Panic's Playdate, the Unique Handheld Console with the Crank, Gets the iFixit Teardown Treatment

Panic's Playdate, an unusual handheld console with a crank as one of its inputs, is heading to customers by the end of the year — and iFixit has already had one on its bench for teardown, finding a device which is surprisingly easy to repair.

First unveiled two years ago, Panic's Playdate is a unique device — and not just because of its retro-chic aesthetic. The front includes two buttons and a four-way directional pad, like many handheld console designs, but they're positioned below a black-and-white ePaper electrophoretic display — not usually the first choice for gaming.

To the side of the gadget is the feature which makes the console truly unique: A small hand crank, which pops out and is used in a variety of games which are being provided to buyers on a subscription-style delivery service over the Playdate's Wi-Fi connection.

It's divisive, but few could accuse the Playdate of being uninteresting — including iFixit, which has broken a production sample unit down to see what makes it tick.

The site praised the hardware, designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering, for being accessible using nothing more than a flathead screwdriver and an opening pick and using nothing but Pozidriv screws internally. While the battery is glued down, it's weak enough to be easily removable — and both the headphone jack and crank were deemed "simple and serviceable."

Not all of the design features met with approval, however. "All of the controls are aggregated onto a single FPC," iFixit noted, "[which is] easy to swap, but a bit wasteful if only one thing breaks. [And] the USB-C port is soldered onto the main board."

The full teardown is now available on the iFixit site, and while Panic sold out of its initial production run within minutes of opening pre-orders the company is accepting additional orders now for delivery in 2022 — though it $179 asking price is above the originally-targeted $149.