AYANEO has officially shown off the Pocket VERT, its new vertical handheld, and while the company has been waxing lyrical about refined visual vocabulary and collectable art pieces, the marketing spiel might be justified.
Recently revealed, the Pocket VERT looks less like a handheld and more like something you’d find in a design museum gift shop. The CNC-milled unibody shell, precision-cut grills, and those diamond-cut shoulder buttons (glass-like on most models, ruby-esque on the stunning red version) set it miles apart from the rugged, toy-adjacent builds of most retro systems. Even the MagicSwitch key looks like it was built for a watch that costs more than your rent.
AYANEO is positioning the screen as the biggest flex: a 3.5-inch, 1600×1440 LCD panel capable of pixel-perfect 10x upscaling for Game Boy titles. That’s the same ultra-sharp resolution used by the Analogue Pocket, but here it’s embedded under a full-glass front panel that makes the bezel-free design look undeniably premium.
The buttons also follow the quiet luxury brief, using an unlabelled translucent design that blends into the body, more art installation, less ‘90s Nintendo toybox energy. The whole thing screams elegance.
Of course, all this beauty comes with a question: do you actually want to use it? With its all-glass front and gallery-piece aesthetic, the Pocket VERT looks like the last thing you’d chuck in a backpack or play on the bus. This is a machine designed to sit proudly on a shelf, maybe on a Throne stand, and glow smugly at your other handhelds.
AYANEO recently made moves toward more affordable devices, but the Pocket VERT is very much a return to the brand’s luxury above all instincts. Price and release details are still under wraps, but we're expecting this one to be a bit more premium.
Lovely to look at, AYANEO has made a handheld for people who want their Game Boy nostalgia dipped in chrome. Now we just need to see how it actually feels to play.
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