Anbernic RG SP Review

It’s Special

The Anbernic RG SP is special — it’s one of the rare times where a company has made, or at least tried to make, an actually good replica of a beloved handheld.

I still have my original Game Boy Advance SP. It’s battered, it’s been put through hell, but it still turns on, still plays games, and is still one of my favorite handhelds of all time.

So seeing a 2026 version of it, all grown up with a better screen and more power to play even more than GBA if I wanted to, is enough to make me happy.

And at just $58 USD — at least for the first three days, before it goes up by about $7 — it’s a fantastic price for what you’re getting.

The only knock I have right away is the color options. We have Graphite, Platinum, Pearl Blue and Pearl Pink, and based on previous Anbernic releases, I fully expect newer and better colors to show up in a few months.

Is there a world where I have to buy another one? Probably.

The GBA SP Form Factor

At the end of the day, the Anbernic RG SP is another device from Anbernic using the same processor and a lot of the same internals they’ve used in a number of other devices, including an actual Game Boy Advance clone that I really wasn’t a fan of.

Turns out, I’m an SP GBA fan instead.

Anbernic previously made the 4:3 version of this device, and then later released a 3:2 version with sticks. What they hadn’t done until now was the proper 3:2 aspect ratio, no-stick, clamshell device.

And that’s really what you’re here for.

If you want the proper 3:2 Game Boy Advance ratio, you don’t want sticks, and you don’t want that weird forehead thing that the Anbernic RG34XXSP had, this is the device you’ve been waiting for.

Those other options have existed, but neither of them really felt like a GBA SP to me.

There isn’t anything revolutionary here. This is a refinement of existing products to give people like me what they wanted: a proper GBA SP.

USB-C Charging

Now, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

One of my biggest gripes with Anbernic’s H700 lineup is the charging. It’s unacceptable in 2026 that I can’t use any USB-C cable and any USB-C charger to charge one of these devices.

Unfortunately, there have been zero changes here compared to previous H700 devices.

I’ve tried every USB-C cable that I own — cables that are best sellers and some of the most purchased cables on Amazon — and not a single one charges this device properly. The same goes for the chargers I’ve tried.

I don’t much care about the reasoning behind why this doesn’t work. I care that it doesn’t work.

It’s frustrating that I need to either find whatever specific USB-C cable works with this device, or use an adapter.

There is a USB-C 5.1K resistor adapter that you can buy that lets this work with all of my cables, but only on the end that connects directly to the RG SP.

So it’s a good news/bad news situation. Good news: you can use any cable. Bad news: you have to buy a little adapter to do it.

Could Anbernic have fixed all of their H700 devices to work this way? Yes.

Did they? No.

And that’s unfortunate. It’s 2026.

HDMI, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Despite the charging issue, we do at least have HDMI out, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Personally, Wi-Fi is the important one for me. It lets me use RetroAchievements and Syncthing, as well as making it easier to update custom firmware.

All three are welcome additions to a handheld at this price.

Design and Build Quality

The best part about the Anbernic RG SP is how much it makes you relive the nostalgia of using a Game Boy Advance SP.

It matches the original surprisingly well in both size and appearance.

We do have four face buttons here, since you’re obviously not limited to just GBA games, and that’s a good change in my opinion. Otherwise, it’s a fairly faithful recreation with improvements where they’re needed.

Oh, and the headphone jack is back. Anbernic remembered this time.

The shell is plastic with a painted metal finish. Hopefully it ends up looking a lot nicer than my original GBA SP has after a few years, but for the price and what you’re getting here, everything looks and feels good.

Controls

The D-pad is a microswitch D-pad. It’s clicky, doesn’t require a lot of force to push down, and feels good to me.

It’s not my favorite D-pad in the world, but it’s perfectly serviceable.

One of the concerns with previous models was that the controls were harder to press, but I don’t feel that at all on the RG SP. It’s easy to push, has a nice tactile feel and should be fine for just about anyone.

It’s also bigger than the original SP, which is a welcome change now that I don’t have five-year-old thumbs anymore.

The buttons are more of the same: microswitch, clicky and requiring very little force to press.

They’re not silent, so you will hear them, but they’ve been perfectly fine in my testing. I’d be surprised if anyone had major issues with either the D-pad or buttons.

Comfort

I find the entire thing to be reasonably comfortable.

It’s not the most comfortable handheld ever made, but one-handing the device or using both hands while playing GBA games feels good.

I’ve had a few multi-hour sessions playing games on this and haven’t really had any issues. For the size, I think Anbernic has done a good job here.

Software and Custom Firmware

One of the best parts about owning a 2026 version of the GBA SP is that the world is your oyster when it comes to software.

Anbernic’s stock operating system gives you plenty of options for playing Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Sega and other systems.

Technically, the device has enough power to play some Nintendo 64, Dreamcast and PSP games as well, but I don’t see why you’d buy this specifically for those systems.

For me, this is a Game Boy Advance device.

And honestly, I’m not mad about that. It’s cheap enough that having one primary use case isn’t a problem, especially when that use case comes with the incredible GBA library.

I’m actually using a pre-release build of NextUI on my device, which is a beautiful minimal operating system that doesn’t throw a ton of stuff at you and makes it easy to jump straight into your games.

This build is missing the usual Pak store, but that will be included in the full release. Otherwise, your games work, display properly and you have the features you need, including save states and emulator settings.

It also has lid support. Close the lid and the device goes to sleep after 30 seconds. Open it back up, press the power button and you’re right back where you were.

You’re not limited to NextUI or Anbernic’s software either. The device will also be supported by muOS, KNULLI and the usual custom firmware options.

These Anbernic devices have a huge amount of community support, so you have plenty of options.

Display

The GBA screen is why you buy this, and it doesn’t disappoint.

It’s a 720×480 display, which gives you a perfect 3x integer scale for Game Boy Advance games.

It gets nice and bright, has good colors and hits all the right notes you want from a screen like this.

There is one caveat: the screen doesn’t seem to be perfectly centered in the actual frame.

The black line at the top of my screen is slightly thicker than the others for some odd reason.

It’s a nitpick, and it goes away once you stop noticing it, but it’s something that stood out to me.

Speaker

The speaker is serviceable.

I’m not going to say it’s good. It’s fine.

I wish it was better, but it does its job. Nobody is going to be writing articles praising the speaker, but it plays sounds, and that’s really the best praise I can give it.

The Anbernic RG SP Verdict

And I guess that’s all there really is to talk about here.

I love it.

It’s what I’ve been waiting for from a company for years.

Is it the best version they could have made? No.

Is it the perfect version that I’d want? Not at all.

But I can’t be too picky when we’ve only had one device that I’d consider a close-to-1:1 replica of the GBA SP.

It’s not without its faults, and there are plenty of them, but it’s the best version we have today.

Especially now, when it seems like more and more companies are becoming hesitant to release smaller devices like this, I appreciate Anbernic actually making one.

If you’ve been waiting for a proper modern GBA SP, this is it.

The only question is whether you want one of the current colors or want to wait and see what Anbernic inevitably releases next.