Tecno may be a brand you've never heard of, but when it's new to the market Pocket Go goes as well as it looks, then there will be a whole new segment for the portable gaming market. Because while every handheld PC you can currently buy has an integrated screen, this one doesn't have AR glasses.
Admittedly, the launch itself (via Videocardz) is a bit sparse on detail, but the product itself actually exists as Tecno advertised it on the MWC event in Barcelona. This is all about the mobile phone industry, which has long been Tecno's main sector. But now it wants to capture a slice of the growing handheld PC market with its Pocket Go.
At first glance, it appears to be a very clunky controller with AR glasses connected to it via a standard USB Type-C cable. But inside the handset is an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. This APU features eight cores, 16 threads, a maximum power of 35W, and an integrated Radeon 780M GPU. It's basically the same chip as the 7840U, which powers devices like the Ayaneo Air 1S.
I'm not entirely sold on the controller's design: the right thumbstick seems a little too close to the buttons, and since most APUs in handheld PCs tend to get a little warm, your gloves will probably get pretty warm too. This assumes that the cooling system is similar to the competition, but that the Pocket Go could use something much more powerful. However, this would only make it heavier and louder.
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The compactness of the controller is primarily due to the fact that Tecno did not use a screen in its Pocket PC. Instead, the visual output is handled by a pair of glasses that look pretty snazzy and are said to be “50% smaller” and “30% lighter.” Smaller and lighter than what, you may ask. That's a good question and one that Tecno isn't currently answering.
Apparently the glasses are equivalent to a 215-inch television when viewed from 6 feet away. However, how true this statement is depends heavily on the resolution and refresh rate of the screens in the glasses. At least you can use them on other devices, although I suspect this will probably be limited to Tecno's phones and laptops.
Something else that sets the Pocket Go apart from the rest of the handheld models is the fact that the battery is replaceable and isn't permanently stuck. Well done because it is only rated at 50Wh and powers both the glasses and the base unit.
There's no indication of price or retail availability, but I can't imagine it will be cheap. If it's less than the thousand dollar mark, I'll be very surprised. But even if it turns out to be quite expensive, if the specs, performance and gaming experience are good, the handheld PC market could well have a new star in its midst.
