.