I have been taking a little mental break from the handheld emulator scene and haven’t kept up with much besides watching an RH video. I knew very little about the RG557 release and never even used the RG556. When this showed up at my door, I was going in as blind as I could, and hopefully, this can articulate my experience after a week with the device.

Make sure to check out our first impressions here or our full review here. We also have videos on the YouTube channel too if you are interested in those!

Anbernic RG557 First Impressions

First things first, this case is the ugliest case I have ever seen. I expected to open it and find some McNuggets and fries. Luckily (or maybe unluckily), it was just the newest release from Anbernic instead. This package felt heavy, too! Despite how heavy it felt in my hand from the package, the device is totally comfortable to use. It does not feel heavy at all when holding it and is actually really light.

Again, I never had the original RG556, so I never got to experience the hype of the comfort from everyone else. I can say that this is one of the most comfortable devices I have ever held. The buttons and D-pad feel great as well. The one complaint I have, though, is a pretty common one: the sticks are small. They don’t appear to have issues with cardinal snapping, but they are a bit small for a device that is so large. Anbernic is said to be sending these out with more thumb cap options though,h that will make it a little bigger if you desire.

I have unfortunately become a bit of an OLED snob lately, to my own and my wallet’s dismay.  The screen on the RG557 looks great. I love having a big OLED screen. The plastic quality feels just okay. It kind of makes the console feel sort of cheap to me. This is for the white model, which does look very nice.

After ordering the Retroid Pocket Classic, all I have heard is dismay that there isn’t any video out. I am happy to report that the RG557 does have support for Video Out and can be docked to use. This feature works great, despite having to pair your Bluetooth controller and reconfigure it with different emulators.

Performance

I asked on the RH Discord for any game recommendations to test out, and I received a handful of games to try out. With this being a newer chip for these devices, it was exciting to see what it could do. Bear with me if I didn’t use the best settings to get the performance, as I haven’t messed with 3DS, Wii U, or Vita emulation before. I am also using the default settings that these emulators come with, set up by the Anbernic downloader to make it a more out-of-the-box experience.

True Crime: Streets of LA

• Console: PS2
• Emulator: Aethersx2

Performance: Running on x2, I could not even get this game past the title screen. It would freeze when it tried to save data. If I chose to do that, it would have me enter a name, but the keyboard wasn’t visible. After the fumbling, I found a name to enter, and it froze.

Gran Turismo 4

• Console: PS2
• Emulator: Aethersx2

Performance: I tried a quick race on a night track as requested by someone on our Discord at x2. The game had major slowdowns of 20 fps and under. It was not very playable at all.

Jak 2

• Console: PS2
• Emulator: Aethersx2

Performance: The game ran okay at first, but I quickly noticed missing textures. There were dips into the 40s for FPS, and some of the characters had black eyes.

Need for Speed Most Wanted

• Console: PS2
• Emulator: Aethersx2

Performance: I did a quick race on this with x2, and it ran a pretty stable 60fps. I then got a request to try it at 3x or 4x, and it was slowing down with 15-30 fps and was not playable.

Dragon Quest 8

• Console: 3DS
• Emulator: Citra

Performance: I made it through the introduction of this one with 30fps.

Kirby Planet Robobot

• Console: 3DS
• Emulator: Citra

Performance: This was a mostly stable 60fps  with some dips when compiling shaders, but very playable.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

• Console: 3DS
• Emulator: Citra

Performance: There was some flickering at the character creation screen, but 60 FPS after.

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

• Console: Wii U
• Emulator: Cemu

Performance: This could have been user error, but I couldn’t even get this one to open.

Disclaimer:

There is something off with the RG557. The performance seems very off. This thing should be performing way better than it is, but my RP5 is outperforming it currently. Below is a tweet from Zu discussing that there is a belief that it is being throttled by a poor Android build. Hopefully, Anbernic or Gamma can help with this situation.

Also, something else that I noticed was that the built-in “High Performance” mode does nothing. Zu ran 2 3DMark tests and did not notice any change. If this can be fixed, it should be way better than it currently is.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I am not a fan of the RG557. The price is not appealing, and it seems to be holding itself back. It is just not a device for me. It is comfortable, yes, and great for streaming and Android gaming. It also has the potential to be great if it can be fixed by Anbernic, or, unfortunately, if it has to be saved by the community (we appreciate you, Gamma!).

The device can be purchased from our links below.

Anbernic RG557 (Direct)Anbernic RG557 (AliExpress)

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