Playdate is a tiny yellow handheld built around a single strange idea: a hand crank on the side that some games use as their entire control scheme. A 2.7-inch 1-bit display — no color, no backlight, no grayscale — gives it a sharp, reflective look built for well-lit rooms rather than the dark, and games arrive in curated "seasons" rather than an open store.

Inside is a modest ARM Cortex-M7F processor, enough for the small, experimental indie titles the console is built around, designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering for a look that matches its unconventional hardware.