In one of the strangest moves from a gaming company I have ever seen, Sega have decided to celebrate their 60th anniversary by releasing a collection of ludicrously small Game Gear Micro handhelds.
The Game Gear Micro will be released in four colour variants, each containing 4 different games. The handheld measures just 8cm across, and contains a 1.15″ 240×180 display. The consoles cost roughly $50 each, but if you’re willing to buy all four they’ll include a scaled down version of their Big Window magnifying lens too.
Games included on each colour variant are as below.
Black
Sonic the Hedgehog
Puyo Puyo 2
Out Run
Royal Stone
Blue
Sonic Chaos
Gunstar Heroes
Sylvan Tale
Baku Baku Animal
Red
Revelations: The Demon Slayer
Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible Special
The GG Shinobi
Columns
Yellow
Shining Force Gaiden: Ensei – Jashin no Kuni he
Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya
Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict
Nazopuyo Aruru no Ru
The Game Gear Micro runs off 2 AAA batteries, but you can also play it when tethered with a USB cable. These handhelds will be available to the Japanese market in October, it looks as though you can pre-order them on amazon.co.jp now but they’re not cheap once shipping is factored in.
They’re certainly very cute looking, but ultimately quite useless. I kinda still want them all. More info at sega.com.
Where to begin the RK2020 review? The moral high ground regarding cloned hardware is probably not it. It’d be easy to dismiss the RK2020 as a lazy copycat device, attempting to cash in on the good work of HardKernel. Whilst it’s true that the RK2020 wouldn’t exist without the OGA, this hobby usually treads a legal grey area one way or another. There is no proprietary hardware inside the Odroid-Go Advance, so whilst it might be very cheeky to build 100% compatible hardware, given the success of the OGA it’s hardly a surprise to see.
Having said that, it is frustrating that some Chinese manufacturers are so averse to innovation. When the RK2020 was in early development, and knowing that the hardware would remain largely the same as the OGA, I suggested some ways to improve on the original design. A higher resolution screen, dual analog sticks, built in WiFi, HDMI output, for example. Even just using widely available off the shelf d-pad and buttons for colour customisation would have been nice.
But whilst we got two extra shoulder buttons, the rest remains basically the same as the OGA internally. There’s a reason for that, and that’s the software. It was designed in such a way that any OS for the OGA could be used on the RK2020. Why? Because software developers are expensive, I suppose. The factory even went as far as cloning the image from the 16MB SPI Flash module on the OGA. If there was a line to cross, you could argue that they crossed it there.
With all that said, one glaring difference between the RK2020 and the OGA is that little row of 6 buttons underneath the LCD. The RK2020 doesn’t have them, instead relying on the more standard configuration of a Start and Select button. More on that later.
BUILD QUALITY AND BUTTONS
There’s nothing wrong with the way the RK2020 feels, but it won’t win any awards for its design or build quality. It’s a solid enough machine, on a par with or slightly better than the OGA whilst also being a bit smaller. Whilst the plastic feels thinner, the overall aesthetics and design choices are slightly better than the Odroid Go Advance. It doesn’t feel as well made as the PocketGo v2 or the RG350, but there’s nothing really to complain about.
The buttons rattle, but the concave ABXY buttons are very nice. The d-pad is responsive, and I prefer its rounded edges to the rather sharp d-pad on the OGA. In my opinion the d-pad sits too high out of the shell, it could do with being recessed a millimetre or 2 more. Personal preference I suppose. The shoulder buttons are clicky and wobbly but are well placed and easy to press. The raised R2 and L2 make it very easy to discern them from L1 and R1.
The analogue stick is the same as the one used in the OGA (surprise, surprise!), but it ships with a rubber cover which makes it nicer to use. The cover offers a slightly concave and nicely grippy surface for your thumb to sit in.
The power button at the top is in about the same position as the one on the OGA, and sits flush to the case. You won’t be hitting it by accident. On the bottom edge there’s a reset button, which currently does nothing and I couldn’t map it to anything either. The charge port is USB-C just like the OGA v1.1 and there’s a USB-A port for use with WiFi dongles, which does work.
The speaker is in the bottom right and there’s a small slit to allow the sound to travel. Nothing to shout about, but it works and I don’t find myself accidentally covering it with my hands. The headphone socket is labelled as TV, but it’s not. It does work fine with a pair of headphones plugged in though.
There’s no volume control on the RK2020, instead relying on holding L2 & ↑↓ to change the volume. You can also change it using Select & ↑↓ in game. These appear to be two seperate volume controls, one for the system and the latter for RetroArch (I think?). A confusing UX decision which is probably also present on the OGA.
LCD
The LCD is the same resolution as the one in the OGA and has narrower connector to the mainboard. It’s a 3.5 inch 480×320 display, very colourful and crisp and with good viewing angles. It runs at 60hz and you won’t notice any screen tearing or ghosting of any kind. It’s hard to see outside in bright daylight, but inside it’s gorgeous.
Although I’ve been told it’s the same LCD by the seller, some colour temperature comparison shots between the RK2020 and OGA imply it may be different. They both function with the same driver however, and look pretty much the same overall.
There is some light bleed from around the edges of the screen bezel. It’s not too distracting, but it’s there.
If it bothers you, you can probably mask it off with electrical tape from the inside of the shell.
The screen lens is made of glass as far as I can tell.
SOFTWARE
The website states that the unit does not ship with an OS, but mine did. Perhaps it’s because I was sent a unit for review, but my RK2020 came with an unmodified EmuELEC 3.5 pre-installed. I have since flashed the latest 3.6 image and am using that instead for my testing. It is safe to assume that any current OGA image will run on the RK2020, so take your pick. This might not always be the case though. There are rumours that future builds will lock out cloned devices, so there’s that. The Retro Arena (TheRA) is pictured below.
The lack of buttons on the RK2020 starts to become an issue when you dig a little deeper. Whilst it’s potentially possible to edit config files to re-map global hotkeys etc, out of the box both EmuELEC and TheRA have problems. In PSP for example, the Select button can’t be used in game, because Select quits the emulator. You can open the emulator settings by hitting Start, but even re-mapping the controls in the settings menu causes the emulator to quit once you try to map Select. And once you’ve correctly mapped Start, you can’t enter the emulator settings again using that button. It’s a bit of a mess.
In TheRA, I simpy can’t find a way to get to the emulator settings menus to change cores, frameskip, shaders etc. Some emulators have their in-game settings available through some combination of buttons, others do not. In Dreamcast and PSP the Select button quits the emulator.
The RK2020 needs a customised OS, which brings us back to the issue of there being no software developers on-board. Although Shanti (EmuELEC dev) has apparently been sent some RK2020 units, the team have stated that they won’t develop for the RK2020. The retailer has told me that units are going out to TheRA and Batocera devs too, but there are no promises from anyone. It’s frustrating that this wasn’t considered before the device was released, and will likely result in unhappy customers.
If the RK2020 factory had cloned all six buttons from the OGA, it would be less of a problem now. It is usable in its current state save for some issues in certain OS and emulator combinations. I’m willing to wait it out in the hope that a developer takes a shine to this machine, but I do understand that the OGA devs could be quite pissed off right now and unwilling to step in.
PERFORMANCE
Emulator performance for the RK2020 is theoretically the same as the OGA, which should come as no surprise. I say theoretically, apparently some Chinese users are experiencing thermal throttling after prolonged play times. I can’t say I’ve experienced this, although the device does get warm once you’ve been playing a while.
The machine is capable of everything up to and including N64, PSP, Dreamcast, CPS3 and even Saturn. Don’t expect the entire library of games for any console to run flawlessly. In fact for those newer or harder to emulate systems compatibility can be quite low.
In EmuELEC some emulators can benefit from being tweaked, for example N64 performs way better when the MUPEN64PLUS_LIBRETRO core is set. Many emulators look nicer once smoothing has been enabled, due to the odd screen resolution. PSP and GBA look amazing on this device with integer scaling selected, though. The 480×320 resolution panel works perfectly with the 480×272 and 240×160 resolutions of those devices.
As mentioned previously, I can’t get to the core settings in TheRA. I assume this is because the F1 key does not exist in the RK2020. After mapping my buttons in TheRA, I logged in via SSH and had a look at the mappings.
Judging by this, the two missing buttons are 11 and 14. On the OGA button 10 is F1, but here it is Select. I might well have interprested this incorrectly though, so y’know.
There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing off various games, so I won’t list them all here. If there’s a specific game you want me to test just let me know.
TRANSFERRING ROMS
If you have a Linux machine or VM, you’re good to go. Just stick the SD card in and transfer in to the ROMs directory. If you’re a Windows user, you have to jump through some hoops. The easiest way is to use a WiFi adaptor, make a note of your device IP address and login through an explorer window with \\<ip_address>. You can then drag and drop your ROMs into the corresponding folders.
Another method would be to use a Windows application that allows writing to ext4 partitions. Apparently Paragon have one, but many people have complained that it corrupts SD cards. Better to go the WiFi dongle or Linux VM route probably.
CHARGING
If you switch the device off and plug it in, it will boot up and show that it’s charging. However, the screen stays on. If you plug in the RK2020 and then shutdown, all lights go out and it’s not possible to tell if the unit is charging. I suspect it is not, or at least charging incredibly slowly. Thankfully in newer OS builds you can hit the power button once to put the RK2020 to sleep. The device continues to charge whilst sleeping.
Currently the best way to charge the RK2020 is switched on, asleep and with the WiFi dongle removed as it drains power fast. It’s best to remove the dongle entirely when you’re not using it, otherwise battery life suffers massively.
According to Chinese forums, this device charges at 0.6a, compared to the 1.4a of the OGA. I don’t know why this would be, unless they’re using a different charge controller.
SHOULD YOU BUY THE RK2020?
This is a tough question to answer. If you feel strongly about cloned devices then the answer is probably no. If you don’t care about cloned devices, the answer is maybe.
On one hand, the RK2020 has a similar if not better build quality than the OGA. It comes pre-assembled, is roughly the same price or a bit more expensive depending on where you live, and has four proper shoulder buttons. It’s a little bit smaller than the OGA, and is very comfortable to play. Oh yeah, and it’s in stock. In some ways it’s the most attractive proposition for a reasonably priced, portable handheld capable of PSP, Dreamcast, N64 etcetera.
On the other hand, the factory dropped a bollock by not including all six buttons from the OGA. Doing so has meant that a lot of the work that went in to cloning the OGA has been lost due to functionality issues arising from the missing buttons. As mentioned previously, re-mapping global hotkeys may be possible (I don’t know), but even that somewhat defeats the point. Now the people behind this machine are looking for developers to fork the OS and properly support the RK2020. Doh.
It boggles my mind that the factory thought all those extra buttons didn’t do anything or weren’t important enough to include. It has detracted from an otherwise very nice little machine. I do expect that someone will probably fix this, if not one of the official devs then someone else. Currently though it’s limited in its potential, which is a shame.
If you’re desperate for some sweet Dreamcast action and don’t want or can’t get hold of an OGA, you will still have fun with this handheld. It’s amazing to see relatively cheap handhelds finally being capable of emulating newer systems, god knows we’ve waited long enough! If you’re willing to take a gamble on the RK2020, or feel like having a crack at ironing out the software issues then they’re available to buy right now from AliExpress and rkconsole.com.
This RK2020 was kindly donated on the understanding that I would review it as accurately and fairly as I could. If you liked my RK2020 review, please consider sharing it!
If you’re after the capability of the RG350M but in a smaller form factor, you’re in luck. The RG280M is a slimmed down RG350M, sacrificing one analog stick, the HDMI port and larger screen in favour of a smaller more pocketable machine.
The RG280M is powered by the same JZ4770 as found in the PocketGo v2 and RG350/M, but contains a smaller screen at 2.8 inches. There is some confusion over the resolution of the display. Initially it was said to be 320×480 (or 480×320 in landscape), but the AliExpress listing describes a screen similar to that of the RS-97 with non-standard pixel alignment. And to add to the confusion, there is also a rumour that it’s actually 320×240 and the developer was drunk when he stated the specs to retailers!
FEATURES
Similar to the RG350M, this device comes with an OCA laminated screen. This removes any air gap between the LCD and the screen lens by filling it with a clear adhesive. This has two benefits, the main one being far superior clarity compared to a non-OCA’d screen. It also means that you won’t ever be getting any dust under the screen, as there’s no space for dust to get trapped.
The RG280M comes with 2 USB-C ports, one for charging and one for OTG functionality. It also has two microSD card slots, one for the OS and one for your ROMs. This means you needn’t transfer your ROMs back over each time you decide to upgrade the OS. Inside is a 2500mAh battery which the manufacturer states will give you 8 hours of play time. Probably a little less, however these chips are very efficient and it won’t be far off that.
The RG280M has an aluminium alloy shell, just like it’s big brother the RG350M. It comes in the usual array of colours, as well as an amazing looking neon pink and blue fade. I’m sure this colour scheme is not to everyone’s taste but personally I think it looks excellent. I really don’t need another Ingenic handheld, but I am very tempted by this one for the colour alone.
EMULATORS
Ingenic JZ4770 machines are successful largely due to the amazing community development around OpenDingux. If you want an easy to use and hugely customisable OS with more emulators than you can shake a stick at, one of these is a great choice. Just be aware that PS1 is the extent of this chip’s capabilities. Out of the box supported systems include the below.
PS1
CPS1
CPS2
CPS3 (partial support)
FBA
MSX
Atari Lynx
Wonderswan Color
NEOGEO
NEOGEO Pocket
GB / GBC
GBA
SNES
NES
Mega Drive
Sega Master System
Game Gear
PC Engine
There are plenty of other emulators and ported software available for this platform, take a look through the github repository for some idea of the possibilities.
SUMMARY
Whilst handhelds such as the RK2020 offer more CPU power than this, we’re far from having an OS as good as OpenDingux on those machines. The age of the Ingenic JZ4770 is almost over, so if you’re still agonising over which device to get, here’s another to add to your list.
Personally the RG* series machines are the best, which narrows it down to either the RG350, RG350M or this RG280M. The RG280M is the only machine to come in this pink/blue color scheme, which is almost reason enough alone to get this one I reckon. It might be worth waiting to see if the price comes down a bit, although there are no guarantees. If you already have a JZ4770 device that you’re happy with, the RG280M doesn’t offer anything new. After all, the RG280M is just a slimmed down version of the RG350M with some features removed.
Be sure to check out the comparison page if you want to see the differences between these three versions.
On the face of it the Q400 has a lot of things going for it. It was always going to be overshadowed somewhat by the more powerful RK2020, but judged on its own merit it’s quite an intriguing little machine. Unfortunately it hasn’t panned out well for the Q400 yet. I haven’t written it off yet though, there may be hope. Read on for the Supbor Q400 review.
When the Q400 was first announced the RK2020 wasn’t born and the OGA was sold out everywhere. Despite the RK3128 CPU in this handheld being less powerful than the RK3266 in the RK2020 and OGA, it still stands head and shoulders above the RG350 and PocketGO V2 in terms of raw power. Add to that some nice features such as an 800×480 display, working HDMI output and the ability to play 4 player games and you’d think you’d have a winner on your hands. Let’s find out.
BUILD QUALITY
After reading the early translated reviews on the Chinese forums, my expectations were fairly low here. As it happens though, there is very little to complain about. The machine is really well built in some areas, and I think the shell design is excellent.
Instead of being made with two equally sized pieces of plastic that meet with a ridge running around the middle of the device, the main body of the Q400 is all one solid piece. A backplate closes up the shell neatly with 4 cross head screws.
For a device as wide as this, you might expect it to creak but it feels pretty sturdy. The Q400 is a whopping 174mm wide. To put it in perspective, the RG350 is just 144mm, so the Q400 has an extra 4 centimetres on it.
CONTROLS
The ABXY buttons are nicely clicky and the analog sticks are beautiful. Each stick could also have an L3/R3 function as they click when pressed. The d-pad is one of the more strange aspects of the Q400. It’s actually OK to use, but its legs are about 3-4mm too long in each direction. It could also do with having a bit more of a pivot to it, there is one but it’s very shallow. The d-pad is slightly convex in the middle, tapering up towards each extremity. There are far worse, but it does take a little getting used to.
The shoulder buttons are the Q400s weakest link when it comes to the controls. L1 and R1 wrap around the edge of the device and the L2/R2 buttons sit a couple of millimetres further in. Unfortunately they are really clicky, requiring a pretty reasonable amount of force before they depress. L1 and R2 are most easily pressed by pushing them from the sides, where they wrap around the shell. They’re usable but you have to be conscious of how to hit them, and unfortunately they’re pretty bad.
Underneath ABXY are start, select, volume- and volume+ buttons. They’re small and clicky and they don’t get in the way of ABXY despite their placement.
On top of the unit there’s a microSD slot, a Micro USB charging port, HDMI and headphone outputs and an on and off switch. On the bottom of the unit are the 4 USB-A host ports for plugging in your controllers.
LCD
There was a lot of hullabaloo around the LCD in the early reviews. Many of the Chinese reviews complained of terrible ghosting and screen tearing, but I think the manufacturers switched out the panel before releasing to the rest of the world.
The IPS display is actually really nice. It’s not often you get 800×480 displays in these things and the pixel density is great. Viewing angles are excellent in every direction too.
It’s a strange choice of aspect ratio for a machine like this. Aside from a tiny handful of widescreen enabled PS1 and N64 games, you’re going to either have a stretched image or black bars either side. More on that later.
You might be wondering how it can be that I’m praising the display whereas Taki Udon said it was terrible. The review Taki did wasn’t of the stock OS, he’d replaced the stock system with a RetroArch build that he got from somewhere. The problem is the image he used contained the driver for the older LCD, the one with ghosting and tearing. His unit has an IPS display like mine, which means he flashed a largely incompatible image to the unit. With the right driver, the display is pretty damn good.
SOFTWARE
If you’ve gotten this far and you’re about to go and buy a Q400, hold up! There was a delay releasing the Q400 to the West because the factory were attempting to get a RetroArch build working on the device first. Unfortunately it was never finished, and instead the device ships with something akin to a Pandora’s Box interface. Whilst the GUI and UX are more or less tolerable, there are some severe limitations which make the shipped system really irritating.
The biggest turn off for most people is going to be that you cannot (to the best of my knowledge) alter the aspect ratio of any game. They all play in full widescreen and for the most part look really horrible for it. You can bring up a menu in game by hitting Start + Select, but your options here are limited.
In a last ditch attempt to try and find some hidden menus somewhere, I plugged in a keyboard and bashed random button combos for a bit. I found that ctrl+esc brought a menu in the lower left corner with the title “MiniGUI”. Unfortunately after exploring all the sub-menus I didn’t find any extra options. I also tried this whilst running some emulators, but couldn’t find any menus there at all.
EMULATION
N64 emulation in its current state is a no go. The emulator is Mupen64Plus, exposed by a config file in the ROMs directory. But the mixture of a slightly under powered chip and poor optimisation could be the reason it doesn’t perform well. I played a couple of races in Mario Kart 64 which is a game that runs well on most devices that support N64, but it doesn’t run well here. It’s probably about 60-70% speed with severely glitchy audio. There are no frameskip options to change in the menu.
PS1 is far better, but the stock system won’t launch bin/cue images as far as I can tell. Most games for the other systems run quite well, as you’d expect. Yoshi’s Island on the SNES runs pretty well, Star Fox runs acceptably but at a lower framerate. With the right software tweaks, I do think it’d be possible to run iron out SNES and introduce some N64 games well.
I only have one controller and it’s an 8BitDo N30 Pro 2. Unfortunately whilst it’s recognised by the unit, I cannot get the controls correctly mapped. I’ve tried xinput and dinput modes but the d-pad and analog sticks are not recognised by the Q400 system.
RETROARCH
I was able to get a build of RetroArch with the correct LCD driver for the Q400. It comes precompiled and the factory are apparently unwilling to release their source code. My Q400 hasn’t yet crashed in game like it does in Taki’s video, but it is unstable. Scrolling through the menus I have experienced some strange behaviour and a couple of crashes to a blue screen too. I have very little experience with RetroArch so there could be some “user error” but I can say with some confidence that RetroArch is still unstable on this device. Whether that can be fixed with config files, or whether it needs fixing in source code I don’t know.
It is possible to change the aspect ratio of some systems under RetroArch, but for some reason to get a correct 4:3 ratio you actually have to choose 3:4. I suspect this is something to do with the panel identifying itself as portrait rather than landscape but I’m not totally sure. N64 performance is still not great under RA, but again – it could be that fiddling with some settings improves this. I’m reluctant to invest too much time in it though, since the port still seems to be unfinished and unstable. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve N64 under RetroArch though, do let me know. I am happy to test them out. HDMI output does work on RetroArch, and on a 1080p display it looks very nice.
FLASHING RETROARCH
If you’re getting a Q400 and want to have a mess around with RetroArch you can download everything you need from here. I’ve included the stock image too, so you can revert it if you like. I would advise using a different SD card for your ROMs on each OS since the stock system is picky about the layout of the card. The below screenshot shows you what buttons to hit to flash the image. The button will go green once completed. Instructions are in the download. The flasher is required because the OS is not stored on a microSD card like most other systems.
SHOULD YOU BUY THE Q400?
If I’m being kind, I would say that the stock system is reasonable for the lower end systems – if you’re not bothered about the incorrect aspect ratio. For me it’s a deal breaker, and the lack of customisation or ability for outside support for this OS is sad. This is a case of another reasonably solid piece of hardware being tainted by the software. If the factory released the source code for this device, I’m sure someone would fix it. It may get fixed anyway, we’ll see.
I will say one thing in favour of the stock system, it is child proof. If I was going to buy a handheld for a youngster I would be reluctant to go for system running OpenDingux or EmuELEC etc, because it’s very easy to break things if you start pressing random buttons. The stock system on the Q400 is very easy to use and it is impossible to mess anything up. If it was configured correctly I could live with this lack of customisation, but as it stands it needs some tweaking to meet the majority of people’s standards.
I waited a bit before reviewing this machine in the hope that the factory released a new software update. I wanted the SupBor Q400 review to be a bit more positive than this. Right now it’s another one to keep our eyes on, a miracle may happen. We’ll have to wait and see.
The Q400 is for sale at AliExpress for about $80. It’s worth noting that there is another seller with this for $54, which seems very low. I don’t know if the $54 version is the one with the IPS screen or not.
Out of nowhere, the PowKiddy V90 has popped up on AliExpress today. Rumour has it that the PowKiddy V90 is the same hardware as the original PocketGo, but made to fit inside a clamshell reminiscent of the GBA SP.
The V90 has a 3″ 320×240 IPS display, which is larger than the one found in the original PocketGo. It’s the same size as the one in the PowKiddy Q90 but we don’t yet know if it’s the same LCD. I wonder if they’ve solved the screen tearing issues? Only time will tell.
If it really is the same hardware as the PocketGo and Q90 then we can expect that it runs the same Linux based NxHope OS. It’s a decent OS with plenty of emulators, designed to look a lot like RetroFW but unfortunately closed source. The hardware is capable of some PS1 emulation, but nothing more advanced than that.
Unlike the PocketGo and Q90, this one has 4 shoulder buttons on it. There’s not an awful lot of use for those except for a handful of PS1 titles. The PowKiddy V90 also has USB-C charging, a 1020mAh battery and a headphone jack. The OS and ROMs are stored on an accessible microSD card.
It’s nice to see another clamshell machine come out, especially since the SP design is usually reserved for very low quality GBA SP clones. Clamshells are my preferred design for taking out and about because they fold up small and the screen is protected when not in use. The PowKiddy V90 is available now for $40 at AliExpress, in lemon yellow and carp red.
I know I’m late to the party with this one, but it would be a shame to not review the RG350M. Some of the recent reviews on this site haven’t been what you would call glowing, and it’s rare that you come across a handheld quite as good as this. So to prove I’m not just an old stick in the mud who likes to whinge, have a read of some nice things I have to say in the Anbernic RG350M review.
There’s nothing new in this product really, the RG350M is basically the same machine as the RG350 released last year. But it’s had a couple of iterations since then, including a metal variant of the original design. The RG350M is the third in a family of four versions of this machine, the fourth being the soon to be released RG280M.
The RG350M takes the metal shell concept from November 2019 and improves upon it massively. The motherboard has had a complete re-think, moving various buttons and ports to better positions on the shell. Both SD cards are now accessible externally and the dpad and analog stick placements are swapped. In fact the analog sticks have been completely replaced for wider, low profile ones too. And to top it off, that low resolution 320×240 LCD has been replaced for a 640×480 one. Not just that, they’ve apparently even laminated the damn thing too, and the clarity is really good. A full list of changes to the original design are below.
The dpad position has been swapped with the left analog stick.
Both SD cards are now accessible without dismantling the device.
The LCD has been replaced for a 640×480 OCA laminated one.
Both analog sticks are now low profile versions, which protrude far less distance from the shell.
The power button is now on the left hand side of the shell.
The volume rocker is now on the right hand side of the shell.
Silicon grips have been added to the back plate.
If you compare this shell to that of the RG350 Metal, you can see that it’s a complete re-design. The Metal RG350 was really chunky, a good 4mm fatter than the original RG350. The RG350M on the other hand is barely any bigger at all. Maybe a millimetre fatter than the original plastic design I reckon, in the absence of calipers. RG350M on the left, RG350 Metal on the right.
CONTROLS
First things first, the new analog sticks are nothing short of dreamy. They sit flush to the rest of the controls, and have a larger surface area than before. They’re very nice to use. Unlike the previous sticks, these do not have rubber caps, they’re moulded from one solid piece of rubberised plastic. I’m pretty sure they’re the same as or clones of the Switch analog sticks, but don’t quote me because I don’t have a Switch.
Likewise the dpad is a shining example of how a dpad should be done. Whilst there was not much to complain about on the previous two versions, the dpad on the RG350M is much better. There is no mushiness at all, it has a perfect pivot and the indented ridges of the previous design have been removed. And of course, the placement is better for those of us with bigger hands now that it’s up top.
The rest of the controls are pretty much the same, that is to say they’re really very good. All four triggers are easily reached and click softly when pushed from any angle. The start and select buttons are slightly taller than they were in the previous Metal version too, so you don’t need to get your finger nail on them to press them in.
LCD
As previously mentioned, the LCD is now a laminated 640×480 IPS display. Comparing devices side by side, it’s really obvious to see. The difference doesn’t really come out very well on camera, but believe me that in person the new display is so crisp and clear that it’s hard to see how we put up with 320×240 for so long. The colour temperature is slightly more warm/pink on the RG350M, which I prefer to the blueish hue of the previous models. A full resolution version of the the below image can be found here.
The biggest giveaway that the RG350M has a new LCD though is the lack of any pixel grid. It’s weird that I never really noticed it before but it’s really obvious on the previous models now. There’s no visible pixel grid on the RG350M, it is bright and colourful and the viewing angles are exceptionally good. There is no inversion or fading of colours at any angle, all the way down to 180 degrees in any direction. Whilst multiples of 320×240 don’t play very nicely with GBA, there is a definite improvement in clarity when viewed on a 640×480 screen. Of course you’ll never get as crisp an image for GBA as you do on the RK2020 or Odroid-Go Advance with its perfect integer scaling, but it is better now than it was on previous devices.
PERFORMANCE
The RG350M contains the same JZ4770 CPU found in the following other handhelds:
GCW Zero
RG350
RG350 Metal
New PocketGo V2 (aka PocketGo v2)
Variants of the PocketGO v2 such as the PlayGo and Miyoo Max
You can expect very good emulation of all consoles up to and including the PlayStation 1. But emulation isn’t all it can do. OpenDingux is built on Linux, so there are plenty of ported games available for it too. Just have browse through this repository, the library is extensive!
OPERATING SYSTEMS
The shipped system is a OpenDingux, and it comes pre-loaded with a ton of emulators, games and ports. There was only one 16GB SD card in mine, and it also came pre-loaded with thousands of ROMs. Strangely, lots of them are ROM hacks, and they’re all numbered so it’s impossible to find anything alphabetically. I’ve deleted them all and loaded my own.
As I type, the ROGUE firmware has just been updated and released for the RG350M. You can download this replacement OS courtesy of Ninoh-FOX from here. Be aware that if your RG350M only came with one SD card, then flashing a new OS will wipe out all your ROMs and saves. Back them up if you need to.
BUILD QUALITY
It’s no exaggeration to say that the RG350M has the best build quality of any Chinese handheld I’ve ever owned. I’m not saying that frivolously because it’s made of metal, it is incredibly impressive how well designed and assembled it is. The previous metal version of the RG350 did have its problems. People reported the analog sticks getting stuck, or shoulder buttons not quite clicking properly. That’s because all Anbernic did was take the RG350 board and buttons and put them in a metal shell, with different tolerances. The RG350M has had a complete overhaul to accommodate its new casing, and it really shows.
You could easily mistake it for a product from one of the big boys, apart from the fact they’d never consider building a handheld from metal because it’s too expensive.
SHOULD YOU BUY AN RG350M?
We are in an era of higher powered ARM based handhelds now, whether that be Android or Linux based machines. Gamers rightfully expect to be able to emulate consoles like the PSP, N64 and Dreamcast on their handhelds these days. Whilst it’s true that other machines can handle some of that, it is really touch and go whether you’ll get the performance from any given game.
There’s something quite comforting about knowing with some certainty that whatever you want to play on the RG350M will probably work just fine, within its limitations. And I would say that OpenDingux is a far superior system to any of those available for the Odroid-Go Advance or RK2020. It has had many many years of polishing, it’s customisable, stable, straightforward and overall a pleasure to use.
The RG350M is the flagship JZ4770 handheld. It took a few attempts for Anbernic to get there, but they really did it in end. It’s hard to find much to criticise it for, but if pushed I would say that it is heavy. At roughly 250g, it’s a good 85g heavier than the original plastic version. It’s the metal that makes it what it is though, it looks and feels rock solid and it screams ‘premium product’ from every angle. Anbernic learned from their first attempt, and improved upon it in almost every way. Credit to them.
The RG350M is available all over the place now, if you’re after one then I would just go wherever they’re cheapest on the day.
I should probably say here that I paid in full for my RG350M, it wasn’t donated for review. Not that it makes any difference to the way I review something. If you’re sensing shenanigans by my outrageous positivity, then rest assured it is because I am genuinely impressed. If you prefer the articles with more whinging and criticism, then just you wait for the PowKiddy V90 review
As usual, if you use a link on this site to make a purchase, I get a few cents towards the upkeep of this site. It doesn’t cost you anything and it’s much appreciated.
Hot on the heels of the ZPG Pro announcement, here comes news of another machine due soon. The RG351 is rumoured to be another OGA clone, probably using a similar shell as the RG350. Someone on the Baidu forums posted a Chinese language version of the below image. It gives us a little insight in to what else might be in the works from the Anbernic camp. The image is fairly self explanatory, but I’ve translated it to English never the less.
Historically there are some exceptions to these rules, for example the RG300 was JZ4760 not JZ4770, and it was not suffixed with a “V”. The original RG350 isn’t suffixed with a P either. But we can take this as a rule of thumb for future devices.
RELEASE DATEAND CONFIGURATION
Rumours state that the RG351 will be released at the end of August, but we don’t yet know the exact configuration. It is likely to be a P(lastic) device initially, and I would expect to see the RG350 shell being re-used. Hopefully it’ll be a new mould with the d-pad at the top, like the RG350M. Interestingly, it has been said that the RG351 will have dual analog sticks. This would be a first for OGA clones, and would be very well received.
Whilst the RG351 is just another OGA clone, Anbernic do have a pretty good track record. I would hope that this will be the benchmark for future devices. 2020 will be the year of the OGA clones, you can expect to see at least another one popping up very shortly courtesy of PowKiddy. I bet HardKernel are pretty annoyed at this point!
It also looks as though there may be a MediaTek (MTK) handheld in the works too. We’ll have to wait and see what the RG352 may be, perhaps another Android device?
They’re coming thick and fast now! PowKiddy are the latest brand to hop on the hype train with their re-imagining of HardKernel’s Odroid-Go Advance. The upcoming PowKiddy RGB10 is yet another OGA clone due to be released in the coming weeks. It bears a striking resemblance to the Q90 released earlier this year, but of course this time it’ll be powered by RockChip’s RK3326.
The rest of the hardware is fairly unremarkable. It’ll have the same size and resolution IPS display, one analog stick and hardware volume buttons. It will have 4 full size shoulder buttons, unlike the OGA v1.1. It looks like there’s a full size USB OTA port on the bottom too.
We don’t know if they’ll ship the PowKiddy RGB10 with a customised OS yet, but I would guess they’ll piggy back off the existing Operating Systems.
This makes the fifth handheld based on the RK3326. HardKernel’s Odroid-Go Advance of course came first, followed by the RK2020. The RG351P could be released towards the end of summer, and this yellow monstrosity from PowKiddy might beat it to market. The ZPG Pro is apparently due at the end of this month. Personally I think Anbernic’s RG351P will be the winner, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The only renders I can find at the moment are yellow, even on the Chinese retail sites. The cost in China is around £45 or $56, so they’ll probably sell for around $70-$80 on Powkiddy AliExpress store once available.
Well it’s hardly surprising, but Anbernic have just announced the RG350P. It’s essentially a plastic shelled version of the RG350M, but with one key difference.
The Anbernic line of RG handhelds is getting so convoluted that you wouldn’t be blamed for having lost track. Whilst it’s nice to see a plastic version of the RG350M, current available specs indicate that the hardware isn’t identical to that of the RG350M.
The RG350P will have the same low profile analog sticks and dual SD card config of the RG350M. It also shares the re-jigged d-pad positioning and silicon grips on the back. Unfortunately though, it seems as though they’ve reverted back to using a 320×240 LCD in the RG350P.
It may be true that frame rate and battery life takes a slight hit with a 640×480 resolution, but the increased clarity and smoother scaling is a worthwhile trade off in my opinion. At this point, the RG350P is only a worthwhile purchase if you don’t already have an RG350/M, or if the d-pad position of the RG350 is too uncomfortable for you.
It’s hard to say how many more rehashes of this design will be needed to sell the rest of the JZ4770 stock, but it’s certainly growing a little wearisome now. It’s nice to have options, but the phrase “flogging a dead horse” springs to mind.
CURRENT AND FORTHCOMING RG LINEUP
The line up for current and forthcoming RG handhelds looks like this:
The PowKiddy V90 quietly appeared on AliExpress a few weeks ago now. Styled after the GBA SP, this little clamshell handheld piqued some interest due in part to its smart looking design and low price. Read on for the PowKiddy V90 review.
The V90 shares the same hardware as the following handhelds:
It contains a low power ARM chip from AllWinner and it runs a closed source Linux based OS called NxHope. NxHope is designed to look like the RetroFW firmware for JZ4770 machines, but the likeness is only skin deep. The amount of community involvement for this OS low, because source code is not available. It’s more or a less a “you get what you’re given” type deal, with a couple of small caveats. All of the handhelds built on this combination of hardware and software have shared one flaw – screen tearing. It’s true that the screen tearing was largely remedied on the PocketGo V1 with some custom firmware hacks, but from the factory it’s fairly obvious.
It’s been 6 months since the previous iteration of this hardware came out, so the engineers have had plenty of time to fix the screen tearing issues. But of course, nothing has been fixed for the PowKiddy V90. The screen tearing is still there. Thankfully the custom firmware from the PGv1 works on the V90 and does a great job of minimising the tearing. It’s not a complete fix, but it’s good enough.
CONTROLSAND LCD
The d-pad on the V90 is not great. There’s no pivot to speak of and it’s kind of mushy feeling. The rest of the buttons are fine, even the small and cramped shoulder buttons on the back of the unit are easy enough to reach and press. I’m not sure why they included L2/R2 given the consoles that the V90 emulates.
The PowKiddy V90 contains a 3″ 320×240 IPS display. You’ve seen LCDs like it before and it’s pretty nice to look at considering its low resolution. Outside in bright daylight it’s a little hard to see, but inside it’s fine.
BUILD QUALITY
I’m a fan of clamshell devices, so having seen the renders of the V90 I was excited to get it. Unfortunately in the flesh the V90 doesn’t look much like the renders. It’s made of cheap, thin plastic and is very light. It weighs about 115g, which compared to a GBA SP is around 40 grams lighter. It is a little smaller than an SP, they’re not using a knock off GBA SP shell, but the difference in weight is really apparent.
The unit is charged via USB-C and the battery is a Nokia BL-5C clone. Word has it that the Patona branded clones of these cells are pretty good, and they’re readily available at Amazon. Battery life isn’t amazing, around 3 hours is what I’ve gotten with the stock cell.
The hinge is tighter than the one on my original GBA SP (which could be related to age). It’s possible to adjust the screen to any angle you wish, and it will pretty much stay in place. It doesn’t go all the way back to 180 degrees, but pretty close. There’s a nice click once you reach the extent of its movement.
EMULATION
There’s a good reason the PowKiddy V90 feels a bit cheap though, and that’s because it is. It’s not fair to completely slate the thing, because it’s been built down to a price that most people can afford. And whilst it’s not what you might call powerful, it’s got enough juice to satisfy the demands of most fourth generation console emulators.
You can’t expect to play games such as Yoshi’s Island on this thing (8 frames per second), but a large portion of SNES games will work OK. Some games require a bit of tweaking, for example F-Zero is a slideshow until you drop the audio quality – then it’s playable. Mega Drive and GBA fair way better, and mostly everything before those machines works great too.
The V90 does advertise PS1 emulation, and to be fair to this chip does seem to handle PS1 fairly well. I would say performance is on a par with or in some cases better than the JB4760B (LDK/RS97/RG300 etc). Don’t expect performance anywhere near as good as the RG350 or any other JZ4770 handhelds.
All of the emulators are ported from open source, and the button below the LCD opens up the menu. Unlike the Q400, it’s easy to change scaling method and aspect ratio for each emulator, as well as access the save and load states.
The V90 comes pre-loaded with a bunch of other games such as Quake, Doom, OpenTyrian, Cave Story etc. There’s plenty pre-loaded on here to keep anyone entertained.
SHOULD YOU BUY THE POWKIDDY V90?
To be honest I when I first took this thing out of the box I wanted to hate it, but I’ve warmed to it over time. Yes it’s made of cheap plastic, and they still haven’t managed to fix the screen tearing. But it’s kind of won me over in some other ways. I love clam shell designs, and the V90 is small enough and cheap enough that you can stick it in your pocket without worrying too much. The NxHope firmware comes preloaded with loads of different themes, and the UI itself is really nice and simple to use.
In many ways, this would make an ideal handheld for a younger kid. The screen’s protected when not in use, so there’s less chance of breaking it when not in use. There’s nothing to really mess up in OS, and yet it does offer enough options (frameskip, aspect ratio, saves etc) to satisfy most. It’s small and lightweight and it’s pretty cheap too. If you’re considering a clam shell device, you could do far worse. Just be aware that the build quality of the V90 isn’t up to that of the RG350, and performance of some emulators can be a bit lacklustre.
The Retroid Pocket 2 is the most recent handheld from MooreChip Technologies. It’s a rethink of their Retroid Pocket (aka Super Retro Handheld aka PowKiddy A19) from late last year, with some improvements.
At first glance it looks as though the redesign is mostly skin deep, utilising the same MT6580 as before. They have increased the RAM from 512MB to 1GB though, and it looks like the CPU might have been overclocked to 1.5GHZ too. The MT6580 isn’t a particularly powerful chip, falling far behind the RK3326 found in the OGA and similar devices.
FEATURES AND OS
The Retroid Pocket 2 is configured with the option to dual boot, just like the later versions of their first device. It allows you to either boot in to Android 6, or a Pandora’s Box type interface. This device doesn’t appear to have a touchscreen, so the second boot option is probably tailored for non-touchscreen devices. It would have been better to just come up with a proper single boot solution I think, instead of relying on two different options in order to cover all bases.
One of the selling points of this device is the ability to play local multiplayer via netplay. Netplay is a feature of RetroArch and it relies on peer-to-peer networking over your WiFi connection. Whilst it’s a nice thing to have, I believe you need an active internet connection to make it work. I may be wrong though and it will be interesting to see how the Retroid team have implemented this feature.
INPUTS AND OUTPUTS
The front of the device appears to have two analog sticks, but on closer inspection this is not the case. The stick on the right hand side is recessed almost flush to the front of the unit and is tagged as a “digital” stick on the website. I’m not sure of the reason for doing this over actually having a second analog stick. The front of the unit also has the standard 3 buttons required for navigation of Android. There’s also a HDMI output, headphone output, expandable storage via microSD and a USB-C charge port too.
I really like the look of the Retroid Pocket 2, it’s chunky and playful looking but has also had a lot of thought put in to the design. The stacked shoulder buttons are a really nice touch and I hope other manufacturers go this route in future.
Unfortunately the choice of CPU and non-committal dual boot option is a deal breaker for me. At this point I feel anything less than an RK3326 is a bit of a step backwards. It’ll be interesting to see which direction MooreChip go with their next device though.
The Retroid Pocket 2 is available now at goretroid.com and costs $80 plus shipping.
It seems to be a new trend these days to release revised aluminium versions of every handheld. The RK2020 is the latest to be fitted out with a fancy new shell, and this new revision also has a few other improvements made to it too.
The aluminium RK2020 promises the following improvements over the original design.
Fast charging speed.
Charge with the unit switched off.
Fixed overheating.
Less clicky shoulder buttons.
Removal of the non-functional reset button.
It’ll be interesting to see how they’ve fixed the overheating issue and whether the board has been revised to move the CPU from behind the LCD. The charge speed issue has also apparently been fixed, however the new charging current isn’t specified. The charging of the original device was very slow, as noted in my review of the original unit.
The aluminium RK2020 is available from retromimi for $119.99.
The original ZPG was a DIY handheld that used the guts of a cell phone for its mainboard. It was mostly the work of Lao Zhang, he made use of Vita controls and the motherboard of a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact to create the device. The ZPG was released in very small batches to the Chinese market, and was almost impossible for Westerners to buy.
It’s always been rumoured that the ZPG was leading up to something else, and that rumour has just been substantiated. Over on the Chinese forums God of light and darkness (cool name) is posting short teaser videos pertaining to a ZPG Pro.
There have been a couple of these short videos released so far, and that implies there is a reason to hype it up. If the ZPG Pro was only going to be available in miniscule batches again, would there be a need to invest time and effort promoting it? After all the original ZPG batches sold out in seconds, without any fanfare required. Alongside that fact, this quote states the ZPG Pro will be going in to mass production.
God of light and darkness posted the video and is a reliable source of information on these forums, so let’s assume he’s right.
MULTIPLE ZPG VERSIONS?
Another user claims he has information from the maker regarding different versions of the ZPG.
Something worth bearing in mind is that there have been perpetual rumours of more OGA clones coming up. It certainly makes me wonder if either the ZPG Pro, ZPG Mini or ZPG Max could be one of them. Whatever the hardware, it’s safe to assume that any mass produced units won’t be made using gutted cell phones.
If I had to guess, I would say that these devices are going to run on RockChip. It’s possible that a custom Snapdragon board has been designed for one of the versions, but historically unlikely. Things are moving fast in 2020 though, so anything is possible. I’ll update this post with more news as it surfaces.
Update 23/6/2020
PROTOTYPE SHOTS
In the last couple of days, some shots of a prototype ZPG Pro have appeared on baidu. It is also now pretty much confirmed that the ZPG Pro will be another OGA clone.
These shells are likely to be 3D printed, so we’re still a little way off seeing a general release.
Update 10/07/2020
BUTTON LAYOUT
Here’s the button layout for the ZPG Pro. As you can see, it’s been designed so that it has enough buttons to match the Odroid-Go Advance, with F1-F6 represented. This should alleviate the mapping issues present on the RK2020.
Update 27/07/2020
MORE PROTOTYPE SHOTS
Could this be the ZPG Pro? The layout certainly marries up with the diagram and 3D prints from earlier this month. Looks promising!
Update 16/9/2020
ZPG PRO IS NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER
The blue and yellow plastic versions, as well as the metal shell version are all available to order now at whatskogame.com and AliExpress. Be sure to use coupon code OBSCURE for a few dollars off the price at whatskogame.com.
Just when things become a bit predictable, out comes something a little bit weird looking. The CoolBaby RS3128 (aka the RS-63 apparently) is a rather rugged looking Android handheld, although it’s probably not recommended to test that theory.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a handheld with this kind of configuration. The RK3128 represents a weird middle ground somewhere between legacy and “current” (I use that term loosely) generation handhelds. It’s not as powerful as the RK3326 found in all of these new Odroid-Go Advance family of handhelds, but it is just about powerful enough to run Android.
And run Android it does, the CoolBaby RS3128 runs a heavily modified version of Android 5.1(!) with a custom launcher. It has a 4 inch 800×480 LCD but looking at specs and videos, it does not appear to be a touchscreen. The custom launcher seems to take care of that, allowing for navigation with the d-pad and buttons.
CONTROLS AND OUTPUTS
Speaking of buttons, how many is too many? This thing appears to have 8 front facing buttons, alongside a d-pad, 2 analog sticks and 2 shoulder buttons. It also has 2 full size USB ports on the bottom edge, allowing you to connect external controllers. Coupled with the HDMI port on the top edge, you could use this handheld as a console plugged in to the TV for some multiplayer action.
The last handheld to have this CPU was the SupBor Q400, but the biggest difference between these machines is the RAM config. Whilst the Q400 only had 256MB of RAM onboard, the CoolBaby RS3128 has 1GB. This is what allows Android to run on it.
Personally I don’t know if a handheld with these specs can be successful these days, but raw CPU power isn’t everything, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If the performance is decent it might be reasonably successful.
The CoolBaby RS3128 can be had from AliExpress for about $90 shipped.
Another day, another RK3326 handheld. There’s very little info on the Gameforce RK3326 Handheld right now, but there may be one feature that sets it apart from the rest.
The Gameforce is obviously not ready for production yet, you can see that from the video below showing the scaling and rotation issues. However, those rotational issues hint towards the reason this thing is different from the others.
The Gameforce RK3326 is rumoured to have a 4:3 640×480 display, which is a first for any of the RK3326 machines currently available. The Odroid-Go Advance and all the other RK3326 handhelds have a 3:2 480×320 LCD. Whilst those screens are great for GBA and PSP emulators, for others you get odd scaling issues. A higher resolution LCD has been on many people’s wish list for these handhelds.
I’m sure the look of the Gameforce is going to be polarising to a lot of people, it reminds me of a GBA mixed with a Neo Geo Pocket Color. The aesthetic is straight out of the mid 2000s, for better or worse.
Here are the things we think we know about the Gameforce RK3326 so far:
640×480 4:3 IPS display
Dual analog sticks (or maybe sliders)
Dedicated hardware buttons for volume
Dedicated Start and Select buttons
Dual front facing stereo speakers
R1/L1 as well as R2/L2 triggers
Dedicated Home button (perhaps indicates that Android was considered for this handheld at some point)
Currently runs either EmuELEC or Retrobox.
Apparently has built in WiFi
I’ll be updating this post as more info comes in. You can get back to it quickly via the “Forthcoming Handhelds” menu.
Before the RG351P was confirmed, a version of this chart was posted on Baidu. It shows the naming convention for Anbernic’s handhelds past and present. The inclusion of a “V” for vertical raised a few eyebrows, as the RG300 didn’t make use of that particular nomenclature. It was of course speculated that a vertical machine was in the pipeline from them, and here it is – the Anbernic RG280V.
The RG280V is the latest in a long line of Ingenic based handhelds from the Anbernic camp. It’s a dinky looking machine which resembles the LDK in some ways, whilst also adding a Famicom aesthetic. I think most people were hoping for the CPU digit to be a 1 or 2, but it doesn’t come as much surprise to see a zero. The zero of course indicating that this will be yet another JZ4770 handheld.
SPECIFICATIONS
Images of this handheld are limited to screenshots from a video posted on Bilibili right now. But we can see that the RG280V is aimed at the same customer base as the LDK. That is, gamers who aren’t really interested in analog sticks, and prioritise portability over anything else. The RG280V looks as though it has a brushed metal face plate reminiscent of the Famicom controller. Inputs on the front are limited to a d-pad, start, select and ABXY buttons. The top of the device reveals L1/L2/R1/R2 buttons as well as a USB Type C charging port and headphone jack.
The naming convention implies that the handheld will contain a 2.8″ LCD, probably the same one as the RG280. It will undoubtedly be running OpenDingux out of the box, and therefore will support most emulators up to and including the PS1. Other fifth generation machines such as N64 and Sega Saturn won’t be supported.
AVAILABILITYAND PRICE
As of early October the RG280V is not yet available, and the price hasn’t been divulged. I would expect to see this handheld in time for Christmas, and would hope that the smaller form factor and fewer inputs will mean it’s cheaper than other JZ4770 machines already on the market.
I’ll update this post with more information and images once available. You can quickly get back to this post via the “Forthcoming Handhelds” menu.
How time flies. It was nearly 8 years ago that the original Revo K101 GBA clone made its debut on this site. The handheld has been out of production for the past few years, but out of nowhere it has made a return – apparently with some improvements too.
Back in 2012 GBA emulator clones were very common. Those machines mostly used slow Ingenic JZ4725 chips which provided mediocre to passable performance. Born out of a love for the GBA hardware, the K101 sought to provide the best GBA experience outside of using a genuine console. By reverse engineering the real GBA hardware, the K101 was able to provide almost perfect performance for GBA games.
The K101+ came out in around 2015 and fixed some hardware bugs, but around 2017 the device faded away and it became increasingly hard to source. MaxZhou88 was the guy behind firmware, and he continued to release updates well into the handheld’s twilight years.
NEW REVO K101+ COLOURS
It’s with some surprise (and a serious amount of nostalgia) that we see the Revo K101+ make a comeback in 2020. Is there a place for a machine like this now? I can almost hear them saying “It ONLY plays GBA…?”. The truth is, this is one of the most niche handhelds in an already super niche market. I’m glad it exists, but I think it might struggle.
Regardless, the new Revo K101+ GBA clone is available to order right now, for $90. It comes in two new designs, the Famicom style and original GBA purple style. Personally I think the Famicom version looks the best. This latest version has an improved d-pad and less wobbly shoulder buttons, as well as built in RTC. You can also link to other consoles (authentic or clones) using the built in link port, and it charges with a mini USB cable. The Revo K101+ plays official GBA cartridges, or your own ROMs courtesy of the supplied K-Card.
These photographs surfaced yesterday, claiming to be images of the fabled GPD XD2 Android handheld. Could it be?
The GPD XD2 has been a perpetual rumour for many years, but for a long time it seemed GPD might have moved on to new pastures. Their series of small Windows laptops and hybrid handhelds have certainly done very well in the past few years.
It was starting to seem as though they’d moved on from Android gaming devices, but still the rumours continued. Fuelled by years worth of allusions to a new XD on social media, GPD have kept the conversation surrounding this potential successor going. And if these images can be believed, it looks as though we’re close to seeing a GPD XD2 fairly soon.
Very early images of a GPD XD2 concept from 2018 showed detachable controllers, just like the Nintendo Switch. These images below first surfaced a long time ago and were all we had until yesterday.
If these new images are to be believed, the design concept has changed a lot in the past few years. One striking feature of this unit is the sheer width of the screen. The device also retains the interchangeable controllers of the earlier prototype. It appears to demonstrate that there will be additional controls available for the right hand side of the device.
The little info currently available suggests that this handheld will cost a similar amount as the XD+ did when it was launched. It is also said that it will be more powerful than the Moqi i7s.
I’ll be sure to update this post as more news comes in, and you can get back to it quickly via the “Forthcoming Handhelds” menu.
There have been murmurings for a couple of months now, but it looks like this vertical handheld is now confirmed as the upcoming PowKiddy RGB20.
This is the third recent handheld styled after the Famicom controller (Revo K101 / RG280V) with it’s distinct red and gold metal face plate. The PowKiddy RGB20 is less a successor and more of a variation on their recent RGB10. The RGB20 contains pretty much the same hardware as all the other RK3326 machines.
The only difference I’m aware of internally is the addition of a WiFi module to the RGB20. This would make it one of the few RK3326 handheld that actually retails with the WiFi chip intact (ahem, RG351P). It’s also the first vertically oriented handheld based on the RK3326 CPU. The image below shows the physical WiFi toggle switch, as well as the other I/O available.
Looking at the images, I would say there’s a good reason that most handhelds with an analog stick are landscape oriented. I’m trying to picture a way of using the analog stick on this device comfortably, but I can’t. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve tried it, but I am sceptical.
SHOULDER BUTTONS?
There are currently no renders of the back of this handheld, but the photographs of the motherboard show two cutouts. This implies that the shoulder buttons are recessed deep in to the back of the unit. Whether we get R2/L2 or not is anyone’s guess at the moment though.
Interestingly, the motherboard has the word RK2021 scribed on it, which makes me wonder if it’s from the same factory as the RK2020.
The PowKiddy RGB20 contains a 3.5″ display, probably with the same old 480×320 resolution as all the other RK3326 machines. It’s likely to ship with EmuELEC or some variation of that OS. I would expect some level of compatibility with the other Operating Systems currently in development too.
It looks set to be released before Christmas. Price is currently unknown, but PowKiddy are usually slightly cheaper than their competitors. Let’s wait and see.
I’ll update this post with more info and images as they surface. You can get back to this post from the “Forthcoming Handhelds” menu.
Hot on the heels of the othertwo vertical devices, here comes the GKDmini handheld from LaoZhang. The GKDmini is another portrait mode handheld that promises a boost in performance over the RG350 series.
The GKDmini is a follow up to the GKD 350h which came out last year. Housing an Ingenic X1830 processor, this CPU outperforms the JZ4770 despite its lack of GPU and IPU. The X1830 runs at 1.5Ghz and gives a reasonable boost to some harder to emulate SNES, PS1 and Arcade games.
Its older brother ran on OpenDingux and I would expect that this vertical version will run the same. Hopefully we will see a kernel source release this time around so that performance improvements can be made by community developers.
Details are thin, but we do know that it has 4 shoulder buttons. Looking at the top and bottom of the handheld it seems they must be housed on the back.
The LCD is 3.5″ and has a 320×240 resolution, and the 4 LEDs to the top right of the screen indicate current battery level. The handheld has stereo sound with an independent volume control, and two of the front buttons are dedicated to Menu and Exit. There looks to be dual microSD slots next to the power button on top. Size wise, it’s a little bigger than the LDK, but still a very pocketable device.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
The GKDmini is due to retail in China for the equivalent of about $45. I would guess we’ll be able to pick this up for a very reasonable $55-$65 when it’s released. Its older brother, the GKD 350h, is around the same price.
Current images of the unit are 3D prints in plain white, so the device looks a bit rough right now. Production has apparently started, so we can expect to see better photos before too long. Colours haven’t been revealed yet, and the image at the top of this post is just a mock up.
I will update this post as more info and images become available. You’ll be able to find it in the “Forthcoming Handhelds” menu.
