Retroid Pocket Nova chip revealed: This handheld is basically a Galaxy S23 Ultra

TL;DR

• Retroid has confirmed that the upcoming Pocket Nova handheld will use the QCS8850 processor.
• This chip is effectively the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 without a cellular modem.
• In other words, the Retroid Pocket Nova should support plenty of demanding emulators.

Retroid has been teasing the arrival of the Pocket Nova for a few days now, and it’s shaping up to be an intriguing Android handheld. We’ve already seen the design and screen specs, and we’ve now got chip details.

Retroid confirmed on social media and Discord that the Pocket Nova is powered by the Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS8550 processor. Check out the official image below.

Confused by the name? Well, this is effectively the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 without a cellular modem, as evident by the 3.2GHz peak clock speed and Adreno 740 GPU. That means it’s an older flagship processor, largely in line with the Galaxy S23 Ultra and OnePlus 11, but still a powerful piece of silicon in 2026.

This chipset choice is good news for demanding gamers, as it should handle Nintendo Switch emulation and many PC games just fine. That means PS2 and GameCube emulation shouldn’t be a problem, either.

This news comes after Retroid previously confirmed that the Pocket Nova has a 4.5-inch, 4:3 OLED screen (120Hz). We’re still waiting for additional details, such as battery capacity, charging speed, storage, and RAM. But between the OLED panel and a relatively powerful processor, it’s definitely not looking like a low-end handheld. Our fingers are crossed that the RAM crisis doesn’t make this device outrageously expensive, though.

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