The Analogue Pocket console is one of favourite gadgets of recent years, a meticulously composed homage to the classic pocketable gaming devices produced by the likes of Nintendo and Sega. The device’s chief USP wasn’t just its design, but the inclusion of a specially designed chip that handled all the emulation functions allowing it to run original games cartridges in hardware, not software.
Analogue Pocket Aluminum Edition
Now the company has doubled down on the physicality of the device with the newly announced Analogue Pocket: Aluminum Editions (note the American spelling from the Californian company). Released in limited editions of four different finishes – Natural, Noir, Black and Indigo, the Pocket takes a massive step forwards in terms of quality and feel by being precision CNC machined entirely out of aluminium.
Every piece of the new edition is made entirely from high grade solid billet 6061 aluminium. ‘There has never been a handheld video game system like it,’ says Analogue’s Christopher Taber. The casing is then given one of the four anodised finishes, promising to be the kind of object that endures long after plastic-based devices have cracked and faded.
Analogue Pocket Aluminum Edition
Analogue circumvents the tricky legal waters around retro-gaming and emulation by providing hardware that can play old games cartridges. Its own proprietary operating system, Analogue OS, is billed as the ‘definitive, scholarly operating system for playing and experiencing the entire medium [of video game history]’.
Analogue Pocket Aluminum Edition comes in four finishes
As well as huge compatibility, the new hardware features a sharp contemporary screen (as well as the ability to emulate and recreate the display modes and resolutions of much earlier consoles like Game Boys and Game Gears) and can output to a larger screen via HDMI. The operating system is incredibly flexible in terms of mapping controls to the onboard keys, with support for wireless controllers as well.
Every part has been milled from solid aluminium
Future developments from Analogue include the upcoming Analogue 3D, the first hardware-emulated 64-bit gaming system.
Analogue Pocket Aluminium Editions, $499.99, available 8am PDT (4pm BST), 15 July 2024, at Analogue.co, @Analogue.co
-
Morgan announces nine limited editions of its Super 3 three-wheelerThe Super 3 Origins Collection assembles nine elaborate design specifications for the diminutive Morgan Super 3, drawing on the influences and inspirations that shaped this high-performance three-wheeler
-
Vipp’s new guesthouse in Latvia’s Salaca National Park is its cosiest to dateDanish design brand Vipp transforms a 19th-century Latvian riverside log cabin into its ninth guesthouse
-
Step inside Le Harlequin, an imaginative redesign of a Mumbai apartmentLe Harlequin by Design Hex is an imaginative redesign of a Mumbai apartment in the bustling Indian city's Lower Parel neighbourhood
-
Cutting-edge new kitchen tech is aimed at saving time, space and foodThese new kitchen appliances are for the gadget-loving cook, from coffee creation and food preservation to space saving
-
Folding Motorola razr 50 and 50 ultra enter the smartphone arena – plus the latest competitionMotorola and Samsung unveil cutting-edge new folding phones, while Honor’s photography-focused device proposes portraiture as the new hotness
-
Wallpaper* Smart Space Awards 2024 winners announcedDiscover the Wallpaper* Smart Space Awards 2024 winners: innovation across all forms of domestic technology and product design
-
Pocketable audio: five ways to take audio out and about while staying smartphone freeFiiO’s elegant portable CD player tops our list of portable audio players, along with the debut device from new brand Activo
-
The new HMD Skyline is a repairable smartphone that won’t rule your lifeHuman Mobile Devices has pulled out all the stops to ensure its flagship HMD Skyline can not only be easily repaired, but helps divert you from doom-scrolling
-
Moog’s mood-altering Labyrinth and five more new synthesizers and sound toolsExplore soundscapes and ambient realms with these new synthesizers and other desktop composition tools for shaping all forms of audio
-
Radio alarm clocks round-up: wake up to these clever bedside companionsOur selection of the best new radio alarm clocks, from smart speakers to compact DAB boxes and more
-
CMF by Nothing launches its first phone, and an update of its talented smartwatchThe new CMF Phone 1 is joined by next-generation versions of its CMF Buds Pro 2 and the excellent CMF Watch Pro 2
