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| What you get in the box |
Now, you can buy theses handhelds from AliExpress but, if you're familiar with that online retailer, it can be an "interesting" experience. Use the manufacturer's store and you should be good, though as always with AliExpress, shipping times can range from days to literally months. However, there is a UK-based retailer, DroiX, that sells a range of these handhelds and, after checking out various online reviews, I ordered the Anbernic RG351P from them for £79.95 plus £5.99 next working day delivery. A note here, I ordered this on a Saturday, so expected delivery on the following Tuesday. The order wasn't completed until that day so it arrived (via Amazon courier, not DPD) on the Wednesday. While they technically fulfilled the delivery timescale, it's not what I expected and if I were to order again, I'd save a couple of quid and go for the 48 hour tracked delivery. Other than that, no quibbles about the order or the goods received.
So, what does £80 get you and what exactly is the RG351P?
The device itself is the follow up to the RG350P/M models (the P signifies a plastic casing, the M a metal one). You can still buy these (£74.95 and £94.95 respectively) and there are valid reasons to choose the previous model over the newer one (mainly the CPU and type of emulation offered), but you'll need to check out the many YouTube reviews for that. There is, by the way, a 351M which will set you back £129.95 but other than the case and built-in Wifi, has no real differences to the 351P. The 351P is supplied with a USB-C OTG adaptor and an 802.11n WiFi stick, so you still have online access.
The 351P is delivered in a study box reminiscent of those used by Apple for their iPhones, bearing line drawings of the device on two sides, a guide to the various controls and ports, some basic specs and a contents list - this includes the console itself, a charging cable and a dinky little instruction manual. The OTG adaptor and WiFi stick, along with a plastic screen protector and a couple of screen wipes, are not mentioned on the box but were included in it.
The packaging is quite nice and there's a foam pad protecting the device fascia whilst in transit. As for the device itself, it is 152x71x18mm and weighs 340g. The 3.5 inch screen has a resolution of 480x320, a 3:2 ratio that is perfect for Gameboy Advance emulation but stretches anything with a traditional 4:3 ratio. You can switch to a 4:3 ratio but that gives you black bars on either side of the screen - either way, it's a bright and punchy display. Personally, I don't mind either ratio so it's up to you whether this will be an issue. As for the rest of the specs, we have a 1.5GHz ARM-based CPU (the RK3326), a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, 1GB of RAM and a 3500mAh battery, allowing up to 8 hours of play.
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| The top of the device - 2 x USB-C, audio jack and L1/L2/R1/R2 buttons |
Holding it in the hand, the build quality is rather good and I don't have any concerns about sturdiness. I am sure the M will travel better but you'd still need a screen protector and for the price difference, I think the P is better value. Controls-wise, we have two analogue joysticks that have a decent feel, not too loose, not too stiff, that also act as L3 and R3 when clicked. The shoulders have two buttons a piece (L1, L2, R1 and R2) which are nice and clicky. The front of the device has a good D-pad, four regular buttons and separate Start and Select buttons. These work well and aren't spongy. On the right hand side, you have a volume wheel, whilst on the left you have the power button. The base has the reset switch, dual speakers for stereo output and the memory card slot, able to take up to 256GB capacity cards - a 64GB card is supplied, containing the OS and about 2,500 ROMs across the various supported formats. On the top of the device, aside from the shoulder buttons, there are two USB type-C ports (one for power) and a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones. One final note on the hardware, I ordered mine in black but you can also get them in purple and white.
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| The bottom of the device - speakers, memory card slot and reset button |
The manual is a small, folded sheet that contains everything you need to know about the device, though the text is tiny and people with less than stellar eyesight may struggle. Still, it does the job in a concise manner.
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| The manual - it does the job. |
Switching on the RG351P and getting to the emulator front end takes a few seconds, but once you're there, navigation is mostly swift and responsive. My device shipped with the EmuElec front end, but there are alternatives to this which can improve the experience. However, that would require formatting the included card and losing the included ROMs. You'd also need a PC to hand so you could save stuff onto that. Emulation itself is handled by RetroArch, so you have access to its features such as save states, screenshots and the like.
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| The front end is simple to navigate |
The following systems are emulated and, as noted above, you get some ROMs included. That's handy.
Nintendo - DS, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES and N64.
Arcade - Final Burn Neo, MAME, CPS I, CPS II and CPS III.
Sege - Genesis (presumably US titles only) Megadrive (presumably Japanese and European titles only), Game Gear and Dreamcast.
Sony - PlayStation and PSP.
Bandai Wonderswan Color.
MSX.
NEC PC Engine.
NeoGeo.
NeoGeo Pocket.
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| Each format comes with it's own list of games |
As you can see, there is a ton of choice here and you can add your own (legally acquired) ROMS by taking out the memory card and copying them on to it via a PC. I added my copy of Metropolis Street Racer for the Dreamcast just to see how it would play and it went about as well as expected. You see, whilst the RG351P is good for most of the above systems, it's not quite powerful enough to handle the Dreamcast or the N64. Even the PSP is iffy. MSR gave me somewhere between 19 and 32 frames per second which is patchy at best, as well as some audio glitches that didn't make it fun to play. Oh well, I'll stick to ReDream on the PC for that one.
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| MSR - frame counter to top right. 30 fps is a rarity. |
On the whole though, this little handheld copes well with most of the supported systems and should give you between five and eight hours of play time depending on the system being emulated: the more powerful the system, the lower the battery life. Indeed, stick to the original Sony PlayStation or earlier systems and you'll get a great mix of battery life and smooth performance. Adding my copies of the PlayStation games Exhumed and Star Fighter 3000 to the card allowed me to experience these great games again without being tied to a desktop or being overly worried about the battery conking out. Also of note, original Game Boy games are a revelation, the difference between the RG351P and the original hardware actually makes these games fun to play because they're not a murky green/yellow smeary mess.
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| UN Squadron |
A note on the ROMS supplied on the card. These may not be in English and there is some repetition as well between arcade titles and home console conversions (for example, UN Squadron is featured on the CPS I, SNES and the Neo Geo), but on the whole, there is such a range of 8/16 and 32-bit software that you'll struggle to ever find yourself stuck for something to play. The same point can also be made for system options - there are numerous settings that can be changed to your satisfaction.
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| Star Fighter 3000 |
The RG351P is not the perfect handheld though. There's that screen resolution as noted above, but in reality, it's not that much of a problem and the convenience of portable gaming outweighs the slightly stretched image. It can't handle the N64, PSP or Dreamcast well, and that latter system is one that I would love to have on a handheld. One day, that will be the case. The RG351P is a little cramped and those with larger hands may struggle to access all the controls easily. Even my (not so large) hands were suffering a little from cramp after a couple of hours of sustained play. It's not heavy though, which stands in its favour. There is also no dedicated HDMI out so if you want to experience retro gaming on a larger screen, you'll need to find another option. Then again, if you have a PC, you can easily download RetroArch for that and, well, you get my drift. For a lot of the emulation, the screen resolution is just fine, but on a few of the later systems, especially the Dreamcast, things look a bit naff as the screen can't deal with the higher in-game resolution.
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| Streetfighter something or other. |
Where the RG351P really scores for me is the ability to play a ton of older titles (and add more from my own disc collection) without spending the equivalent of the GDP of the average European nation. I love collecting physical games and the associated hardware, but space and cost mean that's just not practical. That also doesn't take into account the maintenance that these systems sometimes require - I have no inclination into getting into re-capping and soldering.
Overall then, the RG351P is a bloody good handheld gaming machine that, whilst it doesn't have the biggest screen, the most powerful chipset or perfectly ergonomic controls, manages to do well enough in each of those categories, and others, to be a great jack-of-all-trades. For the price, the hardware is very good, and if you want more heft, the M version is out there too. The software is easy to navigate and, unless you really dig deep, simple and straightforward.
You can buy the RG351P from a number of stores on AliExpress (including the manufacturer's store) but I bought mine from DroiX and they promise much more rapid delivery. The choice, as they say, is yours.
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