ANBERNIC RG353M Retro Gaming Handheld

Great device, good customer interaction

The Anbernic RG353M is a great little device, it is good looking and feels great to handle. The buttons, d-pad and sticks feel good to use. My only two criticisms of the controls are the shoulder buttons, I would like them stacked, but this is a complaint I have about many Anbernic devices, and I would like the left stick and d-pad swapped around (not really a problem on the smaller devices, but can make playing games more uncomfortable on larger devices) It isn't a huge issue usually, just something which I would like Anbernic to change and I know it is something which people have raised for a while now.
The device plays well with the stock software. I found the RG351M played well, especially with custom firmware, including (with frameskip and some other tweaks) many PSP games and N64 and Dreamcast, so I expected as a minimum that this would outperform the older device, and it does. I only really play up to N64, Dreamcast, PSP and Saturn and generally these play well, so does what I've played of DS. I've not tried GameCube or PS2 and imagine it would struggle with these and not really be a device to use if these were the consoles you were purchasing this for.
My main reason for getting it was portability, style and battery life. I have the RG552 which is great, especially with custom firmware, but it is much larger, heavier and has very limited battery life, but it's performance is obviously much higher. But due to the battery life and the speed the battery drains even when the device is off I wanted something smaller with longer battery life but that could still play everything I like to play to quite a good standard. The RG353M does that.
I've not really checked out the Android side of the device so I can't really comment on that. I know it is meant to run even better, but I'm happy with how I use it.
I imagine there will be custom firmware which will be even more optimised making the device run even better, so if you are looking for a small attractive, premium looking device which can play most games on systems up to N64, PSP, DS, DreamCast, and Saturn, which has good battery life, then this device is likely for you. If you want to play PS2 or GameCube games, or you struggle with small devices and controls, which could cause hand cramps etc, then this device probably isn't suitable.
I think for the price and the premium look and feel and what it can do and how good games look playing on the screen, and the sound quality, this was definitely a good purchase and one I would recommend to others.

A comfortable upgrade to the RG350P, with improved power but not enough to truly push the system above its competitors. The key appeal here is a reliable system with solid build quality and a Linux OS rather than Android. With a custom firmware, this becomes a very solid system for retro gaming.

Quick dispatch.

Device is better than expected, does everything I wanted, all in a retro handheld.

Very impressed with the quality of the device, far better than I first thought. Buttons feel great and screen is top quality.

Will definitely buy this brand again and would highly recommend it along with purchasing again on this site.

Great shipping speed
Delivery in 3-4 days of order
Another great device to add to collection

I love Linux as an OS for retro gaming, it boots up in seconds and emulators just work without any fiddling. Sometimes some niche emulators do perform better in Android though so the dual OS feature of this unit is really good. The build quality of this thing is top notch, the metal case gives a real premium feel and both the shoulder and face buttons have a lovely feel. In terms of performance in Linux I I found all 8 and 16 bit consoles work flawlessly as expected. N64 emulation is decent, you just may need to change the core for certain games. Dreamcast performance is really good, only the occasional slow down now and again. The 3 systems I've had performance issues with are 3DO (some games fine, some run slowly), Jaguar (everything runs sloooowly) and PC-FX (games themselves run at OK speed but FMV is choppy). Saturn & Gamecube I haven't tried but I'd imagine they don't run well at all. Overall I'm really happy with this machine, for the size and price it performs really well and is built really well.

Product was scratched.

Perfect also for Amiga games :-)

Fantastic throwback machine.

Perfect for on-the-go retro gaming