It has been a few weeks since ANBERNIC last revealed a handheld, and its community are getting withdrawal symptoms, but do not fear, your retro handheld hit is here in the form of a Game Boy Advance!
This device looks like it could be another addition to their affordable range due to its title, screen-size and rumoured specifications. It comes warmly welcomed after the huge success of the RG35XXSP which focused its design on the GBA SP.
The RG34XX features a 3.4″ IPS display with a resolution of 720 x 480, running on a Linux OS, featured WiFi, Bluetooth and HDMI connectivity, but that’s the only specifications that ANBERNIC has announced.
They have also mentioned that this can emulate PSP, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Dreamcast, Playstation 1 and all of your Game Boy games, which makes me believe it’s going to priced between $50 and $75 and feature the overused H700 chipset, which can be found in the RGCUBEXX and RG40XXV.
It comes in four different colours, classic Indigo, transparent green, transparent red and black, with similar features to the GBA. The most obvious changes are the addition of two extra action buttons on the front and a larger 3.4″ (3:2) display with some very obvious bezels.
If you flip it around, you will notice there there is an additional two extra shoulder buttons, hiding where the cartridge slot would be, allowing you to map keys to this area within certain consoles. Compared to the GBA it’s identical in size too, featuring iconic screw holes, a battery cover and even a slot to attach a lanyards.
On the top you’ll find your USB-C charing port, two SD-card slots, reset buttons, a Mini-HDMI out and slight adjustments to the GBA’s original shoulder buttons to add some comfort. This isn’t going to be a revolutionary handheld, but it’s certainly going to be on that GBA fans will enjoy, especially if you don’t want to splash out on modifying you own GBA.
If I had to guess, ANBERNIC will open pre-orders for this in the next few weeks, and ships in early January, with a price point of around $60/$70. Overall I am a big fan of the GBA design, but again like i say in many release news posts, I have so many of these devices now that I only tend to purchase something that is truly unique.
That said, it makes a perfect gift or starter handheld for anyone wanting to enter the emulation scene. It’s one of ANBERNIC’s riskier handhelds recently, in terms of being incredibly close to Nintendo designs, but they have tested the waters many times and are still alive and thriving so who knows, maybe Nintendo won’t care and ANBERNIC will keep being ANBERNIC for many more years to come?
Update 9th December 2024: ANBERNIC has informed us that the RG34XX will be available to purchase on the 16th December. Their website listing will go live on the 14th December at 18:00 Beijing Time.
