RG35XX H
($60 on AliExpress.)
Folks, I'm not sure I dare to believe it, but I think we might have reached the end of the cheap retro handheld project, because I think I have everything I want.
This is amazing at the $60 price point. Similar size to the original RG350 (it’s slightly more squat), vertical design, 3.5” screen, good build quality, full set of buttons (including analog sticks and L3/R3). Headphone jack, two TF card slots, mini-HDMI out and an extra USB-C for controllers. It’s got favorites, recents and a search function. It has a toggle in the settings where you can switch from the quick menu (save states and screen adjustments only) to the full RetroArch menu—and in both cases, the Function button at the top is a
dedicated menu button.
As is pretty standard, this comes fully loaded with roms; but it also is pre-loaded with the full cheats list, and cheats work for everything I tried. It runs all the usual systems beautifully (NES, SNES, GB, GBA, Genesis, PS1), but also has a lot of lesser-seen systems all set up and ready to go (Pico-8, Pokemini, Virtual Boy, Game & Watch, Sega Master System, Game Gear, PCEngine, Neo-Geo Pocket Color, Wonderswan, even Atomiswave!) The only lower-end system it was missing right out of the box was Lynx, and when I loaded in some roms that worked fine too. It came with Dreamcast, PSP and DS titles, too: Dreamcast looks good and runs well. PSP is a little jerky and cramped on the screen; I suspect it would be okay for lower-end games or slow-moving rpgs but not super-playable for higher-end stuff. DS has the virtual stylus mapped to the sticks and uses L2/R2 to change the screens, and runs just fine.
N64 was our tier-3 wildcard: It didn’t come with any roms preloaded. When I added some, Mario Kart 64 ran well; Smash Bros ran at full speed but with graphical glitches (mostly transparency problems). I suspect that fiddling with settings could get you a good-but-not-perfect play experience with N64. Not quite as good as the Trimui Smart Pro, but better than the unplayable N64 on the R36S.
And speaking of those comparisons: The R36S was almost exactly what I wanted software-wise, but the build quality was lousy and there was the issue with the damn fake menu button. I adore the Trimui Smart Pro, but I’ll admit it’s a bit large for carrying around. Especially in the official case (which is super-compact and barely fits the charger cable), this is extremely pocketable but still comfortable to hold. It loads fast and runs all the early systems smoothly—and I mean all of them, right out of the box.
There’s already
plenty of custom firmware available. Apparently installing Batocera will give you better N64 and Dreamcast emulation, if that’s what you’re looking for; while muUI, minUI, and GarlicOS are all available for faster pick-up-and-play of the lower-end systems. I’m personally very happy with the capabilities of the stock OS here and don’t really see myself changing it out.
Overall: I really don’t know what else to ask for at this point. We’ve passed the point where there are systems out of reach that you’d want to play on this size screen—who wants to play PS2 or Gamecube on a 3.5” handheld? I think we’ve perfected the cheaper, smaller form-factor as the technology has caught up to it.
