ANBERNIC RG40XX V Review – Another Mediocre Vertical Handheld To Add To The Pile

ANBERNIC has created some great vertical handhelds to date, their most popular being the RG35XX and the larger RG351V which I thoroughly enjoyed back when it launched a couple of years ago.

In true ANBERNIC fashion, they are releasing handhelds every couple of months, with tiny iterations to make it feel like you’re missing out on the next new thing. However, with their focus on quantity rather than quantity, I do feel like ANBERNIC’s momentum is slowing while other competitive manufacturers are seemingly listening to their audience and creating more intriguing devices that we all actually want – GoRetroid, for example.

Heck, as I was producing this review, they revealed another handheld called the RG406V… I literally cannot keep up with them. ANBERNIC wants to own the sub $150 market with as much choice as they can physically make, and the RG40XX V adds to the never-ending array of choices. And although it’s priced very competitively at $67, it still ignores the issues that reviewers like myself have been mentioning for years now.

This puts the spotlight again on ANBERNIC’s intention to simply make fast money rather than build great products. I’m personally getting a little exhausted from reviewing them and saying the same things over and over, with a couple of new features that may force an old customer to upgrade simply because of FOMO.

This is the vertical version of the RG40XX H that I reviewed on our website a couple of months ago; it has the same specs, the same screen, and the same battery capacity. Except this is in a vertical, Game Boy DMG-like form factor, hence the V in the name.

• Release Date: September 2024
• Release Price: $66.99/£50
• Where To Buy: ANBERNIC.COM and Amazon
• Competitors: RG40XX H, RG353V & Retroid Pocket 4 Pro

ANBERNIC RG40XX V Specifications

• 4″ IPS 4:3 Display (640 x 480)
• 1.5Ghz Mali H700 CPU
• Mali G51 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 3200MAH Battery
• WiFi/Bluetooth
• USB-C Charging
• 3.5mm Headphone Jack
• Mini-HDMI Out

Design & Build Quality

The screen is by far one of the biggest upgrades, and although it’s only half an inch bigger than most of their handhelds with smaller borders, it does certainly make a difference and makes the handheld look that little bit more modern. The glass display looks beautiful; there’s no denying it. The colours really pop and the brightness is good for those wanting to play on this device outside. There is a tiny bit of light bleed which is hard to see, but for handheld nerds out there, you might notice it.

On the other half of the face, you will be greeted with your face buttons, starting with the DPAD. There’s nothing wrong with it, and if you watch my other ANBERNIC reviews you will know I’m a big fan of their DPAD, it’s sturdy, reliable, and feels smooth. On the other side, you’ll find the high-gloss action buttons. I am not a fan of these personally; I don’t like high gloss buttons and the font used looks super plain. All in all, there’s nothing original here.

The DPAD and action buttons feature a small circle around them that is engrained within the shell. I’m not sure why these are here; it looks like lazy design, and when you notice them, they are hard to ignore. I feel like ANBERNIC could have done something more innovative here. Between the buttons and DPAD, you’ll find your small start/select buttons and a menu button that opens up the emulator settings. Unfortunately, I did find that on occasion my select button would actually get stuck under the shell. At first, I thought this could be an issue with one of my units, but in fact, with a little bit of force, my second review unit has developed the exact same issue.

Below that, you’ll find a lone analogue stick, just left there as if it’s a lost inflatable doughnut in the blue sea waiting to be played with. This analogue stick is a hall-effect joystick featuring LED lights to make it stand out, and that it does. It’s a high-quality analogue stick for sure and one I have little issues with, but it is worth noting that it doesn’t have as much travel to it compared to other non-LED devices because of the strip around the edge taking up valuable space.

Then at the bottom, you’ll find a speaker grill that is located directly under your thumb. It’s pretty loud for a single speaker, but you will notice slight sound blockage due to its poor location. I get it, they want it to subtly look like a Game Boy, but just no.

Around the edges you’ll find your less used buttons such as volume, on/off, a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom next to a USB-C port two SD card slots, LED indicator lights and a Mini-HDMI out for connecting to a display.

Moving to the back of the handheld, you’ll find your four shoulder buttons. These shoulder buttons are admittedly getting better as the months go on. The L2/R2 buttons are slightly raised, enough to be easily distinguished, and they sit very close to the internal contacts meaning minimal movement is needed to press them.

The angle makes it easy to rest your fingers on them too. These are okay shoulder buttons; they do their job, are minimal, and sit on top of the battery pack for comfort. I’ve seen worse, and I’ve seen better.

All of those features are wrapped in a sturdy plastic shell that’s very scratch-resistant, and all buttons are located quite naturally apart from the analogue stick, making it a comfortable, portable vertical handheld.

User Experience & Frontend Firmware

When you turn on the device you will be greeted with the pretty depressing ANBERNIC front end. It’s very dull, a little awkward to navigate and feels like it was created on a PC from the 90’s. I say it in most of our Linux Anbernic handheld reviews – it’s the biggest downfall of their devices.

You could argue that it does the job as swiftly as possible, but at what cost? Well, I’ll tell you – that cost is boredom. ANBERNIC needs to put some time and money into creating a pleasant user experience, but instead, they leave you to do that yourselves by downloading community front ends that were made out of dissatisfaction with Linux handhelds so that they can spend more time on launching another mediocre device in hope that you upgrade.

Many of you will say “Brandon, just install some custom firmware”, but I shouldn’t have to. People are spending their hard-earned cash on these things, and the more we as customers adhere to simply downloading other firmware, the more likely these companies are going to get away with making half-baked products. I review these handhelds as is, straight out of the box; if i have to tinker, download, or modify it in any way, then that’s a negative in my opinion.

In the menu, you have Game Rooms and RA Game, which is confusing for anyone new to devices like this. For the best performance, I advise using RA Game which uses RetroArch. It organises them into consoles with box art and an image. The front end also allows you to add favourites, search for games and jump into settings which again, looks like something from Windows 98, but it works.. I guess.

Emulation Performance

In terms of emulation performance, it’s going to be very similar to the other Allwinner H700 handhelds that I have reviewed, this is a device that has enough power to emulate a wide range of retro consoles, with flawless emulation up to and including PlayStation 1 and Nintendo DS.

NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, Mega Drive and more will work incredibly well on here with zero tinkering, and all look stunning on this bright, colourful display. Many of these will have a small, branded border around it to make the borders less obvious. I can’t mention enough how lovely this screen is; it’s a great choice by ANBERNIC and one I loved on the horizontal version too.

Let’s move onto larger consoles that demand a little more power – Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. These games will emulate well on most occasions. In fact, there were very few issues with them, but now and then you’ll notice some performance drop on the more intense games, so tinkering with settings and frame skip is likely to happen to run things flawlessly.

But that’s very much its limit on a chipset like this, and that’s fair enough, because if you’re looking for PSP, PS2, or even Gamecube emulation, then this isn’t going to do it, nor will it be comfortable on a device with this screen size.

N64 and Dreamcast are its limits, but they still look great on a 4” screen with these ergonomics. When playing PSP games, the console’s limits become pretty obvious with emulation being quite poor. The same goes for the overall PSP gaming experience because of its 16:9 aspect ratio. I wouldn’t buy this if you’re looking for a handheld that emulates PSP well. It’s a no go from me, unfortunately.

Overall Opinion

That said, this type of performance in a $65 handheld is what makes this a good choice for those wanting a vertical handheld with decent performance and an analogue stick, if you can get past the poor user experience, that is.

This device isn’t going to blow your socks off, and it isn’t a device that you’ll think is built with quality at the forefront of its development strategy, but it gets the job done. It’s an ANBERNIC product, which nowadays means it’s good, but not great, and this is exactly what this product is. It’s just… good.

You can order the RG40XX V directly from ANBERNIC for $66.99.