The Analogue Pocket, the boutique handheld console beloved by retro gaming enthusiasts, is returning to preorder this week at a higher price than ever before. Preorders open on 4 March at 11AM Eastern Time through Analogue's website, with shipments expected in June 2026. The catch, as reported by The Verge and confirmed by Retro Dodo, is a price bump to US$239.99, the device's highest-ever retail price.
It is the second time since the Pocket's December 2021 launch that buyers have been asked to pay more for the same hardware. When preorders reopened in December 2021, the price was already up to $219.99 from an original $199.99, driven by component shortages. Now it climbs again, and this time the culprit is not a chip shortage but the sweeping tariffs the Trump administration has imposed on goods assembled in China.
The device is assembled in China, and the company is placing the blame for the price increase squarely on tariffs, noting that additional levies were imposed after earlier ones were challenged in US courts. Analogue has not indicated any plan to absorb the cost or move manufacturing elsewhere, and many analysts have observed that specialised hardware produced in limited runs simply lacks the volume needed to absorb such external pricing pressures.
For those unfamiliar with the device, the Pocket is not an emulation machine in the conventional sense. Released in December 2021, it uses field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips to play games from various handheld consoles. Out of the box, it replicates the hardware of the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance, with a physical cartridge slot at the rear that accepts all Game Boy game cartridges. That distinction matters to enthusiasts: FPGA-based hardware recreates the original silicon behaviour, rather than running software approximations of it.
Alongside the Pocket restock, Analogue is also restocking the Pocket Dock, with preorders opening on the same date and shipments heading out in June 2026. The Dock, which carries a price of $99.99, connects the Pocket to a television for home play.
The price escalation reflects a pattern playing out across consumer electronics more broadly. Consumer electronics, including smartphones, laptops, and accessories, are among the most heavily affected product categories as higher import costs flow through to both businesses and consumers. For a niche company like Analogue, which sells directly to consumers without major retail distribution, there is little room to hide these costs behind volume discounts or cross-subsidisation from other product lines.
There is a reasonable counterargument to the frustration some buyers will feel. The Pocket's secondary market prices have historically sat well above retail, with scalpers and resellers extracting significant premiums from those who missed official preorder windows. At $239.99, the device still represents a steep discount against what it fetches from private sellers. Critics of tariff-related price complaints sometimes point out that the alternative, sourcing manufacturing outside China, carries its own costs and risks, and that passing the levy to consumers is simply the most transparent response a small company can make.
From a broader economic perspective, the Reserve Bank of Australia has noted that the precise flow-on effects of US tariffs on Australian consumers remain ambiguous, and that very high US tariffs on China could push Chinese suppliers to redirect goods to other markets, including Australia, potentially increasing supply and reducing prices for some Chinese-manufactured goods. That dynamic, however, is unlikely to benefit a company like Analogue, whose supply chain is denominated in US dollars and whose tariff exposure is fixed at the point of American importation.
For Australian fans of the Pocket, the US$239.99 price tag translates to a still-steeper local cost once currency conversion and international shipping are factored in. The device is not available through Australian retail channels and must be ordered directly. Treasury modelling has indicated the direct effects of US tariffs on Australian consumers are expected to be small overall, but price increases could ripple through for specific imported goods. Boutique electronics imported from American sellers are a textbook case of exactly that kind of ripple.
The practical reality is that the Pocket occupies a niche nobody else has filled in quite the same way. Its combination of authentic hardware recreation and a premium display has no direct competitor at a comparable price point. For enthusiasts willing to pay for that, the additional cost is a frustration rather than a dealbreaker. For those on the fence, the widening price gap between the Pocket and cheaper emulation-based handhelds from other makers will sharpen the question of whether hardware fidelity is worth the premium. That is, ultimately, a question only buyers can answer, and the ACCC's consumer protection framework offers little comfort when the markup stems from US trade policy rather than local market conduct.