ANBERNIC RG40XX H Review – A Reliable Budget Retro Handheld

Just as I finished writing the review of the ANBERNIC RG Cube, this then lands on my desk. At times it feels like all I am doing is reviewing handhelds from ANBERNIC. Their release schedule is overwhelming to say the least.

But here i am, writing another review and this time it’s about the RG40XX H, ANBERNIC’s new budget retro handheld that starts at $69.99 and is replacing the older 350 series of budget handhelds that I loved.

It’s a needed upgrade from their previous budget handhelds and has an overhaul in both power and aesthetics, so it’s in ANBERNIC’s interest to get its previous customers to upgrade to this, and i’ll admit, I think it may be time to upgrade if you are still using the RG350P or RG350M from a couple of years ago.

Let’s take a look at how this thing feels, how it emulates and if the jazzy new upgrades are worth the price tag?

• Release Date: July 2024
• Price: $69.99
• Where To Buy: ANBERNIC.com and Amazon
• Competitors: ANBERNIC RG35XX H and Retroid Pocket 2S

ANBERNIC RG400X H Specifications

• 4″ IPS Display – 640 x 480 (No-touchscreen)
• 1.5GHZ H700 Quad-Core ARM Cortex-153 CPU
• Mali G31 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 3200MAH Battery
• Linux OS
• WiFi/Bluetooth
• USB-C Charging
• Weight: 0.208kg

RG400X H Design & Build Quality

ANBERNIC have completely redesigned this line of handhelds and introduced an array features to this budget device. Typically ANBERNIC has kept their horizontal devices to look slightly more square, but this small refresh has added a curved shell, looking similar to that of the TRIMUI Smart Pro.

It’s certainly more comfortable to hold because of this, and my fingers felt as if they rested naturally along the sides and top of the device. I noticed naturally that the device is quite thin too, coming in at just 1.6cm thick.

The face is mostly absorbed by the 4″ IPS display, which has a resolution of 640 x 480, which is a great ratio for playing your favourite 4:3 retro games. It has very small bezels too, and if you choose the grey variant it actually comes with a grey border around the screen to make the bezels seem invisible.

It’s covered with a glass display and is not touch-screen, which is expected because it keeps the price down and let’s ANBERNIC price this affordably. The screen itself is beautiful and a great size for diving into an array of retro consoles.

However, just like the RG Cube, this display has a small hint of light bleed in the top left corner. This is becoming a frequent occurrence in ANBERNIC handhelds which isn’t good. It’s not going to affect casual gameplay at all, but handheld nerds will notice slight change in colour if your device has what my device has.

It’s because things are just too tight and compact within the shell and it has not been properly altered to relieve pressure from the display. Maybe some customers can reduce the light bleed by loosening the screws but it’s still visible on my unit.

Focusing on the buttons now, ANBERNIC have had a great history with button quality. The analogue sticks now feature LED backlights, allowing you to customise them as you please, and are incredibly high quality too, with strong R3/L3 functionality.

The sticks do touch the sides and have short travel to them, so that may put off some of you that like “long” sticks for driving games for example, but nonetheless pleasant and strong analogue sticks which I have thoroughly enjoyed. The LED addition sacrifices the range of movement slightly but average gamers or newcomers to the handheld scene would not notice.

The D-PAD is close to flawless, and I say that in all the handheld reviews that feature this DPAD, it’s strong, flexible and minimal, they have nailed it.

The action buttons sit fairly high out of the shell, and feature a bouncy membrane underneath, so you won’t get a much of a “click” from them. They are high gloss which isn’t my personal preference, I would have much preferred matte but they are still good quality and do the job nicely. You will also find start, select and a menu button across the chin.

On the bottom you find your dual speakers away from being obstructed, two SD-Card slots (one for your OS and one for your ROM files), and a 3.5mm headphone jack located perfectly on the bottom. There’s no buttons on the sides because that’s where your hands will sit.

Finally up top your beautiful stacked shoulder buttons that feel very similar to the Nintendo Switch’s and feature a gripped texture to them, they wrap around the corners of the handheld neatly and don’t look out of place. I am very happy they went for the stacked buttons here, as it’s a nice upgrade from their recently released RG35XX H which don’t have them.

Between them you’ll find your on/off button, volume buttons, a LED indicated which is an oval shape (which I did, it gives it a modern look), a USB-C port, a reset button and mini-HDMI out.

The shell used is very high quality too. It’s not thin, it can take a decent amount of bumps and it passes the shake test too, with very little rattling within the internals.

Is this handheld comfortable?

It’s a very comfortable handheld and because of the 3200MAH battery that lasts between 5 – 6 hours it’s a handheld that I can paly on for hours on end without wanting to put it down. That’s partly because of the large screen and partly because of its rounded aesthetics.

The console prioritises DPAD gameplay because of it’s upper placement and the stacked shoulder buttons make resting your fingers very organic.

It’s one of the most comfortable budget handhelds that I have reviewed, and because it’s on the lighter side at just 205g I didn’t feel any stress in my wrists or fingers either.

ANBERNIC have designed a great handheld here, I am impressed.

OS and UX

One area that ANBERNIC has always lacked expertise in is their user experience. The user experience is typically outdated when compared to other handhelds on the market and it becomes really obvious when they make a good handheld like this.

The RG40XX H uses a Linux OS and ANBERNIC have attempted to create a sleek, easy to use front-end for its users but again, like many of their other Linux based devices it just isn’t pleasing to use.

It’s incredibly basic and needs a lot of work to bring it to the same standard as their build quality. ANBERNIC have always left this to the community to fix and I have never respected that. They should follow GoRetroid’s approach of building modern software experiences but they just choose not to.

And in all hoensty, it does bring down the overall experience. Here they use a confusing menu that shows a “games room” section and a Retro Arch section which pretty much do the same thing.

Menus and game lists are simple text on a black background, is if Im using Windows 98 and then the settings again is just… dull. Thankfully retro arch is installed to help with some of the experience but in reality ANBERNIC needs to put more time into building a pleasant experience for their users.

I will continue mentioning this in my reviews until ANBERNIC sorts it, but I won’t lie, I have been talking about it for years now and they just don’t seem to care and simply wait for their community to clean up their mess. Not cool.

Emulation Quality

If you can get past the hideous front-end then you will be greeted with respectable emulation quality, thanks to the H700 GPU, 1GB of RAM and 4″ display.

The RG40XX H can play an array of games comfortably, from Game Boy, to Nintendo 64, to Mega Drive to Nintendo DS, Dreamcast and even a handful of PSP games.

For a $69 device that’s a great selection of consoles that run straight out of the box. However when you are trying to emulate Dreamcast and PSP games you may come across some frame rate drops when things get hectic.

For example God of War on PSP will struggle on here, simply because it’s a very demanding game, and it will also have large black borders around it too because of the 16:9 ratio fitting to the screen. Most Dreamcast games work incredibly well, but at times when plying Crazy Taxi you will see some judders, but nonetheless it’s still a pleasant Dreamcast experience, especially on this 4:3 screen.

Some consoles will have custom borders too, like Game Boy Advance showing the logo, with the ability to change the video palletes too. When playing larger games I did notice that the device does tend to get a little warm after about 30 minutes or so.

This isn’t a problem, but it is noticeable. The speakers at times can also be too loud, it’s often i found myself playing at around 10% volume, which was more than enough, anything beyond 60% will make the audio very tinny and muffled.

If you would like you can also sync up a bluetooth controller and connect it to a display using HDMI. It’s not the most optimal gaming experience but it is possible and works as should. Though, I’ll say it again, it’s why ANBERNIC needs to work on their UX, because on a big screen the front-end looks/feels even worse.

Overall Opinions

Overall ANBERNIC has made a great handheld here and has priced it respectfully. The rounded edges, stacked shoulder buttons, upgraded CPU and fancy LED analogue sticks makes it a worthy upgrade for those still using retro handhelds from a couple of years ago.

The only issue I have and it’s not specific to this device is that the market is becoming overly saturated with these types of devices, there’s just so many to choose from and each only has a smaller benefit to the next, so those of you that have purchased a retro handheld this year, it’s likely not worth snagging this one, because it does the exact same thing, just in a unique form factor and flashy sticks.

If ANBERNIC sorted the light bleed and the dull user experience this could have been a remarkable handheld, and that’s why I am not rating it a 10/10.