What you need to know
- During the Game Developers Conference, Qualcomm announced its new trio of Snapdragon G processors, headlined by the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3.
- Qualcomm claims the G3 Gen 3 offers 30% faster CPU and 28% faster “advanced graphics capabilities” compared to the G3 Gen 2.
- In addition to these new processors, AYANEO, OneXSugar, and Retroid have announced new Android gaming handhelds.
It’s been over 18 months since Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon G3x Gen 2, which eventually made its way into several AYANEO gaming handhelds. Fast forward to now, and Qualcomm is back with a trio of gaming-focused processors, which includes the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3.
This is joined by “Gen 2” iterations of the Snapdragon G2 and Snapdragon G1, all of which hope to provide gaming performance without making too many sacrifices. According to Qualcomm, the G3 Gen 3 stands to provide a 30% boost to CPU performance, which is the same level of improvement between the first two generations.
Graphics performance is said to be 28% faster, which has become quite important given the recent developments in PS3 and Windows emulation. For many, the first concern will be that these advancements will result in our devices running hotter, along with a hit to battery life. However, Qualcomm suggests this won’t be the case, as the G3 Gen 3 features “greater power optimizations and energy efficiencies.”
Moving down a notch, Qualcomm curiously pointed out that it targeted the 144FPS mark with the Snapdragon G2 Gen 2. This wasn’t done with just mobile gaming in mind, but also cloud gaming as like the G3 Gen 3, the G2 Gen 2 brings support for Wi-FI 7. In terms of performance, Qualcomm again claims improvements across the board, with a “2.3x CPU performance increase and 3.8x faster GPU capabilities.”
Last but not least, we have the Snapdragon G1 Gen 2, obviously focused on the more budget-friendly gaming handhelds. Of the trio, the G1 Gen 2 might be the most intriguing. Qualcomm claims it was able to achieve 80% faster CPU performance along with 25% faster GPU performance.
Qualcomm wasn’t alone at GDC 2025, as it was joined by the likes of AYANEO, OneXFly, and Retroid. It turns out that we won’t have to wait long before seeing new gaming handhelds released with these processors.
AYANEO only just recently announced the Pocket Micro Classic, and now, it has announced two more Android gaming devices. The first of which is the AYANEO Pocket S2, following in the footsteps of the Pocket S which was announced alongside the Snapdragon G3x Gen 2.
The Pocket S2 will be AYANEO’s newest flagship Android handheld thanks to the G3 Gen 3, and the company shared a few tidbits about what to expect. It will feature a 6.3-inch, 2K display while retaining the premium design of its predecessor. While the full spec sheet wasn’t revealed, AYANEO did share a brief teaser video showcasing some of the other changes.
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These include an all-new cooling system, with the exhaust coming from the back of the Pocket S2, as opposed to the top as we saw in the Pocket S. We’re also expecting to see better ergonomics and battery life, which were sticking points from our Pocket S review. AYANEO claims the Pocket S2 will be available sometime this month, but no other details are yet known.
That’s not all AYANEO announced, as it will be releasing another flagship handheld, dubbed the AYANEO Gaming Pad. It essentially looks like the company took the controls from the Pocket EVO and Pocket 2S, and stuck them to the side of the Gaming Pad.
We’re not quite yet sure whether you can remove the “Pad” from the grips, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. That’s thanks to the 8.3-inch 2K LCD display, complete with a 120Hz refresh rate.
Between the smaller size and the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, this could join the Lenovo Legion Tab as an excellent option for those who want a flagship tablet without dealing with a massive screen. The AYANEO Gaming Pad is slated to become “available” in May of this year.
That’s all for now from AYANEO, but a couple of other handhelds were also announced at GDC 2025. First, we have the OneXSugar Sugar1 handheld, which will be powered by the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3.
However, the processor isn’t the story here, as the Sugar1 is a Nintendo DS on steroids. It’s being touted as the “world’s first Android gaming device” to offer a dual-screen design and one of those displays is actually detachable.
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The Sugar1 feels like it belonged in the Transformers movies with all of the various moving parts. Details are still scarce, but the OneXSugar Sugar1 will be “available for preorder” in May of this year.
Last up we have Retroid, a company that is actually opening pre-orders for its two latest handhelds later this evening. In fact, we can thank Qualcomm and GDC for this, as the Pocket Classic is one of those two devices and we’ve now learned that it will be powered by the Snapdragon G1 Gen 2.
With this G1 Gen 2, Retroid is able to offer an affordable vertical gaming handheld that should spark joy for many. In addition to the new chipset, the Pocket Classic comes equipped with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, along with a 1240×1080 AMOLED display and a 5,000mAh battery.
Pre-orders for the Retroid Pocket Classic and Pocket Flip 2 open tonight at 9:30 PM ET, and pricing starts at $114 for the Classic and $189 for the Flip 2.
Rounding out this massive set of announcements, Retroid revealed that it’s working on another gaming handheld. However, the only bit of information that we know is that the Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 will be at the helm. Other than that, the silhouette just shows a shadow of a horizontal handheld.
We’ll have to wait and see what Retroid is cooking up. Nevertheless, there’s definitely no shortage of gaming handhelds to get excited about following the GDC 2025 announcements.