GamerCard is a gift card-sized handheld game console powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

The GamerCard is a new handheld game console that stands out in an increasingly crowded field for a few reasons.

It has an unusual design meant to resemble a gift card, complete with a hole in top that will let you hang it on a hook. It was created by Grant Sinclair, the nephew Sinclair the inventor of the classic ZX Spectrum computer. And with £125 ($170) price tag, the GamerCard is kind of expensive for a handheld that’s powered  by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W.

The gadget does have a pretty striking design: it’s a mostly-black device with a 4 inch square IPS LCD non-touch display with 254 pixels per inch. There are stereo speakers on top, and a pair of silicone control pads with “tactile snap-dome micro push buttons) below, along with start, select, and power buttons on the sides and L and R shoulder buttons on the back.

The GamerCard measures just 128 x 88 x 6.5mm (5.04″ x 3.46” 0.26 inches) thick and weighs just 100 grams (3.5 ounces).

Inside is a custom printed circuit board with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W processor attached, featuring a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 processor, 512MB o SDRAM, support for WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2, and 128GB of internal storage.

Despite the slim profile, the GamerCard has USB-C and HDMI ports, as well as a Qwicc port for adding other hardware.

But the system has a relatively small 1600 mAh battery and lacks the processing power for more demanding games. It’s not really supposed to rival the Nintendo Switch 2, but you should be able to run classic console and arcade games as well as some indie titles.

The GamerCard comes with two indie pre-installed: Bloo Kid 2, and AstroBlaze DX. The system also comes with a Pi Game App with access to additional games optimized for Raspberry Pi hardware (including some that are made specifically for the GamerCard), and the product page notes that the handheld is also compatible with the PICO-8 fantasy console, which opens up the possibility of playing many games created for that platform, or creating your own.

So why make a handheld inspired by gift cards that hang on racks in stores (and then only sell it through a website and not in brick and mortar stores)? That’s not entirely clear. And why would you spend nearly to $200 for a handheld gaming device when you can find dozens of models from companies like Anbernic and Retroid that are cheaper and/or more powerful? Beats me.

But while the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W’s BCM2710A1 processor might not be the most powerful chip available in a modern handheld, it does have the advantage of being a pretty widely supported chip, opening the possibility of using this particular handheld game console as something of a general-purpose Linux PC when you connect a keyboard, mouse, or other accessories.

via Tom’s Hardware