ANBERNIC’s RG35XXSP has been rumoured for some time now, with leaked videos finding its way onto social media, showing off its very Game Boy Advance SP aesthetics.
Now it’s official. ANBERNIC has got in touch with the Retro Dodo team as of this morning via email asking if we would be interested in reviewing a sample of the RG35XXSP which they mentioned is “coming soon”.
When ANBERNIC say it’s coming soon, they’re typically not lying, so I can expect to see this up for pre-order sometime in the next couple of weeks, which is exciting because retro handheld enthusiasts have been asking for a high quality, semi-powerful clamshell handheld for some time now.
Powkiddy and GoRetroid got there before them admittedly, but Powkiddy’s V90 is built like a Kinder Egg and the Retroid Pocket Flip is much bigger, so hopefully, and a big hopefully ANBERNIC can pull this off and keep it reasonably priced.
So you have transparent blue (likely similar to the shell on the RG556), a grey DMG version with purple buttons, a silver variant and transparent black.
More leaked videos have surfaced showing off a slightly altered version a few days , with the removal of the LED light that was featured on top of the lid. This silver version looks a little more minimal and the handheld in general is a little thicker than the original Nintendo GBA SP.
We haven’t been showed any official images of the top, so it could in fact have a little bit of branding or the LED light that was shown a while back, but we’ll update this article below should we get updated images.
I think this will become a very popular handheld for ANBERNIC, if done right, the build quality looks good and it should be able to power most retro consoles up to and including N64, even if it lacks an analogue stick, but only time will tell. We will be receiving a sample to review, so stay tuned to our YouTube channel and our website for an in-depth analysis.
Update: 8th May 2024
ANBERNIC has now officially revealed the RG35XXSP on their YouTube channel, with a better look at the design and performance. They have shown off the four official colours alongside PSP, N64, Dreamcast and more emulation, but I don’t want to comment on the performance until it’s in my hands.
It looks like they have removed the LED light on the top of the shell, which I think many handheld lovers will appreciate, and as mentioned this is looking near identical to the GBA SP.
The screen looks like the perfect ratio and it’s showing a headphone jack at the front alongside two SD-cards, one for the OS and one to install your ROMs.
This is an exciting time, and one of the first ANBERNIC handhelds that I am excited about, in a long time.
Update: 11th May
ANBERNIC has sent us details regarding the specifications of the RG35XXSP, and they are as expected, staying inline with their RG35XX series of handhelds.
ANBERNIC RG35XX Specifications
- 3.5″ IPS Display (640 x 480)
- 1.5GHz Quad-Core Allwinner H700 ARM Cortex-A53 CPU
- Mali G31 GPU
- 1GB RAM (LPDDR4)
- 3300MAH Battery
- Linux OS
- WiFi + Bluetooth
- USB-C Charging
