TL;DR
- Handheld console emulators are being hit hard by recent tariffs.
- Retroid earlier announced some big limitations in shipping options for US customers.
- The company now shares the path forward it’s worked out for US orders.
Like basically every other corner of the global economy, the retro gaming handheld market is under assault from the current US administration’s ill-conceived tariffs. Multiple manufacturers have been forced to pause shipping and rethink their entire product strategy as prices threaten to explode. That’s included Retroid, which was in the process of releasing its new Pocket Classic handheld. Now the company has some new updates to share with its customers about what to expect.
We first got confirmation that Retroid Pocket Classic deliveries were being impacted last week, with word of looming shipping shutdowns and the resultant unavailability of certain colorways. We got another update about prioritizing US orders as we got closer and closer to the cutoff for getting shipments out of China, which was supposed to be today, April 25.
In a series of announcements posted to the company’s Discord, today Retroid shares what might be the first good news about shipping we’ve heard in a while:
- 4PX has paused US shipments, starting 4/23/25. No update on when they will resume.
- DHL has paused US shipments, starting 4/25/25. They have informed us that they will resume on 4/27/25.
- We have also secured a new shipping vendor, to better serve our U.S. customers. There will be a trial period from 4/25/25 – 5/15/25.
- It’s important to note that product prices WILL NOT INCREASE during this time. We also elected to pay the US tariff fees, on behalf of the customer.
- Shipping costs however, will increase by about $20 on 4/27/25. Again, US orders only.
That sounds promising on multiple fronts. Not only are DHL shipments set to resume next week, but this mysterious new shipping partner offers Retroid some much-needed flexibility. The bump in shipping costs isn’t great, but considering Retroid’s willingness to eat the US tariffs for the time being, we absolutely cannot complain.
Of course, there’s a whole big world out there beyond the US, and Retroid knows its customers there must be feeling a little neglected as it raced to put out America’s dumpster fire. The company also has a few updates to share with them:
- We are now prioritizing all remaining non-US customer orders that were placed before 4/25.
- We expect to fulfill Flip 2 orders by the end of next week.
- For the Classic: Classic 6, PKM Yellow, Retro, Atomic Purple: we expect to have these fulfilled by the end of next week.
- Kiwi, Berry, Teal was previously scheduled to start shipping on 4/28. This is now scheduled to begin on 5/5.
While the tariff fallout continues, it’s reassuring to see that companies like Retroid are still pushing forward, and little by little trying to navigate their way back to something at least resembling normal. There will still probably be some grumbling from international shoppers who feel like US orders got priority treatment for no good reason, but it’s not like there’s any good reason for the tariffs in the first place, so — checks out!
