My new Anbernic console

[S1500]

I bought one off of Amazon(the "RG-350?") and wow is it impressive. It's 90 bucks, and worth every penny. This replaces my old Dingoo A320 that's over a decade old. It also replaces my RS-97 which doesn't start up properly.

 

I was shocked that 1. it had some Playstation games were on it, and 2. they worked just fine. Apparently I'm a horrible driver in Gran Turismo. 

 

I didn't expect games to be already on it, but there they are. So I was up & going in quick time for gaming. The controls feel great. I can't quite figure out how to exit out of one of the two MAME builds it has on it, but nothing I can't figure out. Dingux is already pre-installed, so that just saved me a headache of re-imaging things. Compare this to other consoles with a not so great OS, and no games on it. 

 

Here's one of many links to buy them. This is another one of those deals where numerous manufacturers in China are cranking them out. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Handheld-Console-Screen-OpenDingux-Classic/dp/B082NH77C8

[Newsdee]

I miss the GP2X days...?

 

I never did much with my Dingoo and preferred a GPD Win to an OpenPandora, but these are tempting. The RG-350 seems to have a bigger screen than the Q80 and Q90 "PowKiddy" handhelds that pop up on AliExpress: 

https://a.aliexpress.com/_dUs6gI7

 

The CoolBaby is also interesting with its 5 inch screen, but I think it doesn't have shoulder buttons, and at that price it's a bit too much of an omission, IMHO:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_dUauxQR

 

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by Newsdee

[Steven Pendleton]

It has millions of buttons! Every system should have this and I refuse to buy any more systems that don't.

 

I also just noticed it has super tempered glass as well! I now have no choice but to throw away my Game Boys, Nomad, Switch, DS, and 3DSes because they can't compare with the MILLIONS OF BUTTONS and SUPER TEMPERED GLASS!

 

 

So in all seriousness, how is this thing? I always see things like these but I always wonder about their viability and quality.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[Newsdee]

Maybe we can come up with some criteria for comparing these devices, e.g.:

1. How is the screen (is it laggy? TN vs IPS? large enough? etc)
2. How's the dpad and buttons?
3. What's the battery life?
4. What's the most it can emulate at a good framerate (ps1? ps2? 30fps? 60fps)?
5. Are there any built-in games? And can one install more games?
6. 3rd party software? Community?
7. Any other quirks? (good or bad)

GP2X devices ranked high in all these except it couldn't do PS1 (as far as I can remember),

and usually had some weird quirk from odd design choices (like OLED screen that rots or plastic bezel hiding part of the screen).

 

I liked my NVidia Shield, but it looks like I can't update it anymore and it refuses to run now.

 

I still love my GPD Win 1, but it is in an odd state where it refuses to turn off, so it drains the battery fully every time I use it.

(and GPD Win 2 are quite expensive, so I hesitate to upgrade)

 

[Flojomojo]

Two good places for info and discussion of this kind of thing are

 

https://obscurehandhelds.com

 

https://boards.dingoonity.org/index.php
 

These things are getting better all the time, there's always a new variant available to buy, and they're cheap. Build quality is generally good though not quite at Nintendo levels. Tempered glass screens and better materials for cases are becoming standard. Expect to do a little setup tweaking but generally they're ready to roll out of the box. Just add your own ROMs.