Lenovo makes a Game Boy. Well, actually, it’s complicated. The name of the world’s largest PC producer by market cap is attached to a janky retro handheld called the Lenovo G02. You can buy one through AliExpress for around $73. But you probably shouldn’t.
The Lenovo G02 doesn’t land anywhere close to the beastly power of the company’s existing handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go 2, which now costs $2,000. The Game Boy-like device is running on a Rockchip RK3326 CPU with 1GB of RAM. It features a 4.5-inch IPS display that hits a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels (though the AliExpress tech specs claim it’s 1,024 x 600 pixels). It looks just like many other devices in its class, with a D-pad, four face buttons, and a single analog stick. On paper, it could play games from the early Game Boy era and maybe even some titles from the GameCube era.
Retrododo bought one, unboxed it, and found that the Lenovo logo appears on the splash screen when you boot it up. In fact, Lenovo’s China site lists the handheld as one of the company’s own products. What’s even more odd is how the handheld can come with an SD card full of games, including “thousands” of classic Nintendo titles preloaded onto the device.
A Lenovo spokesperson told Retrododo that the device was “produced through a brand licensing agreement meant for the China market only.” The device is not meant to be a member of the company’s larger PC portfolio. Instead, it’s more of a quick cash grab for a booming market of retro devices inside of China, especially devices that have little respect for copyright.
You can go on dropshipping sites like AliExpress right now and find dozens of Game Boy clones. Some of them, by companies like Anbernic, actually feel very good in hand and offer an excellent way to return to your nostalgia-laced memories of playing your handheld in the car by the glow of passing streetlamps.
Many of these off-brand devices also come with the option to buy with a micro SD card pre-installed. The developers will pack emulators inside as well as a mountain of ROMS. That stands for “read-only memory,” and it’s the colloquialization used to describe the ripped game files that are playable by those emulators. Emulation itself isn’t necessarily illegal, but buying copyrighted games certainly is. There’s a reason why when Anbernic sells devices directly to consumers outside of China in stores like Best Buy, it doesn’t include any games inside.
That’s not to say you can easily import the Lenovo G02 in the U.S. outside of AliExpress, though we should note that Gizmodo does not advise or condone piracy. The Lenovo G02 is just one of many pocketable emulation devices. We suggest you look for other unique Game Boys you can get in the U.S., such as the newfangled Anbernic Rotate and its flip-up screen. If you want something more traditional, you can opt for devices like the Retroid Pocket Classic or the TrimUI Brick.
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