RG350P Review – A Nice Upgrade To A Comfortable Handheld

The RG350P is Anbernic’s latest handheld that rivals the RK2020 and Bittboy Pocket Go V2.

The original RG350 was near perfect, but many of the community members wanted some slight adjustments. 

They swiftly made the adjustments to the newer, more expensive RG350M, but left many customers who couldn’t afford the $129.99 price tag in the dust. Until now.

The RG350P is quite simply the plastic version of the RG350M but with a smaller resolution screen. The original RG350 is now obsolete, as it’s now outdated.

You may be able to get the original slightly cheaper (now that it’s old), but we advise spending the extra bucks for the RG350P.

For those of you new to the “Retro Game” and “RG” handheld community, these handhelds by Anbernic are quite simply some of the best handheld emulators around. If you want to play your old school games on the go, you’ll want a Retro Game handheld.

RG30P Price

The RG350P is $89.99 for the console, but we have noticed that you can also buy pre-loaded SD card bundles for slightly more. So if you want a preloaded RG350P, click the button at the top of the page.

What Does RG350P Mean?

It’s good to know what each section of the name means, as you can then understand the newer upcoming handhelds, for example the RG351P.

RG = Retro Game (the title of the handheld)

35 = Screen size (3.5”)

0 = The internal CPU chip, 0 means JZ4770, 1 means RK3326, 2 means MediaTek. (We have information that the next RG351P is real, and will be released towards the end of August or start of September with the RK3326 chip.)

P/M = Plastic or Metal shell.

RG350P Specifications

• 3.5” IPS Display (320 x 240)
• 4770 Dual Core 1.0GHZ CPU
• 512MB RAM
• 2500MAH Battery

What’s New With The RG350P?

The RG350P has a wide number of new features, all external. Nothing on the inside is new, there’s no power bump, it has the same battery capacity, and the same amount of RAM. 

It simply comes down to comfortability and button placement.

There is a slight difference with the screen, it is now laminated meaning it sits flush with the plastic display cover. 

You won’t really notice it but there’s now no chance of getting dust behind it should you be taking apart your RG350P.. A nice new touch, but it’s nothing crazy.

So, let’s take a look at the face of the handheld. The biggest changes to the RG350P over the original, is that the DPAD and analogue sticks have been swapped. Many customers asked for this change, and ANBERNIC answered.

Next up, is the analogue sticks themselves. Before the stuck out of the handheld by half an inch, which felt uncomfortable and made the handheld less portable. 

Constantly would we chuck the original in our pocket, and it would get caught ever time. But that’s no more, as the new Switch analogue sticks are recessed into the handheld, laying flush with the buttons.

Talking of buttons, the START and SELECT buttons now sit further out of the case, allowing for easier pressing.

And finally on the face, the ANBERNIC logo is silver and smaller, no longer do you have a huge orange logo. If you want to get rid of the ANBERNIC logo entirely, we advise checking out SakuraRetroModding on Etsy. They sell stickers and new buttons for the RG350M.

Moving on to the sides, the volume buttons now sit on one side, and the power on/off button on the other. Previously, they were underneath, we guess users accidentally put it to sleep from time to time.

Lastly, the back of the RG350P now has grips, just like the RG350M. This adds a nice level of comfortability to the handheld, not that the unit was ever slippery, but it’s a nice touch.

Build Quality

Overall the build quality of the RG350P far suprasses the original RG350 and it’s great that ANBERNIC have made these changes. The handheld now feels far more polished and we’ll say it, finished.

Everything great about the RG350M has been moved across to the cheaper plastic version. The screen is closer, the analogue sticks perfectly placed with an upgrade to quality, and the new charcoal casing looks like it’s fit for 007 himself.

The RG350P makes other Chinese handhelds look like they came from a cereal box.

Emulation Power

Now this is a review, but we don’t want to spend too much time on emulation power, as this review is all about the changes. If you’d like more information regarding gaming power, we advise reading our RG350 or RG350M review, but we’ll go over it quickly for you.

Quite simply the RG350P can play all of your ROMs up to Playstation 1. Do you you want to play your best Gameboy Advance games, or even Crash Bandicoot on the original Playstation? You can.

This will run it all at silky frame rates, with very little screen tearing. 

It can’t emulate N64, Dreamcast or any of the “big dogs” as it just doesn’t have enough processing power to do so. It will even struggle with some of the larger 3D PS1 games at times, but rarely.

Like any Retro Game handheld, the firmware and internal software will allow you to save/load states, change screen aspect ratio, add cheats, and install your own ROMs.

Many of you ask if this comes preloaded with games, originally no. But you can buy the SD card package here which does come with an SD card packed full of ROMs. This is illegal, but hey, China…

Overall Opinion

It really is a flawless handheld for $80. We could argue that ANBERNIC should have released this many months ago, and instead added a much more powerful chip inside this one so users actually want to upgrade, but instead many of us are just waiting for the next one.

However, if you are too impatient to wait for the Analogue Pocket release, then this is a superb handheld to invest in if you want a great handheld with high end build quality.

It really is one of the best retro handhelds out there, and the new improved features really makes it feel like a finished product. 

The upcoming RG351P is real, it is happening, and it’s basically a RG350P with a far more powerful chip that can emulate up to PSP, N64 and Dreamcast. But, there’s no release date as of yet, so for now if you don’t want to wait, the RG350P is for you.