Bob

Analogue Pocket – New Pre-Orders On Dec 14th

Posted on by Bob

Analogue has just announced they’re opening pre-orders for another round of “Pocket” handheld FPGA devices on December 14th at 8AM PST / 11AM EST.  The price is $220 plus shipping and there’s a limit of two per customer.  They’re also claiming existing orders are shipping the day before, December 13th, with shipping upgraded to 2-day for free.  More info below the links:

Pre-sales info:  https://www.analogue.co/announcements/pocket-preorders-december-14-2021

The first thing I’d like to address is the price:  Even during a global part shortage, Analogue has managed to keep the price extremely reasonable.  When compared to other FPGA solutions, you’re getting a lot for your money and they deserve credit for keeping the price low.

Also, it looks like Analogue’s plan this time is to keep pre-orders open and simply ship in batches in order of fulfillment.  I’m sure it’s something like “The first 5000 people will ship in group A, the second in group B, etc”.  While that might be frustrating to people who end up waiting over a year to get theirs, I still think this is a better option than just releasing one batch.  You’ll also be able to check what group you’re in, a few days after pre-orders go live and you can cancel your order at any time;  A totally fair way to go about it, since you can cancel if you decide it’s too long to wait:

Group A: Q1 2022
Group B: Q4 2022
Group C: 2023

I’m also happy to see that existing orders will ship before new pre-orders are accepted.  While a minor detail (and they’re certainly cutting it close), it’s definitely a statement that will make new customers feel a bit safer about their pre-order.  Overall, I’m excited to see how it performs and hope this is the FPGA handheld we’ve all been waiting for.

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