GamerCard Is a Sleek Raspberry Pi-Based Handheld Gaming Computer

Virtually all consumer electronic devices on the market hide their PCBs away inside of plastic or aluminum enclosures. That makes sense if you still think of PCBs as those ugly green slabs covered in pointy protrusions. But PCBs are quite strong and, with a bit of creativity, can be made to look and feel very nice. It is even possible to eliminate enclosures entirely and rely on the PCB(s) to provide structure. That’s exactly what Grant Sinclair did to make the GamerCard and the result is a sleek Raspberry Pi-based handheld gaming computer.

There are lots of designs floating around for Raspberry Pi handhelds, but they tend to be on the chunky side. Even if they use a relatively compact “Zero” model of Raspberry Pi single-board computer (SBC), the final product tends to be thick once you add the other components and the enclosure. Sinclair’s solution was to simply omit the enclosure and construct the GamerCard as a stack of PCBs.

And the GamerCard looks a lot nicer than you might expect from that description. If we showed you the photos without telling you about the construction, you’d probably never guess that it is a stack of PCBs. The fit and finish are phenomenal, as is the industrial design. That design purposefully resembles retail gift card packaging and can even hang on display racks intended for gift cards.

The GamerCard is also pretty capable when it comes to gaming. It has a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W SBC, a high-quality 4” IPS LCD, tactile snap-dome push buttons (including for the shoulder buttons on the back), two speakers (each with a mono amp, resulting in stereo sound), USB and HDMI ports, and even a Qwiic connector for mods and expansion. Power comes from an internal 1600mAh LiPo battery that charges through a USB-C port.

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W isn’t particularly powerful, but it is more than enough for a lot of gaming. It handles emulation well for 4th generation and earlier consoles. And it is perfect for PICO-8 and other “fantasy consoles,” as well as many indie games designed specifically to run on low-power hardware. And, of course, GamerCard has a Raspberry Pi computer inside and you can use it for computer stuff in addition to gaming. Connect a USB keyboard and laptop to use it as a pocket PC!

If you want a GamerCard, you can purchase one right now from Sinclair’s website for £125.00, which is a pretty darn good deal.