Anbernic RG Vita Review: 2023 Called

In case you’ve been in the handheld scene for a while, the RG Vita is going to bring back a lot of memories of 2023. A Unisoc T618, an awkward screen experience, and enough performance to touch Gamecube, but not enough to excel at it.

Anbernic has decided to revive their old XX5 series chip in a handheld that doesn’t manage to emulate its namesake at an acceptable level once again. The RG Vita is their first handheld of 2026, and while usually I’d ask “is it worth it for you?” The question I’m going to ask today is: “Is it worth it at all?”

And that’s what we’re going to find out. 

Anbernic RG Vita Specs

At the time of writing, Anbernic is currently out on Chinese New Year’s and hasn’t quite announced the price of the RG Vita. With the RG505 listed at $110 on their website, I do have my concerns about pricing. And with the prospect of an RG Vita Pro, it makes me question the value proposition as well. But under the assumption that this is sub-$100, maybe these specs are worth it to you. 

Build & Ergonomics

If there’s one thing I think Anbernic did quite well with the RG Vita, it’s the build and ergonomics of the thing. While I’m not a fan of glass fronts, the RG Vita does it to mimic its muse, and adding weight to an otherwise light and plastic device does make it at least feel more quality in hand. The plastic is an Anbernic classic, with a light, grainy texture on its beige color, and zero smudges to be seen. 

As for the ergonomics, despite being a flat slab, this thing is large enough that it feels like I’ve got plenty to grab when I play anything on it. Compared to a TrimUI Smart Pro S, it’s a little taller, a little wider, and feels a bit thicker. This makes it overall more comfortable, but the stretch from stick to trigger can be a bit much.

Controls

When you want to talk about sticks and triggers, you want to talk about controls too. The sticks are the more recent Ginful adaptation, using a wide amount of travel with light tension. The face buttons of my unit are similar to most Anbernic’s with that glossy top coat, but also seem to have a higher tension than others. Meaning it takes slightly more pressure to press. The D-pad is decent with enough pivot, but feels just off from older Abnernics to be noticeable. I do wish it had been clicky like an actual Vita D-pad. 

The worst part is the shoulder buttons. They’re not analog, and they’re both loud and clicky. It’s not hard to press each button, but doing so just irks me the wrong way for little to no reason. The controls of the Vita are passable, but they also aren’t up to snuff with recent Anbernic releases either. 

Screen & Software

It’s mediocre at best. Yeah, it’s 720p and nearly 5.5 inches, so it’s going to look pretty decent. But it just doesn’t look good. The Mangmi Air X and TrimUI Smart Pro S both have screens that are 720p, with higher saturation, and seem to get slightly brighter than the RG Vita. That being said, the visibility and color saturation of the RG Vita didn’t seem to be the worst part of the whole device.

Since the RG Vita is using a T618, Anbernic also decided to use their software from 2023 as well, with some minor updates to boot. Because of that, a few of the screen issues from the original T618 Anbernic handhelds remain. Namely, the oversharpening on screen, and for some users, a regular occurrence of ghost touches on the display.

Or, more annoying to me, needing to tap the screen multiple times to get some things to register. Luckily, Gamma released an initial build of GammaOS for the RG Vita during my time writing this review, which will do a lot for helping the experience of using this handheld. But I still think it’s worth looking at how the device handles in stock form. 

Performance

The Benchmarks

Just to touch on benchmarks really quickly for comparisons to other sub-$100 handhelds, here’s the RG Vita and how it stands against the Mangmi Air X, MagicX One35, and Retroid Pocket 3+. 

In Geekbench, the Vita couldn’t finish the CPU benchmark due to not having enough RAM, but the T618 in the RP3+ does edge out the others in terms of performance, and I’d assume the RG Vita would too. In terms of GPU, the Mali GPUs all double the performance of the Mangmi’s Adreno GPU at essentially 1050 vs 536.

The weird point came from OpenCL numbers. While the Vita’s T618 scored a 542, the Retroid Pocket 3+ did leagues better, landing at an even higher 1133. Something tells me the extra RAM in the RP3+ does leagues for Retroid in the OpenCL benchmarks.

And as a last note, performance between the RG Vita in stock and GammaOS seems to be pretty identical, thanks to Andrew on the team running the benchmarks in Gamma instead. 

The Retro Games

I’ll keep this quick and easy here. Everything up through PSP, Dreamcast, and N64 is going to run really well at native resolutions or a slight upscale. In fact, I’d go as far as to agree with everyone else who’s held this in hand to say this would have done better as an RG PSP. However, in the same regard, we’ve had PSP-capable handhelds for a while now, and other options have had better ergonomics, controls, or screens. 

The Higher End

GameCube, PS2, Switch, Vita. Those are what I’m calling the high end, and immediately, I’m saying don’t expect much. With Gamecube and PS2, I say welcome back the era of PAL roms, and below native resolutions if you want any sense of remote playability. You can touch this console generation, but I don’t think it’s worth putting in the effort to actually get a library of games to play. 

As for Switch and Vita, people have been playing Switch on the T618 since Yuzu and the Retroid Pocket 3+, and even today, you might be able to squeeze some lightweight titles out of it. With some good examples being games like Sonic Mania, but I feel like some native Android ports would give you a better experience. Lastly comes from the namesake once more: Vita.

If you love tinkering and you love pain, you can get some games to run on the RG Vita. However, the emulator is still in development, and the performance from the T618 is not enough to make emulating this library worth it. 

Stick to PSP and below, and you’ll be more than happy.

Final Thoughts

If the RG Vita is under $100, I think it’ll be fine competition for the likes of the TrimUI Smart Pro S, Mangmi Air X, and MagicX One35. They all run up to PSP, Dreamcast, and N64 with touches of systems higher than that. However, I also feel the RG Vita has a worse screen than any of those, with some questionable shoulder buttons to boot. I don’t have any nostalgia or rose-tinted glasses for the PS Vita, so the shape of this does nothing for me.

If you want my recommendation, I’d wait to see what the RG Vita Pro brings in both performance, price, and Linux build. While Android may be the go-to for most people, this is one of those instances where Linux might be the right answer, especially for the RK3576 in the RG Vita Pro. If you want something today, I’d still rather recommend the Mangmi Air X or even a used Retroid Pocket 3+.

Unfortunately, the RG Vita makes too many callbacks to 2023 that put it behind handhelds from that era, and make it hard to recommend. If you’re blinded by nostalgia and ergonomics first, the RG Vita may be worth your time and money. Otherwise, I’d hold off on purchasing this one.

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