Pocket AIS Packs a Cooling Fan Into a $170 Retro Handheld

Pocket AIS looks as though someone put a small television between two controller grips. Its 4.5-inch screen has the 4:3 proportions of a living-room set from the cartridge era, with enough plastic either side to wrap your fingers around. There is a cooling fan in the back, too.

AISLPC opened preorders on October 15. The 64GB version currently starts at $169.99, and the store lists October 24 for shipping. This is a dedicated retro handheld, not a portable PC intended to run a modern Steam library.

The 1024 × 768 IPS panel should suit games designed for a 4:3 television without stretching them across a wide display. It will not be a perfect fit for every old system, but choosing the screen around the games is sensible. More diagonal inches are not automatically more useful.

Unlike the upright, Game Boy-style AYANEO KONKR Pocket Block, this layout spreads your hands apart. The D-pad sits below the left stick, the face buttons above the right. Both sticks have RGB rings. Hall-effect linear triggers sit at the shoulders; the launch material does not make the same Hall-effect claim for the sticks.

Inside are a Rockchip RK3562 processor and 2GB of RAM. AISLPC says temperature sensors control the fan speed as the workload changes. That is a cooling strategy, not a benchmark: a fan cannot by itself prove that a difficult game will run smoothly.

The manufacturer’s announcement names PSP, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, NES and Dreamcast among the supported systems. That describes the intended emulation range. It does not establish full-speed performance in every game, at every setting. We have not tested the hardware, and neither a platform logo nor a promotional screenshot settles that question.

The everyday equipment is straightforward: a 4,000mAh battery, stereo speakers, a headphone jack and USB-C charging. Storage can expand through a microSD card up to 512GB. Those are useful provisions for a machine meant to travel without monopolizing a phone.

There is one prelaunch detail worth clarifying with the seller. The announcement calls the software RGBox, while the product specification labels it Ais OS. Buyers planning to install custom firmware should confirm the shipping build rather than assume instructions for a similarly named handheld will apply.

Pocket AIS has an appealing shape and a sensible screen for its intended audience. At $170, though, it needs to earn its place through the controls, software and actual game performance. The preorder page tells us what is inside. A retail unit will tell us how well those parts work together.

Images courtesy of AISLPC.