MY LITTLE REVIEW FOR THE RG35XXSP RETRO HANDHELD CONSOLE
A brief overlook
This handheld retro-console was released in 2024 and therefore there are a plethora of reviews and videos about it, and you may already know everything about it. For the ones who hear about it for the first time, I can briefly say this console captured the attention cause it resembles very much the glorious Gameboy Advanced SP, with its peculiar clam-shell form factor.
A rendering of the Anbernic RG 35XXSP with all its color variations.
Anbernic RG 35XXSP official page
Although the shape is very similar, many reviewers made a side-to-side comparison showing off the differences between the two consoles, highlighting how the Anbernic is thicker than the original GBA SP.
The reviews for this handhelds have been globally positive but I got a different opinion.
The good
Definitely the console looks solid, the touch and feel is nice and the default OS user interface is intuitive and easy to grasp. The price at the time sounded reasonable, for casual gaming seemed to me a decent deal.
Even though the compact size should be one of the selling point of this handheld, this console is still enough comfortable to use for mid to big size hands.
For being a low-end hardware can fairly run Playstation games and other 3D console like Nintendo 64 or Dreamcast, although it will drain your battery very quickly and make the back surface very hot.
The bad
Unfortunately my experience hasn't been very positive so far, after almost one year playing some games I do not recommend buying this thing; there are enough shortcomings with the hardware, the stock OS and firmware that make the playing session not really joyful.
Here what I found very unpleasant:
- the buttons are very loud and click-y therefore annoying;
- the D-pad is very imprecise and useless to play the good old one-versus-one fighting game;
- saving states lake the time stamp;
- GBA emulation isn't good enough;
- the SD cards that come with it are very cheap, and many users complained about loss of data;
- LibRetro is very poor implemented and eventually offers a bad experience if compared with the Anbernic emulation.
- closing the lid doesn't suspend the console;
- The stock OS can be update only reflashing the ISO (many experienced regressions after the upgrade).
MuOS
At the time I have been writing this gemlog, because the frustration, I have flashed MuOS on the RG35XXSP to see if I can get a better experience. This OS, that utilizes LibRetro, should provide a better experience than the stock Anbernic OS, I read also many positive comments as well.
So far I've found it slower than the stock OS, but with interesting features like suspend to ram, possibly hibernation mode with resume on the previous status.
The emulation looks fine although the UX/UI is based upon LibRetro and therefore the commands are buttons driven and don't use the default menu button to open the menu; weird, but this is one of the reason why I don't get very excited about LibRetro.
💡 The experience with MuOS has been extremely positive, so much, that I decided to write a second gemlog!
My Little Review For The RG35XXSP Retro Handheld Console — A Second Though
Wrapping this up...
I am very disappointed with this console and I do not recommend to buy it even if you may find the best deal ever. I am so disappointed that now I want to buy a new retro-handheld with the same format…
Anbernic has a specific line-up (RG34) tailored around the GBA, and it added the clam-shell form factor just recently. This handheld share the same SoC, but has twice the ram and is slightly compact:
Anbernic RG 34XXSP official page
Miyoo that competes with the former, has just recently released its second iteration of its own clam-shell line-up, with improvements all around and the classic 4:3 screen ratio:
Miyoo Flip 2 gray model — official page
Both models has joysticks and better d-pad, I might decide to buy one of these aforementioned retro-handheld. Between the two the main difference is the screen ratio: with the Anbernic with a smaller screen that has the same GBA ratio to get a perfect emulation; and the Mini Flip V2 that has the standard 4:3 ratio as the Anbernic model reviewed in this gemlog.
Not sure what I am going to buy, since I'd like to test MuOS and see how it works, I might decide for the one that has better support for this handheld Linux OS.
Amazon pages about the Miyoo Flip V2 states a concerning "Frequently returned item"
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