Tag Archives: Gaming

Console Wars Are Dead: This Chinese Modder Fused a PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch 2 Into One Console

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The console wars are dead. And what killed them wasn’t rising RAM prices, GPU scarcity, tariffs, or any sort of monopolistic practices. It was one modder who was tired of the multi-ecosystem approach. Chinese hardware enthusiast 小宁子 XNZ (or XNZ for short) looked at her collection of gaming consoles, realized she was constantly swapping cables and power supplies just to access different game libraries, and decided to do something about it. The result is the Ningtendo PXBOX 5, a custom-built system that combines PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2 hardware into a single triangular chassis that switches between all three platforms with a button press. One console to rule them all…

XNZ stripped each console down to its motherboard and mounted them on three sides of a custom aluminum cooling block, inspired by the old trash can Mac Pro design. A single 250-watt power supply feeds everything, while a Phanteks fan at the bottom pushes air through the shared heatsink. Press the button on top and an Arduino board handles the switching logic, cycling through the three systems in about three seconds. A front-mounted LED strip glows blue for PlayStation, green for Xbox, or red for Switch 2, so you always know what’s active. The catch is you need to close your game before switching to avoid overloading the power supply, but that’s a small price to pay for having Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo living peacefully under one roof. Both the PS5 and Xbox are digital-only versions, so no disc drives made it into the final build.

Designer: 小宁子 XNZ

XNZ pulled inspiration from Apple’s 2013 trash can Mac Pro, which remains one of the most divisive desktop designs Apple ever shipped. That machine had a triangular prism cooling system sitting dead center, with each of its three sides pressed tight against a separate component board. A fan at the top pulled hot air straight up through the whole assembly in one clean thermal column. Apple bet wrong on dual-GPU workstation builds and killed the product line, but the core thermal design was actually brilliant. For this project, it turned out to be the perfect blueprint. Three consoles, three motherboards, three sides of a triangle. The geometry practically solved itself.

Building that triangular heatsink presented a different problem entirely. XNZ needed dense fins capable of dissipating heat from three different APUs, but CNC machining quotes came back at around $700. Metal 3D printing wasn’t much better, and both options involved waiting in manufacturing queues that would kill any chance of rapid iteration. So she went old school. Really old school. We’re talking 1,500 years old.

Lost-wax casting has been around since ancient China, traditionally used for intricate bronze artifacts like the Yunwen Bronze Vessel. The principle is simple: carve a detailed model in wax, coat it in clay, melt out the wax, and pour molten metal into the cavity left behind. XNZ modernized the process by replacing wax with PLA filament from her 3D printer. She designed the heatsink in CAD software, printed it with support structures and cooling channels built right in, then encased the whole thing in high-temperature gypsum. The gypsum can withstand 700 degrees Celsius while PLA starts melting at 100 degrees and burns completely by the time you hit 700. Stick it in an electric kiln, run it through four heating stages over 12 hours, and you’re left with a clean ceramic mold ready for aluminum.

The first casting attempt failed halfway through when the molten aluminum cooled too fast and solidified before filling the entire mold. The fins were also too dense, causing the thin gypsum walls between them to crack. XNZ adjusted the fin thickness, changed their orientation to shorten the flow path, and recalibrated both the mold temperature and the aluminum pour temperature. Second attempt came out perfect. The surface captured fine details from the 3D print, including the layer lines from the support structures on the bottom. After sawing off the pouring gate and polishing the contact surfaces, she had a functional aluminum heatsink that cost maybe 50 bucks in materials instead of several hundred in machining fees.

Copper plates bolt onto two sides of the aluminum block where the PS5 and Xbox motherboards make contact. The third side, reserved for the Switch 2, doesn’t get a copper plate because Nintendo’s handheld apparently doesn’t need active cooling when docked. Thermal paste replaces the PS5’s stock liquid metal since the copper and aluminum combo provides enough thermal mass. During testing, the whole system ran Elden Ring for 30 minutes without overheating warnings, topping out at 60 degrees Celsius measured across the heatsink surface. That’s impressive considering you’ve got three separate APUs sharing one cooling solution and one 12-centimeter fan doing all the work.

The Switch 2 integration required a custom dock since the handheld needed to remain removable. XNZ gutted Nintendo’s official dock, pulled out the USB-C daughterboard and relevant electronics, and stuffed everything into a 3D-printed housing that attaches to the cooler’s third face. She wanted a spring-loaded ejection mechanism like a toaster, but metal springs couldn’t provide enough force to overcome USB-C port friction. The solution came from Bambu Lab’s MakerWorld, where she found a parametric spring generator that lets you customize dimensions through simple value inputs. She printed the entire dock assembly using dual-extrude printing with PLA for the rigid case and PETG for the flexible spring components. The two materials bond during printing so the spring stays permanently embedded in the structure but remains fully functional right off the print bed.

Power management turned out simpler than expected. The PS5 pulls 225 watts under full gaming load but drops to 4 watts in standby. The Xbox Series X shows similar behavior. A gallium nitride 250-watt power supply handles both consoles running in parallel as long as you’re only actively gaming on one at a time. The Switch 2 gets its juice through a transformer and USB-C PD trigger that converts the main rail voltage. An Arduino board sits inside the case managing power distribution and HDMI switching, triggered by that single button on top. Press it once and the LED bar changes color while the Arduino routes both power and video output to the next console in the sequence. Takes three seconds to complete the switch, which is faster than most people can close their game and navigate back to the home screen anyway.

The whole thing weighs less than having three separate consoles on your shelf and uses one HDMI cable, one power cord, and zero mental energy deciding which box to turn on. Sure, you lose disc drive functionality since both the PlayStation and Xbox are digital editions. And yes, the 250-watt ceiling means no running multiple games simultaneously or the power supply trips. But XNZ built a working proof of concept that platform exclusivity is a solvable engineering problem, not some immutable law of physics. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have spent decades convincing people their ecosystems need to stay separate. One person with a 3D printer, some molten aluminum, and a weekend said otherwise.

The post Console Wars Are Dead: This Chinese Modder Fused a PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch 2 Into One Console first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ayaneo’s Konkr Fit Handheld Packs AMD Ryzen AI 9 And Windows, Targeting the Steam Deck and Legion Go 2

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Ayaneo’s budget Konkr brand is expanding beyond Android. After launching the Pocket Fit with Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 and the more powerful Pocket Fit Elite with Snapdragon Elite 8, the company has unveiled its first Windows handheld under the Konkr name. The new device drops “Pocket” from its title for good reason.

The Konkr Fit features a 7-inch OLED display, significantly larger than the 6-inch screens on its Android siblings. Powering this Windows handheld is an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 processor, marking a departure from Snapdragon mobile chips. The device also packs an impressive 80Wh battery, dwarfing the capacity found in competitors like the Lenovo Legion Go S and even the Legion Go 2.

Designer: Ayaneo

80Wh in a handheld gaming device puts the Konkr Fit in genuinely rare company. The Legion Go S limps along with 55.5Wh, while even Lenovo’s newer Legion Go 2 only manages 74Wh. We’re talking about potentially game-changing longevity here, especially considering Windows handhelds typically drain batteries faster than their Android counterparts. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 is a hungry chip, sure, but you’re still looking at a device that might actually survive a cross-country flight without searching desperately for an outlet. Battery anxiety has plagued this entire product category since the Steam Deck launched, and Ayaneo seems to understand that cramming in more capacity solves more problems than any amount of software optimization ever will.

The HX 470 belongs to AMD’s Strix Point lineup, the same family powering proper gaming laptops. You’re getting Zen 5 cores and RDNA 3.5 graphics, which means AAA titles at respectable settings become genuinely playable. Compare that to the Snapdragon Elite 8 in the Pocket Fit Elite, which excels at emulation and Android titles but starts sweating with demanding PC games. Ayaneo clearly wants this positioned as a real PC gaming device, not just an emulation box with delusions of grandeur. The processor alone tells you they’re betting on people who want to run their Steam libraries natively, not folks content with streaming or playing mobile ports.

Borrowing heavily from its Android siblings makes sense when you consider the Pocket Fit’s design already works. Hall Effect joysticks handle the analog inputs, which means drift shouldn’t plague these controllers the way it does cheaper alternatives. Adjustable triggers and dual back buttons carry over unchanged. The company offers two colorways: Retro Gray with red accents and a straight Yellow option. Both feel very much in line with the broader handheld gaming aesthetic that’s emerged, though the gray and red combo has some Steam Deck vibes whether Ayaneo wants to admit it or not.

Two USB-C ports now sit at the top edge, giving you actual flexibility for charging while gaming or connecting accessories without blocking your hands. Larger inlet vents dominate the back panel compared to the Pocket Fit, addressing what will inevitably become thermal challenges with a chip this powerful. Even the screws holding the backplate are exposed, suggesting Ayaneo expects enthusiasts to crack this thing open for maintenance or upgrades. These aren’t cosmetic flourishes. Windows gaming generates serious heat, and pretending otherwise is how you end up with a handheld that thermal throttles ten minutes into Cyberpunk 2077.

The OLED panel upgrade from the Pocket Fit’s LCD matters beyond the obvious visual improvements. Response times eliminate the ghosting issues that plague cheaper LCD panels during fast-paced gaming. Deep blacks mean better contrast in dimly lit game environments, which basically describes half of modern AAA titles. At 7 inches, you’re getting enough screen real estate that Windows UI elements remain readable without squinting, though whether Windows 11 plays nicely with a 7-inch touchscreen remains an open question. Microsoft has never really figured out how to make their OS work elegantly on small displays, and I doubt Ayaneo’s custom launcher will magically solve decades of interface design problems.

Pricing remains a company secret, but simple math suggests this slots above the $399 Pocket Fit Elite. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 costs more than Snapdragon chips, Windows licensing adds expense that Android avoids, and that 80Wh battery doesn’t come cheap. My gut says somewhere between $500 and $600, which plants this squarely in Steam Deck OLED territory. That’s awkward positioning for a brand that built its identity on being the affordable alternative to Ayaneo’s own thousand-dollar flagships. Then again, Ayaneo could just drop the details and prove me wrong.

The post Ayaneo’s Konkr Fit Handheld Packs AMD Ryzen AI 9 And Windows, Targeting the Steam Deck and Legion Go 2 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sony’s Upcoming Portable PS6 Aims to Challenge the Steam Deck and Switch 2 in 2027

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Sony’s portable gaming attempts have followed a familiar pattern: innovative hardware held back by baffling compromises. The PSP had one analog stick when games clearly needed two. The Vita added that second stick but inexplicably skipped analog triggers and clickable thumbsticks, forcing developers to map essential controls to an awkward rear touchpad. The PS Portal finally nailed the controls by essentially splitting a DualSense controller in half, then rendered the achievement mostly irrelevant by making it stream-only. Project Canis, the rumored PS6 handheld arriving in 2027, needs to break this cycle.

The fundamentals look promising this time. Reports suggest full PS4, PS5, and PS6 compatibility with proper docking functionality, which would position it as Sony’s answer to both the Steam Deck and Switch successor. The recent PS5 low-power mode appearing in firmware updates telegraphs Sony’s strategy clearly: get developers optimizing games for portable performance now, before the hardware officially exists. With AMD’s APUs getting more capable and the handheld gaming PC market proving there’s demand for portable power, Sony actually has a clearer path forward than they did with previous attempts. The question is whether supply chain realities and component costs will force them to compromise again.

Designer: Yousef Popov

Sony recently added a power-saving mode to PS5 games that scales down graphics and frame rates, supposedly for energy conservation. But here’s what’s actually happening: they’re teaching developers how to optimize their games for weaker portable hardware before that hardware even exists. When Project Canis launches, every game with this low-power mode already has a built-in portable profile ready to go. It’s Sony creating a standardized “handheld mode” years in advance, which suggests they’re genuinely committed this time rather than half-heartedly supporting another doomed experiment like the Vita became.

The design remains anyone’s guess at this point. Concept images floating around Behance show sleek interpretations of what a modern PSP could look like, though these fan creations obviously don’t reflect whatever Sony’s industrial designers are actually cooking up. What we do know is that the PS Portal’s controller layout works beautifully, with full-sized analog sticks and proper trigger feedback. If Sony keeps that ergonomic foundation and adds actual processing power inside instead of relying on cloud streaming, they’d have something genuinely compelling. The Portal proved they finally understand that portable controls can’t be compromised versions of console controllers, they need to be the real thing.

The 2027 target might actually work in Sony’s favor despite the RAM shortage threatening to push prices up or launch dates back. Handheld gaming has exploded in ways nobody predicted five years ago. The Steam Deck created an entire category of expensive portable PCs that people happily bought. The Switch keeps selling despite aging hardware because portability matters that much to players. Sony entering this space in 2027 with a device that plays God of War and Spider-Man natively, then docks to your TV for the full experience, feels less like another doomed experiment and more like arriving exactly when the market’s ready.

The backwards compatibility angle could be the real hook though. Running your entire PS5 library on the go would be compelling enough, but reports suggest potential support reaching back to PS1 and PS2 through emulation. Imagine having decades of PlayStation history available on one portable device, from classic JRPGs to current blockbusters. The Switch has proven that players will rebuy old favorites for portability, but Sony wouldn’t need to resell anything if they nail backwards compatibility. Your existing library just works, from launch day classics you bought fifteen years ago to whatever drops next month. That’s the kind of feature that turns a neat gadget into something you’d actually carry everywhere.

The post Sony’s Upcoming Portable PS6 Aims to Challenge the Steam Deck and Switch 2 in 2027 first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Nintendo Switch-inspired concept morphs gaming DNA into track performance

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When Nintendo introduced the Switch in 2017, it reshaped modern gaming by merging handheld convenience with living-room power in a single, modular device. Its detachable Joy-Cons, bold color accents, and instantly recognizable silhouette turned the console into both a functional tool and a design icon. That same philosophy now takes an unexpected leap into automotive design with the Nintendo Switcher, a concept car that reinterprets the Switch’s playful yet purposeful identity as a low-slung, track-ready performance machine.

Created as a concept design project, the Nintendo Switcher imagines an alternate reality where the Japanese gaming giant channels its design language into motorsports-inspired mobility. Rather than simply applying branding to an existing vehicle shape, the concept approaches the car as if it were designed from the ground up by the same team that shaped Nintendo’s hardware. The result is a vehicle that feels expressive and unmistakably influenced by gaming culture while still reading clearly as a high-performance car.

Designer: Anton Kulakov and Florin Ivan

The exterior design makes the connection immediately obvious through its use of color blocking and contrast. Red, black, and white dominate the bodywork, echoing the Switch console and its Joy-Con controllers. These colors are applied in sharp, deliberate sections rather than blended gradients, reinforcing the idea of modular components coming together to form a cohesive whole. The body itself sits low and wide, with exaggerated proportions that emphasize speed, grip, and stability, giving the Switcher the visual stance of a track-focused machine.

Aerodynamic intent plays a major role in shaping the car’s surfaces. Long, flowing lines guide the eye from the front toward the rear, while aggressive wheel arches and sculpted side panels suggest functional airflow management. The front end appears compact and assertive, with lighting elements integrated cleanly into the body rather than treated as separate components. From every angle, the design strikes a balance between sharp geometry and smooth transitions, mirroring the way gaming hardware often combines angular forms with ergonomic curves.

While interior details are presented more subtly, the concept hints at a driver-focused cockpit influenced by digital interfaces. The layout suggests a minimalist and immersive approach, prioritizing essential controls and visual clarity, much like a gaming interface designed to keep players engaged without distraction. The emphasis appears to be on interaction and responsiveness rather than luxury, reinforcing the car’s performance-oriented character.

The Nintendo Switcher is a creative exploration of how deeply ingrained product identity can travel across industries. By translating the Switch’s modular thinking, bold visuals, and user-centric design into an automotive context, the concept shows how gaming culture continues to influence design far beyond screens and controllers. Though it remains purely conceptual, the Switcher feels like a convincing glimpse into a world where entertainment brands shape mobility with the same confidence they bring to interactive experiences.

The post This Nintendo Switch-inspired concept morphs gaming DNA into track performance first appeared on Yanko Design.

DIY LEGO ‘Connect 4’ Brickset lets you actually play the game after building it!

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There aren’t many LEGO sets designed to played with once they’re built. A lot of them are envisioned as show-pieces, and yes, you can do imaginary play with them like you would holding a LEGO Millennium Falcon and whooshing around the house, but this MOC from HH Bricks captures a kind of LEGO playability that’s absolutely rare. Inspired by his daughters’ love for building and playing with LEGO, HH Bricks designed this playable version of one of the world’s most popular tabletop games.

For those uninitiated, Connect 4 is a simple game where you drop tokens down a vertical slot-board, trying to build a set of 4 tokens in a straight line. Your job is to simply build a straight line without being stopped, while also consistently breaking your opponent’s ability to build a solid 4 streak on their own. The game just celebrated 50 years since it was first invented in 1974 (and commercially sold in ’75), and this set recreates the game’s strategic magic, just using LEGO bricks.

Designer: HH Bricks

Although HH Bricks doesn’t specify how many pieces come together to build this set, one could venture it’s easily in the higher end of the spectrum, just because of how many tiny single or double-stud bricks were used to build the set’s flat panels and the 42 tokens that come along with the board. Flat surfaces are fairly complex in LEGO, not because of any visual complexity, but just the fact that they require a lot of bricks to build out.

The rules are ridiculously simple. Each player chooses a color and gets to work, dropping tokens into any slot they want. Beat your opponent by building a connection of 4 tokens in the same color in a straight line (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal). Some people even play a double-streak round, trying to hit two connections to eventually win the game. Once the game is over, simply pull out the bottom tray and all the tokens come crashing out, reseting the game for the next session.

If you’re here you’ve probably heard of LEGO Ideas – the online forum where LEGO fans and enthusiasts build, share, and vote for MOCs (or fan-made My Own Creations). This LEGO Connect 4 set is a part of the Ideas forum too, having racked up more than 2,800 votes as of writing this. The ultimate goal is to hit the 10k vote mark (which this MOC has 478 more days to reach), following which LEGO’s internal team reviews the build and turns it into a retail box set if everything goes well. The first step, however, is to hit that 10,000 vote mark, which you can help HH Bricks reach by voting for their MOC on the LEGO Ideas website here!

The post DIY LEGO ‘Connect 4’ Brickset lets you actually play the game after building it! first appeared on Yanko Design.

AYANEO AM03 Is Designed to Display on Your Desk, Not Hide

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Most mini-PCs are treated like necessary clutter, small black rectangles taped to the back of a monitor or shoved behind a stack of books. That makes sense if you only care about ports and benchmarks, but it feels at odds with the attention people now give to desk setups, where everything else on the surface is chosen to be seen, from the keyboard to the mousepad to the plant in the corner.

The AYANEO Mini PC AM03 is a machine that is not trying to hide. It is pitched as a desktop setup essential and entertainment powerhouse, blending a retro-inspired shell with an Intel Core i9-12900H and AYASpace 3.0. The idea is that it should be both the performance core and the visual anchor of a desk, not just another anonymous box tucked under it or behind cables.

Designer: AYANEO

AYANEO has a habit of treating hardware as design objects, and the AM03 continues that with smooth contours, refined finishes, and two colorways, Sky Blue and Ink Black. One feels airy and bright, the other more serious and moody, both meant to sit comfortably next to a monitor, keyboard, and handhelds without looking like industrial equipment that wandered in from a server rack or a crowded electronics store shelf.

The foldable front panel keeps the face of the machine clean when closed and turns into a port bay when you flip it down. That means you can keep the front visually quiet most of the time, then reveal USB ports and other connectors when you need to plug in a drive, headset, or controller. It respects the difference between everyday viewing and occasional tinkering or heavy expansion.

Under the shell sits an Intel Core i9-12900H running at a 45 W TDP, which gives the AM03 laptop-class flagship performance in a compact body. Support for up to 64 GB of dual-channel memory and PCIe 4.0 SSDs makes it comfortable handling productivity, creative work, and gaming, especially when paired with an external GPU or cloud service for more demanding titles that need extra graphics horsepower.

The large cooling system keeps that 45W chip stable under load, so long renders or game sessions do not trigger throttling. Built-in stereo speakers handle office audio and light entertainment without separate desktop speakers, simplifying a setup for people who want fewer boxes and cables on the desk and more space for the things that actually earn their spot there, like a good lamp or a notebook.

AYASpace 3.0 is the software layer that makes the AM03 feel more like a console-grade device than a barebones PC. Users can switch performance modes, tweak TDP, organize game libraries, and monitor frame rates with FPS Thunder, all from a unified interface. It turns the box into something you tune and monitor as part of the desk experience, not just a Windows machine you forget about once it boots.

The AM03 tries to answer what gaming-grade hardware should look like when it lives in a living room or home office. By combining a fold-front design, Skyline Arc RGB, and serious silicon, it suggests that a mini-PC can be both a tool and a piece of desk art, something you keep in view because you like looking at it as much as you like what it can do.

The post AYANEO AM03 Is Designed to Display on Your Desk, Not Hide first appeared on Yanko Design.

GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming

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Almost every mobile controller assumes you want to play in landscape, snapping your phone into a wide handheld that feels great for modern shooters and racing games. This works for most titles, but when you fire up Game Boy-era platformers or vertical arcade classics, the experience feels slightly off, like forcing old games into a shape they were never meant to inhabit, holding them sideways while your thumbs reach for controls that never land right.

GameSir’s Pocket Taco leans into portrait play instead of fighting it, turning your phone into something closer to a classic handheld. It first appeared as the Pocket 1 at Tokyo Game Show, then resurfaced as Pocket Taco just as 8BitDo teased its own vertical FlipPad, setting up a clash of design philosophies aimed at people who want to hold their phones the way they held Game Boys.

Designer: GameSir

The rebrand to Pocket Taco fits the design; the controller clamps to the bottom of your phone like a taco shell. The foldable front accommodates different phone sizes, and soft silicone pads line the clamp area so you are not grinding plastic against glass every time you snap it on, which matters when you pull it out multiple times a day for quick sessions between meetings or commutes.

The control layout separates Pocket Taco from 8BitDo’s FlipPad. Pocket Taco gives you a traditional D-pad, ABXY face buttons, and actual triggers and bumpers on the back. FlipPad keeps everything on the front in a row of circular buttons, which is clever for compactness but less like the shoulder-button ergonomics many players expect from dedicated handhelds, especially during games with heavy simultaneous inputs.

Pocket Taco uses Bluetooth, so it can talk to Android and iOS phones, tablets, and other devices, and it still works when not clamped. FlipPad plugs in over USB-C, which keeps latency low and removes battery anxiety, but ties it to phones with that port and to a tethered style where the controller must stay attached to function at all.

One practical touch is the large cutout at the bottom that leaves your phone’s charging port accessible while the controller is attached, so you can plug in and keep going during long sessions. FlipPad occupies the USB-C port and does not offer passthrough charging, which is fine for short bursts but less ideal for marathon runs that drain the phone before you finish the dungeon.

Pocket Taco runs on a 600 mAh battery with smart power behavior, open to play, close to rest. The trade-off is one more battery to watch and slightly more bulk. FlipPad stays slimmer and battery-free, but leans on your phone for power, shifting the burden and adding a small drain to your phone’s battery during long play sessions.

Pocket Taco and FlipPad are two paths toward the same fantasy, turning a slab of glass into a dedicated retro handheld. Pocket Taco leans into wireless freedom, proper triggers, and charging-while-playing practicality, while FlipPad bets on wired simplicity and a flatter front. For anyone who grew up holding a Game Boy vertically, it is nice to have options that respect that muscle memory instead of pretending mobile gaming should feel like a miniature Xbox stuck in landscape.

The post GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming first appeared on Yanko Design.

GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming

Posted on by

Almost every mobile controller assumes you want to play in landscape, snapping your phone into a wide handheld that feels great for modern shooters and racing games. This works for most titles, but when you fire up Game Boy-era platformers or vertical arcade classics, the experience feels slightly off, like forcing old games into a shape they were never meant to inhabit, holding them sideways while your thumbs reach for controls that never land right.

GameSir’s Pocket Taco leans into portrait play instead of fighting it, turning your phone into something closer to a classic handheld. It first appeared as the Pocket 1 at Tokyo Game Show, then resurfaced as Pocket Taco just as 8BitDo teased its own vertical FlipPad, setting up a clash of design philosophies aimed at people who want to hold their phones the way they held Game Boys.

Designer: GameSir

The rebrand to Pocket Taco fits the design; the controller clamps to the bottom of your phone like a taco shell. The foldable front accommodates different phone sizes, and soft silicone pads line the clamp area so you are not grinding plastic against glass every time you snap it on, which matters when you pull it out multiple times a day for quick sessions between meetings or commutes.

The control layout separates Pocket Taco from 8BitDo’s FlipPad. Pocket Taco gives you a traditional D-pad, ABXY face buttons, and actual triggers and bumpers on the back. FlipPad keeps everything on the front in a row of circular buttons, which is clever for compactness but less like the shoulder-button ergonomics many players expect from dedicated handhelds, especially during games with heavy simultaneous inputs.

Pocket Taco uses Bluetooth, so it can talk to Android and iOS phones, tablets, and other devices, and it still works when not clamped. FlipPad plugs in over USB-C, which keeps latency low and removes battery anxiety, but ties it to phones with that port and to a tethered style where the controller must stay attached to function at all.

One practical touch is the large cutout at the bottom that leaves your phone’s charging port accessible while the controller is attached, so you can plug in and keep going during long sessions. FlipPad occupies the USB-C port and does not offer passthrough charging, which is fine for short bursts but less ideal for marathon runs that drain the phone before you finish the dungeon.

Pocket Taco runs on a 600 mAh battery with smart power behavior, open to play, close to rest. The trade-off is one more battery to watch and slightly more bulk. FlipPad stays slimmer and battery-free, but leans on your phone for power, shifting the burden and adding a small drain to your phone’s battery during long play sessions.

Pocket Taco and FlipPad are two paths toward the same fantasy, turning a slab of glass into a dedicated retro handheld. Pocket Taco leans into wireless freedom, proper triggers, and charging-while-playing practicality, while FlipPad bets on wired simplicity and a flatter front. For anyone who grew up holding a Game Boy vertically, it is nice to have options that respect that muscle memory instead of pretending mobile gaming should feel like a miniature Xbox stuck in landscape.

The post GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming first appeared on Yanko Design.