The AYANEO Pocket VERT is hiding an exciting new feature beneath its surface

AYANEO hosted yet another livestream “sharing session” this morning, highlighting its upcoming Pocket VERT handheld. The premium Game Boy clone looks very nice, but after the first hour, it didn’t look like anything particularly special. Then, AYANEO CEO Arthur Zhang revealed a surprising new feature that’s literally hidden beneath the surface.

In addition to unlabeled buttons and a minimalist D-pad, the Pocket VERT features a touchpad beneath its all-glass front. The touchpad extends across the width of the device, positioned in the space under both the D-pad and buttons. It’s programmable to serve as either the left joystick, the right joystick, or both.

While the company has previously used a trackpad on the Pocket DMG, this one stands out because, well, it doesn’t stand out. It’s completely invisible and out of the way when you don’t need it for excellent pocketability. Trackpads have also been featured on larger handheld devices, such as the Steam Deck, but Android gaming handhelds have largely stuck to sticks.

The Pocket VERT inherits another feature from the DMG: a wheel on the side called the MagicSwitch key. Like its Game Boy inspiration, the wheel serves as a volume control, but can be pressed to mute or long-pressed to open a function menu.

Apart from that, the device has a 3.5-inch LCD screen that offers perfect 10x upscaling for the original Game Boy. This is the same panel used on the Analogue Pocket, and it offers unmatched pixel density. It’s surrounded by a unibody glass panel and a premium all-metal CNC body.

AYANEO was tight-lipped about the specs of the device, only revealing that it will have a 6,000mAh battery. That’s a sizeable cell for a device this small, and depending on what chipset the device has, it could deliver exceptional battery life.

We still don’t know when the device will be released, but knowing AYANEO, you should expect more news in the coming weeks.