Anbernic RG35XX SP Review

For a long time now the Chinese company Anbernic have been responsible for putting out of the best quality emulation handheld devices around so, being a sucker for a clamshell device, was quite excited when I read a few months ago of rumours of their first such device and am happy to say it’s now been released in the form of the RG35XX SP.  Now I know what you’re thinking - this looks just like a Gameboy Advance SP and you’d be right (although this is slightly bigger, thicker and wider than a GBA SP) but that’s where the similarities end.

Firstly the increased size, thickness and width of the device make it much more comfortable to hold than a GBA SP and the build quality is excellent although the d-pad and face buttons are a bit loud and clicky but not overly so.  The firmware supplied on the machine is a big improvement from that offered by Anbernic on previous devices but is not perfect by any means, I personally would recommend installing some custom firmware such as MinUI, muOS or Knulli, I went for muOS and am glad I did as it’s excellent, really easy to set up, user friendly with a gorgeous black and gold theme, it performs perfectly with all systems up to and including PS1.  The screen is just the right size and is bright and colourful.

I absolutely love this little machine, the Gameboy Advance SP has always been one of my favourite Nintendo handhelds so to have something like this from Anbernic that not only plays GBA but many other systems too in a pocketable device is pretty awesome, a highly recommended handheld and one of the best from Anbernic for a very long time.