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I recently picked up a Game Boy Pocket from a local game shop. They were asking $45 for it and that seemed reasonable enough. It was in fairly good shape (I've seen a few Pockets in my life and most of them are in really bad shape for some reason) and these are getting harder to come by compared to other Game Boy models.

Anyway of course I got home and installed a back-light mod. I was interested to see how different the internal design was compared to a DMG. Obviously they've had 7 years of advancements to simplify the Pocket. The biggest difference is the fact there's only one mainboard inside compared to two separate boards in the DMG and the glass LCD screen isn't soldered directly to the board but instead is attached via a removable ribbon cable and glued directly into the front shell.

Working on the glass LCD screen was equally as difficult as the DMG, maybe even a bit more difficult but everything else is easier. Once you've done the hardest part you can glue the glass screen back into the front housing where it can stay. It doesn't need to be removed if you need to replace the LED panel or change the polarizing lens. The fact there's less screws to remove and the glass can stay in place means changing your mods or adding more mods later on is all easier to do on the Pocket.

Possible LED flicker and Battery Life...

I followed Colin's video for instructions on the This Does Not Compute YouTube channel. I love his videos in general and he has done several instructional videos on modding different Game Boy systems. His videos are actually linked from the Hand Held Legend website as official instructions for their mods as no formal instructions are included when you buy their kits. Normally I would say his videos are spot on but in his Game Boy Pocket back-light video he solders the power for the LED kit to a different location than what most others advise. I originally followed his method but noticed my LED panel was flickering a lot. Turns out this is a common issue with his method and the others who suggested the alternate method said it should flicker less. Sure enough I tried what others suggested and it worked better for me. It may effect battery life in a more drastic way but less flicker is better. Several people has stated that he should update his instructional video and I have to agree. The step by step photographic instructions on Hand Held Legend web site are vastly out of date and so this video is going to be what most people go off as again it's also linked from their site. Colin is a smart dude (smarter than me for sure!) so I'm not sure maybe in some cases (depending on what ver of the LED kit you have, what color it is as different color LED's draw different amounts of power) his method does work fine, and maybe it does offer better battery life? I guess you just need to try for yourself and see what works best. He also tried using a separate resistor and then declined to use it in the end. The latest version of the LED kits have the resistors built in but possibly adding another resistor could be a benefit? Again you may need to experiment a little bit here. My combination seems to work great in terms of how it looks but the battery life did suffer greatly! Adding more resistance to the LED's would lower their brightness output but might be worth it if it improved battery life. The Pocket just isn't as straight forwards as the DMG as far as these back-light kits go. The DMG has a more beefy voltage regulator and running off of 4x AA's rather than just 2x AAA's it has a lot more capacity and current driving capability. Some have said using high quality rechargeable batteries may help too. They will have a lower voltage BUT may have a higher current cycle.

You may need to experiment!