Retroid Pocket 5 and Flip 2 get extra features, but will cost $10 more after July 14

Retroid, maker of a growing number of Android-based handhelds, is cutting a deal with recent buyers of its Retroid Pocket 5 and Coup 2 PDA. Anyone who doesn’t have an order filled for the company’s entry-level 8GB RAM and 128GB storage models will get an upgrade to 12GB RAM at no extra charge. Retroid PDA reports. However, after July 14, both PDAs will cost $10 more.

​​​​​​While these aren’t the latest Retroid devices, that honor goes to the upcoming ones Retroid Pocket Nova — the Snapdragon 865 chip in both the Pocket 5 and Flip 2 means they’re capable of emulating recent consoles like the Gamecube or PlayStation 2. Adding more RAM should theoretically make them even better. If this change didn’t come with a price hike, it would be easy to celebrate. Since the extra 4GB of RAM comes at an extra $10, the change is best understood as Retroid doing away with its cheapest tiers entirely.

You still have until July 14th to pick up the Pocket 5 or Flip 2 at their current prices, but after that both handhelds will start at $209 and $219, respectively. Retroid didn’t share the motivation behind the change, but given the state of the rest of the tech industry, it’s safe to assume that cost and RAM availability played a role. of AI companies memory demand prompted component manufacturers to radically increase prices. For many companies, including Microsoft, an apple and Framewhich means higher prices for them in turn.

For now dramatically inexpensive tiers it’s a strategy Apple has already employed to slow the bleeding, the Retroid situation is probably most comparable to the Framework situation. Both companies sell popular products, but they don’t do it on the scale of Apple or Samsung, which means they either don’t have the cachet to fall back on or the ability to negotiate a better deal. Eliminating the cheaper tier likely makes the most business sense for Retroid.