Anbernic RG 55G1 Review

Anbernic RG 55G1 Review

The Anbernic RG 55G1 is Anbernic’s first Snapdragon-powered handheld, and on paper, it looks like it should be an interesting step forward for the company.

It has a Snapdragon G1 Gen 2, a 5.5-inch 1080p display, Hall-effect controls, active cooling, Android 14, and a 6,000mAh battery.

Unfortunately, after spending some time with it, I’m struggling to find a reason to recommend it.

The RG 55G1 is one of those handhelds where nothing is necessarily catastrophically wrong with the entire device, but there also isn’t much that makes it worth buying.

And unfortunately, one of its biggest problems is something I noticed within about 30 seconds of turning it on.

Specs

The RG 55G1 comes in Black, Retro Gray, and Indigo.

It has a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 60Hz IPS display, Qualcomm Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 processor, 4GB or 8GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage.

It runs Android 14 and includes Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, a microSD card slot, and a 6,000mAh battery.

The model I tested is the 8GB version.

The Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 is the same basic platform we’ve seen in the Retroid Pocket Classic, so there isn’t anything particularly exciting about the performance hardware itself.

The 6,000mAh battery is probably the biggest standout – which is quite depressing.

And that’s really the problem with this handheld: most of the features are simply fine.

The Display

The 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display sounds perfectly reasonable on paper, but the response time on this particular panel is terrible.

There is significant ghosting throughout the system.

I noticed it immediately while setting up the device.

Scrolling through Android menus leaves obvious trails behind text, and it’s especially noticeable when moving things around quickly.

Games make the problem even more apparent.

Super Mario World is an easy way to demonstrate it because the character leaves a very obvious trail when moving across the screen.

Tetris also makes it easy to see, particularly when pieces move quickly down the screen.

This isn’t something everyone will care about.

Some people barely notice display ghosting at all.

Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people.

I’ve mentioned this in other reviews, but ghosting can actually make me feel nauseous.

I notice it almost immediately, and the RG 55G1 has enough of it that I found it genuinely unpleasant to use.

In fact, I’d put this among the more noticeable examples I’ve seen recently, potentially even worse than the Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini.

If you’re sensitive to ghosting, this is enough by itself for me to recommend avoiding the RG 55G1.

Comfort

The strange thing is that the RG 55G1 is actually quite comfortable.

The back is completely flat, but the device has enough width and the right amount of rounding that it sits nicely in your hands.

My fingers naturally fall into the positions I’d expect, and overall ergonomics are much better than I expected.

It’s noticeably more comfortable to me than something like the Retroid Pocket Nova, where I struggled to find a comfortable grip.

So despite my issues with other parts of the hardware, Anbernic did a good job with the basic shape of the device.

The controls are a bit more of a mixed bag.

Sticks

The analog sticks aren’t great.

The caps are extremely small and slippery, and their symmetrical placement isn’t ideal.

There is plenty of space available to move them inward or offset them, and I think that would have made a significant difference.

If you hold the device the way I normally do, your thumbs don’t naturally fall onto the sticks particularly well.

The D-pad, on the other hand, feels good.

I don’t have any major complaints about it, although you can end up touching the stick slightly with the bottom of your thumb.

Face Buttons and Shoulders

The face buttons feel like typical modern Anbernic buttons.

They have quite a bit of travel, they’re slightly resistant, and they’re relatively quiet.

The L1 and R1 buttons are very clicky and feel good.

The triggers are where I have a much bigger problem.

They require far too much force to press.

Because of the way your fingers sit on the back of the handheld, pushing the triggers requires considerably more effort than I’m used to.

After a while, I can see this becoming tiring, particularly in games that make heavy use of the triggers.

It’s a strange choice because the rest of the controls are reasonably comfortable.

The triggers just don’t feel like they belong with the ergonomics of the rest of the device.

Speakers

The RG 55G1 uses front-facing speakers, which is normally exactly what I want to see on a handheld.

At maximum volume, the speakers sound decent.

I didn’t notice any significant distortion, although they’re not particularly loud.

The problem is that your palms can partially cover the speakers depending on how you hold the device.

When the speakers are unobstructed, they sound fine.

When your hands cover them, the sound is redirected and noticeably affected.

It’s not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it’s one of those situations where the front-facing speaker placement doesn’t work quite as well as you’d hope.

Performance

The Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 isn’t a particularly powerful 3D gaming chip, so expectations need to be kept in check.

GameCube is playable in lighter games, but you’re going to run into problems with more demanding titles.

For example, Mario Power Tennis ran reasonably well using Dolphin with OpenGL.

It’s one of the easier GameCube games to run, so this isn’t particularly surprising.

That doesn’t mean the RG 55G1 is a GameCube machine, though.

More demanding games such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker are going to encounter slowdowns, and compatibility is going to vary considerably from game to game.

PS2 is even more questionable.

Burnout Revenge struggled significantly at the default settings, and that’s one of my usual PS2 test cases.

If a device can’t maintain full speed in Burnout Revenge, I’m generally not going to recommend it as a PS2 handheld.

There may be hacks and settings you can use to improve individual games, but that raises another question: how much effort do you want to put into getting games working on a $150 handheld?

For me, the answer is not much.

The RG 55G1 is capable of running some GameCube and PS2 games, but I’d describe both systems as very hit or miss rather than calling this a GameCube or PS2 handheld.

Anbernic’s Software

There is one genuinely interesting addition to the RG 55G1: Anbernic’s new handheld settings interface.

The device includes a dedicated handheld settings section with options for things like EQ presets, quick launcher configuration, system information, stick sensitivity, stick lighting, performance settings, fan control, Anbernic’s overlay, and other advanced options.

There are also options for things like RetroArch, updates, developer settings, and root scripts.

I wouldn’t consider the software enough of a reason to buy the device, but it is probably the most interesting new thing Anbernic has added here.

Or if it existed on other handhelds, I had no idea about it until now.

The RG 55G1 Is Too Expensive

And this is where everything comes together.

The RG 55G1 currently starts at around $150, with the higher-end configuration costing more.

At that price, I just don’t see what you’re getting that makes the RG 55G1 special.

The Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 is mediocre for the price.

The display is mediocre at best, and the ghosting is genuinely bad.

The sticks aren’t great, the triggers are too stiff, and GameCube and PS2 performance is inconsistent.

The 6,000mAh battery is good, and the ergonomics are surprisingly comfortable, but that’s not enough to save it.

Honestly, I initially assumed this handheld had an OLED display.

If it did, the $140–$150 price range would make considerably more sense.

Instead, we have a fairly ordinary 1080p IPS panel with significant ghosting.

Anbernic could have done something much more interesting here.

Even using a better display from one of its existing handhelds like the Anbernic RG556 would have given the RG 55G1 a much stronger selling point.

Buy the RG476H Instead

If you’re looking at this price range, my recommendation is pretty simple: spend the extra money on the Anbernic RG476H.

The RG476H has a 4:3 display rather than 16:9, but its 120Hz screen is significantly better, the controls work better, and the overall experience is much more compelling.

For roughly $10 more, I’d take the RG476H without hesitation.

The RG 55G1 doesn’t have a particular system that it’s exceptionally good at, it doesn’t have a standout display, and it doesn’t have enough performance to make its Snapdragon platform particularly exciting.

Sometimes a handheld just doesn’t need to be for anybody.

We don’t have to bend over backwards to find the perfect person for every device that gets released.

Sometimes a product simply doesn’t make sense.

For me, the Anbernic RG 55G1 is one of those devices.

Buy the RG476H instead.. or buy nothing.

That’s about as simple as I can make the recommendation.