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.
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