I have to give Anbernic credit, as the company is (mostly) pretty good about keeping the final details of devices under lock and key until they’re ready to launch. Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Anbernic RG DS, seeing as there’s already a listing on AliExpress from “Anbernic Direct Store (Trader).”
Shout out to the RH Discord for spotting this one, as we didn’t have any idea when the RG DS would actually be fully unveiled. That said, we don’t have to keep guessing about things like the display resolutions or what processor it will use. Here’s the full list of specs:
- Main and Secondary Displays: 4-inch IPS / 640 x 480
- Processor: RockChip RK3568
- GPU: Mali-G52 2EE
- RAM: 3GB
- Storage: 32GB + microSD
- Battery: 4000mAh (~6 hours)
- Charging: 5V/1.6A (~3.5 hours)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/5GHz
- Extras: Hall Magnetic Switch, Quick Switch Key, Six-Axis Gyroscope
- Colors: Turquoise Blue / Red Black / White
- Software: Android 14
If this holds true, this might be the first handheld to be released with the RK3568, at least from what I’ve been able to surmise. That said, it’s a bit of a surprise to see Anbernic not just use an older Unisoc chip like it did with the RG476H. Nevertheless, it’ll be interesting to see just how far we’re able to push this chip once the RG DS arrives.
As for pricing, AliExpress listing shows three different configurations, as you’ll be able to choose whether you want a 128GB microSD card, 256GB microSD Card, or just the handheld. The price itself starts at $108.99 for the “No Games” version, leaving us to surmise to that the sub-$100 price that was originally touted will just be for pre-orders. This means that the RG DS will range between $108 and $138Â after pre-orders have concluded.
Lastly, there’s one more tidbit of information we’ve found on the listing and that’s a potential release date. Currently, the “Shipping” section of the listing shows that the RG DS will “Release on: Dec. 15”. That’s more than about a month and a half away, which would be really surprising given that it’s already been about a month since the first RG DS teaser dropped. Perhaps it’s just a placeholder date, but we’ll have to wait for the official announcement to know for sure.
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I wonder if it’ll be able to play DS games at double the internal resolution, without lag. If so, I might just buy this.
Sadly it has the same Mali G52 GPU as the RK3566 and the only relevent upgrade over it I can find is a slightly faster CPU clock speed (2Ghz instead of 1.8Ghz). We’ll see how well it performs soon I guess, but I wish they had gone with a more powerful chip, even if it was $20-$30 more. It would be worth it for decent 3DS emulation, or maybe even some Wii U depending on how far they went. Also I know I’m in the minority but I really hate the colourways. I need some variety, if the inside is black then the face buttons, the menu buttona, the triggers, the thumbsticks, the D-pad need to be ANYTHING but black.
no i agree
Buy a Ayn Thor if you want 3DS as well, the Retroid Pocket 3+ struggled with 3DS so even a more powerful chip for 150$ wouldn’t cut it. SOCs are better now however Ambernic isn’t going to give us that without a premium price.
Its going to be a success, it is a console designed for ds, if it can plazy ds games the hardware inside only need be so fas as to play the ds games