2026-04-02

The Portable PC Market Hit by Soaring Memory Prices and Details on Anbernic's New "RG Vita"

The portable gaming PC and retro handheld market is facing a severe impact from rising memory and storage costs, leading to production halts and price hikes across multiple manufacturers. Meanwhile, development of new devices continues, with Anbernic revealing details about its PS Vita-inspired "RG Vita" series. This article summarizes key topics from recent official announcements and community trends.

Wave of production halts and price revisions due to soaring memory and storage costs

Across the portable gaming PC and retro handheld industry, rising component costs are severely impacting product rollouts. Due to RAM and SSD supply shortages driven by increased demand for AI data centers, companies are being forced to respond.

Retroid's situation: The 12GB RAM model of the "Retroid Pocket 6" has been discontinued, and the remaining 8GB model has seen a $20 price increase. Furthermore, a temporary production halt for the "Retroid Pocket G2" has been announced, citing continuous fluctuations in memory prices.
AYANEO's situation: Due to the rising procurement costs of SSDs, the company announced a temporary suspension of sales for its high-end Windows-based "NEXT 2" device. While production for existing pre-orders will proceed as planned, new orders will be suspended until the market recovers.
GPD's situation: The price of the 32GB RAM + 2TB SSD model of the "GPD WIN 5," which features the latest AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, has increased by $600 since its initial announcement.

These movements highlight a structure in the high-performance portable gaming PC market where reliance on the latest parts leads directly to price pass-throughs. For consumers, it has become increasingly difficult to determine the right time to purchase.

Specifications revealed for Anbernic's new "RG Vita Pro" and leaks regarding "RG Slide"

Through official Anbernic communications and community channels, specific specifications for upcoming models have been revealed.

Most notable are the "RG Vita" and "RG Vita Pro," which feature a design inspired by the PlayStation Vita. The higher-end "RG Vita Pro" adopts a dual-OS configuration with Android 14 and 64-bit Linux. The main specifications identified are as follows:

Display: 5.5-inch touchscreen (1920 × 1080 resolution)
Battery: 5000mAh
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
Other: Supports 1080p DisplayPort output; available in black and white

It has been confirmed that the standard "RG Vita" model will be a single-OS device running only Android 12.

Additionally, leaks regarding the "RG Slide," a sliding device reminiscent of the PSP Go, are circulating in the community. It is expected to feature a Unisoc T820 chipset and a 960p display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, suggesting a focus on niche demand for integer scaling in retro games.

Retroid releases update adding bypass charging to the temporarily halted "Pocket G2"

Although production of the "Retroid Pocket G2" is temporarily halted due to component procurement issues, software support for existing users continues.

Retroid has begun rolling out an OTA update, version "1.0.0.176," for the device. The highlight of this update is the addition of a "Charge separation feature" (bypass charging), which powers the device directly without going through the battery. This helps reduce battery degradation and heat generation during long gaming sessions.

Other improvements include:

Fix for battery drain in sleep mode when the Retroid Dual Screen (RDS) add-on is attached
Improved compatibility for Widevine and Netflix
Fix for the always-on display clock not persisting after the screen turns off

The provision of practical new features for a device currently out of production has been well-received by the community.

"DPTCi" Linux power control driver proposed for Ryzen-powered devices

For users who prefer emulators and Linux-based gaming environments, there has been an interesting technical development. A patch for "DPTCi" (Dynamic Power and Thermal Configuration Interface), a power and temperature control driver for portable gaming PCs with AMD Ryzen processors, has been proposed on the Linux kernel mailing list.

Previously, adjusting TDP (Thermal Design Power) or temperature limits on AMD-based devices from GPD, AYANEO, and OneXPlayer required relying on unofficial third-party tools. If this proposed driver is integrated into the mainline kernel, it will allow for real-time and safe APU power control as a standard OS feature.

Testing is being conducted on devices such as the "GPD WIN 5 (Ryzen AI MAX+ 395)" and is expected to support a wide range of processors from the Ryzen 5000 series to the latest Ryzen AI MAX series. There is strong anticipation from developers of custom Linux distributions—alternatives to SteamOS—and users looking to finely optimize battery life on handhelds.