Truths and lies
You've probably seen it pass between two holiday photos in Bali on Instagram or racist euphemisms on Twitter, this strange little facsimile of the Game Boy Advance SP; with a few notable differences. Four buttons instead of two, a slightly wider body, and yet the RG35XXSP is convincing enough to seduce nostalgic gamers in mass. The excitement around Anbernic's console was ultimately predictable for those who follow the Chinese nomad market, a category of hardware parallel to the mainstream video game market. While the proposals have been multiplying in recent years, the arrival of a true portable clamshell comes as a viable alternative to the second-hand market, also affected by galloping inflation fueled by all-out speculation.
Once in our hands, the illusion seems almost perfect. For those who haven't touched a real GBA SP in a few years, the RG35XXSP's wider slide is easier to ignore. The feel of its buttons is considerably more tactile than its model, to the point of generating noise clicky with each press that could disturb more than one. A concession that is ultimately logical given its construction to prevent the buttons from touching the screen; a modern IPS panel with incomparable quality compared to the yellowed SPs of yesteryear. Once you get past its shaky firmware and its catalog of games of dubious origin included in the SD provided with the purchase, you can only be amazed when launching Wario Land 4 – the attention to detail pushed to the display of a border on the screen for maximum “authenticity”.
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Beneath these rhinestones and sequins ultimately lie the same insides as other Anbernic devices, the construction of which is based on very simple precepts: the bulk purchase of chipsets low cost with Linux or Android, and all theapparatus of RetroArch, this centralized emulation solution around open source “cores”. This combination is also used by other competing local manufacturers; PowKiddy, Retroid and more recently Miyoo, whose Miyoo Mini also caused a sensation when it was released last year. If manufacturers do not communicate the sales figures of their products, the tiny fake Game Boy would have elapsed at 180,000 copies, a respectable score for a low manufacturing cost, and an online sale that does without costly intermediaries. It's a bit dated, but the Miyoo Mini is the most mainstream product of the current generation. [de consoles portables] ” thus confirms Taki Udonone of the most popular YouTubers in the industry.
Like other popular video creators revolving around portable consoles, Taki's career began with short tests of the first models of the Anbernic brand, in 2021. The release of the RG350 and Retroid Pocket 2 models were the first devices in this niche to capture the public's attention. ” he explains. Models taking up the layout modern portable consoles popularized with the Game Boy Advance, and which had already seduced by their capacity to emulate several retro consoles. Because if some hardwares ship Android with native compatibility for games like Dead Cells, the crux of the matter is their ability to offer quality software emulation; up to the 32-bit generation for entry-level models, up to 128-bit consoles like the PS2 and GameCube for more powerful and expensive machines. While Anbernic and Retroid specialize in the first, the second segment is mostly occupied by manufacturers like AYANEO and AYN, who go through funding campaigns to raise the funds needed to produce their machines. An approach that logically leads to long delays between payment of the pre-order and shipping of the products, and a customer service that is not able to respond to requests from customers located on the other side of the globe. When you see the high price of some high-end consoles, not having the assurance of a nearby repair service weighs in the balance.
Abundance is never over
Prices that are rising for an offer that is multiplying, to the point of becoming as confusing as possible. What separates the AYANEO 2 from the Air and Retro Pocket models? Should you go for an Anbernic RG353M, 405M or RG353P? So many questions that have given rise to a whole group of YouTube videographers specializing in the field: Retro Game Corpsexhaustive enough to make your head spin, analyzes each machine down to measuring the circumference of the buttons. In another genre, Retro Dodo wants to be more concise, but also more personal in its reviews. As for Taki Udon, he views his impact with modesty: ” I think the only contribution I hope to offer is to inform users, both about the types of products on the market and to guide according to each person's expectations. “.
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Especially since the arrival of Valve has reshuffled the cards. Faced with the success of the Switch model, Valve's proposal immediately found an audience; and triggered an equally rapid response from tech manufacturers, such as Asus with its ROG Ally or Lenovo and its Legion Go, without really finding a viable competitor. Even though there is a new iteration now, the original model [du Steam Deck] is still relevant because it was made with great attention to detail ” explains Taki. ” You can't achieve such a result by working on 10 portable consoles at the same time. There are always losses. “One model, a few variations: the offer is sober, but is content with the essentials, even while other competitors multiply the versions with different chipsets, without really considering their real usefulness.
An approach that would benefit from replicating Chinese nomad manufacturers, who prefer models with convoluted names rather than focusing their offering on a single, understandable range. A sentiment also shared by Taki, who finds ” the market has been saturated for a while “, and gets upset about it in a video rant. You only have to look at recent releases to see the state of the current market – Anbernic has successively released the small RG28XXthe RG35XXSP replica and the strange RG Cubewhile its next model flagship new generation, the RG40XX, was unveiled in a video which failed to convince the public. Miyoo also intends to reinterpret the SP with its own clamshell console, and has also taken care of the Micro with its A30. And all this since the beginning of the year alone. A crazy release rate – so much so that one wonders on what economic model these players rely to allow themselves to release SKUs by the shovelful. For the YouTuber, ” Most companies survive solely by attracting the same group of customers who repeatedly buy iterative products. Very few of them really try to make a quality product that will last. “.
Faced with so many different proposals, which one should we recommend to the uninitiated? For our national DocSavage, the AYN Odin 2 does the job perfectly for his slightly more advanced emulation desires, with specs robust enough to handle the 6th generation without flinching. The sale price, too, is to be cashed in – 300 dollars for the standard model, a relatively high sum when you can find a more versatile Steam Deck (but less compact, admittedly) at a similar price. This is generally the price to pay to enjoy the Android environment, much easier to use than systems with software layers based on Linux. In this category, the very recent RG35XXSP already stands out. It must be said that the cheaper the average ticket, the easier it is to enjoy your little console with peace of mind, and to take it on trips almost everywhere with you without fearing every fatal bump or jolt. Perhaps that is the real interest of these consoles – giving meaning to the definition of “portable console”. But the line with e-waste is very thin…