AYANEO's Pocket Micro Classic is a close-to-perfect GBA style handheld

It's for a rather specific niche, but this premium device boasts high-end craftsmanship, solid performance and an exceptionally portable format.

The market is now flooded with a massive selection of great retro handhelds. But one thing that was a big part of the devices from our childhood is often missing with these modern options: a truly compact size. While this might not matter to everyone, I’ve often wished for a device that could simply slip into a jacket or jeans pocket. AYANEO promises exactly that with the Pocket Micro Classic: a capable retro handheld designed to be as portable as possible.

To be honest, this latest ‘Classic’ model isn’t fundamentally different from the already available Pocket Micro that Chris recently reviewed.

REVIEW: AYANEO’s sturdy Pocket Micro handheld wins on size alone

The Android-powered portable offers a level of portability that other handhelds of similar functionality can’t match.

overkillChris Brandrick

Same brick-like format, same sturdy and high-quality build, same fantastic display. So why a re-release under a different name? It’s not because of the colors. Surprisingly, if you check the comments under YouTube videos of the original model or browse Reddit, you’ll keep seeing the same remark: “This thing would be much cooler without joysticks!” AYANEO listened — and here we are: the same handheld, just without the joysticks.

🛠️ AYANEO Pocket Micro Classic Specs:

If you’re seeing the pictures without having held one in your hands, you might naturally question the comfort of using it. This Android handheld could just as easily be called the AYANEO Retro Brick, because that’s exactly what it feels like. And it’s not just the form factor, which turns out to be a wonderful modern-day GameBoy Advance alternative, it’s also the build quality. An aluminum body, a full-glass front, with only the back made of plastic. Chris wasn’t wrong to mention the Gulf War Game Boy in his review.

You’ll find a very precise and tactile D-Pad, four face buttons in the Japanese (Nintendo-style) YXBA layout, and a set of other common buttons. The four shoulder buttons are solid but placed awkwardly close together.

In addition to the usual function buttons like the AYA and Home button, it also features an RC button and a “…” button. These two left me confused at first, because one would sometimes take me back to the home screen, while the other did nothing. It wasn’t until I reassigned their functions in the settings that I really started appreciating them. One now displays performance stats, while the other opens my RetroArch menu — a setup that turned them into my most used buttons. Such flexibility is key, and the combination of AYANEO’s AYASpace app and RetroArch’s hotkeys offers plenty of such possibilities.

Speaking of RetroArch, this little console does an excellent job emulating many classic systems. No surprise here, as the MTK Helios G99 processor handled everything I threw at it up to GameCube and PSP in my tests.

Performance issues start to appear with systems like PlayStation 2 and anything more demanding. It’s not a huge drawback though, since without joysticks, it isn’t really suited for seventh-gen and newer games anyway.

AYANEO’s custom software lets you remap all buttons and even simulate joystick controls via the D-Pad. It worked surprisingly well in testing, though precision definitely takes a hit.

For me, the lack of analog sticks, combined with Android 13 as the operating system, ironically turned out to be the biggest downside. I grew up with the Game Boy and the Advance, but spent most of my childhood with the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Sadly, those 3D systems don’t feel at home here.

Not a problem though, since there are countless GBA titles I can finally catch up on — and I can do so in style. The 3.5-inch display comes in a perfect 3:2 aspect ratio, and the 640p resolution is ideal for clean integer scaling. Colours are vibrant, and the contrast is just right, even though it’s LCD.

As mentioned, Android turned out to be quite a hurdle for me in the context of a retro handheld, since I usually stick with Linux. Setting up all the emulators, integrating everything with RetroArch, and more wasn’t exactly a smooth experience. At first, I tried setting it up on my own, but the result couldn’t have been more frustrating.

What ultimately saved me was a fantastic guide by our friend Russ from Retro Game Corps. He covers both Android emulation and RetroArch setup in great detail — which is a challenge of its own.

Even after everything was correctly configured, Android on this device still caused problems. Something as simple as entering a PIN on the lock screen became an issue whenever the fingerprint reader (yes it has one!) decided not to work, which happened quite often. The scaling would place the text field off-screen.

Also, aside from apps like Obtainium, there aren’t really any one-click emulation solutions available, and you often have to install each emulator one by one; or acquire every needed core through RetroArch manually. Add Android-typical SD card shenanigans to the mix, and you’ll be pretty preoccupied until everything is set and golden.

The most annoying thing though is that the USB-C port cannot be used simultaneously with the built-in controller. In other words, you can’t connect a display or a USB dongle for headphones while using the integrated controls. You’d have to disable the controller first in the AYA Quick Menu. It’s inconvenient, and AYANEO already promised improvements with the previous model but hasn’t delivered so far.

All in all, the AYANEO Pocket Micro Classic is close to being the perfect Game Boy Advance-style retro handheld on Android. It’s a premium device for those who appreciate high-end craftsmanship and solid performance. The lack of joysticks firmly places it in a rather specific niche — but one that comes in an exceptionally portable format.