The New Budget Handheld For 2024 

"I think their naming needs a revision" lol

The SP version just arrived last week. Haven’t stopped playing it since.

RG 35 eh? I think I'll hold out for their next one. The RGT 85... Wait. I think that name's already taken lol.

Got mine for $48 with shipping on Ali . I love this thing but pretty soon the RG cube is going to replace it so it will be back up get some switch stick grips. Makes the difference from Skull and co for the joysticks

I bought one a few months back ; love it. Running muos on mine.

Shawn is gonna call Nintendo.

I have my RG353V and thinking of selling it for the 35XXSP model because I like the clamshell design.

The rg35xx H it's amazing. Excellent for GBA and even PSP. Really good for NDS titles that don't require too many touch screen commands. But the buttons and Dpad are so good that I actually prefer them over original hardware in many cases

I have the RG35XX H and the RG35XX SP (the one that is essentially exactly like a GBA SP) and I can’t decide which is my favorite. The H is so comfortable and would be my daily driver, but the SP I just so EASY to use and convenient to travel with. They’re both fantastic though

yes look at the RG35XX SP...

with the newest stock firmware it has actually decent psp performance as well. it can run gta vice city stories with frameskip of 1 fine. pretty impressed by the device for this price point

I have the miyoo mini plus, anbernic arc s, and this. This has become my most used of the 3. The power and pocket ability are perfect for my needs.

prices dropped so much quikly, got a RG35XX-2024 for 34 euro's shipped, its so good, even plays dreamcast games well.

Can this play PS2 NBA Streets Vol 2.. that's the question

These seem like some excellent performance gains. Seems about as powerful as my Retroid Pocket 3 at less than half the price

Those sticks positioned at the absolute very bottom are extremely uncomfortable. I don’t really care about the steamdeck, but one thing it does better than all others is analog stick position. It’s perfect.

Awesome video! I was 20 when the original Game Boy dropped, 21 for Sega Game Gear. Fast forward to now, and I'm so completely blown away by how far hand helds have come. Played consoles my entire life but didn't own my first hand held until my late 40's when I picked up a GPD XD+. Now at 55 I just picked up the RG 556 and holy crap is this grey owl in gaming heaven! It's so great! I currently have it set up with over 4400 arcade and retro console games stored internally as well as a 480 PS2 game SD card that never leaves the slot. I just can't believe one hand held can store and play so much for such a great price. Playing my all time favorite PS2 games again like MOH Frontline and Contra Shattered Soldier is amazing.

👀, I have both God's of War and I play them in 30 fps. Go to PSPs settings turn off both auto frame skip and frame skipping. Then go down to skip buffered effects and check it. 😎

Will the RG35XX H play any of the “Pro Pinball” games for PS1? I couldn’t get them to run on the Miyoo Mini Plus with OnionOS. Maybe this new Anbernic candy bar is powerful enough to handle those games?? I’m interested to find out.

I just have a hard time justifying anything over $50 for this when a switch lite can be bought for $150 new and even less used

If you do check the rg35xx sp you can turn the d-pad to an analog stick for psp games by tapping the power button.

I gave in and ordered an RGB30. Love it.

Nice video, John! Love your deep dive and disassembly section showcasing improvements to the board and chips while pointing out flaws so that anbernic can further refine. Of the 2 systems with this chipset configuration (XX Plus and XX H), I prefer the Plus for some reason, granted I often bring the handheld on trips and visits so that I can use the HDMI out and Bluetooth controller functions to play with family and friends, multi-player. Ali Express often has the XX Plus on sale for $45, so of it breaks during travel I won't feel it in the wallet and the SD cards can transferred, easily, to a replacement unit. These things are built tough, though, so not really worried about breakage. Hopefully the XX H gets the same $45 sale treatment with Anbernic rolling out newer handhelds, like the new SP version RGT just reviewed.

I dont think any handheld could be considered "the best" as long as they use joycon like sticks. I bought the RG35XXSP for this reason, I only play 2d games that require a dpad in it, and the rest go on my Steam Deck.

I bought one for $55 shipped a few weeks back. Its got it's flaws, like the software controlled battery charging which loves to crash, but its pretty solid and fast. Batocera is available but its pretty early beta and not complete.

I got 1 of this the green transparent color looks amazing and its an amazing system. Some psp dont work great but most of them are ok and i got all 8bit,16bit,32bit arcades portmaster (stardew valley and tmnt shredders revenge) and love it.

My favorite is the miyoo mini plus, it has the best aftermarket firmware. I only wish it had joysticks, I do have this hand held too and I did swap out the joysticks with the gulikit hollowfect sticks

I just ordered the transparent blue of the RG35XX SP. I'm super excited to get it by end of month. I'm just downloading the OS and some Roms now. So it's some what ready for me. Since I've heard the SD they send is not great. But I've got a 32gb for the OS and a 64gb for the games. Until I can get a larger one. But I'd love to see you cover the SP model.

This RG35XX handheld looks beautiful & nice seeing another brilliant one from Anbernic here!

I’ve got the SP version, it’s really cool! Surprisingly comfortable and I have big hands, it’s thicker and 4mm larger than a GBSP, sadly it doesn’t have analog sticks, but you can easily swap between factory presets in the dpad

Nice one, John. Would really be cool if you did the SP next

Great video, thinking about buying one now. Also, headphone jack is an output, not an input.

This is so underpowered. I wouldn't consider anything under a T610 nowadays. RG405V, RP3+, 2S... So many options that play everything up to dreamcast out of the box.

I actually want Jon to look inside the Ayn Odin 2. I've been contemplating to buy one for a while now, so watching a teardown while I'm still saving money for it would be great.

These gonna hit the hood like crazy 🤣

Thanks John bee holding out for awhile on one these an u sold me on this one

Yeap i love this device have one in every color 😂 glad you made this video 👍 hve a good day everyone

Love this color, I want to make a mod to soften the shoulder buttons asap! About the battery, The Phawx channel made a test and it lasted 8 hours with screen light on medium testing Crash from PS1.

I bought a 351M a few years ago. It made me a believer in Anbernic. That thing is the best most premium GBA emulator ever. I just ordered the RG556. Gonna play some Gamecube and Ps2 games.

Pretty good video but I feel like you didn’t give us alot of info. Like what resolutions where you using on the different systems, Was frameskip turned on for anything, did you have any filters applied. What emulators where you choosing for each system. That kinda thing.

Damn so many handhelds in the market! I remember as a kid a few kids had the gameboy color and few years ds and psp, i couldnt get one cause i was poor! but one day some one gift me with a psp that was another world for me, so amazing! Sadly i have to sell it because we needed the money LOL! Im still poor, but i work i dont make much to be honest. But i hope i can save something so i can buy a handheld that can run psp at least, any recommendations?

Sometimes I'm worried about the shoulder buttons, is there any chance to press them and break that little pieces attached to the mainboard where the buttons are positioned? Am I need to press them with kindness or something?

I just want a small device like this that can play older title games like fallout 3 or fable 1-2. And fix the thumb stick positions

At this point of course you’d get the rg40xx , bigger screen, better ergo… however this is more pocketable and the sp exists :)

How could this not play Saturn games? Isn't it weaker than a PS1 and N64?

RG35XX H - “retro gaming, 3.5 inches , what the XX means ? And H for horizontal.

Most of psp games work nicely, its my primary psp/ps1 device currently and I love it.

If only the thumb stick was above the dpad-.- the other thumb stick is fine but whyyy

I think i will just get a M-con shell for my smartphone or play using Lemuroid emulator

3DS + custom firmware = better than all these and you probably already have a 3DS

Too bad it doesn't play all PSP games. That's a requirement for me.

Tech dweeb made a video of this device, I think he had a work around for some of the frame rate drops. I think he hysterically called it the rizzbizzle or something along those lines.

Is this best if I just eant to play GBA games? Or is there a better one for that?

Can you review the more expensive models?

Once you buy those convenient hand-held gadgets, you won't stop at just one. I bought an RG 405v and then bought a 505. Both consoles have the same software and hardware. The only difference is the screen size-one is vertical.

Genuine question, does anyone actually plays entire games from start to finish with any of these 3rd party emulation handhelds? Because if you are never gonna spend enough time on these things and just go back to a Steam Deck or Switch once you make a video on them its seems like just a waste of money. I have never seen anyone play with these things for more than a week, they just show them up in a video and move on the next new product that shows up the following month.

I find the analogue sticks on this handheld not that good...l

i tell u it cost me £53 at most and its great for the price

The SP version is awesome and even plays ds games perfectly

I recently bought the rg556. Overall I'm happy with. It plays most PS2 and Gamecube games fairly well. It has an OLED screen which looks really amazing. The face buttons and dpad are a little too stiff for my taste and the travel is a little too long, making fast games like shmups difficult to play. Even games like Super Mario World are much more difficult to play than with a regular controller. I don't like the analogue sticks at all. They might theoretically be analogue but in practice they act more like digital inputs. The threshold to full power is very low, so pushing it only 25% is nearly impossible to do on a consistent basis which made sneaking on Splinter Cell nearly impossible for me. Overall I'm happy with the device. Games look amazing on the OLED screen, the digital inputs do not give me false diagonals and it plays most PS2 and Gamecube games fairly well. It is not perfect however.

Love my 35XXH,it works flawlessly up to PS1. I actually bought this to tide me over until I would buy a new Analogue Pocket and now I have decided to just keep this as GBA actually works unlike the pocket - regardless of FPGA vs software emulation.

It's neat, but I think I'll keep waiting for them to refresh their 6 button sega genesis handheld with a stronger chip so it can handle sega saturn and n64 games. I've played every GBA/GBC/SNES/PS1 game that interests me more than once, and don't really care to revisit them any time soon, but the Saturn is untrodden territory to me.

A few years ago, i was interrested to buy a handhelt emulation machine, but ambernic was puting its logo in big letters right under the screen. I thought it was horrible so i just stoped thinking of buying such machine. But now, they are sleek, powerful, the third party software is good. I ordered a 35xx plus. I will get a landscape one with joystick when it will be able to do PS2 era.

I’d rather the RG35XX SP

I have been interested in these handhelds for about a year or 2 now but haven’t gotten one. I am highly interested in the SP version of this because I owned a GBA SP in the past. Unless a better version of this comes out later, I may finally get into the retro handheld world.

I’m reading on their website that you can’t flash the OEM firmware after installing a 3rd party firmware. What’s that about?

This device looks great, but I have to have a strong D-pad and this one is prone to false diagonals, sadly. Anbernic D-pads feel good in hand but most of them have this issue.

There was only a brief mention of the SP flip screen model in the end. Would've been maybe good to show how it looks like because so many people really like that form factor. Not that it matters really but I see it as a newer version of this one.

I am interested in the RP4P instead but I wished the screen was slightly bigger? Maybe someone can figure out a mod to swap the screen with one with smaller bezels or something and higher resolution?

The funny thing is that this is the Anbernic that has the classic Anbernic design.

I've been looking into getting one emu handheld for a long time just to play my old PS1 and older Nintendo games again, one day I realy have to bite the bullet and get one for sure.

I tried it, and it’s nice, but I ended up going with the Plus instead… too small and uncomfortable for my taste.

i'd definitely get one of these if there wasn't a steam deck sitting right next to me. i might still get one of these little things with gameboy form factor just for snes etc. they look really comfy to pocket. steam deck is a bit much for the pocket xD

I'm still happy with my RG405M that I have since Februar 2024 Not so strong as my GPD Win 2 but more portable

Take a look at the ayn odin 2 base model for $300. I'm so close to buying but honest reviews are hard to come by

I love mine I changed the OS to MUos and it runs way better ! Especially N64 !

Is there a firmware that lets you rewind? Something like Switch online or where it rewinds like a VCR.

Tempting, very tempting

Got mine a couple weeks back. Running stockOS on it for now. But I also run Batocera as an alternate with a 2 card set up. Dream console, specially since you can dock it to a tv and can plug a Bluetooth controller on it.

The RG ARC is my fave right now. It just feels great in the hand. Plus 6 face buttons. All it needs is joysticks to be perfect.

FYI not the newest actually the RG35xx SP is looks like a GBA SP flip form factor otherwise same internals

It's too small. I've tried a lot of retro handhelds. Trimui Smart Pro is the one to get on a budget.

This is a $45-50 handheld on sale

Joystick looks uncomfortable for my big hands. It's a no for me.

total to norway 100 dollar +tax and shipping 2 weeks delivery

Instructions unclear. Asked them to screw me more. Got blocked.

Where’s the Odin 2 video?

Is this best if I just eant to play GBA games? Or is there a better one for that?

I got this on the Tik Tok shop for $35 on a crazy good deal.

That looks kind of like a CRKD Neo S controller a little.

I have the original RG 35XX but was gonna buy and set up an H for a friend. What is the best overall custom firmware for it now?

Does it have a sleep mode? I have an older anbernick and it's so good, but the lack of a sleep function really holds it back for quick pick up and play. It amazes me that so many reviewers never seem to mention if it has this function or not.

The H looks good but I’m still moreso an SP fan

trimui smart pro?

i loving playing windwaker on my retriod pocket 4

Got mine for $47 shipped on aliexpress 🙏🏻

35xx h and sp are my go to now for the small cheaper ones

i have the same 1..comes with build in games?

RGXXSP would like to have a word with you

can u change the battery make it longer battery life?