ANBERNIC's RG DS was one of the first "affordable" dual-screen Android devices released into the wild, competing with the bigger opponents, such as the AYN Thor and AYANEO Pocket DS, which had much, much larger price tags, and power for that matter.
Yet, many fell in love with it, due to the slim form factor and the fact that it could emulate Nintendo DS games on an Android OS. I personally never got around to reviewing it, even though I have one, simply because of how busy Seb and I were at the time doing other things. Alongside my pledge to prioritise "great" products instead of "just okay" products to review.
I'll admit, I still need to review it, eventually. The Android OS can be cumbersome, especially setting up Android apps that emulate using two screens, its the case with any dual-screen Android device. But now, ANBERNIC has thrown a spanner in the works by releasing custom firmware for the RG DS that runs on Linux.
This custom firmware is publicly available from ANBERNIC's Google Drive folders and is custom-made to work with the RG DS efficiently. It's undoubtedly a simpler UI that is probably quicker to get into games, too, as it doesn't have the added weight of Android's OS.
That said, you do miss out on a lot of the features that Android brings. It simply comes down to personal preference. I know a lot of our readers are Linux fans, and if I were to gift this to someone who doesn't understand Android Emulation, then Linux is the way to go, so i do see the benefits and respect ANBERNIC for offering this to both old and new customers!
