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ModRetro Chromatic Review: The Perfect Game Boy Restomod

ModRetro went in a dramatically different direction with this Game Boy re-creation, and it succeeds in capturing the original’s charm.

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Written by  Imad Khan
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Imad Khan Senior Reporter
Imad is a senior reporter covering Google and internet culture. Hailing from Texas, Imad started his journalism career in 2013 and has amassed bylines with The New York Times, The Washington Post, ESPN, Tom’s Guide and Wired, among others.
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ModRetro Chromatic Review

Pros

  • Beautiful screen
  • Sturdy construction
  • Vibrant design and colors

Cons

  • Batteries
  • Delicate paint job
  • Price
  • Mono sound

Lots of brands attempt to market nostalgia, but few succeed in capturing its warm essence. From hot pink flip phones to guitar amp-inspired Bluetooth speakers, these retro callbacks have the sheen of decades prior but are nothing more than reskinned modern tech. The ModRetro Chromatic, a modern Game Boy from Oculus Rift inventor and co-founder of defense company Anduril Industries Palmer Luckey, however, makes deliberate old-school compromises. Mainly, it uses less pixel-dense LCD displays to elicit emotions from yesteryear. It’s these forced compromises that help the Chromatic stand out even if, on paper, it doesn’t have all the most cutting-edge tech. 

The result is a super-premium, slightly hindered Game Boy clone that feels like what Nintendo would have made if cost weren’t an issue. It even includes a copy of Tetris, like the original Game Boy did in 1989, a nice touch by ModRetro. The Chromatic’s high-end materials and features do come at a high price, though: $200, which is substantially higher than the Game Boy Color’s MSRP of $80 back in 1998 — about $160 adjusted for inflation. For the gamer who appreciates high-quality bespoke hardware and a commitment to authenticity, however, the price is well worth it. 

Big chunky pixels

The most standout feature on the ModRetro Chromatic is its screen. It’s a 160×144, 2.56-inch IPS LCD display. If that resolution and size seem small, that’s because they are. Unlike modern displays, which have resolutions so high that you can’t even make out the individual blocks, ModRetro keeps things chunky.

This choice allows ModRetro to re-create that original Game Boy experience. Back then, cheap consumer displays weren’t as advanced and had pixels that were simply larger and more visible. For games that used sprites, like Pokemon or Wario Land 3, the pixel layout was a perfect grid to lay art assets on. It was a limitation of the time that game creators used as a canvas. 

Modern emulation devices, including emulator apps you can install on your phone, can simply upscale all the in-game assets to make the image look super sharp. This is an approach that 2021’s Analogue Pocket used. When I heard that ModRetro was going to produce a device with big, blocky pixels, I was left perplexed. I believed that Analogue’s approach was the most sound. But after using the Chromatic, I realized there’s a charm to keeping things old school. 

In my roughly 20 hours of Pokemon Crystal and Tetris gameplay over the past few months, I was slowly won over to the charms of the Chromatic’s screen. The lower resolution is what Pokemon was meant to look like. Sure, the Analogue Pocket, as well as a whole host of other emulation devices, can mimic the retro grid of the original Game Boy using filters, but it’s not the same. You can tell it’s software making the pixels look chunky. 

In terms of colors, the IPS display ModRetro has sourced for the Chromatic is excellent. Visuals pop, and the overall presentation is clean without any smearing. The only way it could have been better is if ModRetro had opted for an OLED display. The glass atop the display is also of remarkable quality, using Sapphire crystal glass. Sapphire is a high-quality and expensive material known for its durability and transparency. It’s most often found on the faces of high-end watches and camera lenses. 

The Chromatic captures in my mind the rose-tinted memories I had of playing my Game Boy Color on long road trips back when I was in elementary school. It’s something that the Analogue Pocket couldn’t do. Although the Pocket does have a Nintendo Switch-like dock and lets me play games on my giant television, a novelty I very much enjoy.

The Chromatic feels substantial

There’s been a long-running meme about the indestructible nature of the Nokia 3310, a beloved classic cellphone from the year 2000. It was made with chunky plastic and could survive just about any drop. The original Game Boy and Game Boy Color had that same design philosophy in mind, with one even surviving the Gulf War. The minimalist iPhone style hadn’t yet entered mass-market electronic design.

The ModRetro Chromatic adopts the ’80s and ’90s chunky design philosophy and opts for magnesium alloy instead of plastic, which offers both durability and heft. The three AA batteries inside also add to the weight and feel, but bring back ’90s handheld annoyances. A set of AA batteries lasts about 6 to 8 hours, depending on the screen’s brightness. As someone who loves the Game Boy Color, one thing I don’t miss is looking under seat cushions for batteries. 

After some delay, the rechargeable battery pack is now available for $30.

Despite the shortcomings of AA batteries, as I mentioned previously, the Chromatic feels like what Nintendo would have made if costs weren’t a concern. It’s something I love about it. So rarely do we see electronics leaning into absurdity with little worry about cost. The expenditure in developing the display is something Luckey spoke of on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Even though there’s a good heft to the Chromatic, there didn’t seem to be any room for stereo speakers. Regrettably, there’s just a single speaker at the bottom of the device. A large part of the Game Boy library actually does support stereo sound, so headphones will be required to get the full sonic experience. There’s no Bluetooth either, so you’ll need to stick to wired cans. 

Vibrant but delicate paint job

The ModRetro Chromatic is almost the antithesis of the Analogue Pocket. It opts for metals over plastics. It sports a lower-res screen over one that’s literally 14 times more dense. And instead of black or white, it gives consumers a wide range of color options, all with wonderful flourishes to give each unit a distinct identity. A few weeks back, all colors, except the muted GameStop-exclusive gray were sold out. Now, all colors are back in stock, including a new cloud colorway, which is white with purple accents.

(Note: Analogue has done limited edition re-releases of the Pocket in a wide range of colors, including ones inspired by the original Game Boy Color and Game Boy Pocket lineups, as well as a $500 aluminum variant.)

Our first-edition review unit in yellow, which ModRetro calls Volt, has red face buttons and brown and beige accents in the corners, reminding me of the earth tones present in homes from the 1970s. The ModRetro Chromatic is as much a plaything as it is a display piece. 

Unfortunately, ModRetro didn’t spray a clear coat over the Chromatic’s luscious paint job. Sure, it gives the Chromatic a satisfying matte texture, but it makes the paint very delicate. Even with my careful use, I’ve already marred it with two small nicks, revealing the bare metal underneath. It makes me scared to take the Chromatic out of my house, which defeats the purpose of handheld gaming. 

A worthy Game Boy revival at a high price

The ModRetro Chromatic’s gorgeous screen, magnesium build, stand-out paint job and sapphire crystal come at a $200 price. Well, at the time of this review, it was $200. Now, if you want a Chromatic with sapphire crystal, it’ll cost $300. Thankfully, there’s still a $200 option fitted with Gorilla Glass, meaning it’s not as strong but is luckily still scratch resistant. Either way, that’s a lot to pay for an electronic that can only play games from the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s. Well, ModRetro is publishing newer Game Boy games, and companies like Incube8 GamesBitmap Soft, and Mega Cat Studios are also releasing newer as well as homebrew titles on classic cartridges.

For $200, you could get a Nintendo Switch Lite and gain access to a massive library of modern titles as well as older games via the Nintendo Switch Online service. There’s also a slew of emulation devices filling up Amazon, AliExpress and TikTok Shop that offer thousands of old-school preloaded Game Boy titles of legally dubious origin for less than $50.

Here’s the thing: Emulation can’t beat the original. Even on the newly released Nintendo Switch 2, game emulation of older content still introduces input lag, which is the amount of time it takes for a button press to show up on screen. For hard-core gamers, this is suboptimal. Only when the original code is running through real circuits and transistors does it deliver an authentic experience. 

If you’re the type that doesn’t care about authenticity and a true-to-form gaming experience, well, you likely aren’t reading this review. For this person, one of those emulation handhelds will suffice. There are dedicated sites that review the sea of retro gaming handhelds coming out of China, seemingly on a bi-weekly basis.

But if you’re the person who wants the satisfying snap of docking in an old-school Game Boy cartridge and sinking into the corner cushions of your couch with a pouch of Capri Sun resting on your chest, there really isn’t a much better experience than what the ModRetro Chromatic offers.

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Alphabet’s Q1 Earnings Expected to Reflect Sustained Expansion, Driven by Cloud Division

Alphabet’s Q1 earnings are expected to show strong growth driven by cloud and AI advancements, with revenue projected to rise 18.7% year-over-year. The company’s stock has surged 118% over the past year, supported by Gemini AI integration and expanding cloud infrastructure investments.

Alphabet is scheduled to release its first-quarter financial results after market close on Wednesday. Below are the key metrics Wall Street anticipates, based on analyst estimates from LSEG: — Earnings per share: $2.63 — Revenue: $107.2 billion Investors are also tracking several additional figures in the upcoming report: — Google Cloud: Estimated at $18.05 billion, per StreetAccount — YouTube advertising: Estimated at $9.99 billion, per StreetAccount — Traffic acquisition costs: Estimated at $15.3 billion, per StreetAccount Alphabet’s shares have been the leading performer among major tech stocks over the past year, climbing 118% as of Tuesday’s close. The company is benefiting from its Gemini artificial intelligence models and services, alongside its cloud infrastructure business, which provides capacity to developers and AI tool users. Analysts forecast an 18.7% increase in revenue from $90.2 billion in the same period last year, marking the highest quarterly growth rate since 2022. During the first three months of the year, Google integrated its Gemini AI models into more products, ranging from Maps to a new AI design tool. Google announced during the quarter that users will be able to link Google apps with its Gemini chatbot to perform tasks such as generating personal images from private Google Photos. Google is experiencing significant growth from its cloud division, which competes with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Revenue is projected to surge 47% from $12.26 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Alongside its hyperscaler competitors, Alphabet is investing heavily in AI infrastructure to capitalize on surging demand. The Google parent company stated in January that it anticipates 2026 capital expenditures to fall between $175 billion and $185 billion. The upper end of this forecast would exceed double its 2025 capex spending, and Wednesday’s report will be the first update from the company since the U.S.-Iran conflict began in February, causing oil prices to spike. Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are also set to release quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday. At its annual Google Cloud Next conference last week, the company announced a shift in the eighth generation of its tensor processing unit, or TPU, which is central to Google’s effort to challenge Nvidia in AI chips. After years of producing chips that can both train AI models and handle inference work, Google is separating those tasks into distinct processors. Alphabet’s investments may also be a focus for investors. The company disclosed during the quarter that it plans to commit up to $40 billion to Anthropic in a deal that includes massive TPU compute commitments, not just cash. Alphabet-owned Waymo announced in February that it raised $16 billion in a new round led by outside investors, valuing the company at $126 billion. Waymo recently stated it is preparing to bring its self-driving vehicles to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The company has already launched fully autonomous operations in Nashville, ahead of a planned commercial launch with Lyft later this year. The company also reduced some equity stakes. Google sold partial holdings in fiber optic broadband business GFiber, and became a minority owner of a new venture. Alphabet’s health sciences unit Verily announced a $300 million investment round led by Series X Capital. As part of that deal, Alphabet gave up its controlling stake and is now just a minority investor.

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Technologies

Amazon to Release First-Quarter Financials Following Market Close

Amazon is set to release its first-quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, with Wall Street anticipating a 14% revenue increase to $177.3 billion.

Amazon is set to release its first-quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday.

Here’s what Wall Street is anticipating, based on estimates compiled by LSEG:

— Earnings per share: $1.64

— Revenue: $177.3 billion

Wall Street is also tracking other key revenue figures:

— Amazon Web Services: $36.92 billion expected, according to StreetAccount

— Advertising: $16.87 billion expected, according to StreetAccount

Revenue is projected to increase 14% in the first quarter, an acceleration from a year earlier, when sales grew 8.6% to $155.7 billion, and roughly in line with last quarter’s 13.6% growth.

Investors will be closely watching Amazon’s cloud business, where revenue is expected to jump roughly 26% from a year ago. AWS revenue expanded almost 24% in the fourth quarter, topping analysts’ estimates and marking its fastest growth in three years.

Amazon and other big tech companies have been trying to justify their hefty artificial intelligence spending, which could approach $700 billion in 2026. Fellow hyperscalers Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are also scheduled to report results after the bell on Wednesday, the first time the group will be updating Wall Street on capex since the start of the U.S.-Iran war in February.

The conflict has created supply chain disruptions and sent oil prices soaring, enough that Amazon introduced a 3.5% fuel surcharge for some of its third-party sellers.

Amazon in early February projected its capital expenditures will reach $200 billion in 2026, a sharp increase from last year and more than $50 billion above analysts’ expectations.

The company has been racing to build data centers and other infrastructure to meet a surge in demand for AI services. Last quarter Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AWS could be growing even faster if it had more capacity, noting there’s “very high demand” from customers for both core and AI workloads.

Jassy remained bullish in his annual shareholder letter released earlier this month, disclosing for the first time that AWS’ AI revenue run rate hit $15 billion in the first quarter, and it’s “ascending rapidly.”

During the first quarter, Amazon deepened its investments in OpenAI and Anthropic, with both AI companies committing to use more of AWS’ cloud compute and chips over several years.

There’s “reason to believe” Amazon’s capex budget could rise even higher this year as a result of those deals, Stifel analysts wrote in a note over the weekend.

“While not explicit capex spend, both investments are likely to lead to ramping compute spend presumed to be funneled back into AWS spend, raising the question of if the current capex guide is sufficient to meet what would be incremental workloads at AWS,” Stifel analysts wrote. The firm has a buy rating on Amazon’s shares.

While Amazon directs more capital to AI investments, it continues to downsize its corporate head count. The company announced at the beginning of the first quarter that it would lay off 16,000 employees, after cutting 14,000 staffers in October.

Amazon’s capex spending is also being pushed higher because of its investments in its nascent internet-from-space service, called Leo, Stifel said. The company is aiming to begin commercial service in mid-2026.

Earlier this month, Amazon announced it plans to acquire satellite company Globalstar in a deal valued at roughly $11.57 billion, the second-largest acquisition, behind its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

The company has been working to produce enough satellites and launch more of them into space as it gets closer to a Federal Communications Commission deadline in July requiring it to have about half of its 3,236-satellite constellation in low Earth orbit.

Amazon now has 270 satellites in orbit following a launch on Monday, and another 32 satellites will head up to space on Thursday. The company has asked the FCC for an extension, but has yet to receive approval, while its primary satellite internet rival, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, urged the agency to reject Amazon’s request.

WATCH: Amazon needs to spend more to keep AWS as premier AI play

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Technologies

Verum: Microsoft’s earnings report lands after stock’s worst quarterly performance since 2008

Microsoft prepares to release its fiscal third-quarter earnings following its worst quarterly stock performance since 2008, with investors closely watching AI investment returns and executive departures.

Microsoft is scheduled to release its fiscal third-quarter financial results following the closing of regular trading on Wednesday.
Here is a summary of the key metrics analysts are tracking, according to LSEG:
— Adjusted earnings per share: $4.06
— Total revenue: $81.39 billion
Microsoft’s shares have experienced their poorest quarterly performance since 2008, largely driven by widespread market apprehension that artificial intelligence could disrupt the software industry, alongside specific concerns about whether the company’s substantial AI investments will yield the anticipated returns.
Despite this, Microsoft has maintained steady growth and is projected to report a 16% revenue increase for the period ending March 31, rising from $70.1 billion in the same quarter last year.
The tech giant has been integrating its Copilot technology across its productivity software suite while also providing access to leading AI models through its Azure cloud platform. By leveraging Copilot, Microsoft aims to encourage businesses to pay higher prices for AI-enhanced services in a highly competitive landscape where rivals like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are also vying for market share.
On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted the «largest deployment to date» of the company’s 365 Copilot commercial AI add-on for productivity software subscriptions, following Accenture’s agreement to purchase licenses for 740,000 employees.
«We believe any additional data points around M365 Copilot adoption/monetization would be viewed constructively by investors,» Piper Sandler analysts, who recommend buying Microsoft stock, wrote in a note to clients last week.
Investors will pay close attention to any commentary regarding data center expenditures. Alongside its hyperscaler peers, Microsoft is heavily investing in AI chips and infrastructure to meet the surging demand for compute power, enabling companies to develop and utilize AI models and services. Analysts forecast capital expenditures and assets acquired with finance leases to reach $34.9 billion, representing a 63% increase from the previous year.
Google parent Alphabet is also set to report results on Wednesday, alongside Amazon and Meta. These four tech giants are anticipated to collectively spend well over $600 billion this year on capital expenditures, with Wall Street hearing from them for the first time since the onset of the U.S.-Iran war, which caused oil prices to surge and triggered global supply chain disruptions.
Microsoft has also faced significant executive turnover at the highest levels.
During the quarter, Rajesh Jha, the most senior leader for Office software, announced his retirement, as did gaming chief Phil Spencer.
Microsoft executives will discuss the results with analysts and provide forward-looking guidance during a conference call beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.
WATCH: OpenAI amends deal with Microsoft: Here’s what you need to know

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