Anbernic RG556 vs Retroid Pocket 4/Pro - I have concerns...

[@toycoma98]

I like retroid because of the size, I put the retroid grip backwards on my RP3+ to protect the screen and sticks and it fits in my fanny pack/bag. RG556 is big like the odin, smooth surface would be slippery, especially when your palms sweat when device gets warm.

[@SWPLGAMING]

As always, a fantastic video. I agree with your points, especially around the pre orders. I can confirm the Anbernic has a very nice display.,and is indeed comfortable to hold for sure.

[@adinwalls]

Hey man. Ah cool do you have one? Yes it seems to be quite good.

[@forthenext]

Thanks for the video Adin!

[@adinwalls]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@mdr8615]

Pricing depends on where you live. To ship a RP to Europe you will have to add shipping, VAT, import tax and fees. This will bump the total up to about 280 USD in my case. I managed to pre-order the RG556 for 170 USD ALL-IN. With that price difference it's a no-brainer, really. I also never actually 'pocket' a device, I just play at home. With an RP I would have to have the grips on permanently. So bigger screen, better ergonomics, more than a 100 dollars cheaper. Been watching your colleagues' vids on the emulation and the RG556 seems plenty able up to and including PS2. If you want perfect PS2, you must get an Odin 2. So where does that leave the RP4/4pro? Nowhere for me...But to each his own! I too have a device I never touch because it's too big, and that's the steam deck :-) Planning to just hook it up docked as a gaming PC.

[@adinwalls]

Wow that’s a big difference.

[@louismontrose8966]

I’m in the uk and shipping was like 16 dollars with no import fees or anything

[@mdr8615]

@@louismontrose8966 thank brexit

[@citruesilver]

I paid 215 euro for the rp4pro. Really happy with if

[@glennshoemake4200]

If you ship it via 4px there are no taxes in Europe.

[@RetroBreezeYT]

Great video Adin! The OLED and the chunky grips are certainly the big draws of the rg556 for me, and are also my biggest gripes with the RP4 Pro so far. However I'm not convinced the t620 will be such a big step up from the t618...

[@adinwalls]

Hello Mr Breeze! Agreed.

[@dadou193]

I prefer ergonomics over pocket-ability. I have my Miyoo Mini + if i want a small handheld pockettable, especially for 2-D games like gameboy, GBA super Nintendo and even PlayStation. On the other hand, this handhelds here are mainly for PS2 and GameCube, and having a bigger, hold, bigger screen and more comfort is key. I would take the Anbernic over the Retroid.

[@RetroDaddyPH]

Anbernic has really stepped up their game in terms of hardware quality. 3 years ago, they would only release very simple devices with a single thin motherboard sandwiched into two plastic cases, but now, I see brass screw points, beautiful black and white motherboards on their transparent devices, several daughterboards for the left and right controls, modular speakers with their own enclosure, removable ribbon cables, and although unnecessary, some hefty cooling as well. Software is their only major disadvantage at this point. As for Retroid, I've had their Flip and 3+, and I was initially impressed, but I always found their devices needing a little more care as it is more fragile. Both shoulder triggers on mine are broken after 6 months of use. The anbernic 353p, 405v, 556 on the other hand I just throw around and just dont care because they are thick chunks of plastic.

[@dragon2knight]

I like 'em big, lol. I have larger hands and good ergonomics are a necessity. I also like a bigger screen, and AMOLED is a true bonus. First look videos are very much showing how good both are. And the power is also closer to the Pro than the non Pro. I've pre ordered and I'm fine with it at this point. Good observations for sure on your part, you should never buy based on marketing fluff, it might come back to burn you.

[@adinwalls]

Haha. Fair enough. Thanks for the comment.

[@mitchthepreacher1512]

Sorry dude, in practice a lot of creators are showing some Anbernic voodoo with the 556 punching WAY above its weight class. The speculation isn't effective this time around.

[@choboutube]

Nah, the screen on the Retroid is too small. I have the 3+ and it's not good for my old eyes. I would definitely pick the RG556 over the retroid. Also you can 'consolize' it easier with the full function USBC, no?

[@jtothebell]

Thank you for the last point about not preordering. Couldn’t agree more. I’m still in wait and see mode for these devices

[@adinwalls]

Yes I think we need to be a bit more cautious.

[@retrohandhelds]

This man is looking sharp! Good points made - Stubbs

[@adinwalls]

He is. What a looker.

[@STR82DVD]

I was actually hopefully for the new Anbernic but corners were cut. Cheap plastic, small sticks, bad colour choices and an SOC choice that's not competitive except in terms of price to performance but with performance not being It's top metric; the OLED screen takes top spot for this unit. It's a pass for me lad. Thanks for your perspective.

[@Pridetoons]

RG556 vs Retroid Pocket 4 Base right?

[@adinwalls]

This was more of a general consideration but yes.

[@nathanjones1008]

Retroid pocket 4 Pro is more powerful and LCD,the RG556 is more comfortable and has a better Oled screen,simple as that.

[@manny1524]

Odin pro 1? Or odin pro 2?

[@nathanjones1008]

Ha..i meant Retroid pocket 4 pro..😂

[@adinwalls]

That’s pretty the short of it.

[@DNAMobileGaming]

You start to realize what devices can actually do when you get a grasp at all of these processors and everything else aside I don't know why anyone would buy that device when there's so many other more powerful devices for the same price range still out there.

[@adinwalls]

I think for the price the Anbernic is fine. I just kinda wish I could morph the Anbernic and the Retroid into one perfect mid-tier device

[@Rick-hx1ne]

I liked retroid 3+ bec it wouldn’t get glass scratch it like an oyster shell cover the glass I like it to have protection. I wish new retroid 4 but no cover whenever carry I put in my pocket without needing the backpack or baggage. Whenever i pulls out and opens the retroid and enjoy . I m stick to retroid 3+ . Thanks for detail for new retroid4 bec getting better and improved . 👍

[@toycoma98]

If you put the retroid grip backwards, it protects the screen. Thats what i do when i put my RP3+ in my fanny pack/bag.

[@ThibaultCabanas]

Great comparison video, you certainly have nailed the main differences! As a personal opinion, I had both the Retroid Pocket 3+ and the Powkiddy X28, and ended selling the first one. RP3+ 4'7inch display felt too small AND wasn't as portable as say my Miyoo Mini Plus, so it fell both ways for me. Sure it could play far more consoles than my MM+, but for those console I prefer a bigger screen. I still enjoy my X28 to this day, mainly for GBA, widescreen PS1, Dreamcast and PSP, with 8/16 bits falling more on my modded RGB30 now. Vanilla controls doesn't felt good but RG353 d-pad and Sakura face buttons made an amazing difference. And everything up from Gamecube/PS2 goes straight to my Steam Deck :D (Sorry for the personal rant, you're doing great Adin, eager to see what you have next in store!)

[@adinwalls]

Honestly I thought of you when I took out the X28. If I wasn’t a reviewer I probably would have ended up with the MM+, the X28 or the Rp3+ and a Steamdeck. I think we are very similar in terms of personal preference for comfort in gaming.

[@miravi5547]

Ты купил несколько устройств и удивляешься своей избирательности, думаю тебе просто не интересны игры, как сами консоли

[@CHICKENmcNUGGIESMydude]

same i think the best devices come from anbernic powkiddy and retro pocket myu mini last

[@TheTechUpdate-ui1fh]

Thanks for the video, can see your point in regards to the pockatability on the rp 4 pro and although i woukld lean to something more pocketable with better performance the games just look so good on that amoled displa yof the RG556. Dont have the scratch to afford either ofthese at this stage but im really torn between them from a window shopping perspective lol.

[@adinwalls]

Ya that is very true

[@soaremicheledavid6020]

Sold my retroid pocket, because the screen size, aspect ratio is wide and not orgonomic, got myself a Anbernic RG ARC-S, that is my favorite size, also got my miyoo mini plus for the on the go.

[@adinwalls]

Nice combo

[@FredMorgan-gb5el]

Have you got a video on the Odin 2 I don’t know if I should get it I have had my Miyoo mini plus for 7 mounths I love it and I really want to get it

[@adinwalls]

I dont sorry

[@christianmercado5510]

Hey man, great videos. Would you be doing a setup guide on KZbin or your page at any time for the RG556? I just trust your setup guide more than others since yours very detailed like the one you did for the RP3+ 🙌🏽

[@adinwalls]

Hey man. Time is an issue. Once I get into these I really go off the deep end. But yes I may do a setup guide for the 556

[@christianmercado5510]

@@adinwalls Yeah I figured, I see you doing A LOT of content. Never enough time LOL Well, hopefully you are able to get to it 🙏🏽 Thanks for all your content 🙌🏽

[@adinwalls]

@christianmercado5510 thank you. Ya KZbin is a beast and I have to juggle deciding between content that will take me less time and get lots of views but then also making those high info vids that people value so much.

[@charlesgriffiths4901]

I wish the rp4 pro wasn't so damn sexy. I'm so torn on whether to go with the 556 just because of the larger screen but I agree with your statement. I find it looks a little ghastly!

[@adinwalls]

Haha yes I love the look of the rp4

[@azenyr]

Since I got the gamesir G8, I'm done with these devices. I have plenty of them for various low end systems, gameboys etc, and high end systems i will just use my phone since I upgrade it every year anyway

[@Rudizel]

These devices come with thousands of roms, how is getting a gamepad for your phone also let you play roms at a click of a button?

[@azenyr]

@@Rudizel almost no one who buys these devices actually plays the roms that come pre-installed. Most of those roms suck, are hacked versions of the roms, are corrupted or not well sourced so we don't trust those roms. We buy the devices, delete all the roms and download our own rom packs. There are many rom packs on the web that with a single download you get thousands of games all well sorted by folders and systems etc. Either way, as I said, I still love to play on these dedicated devices all my low end systems like gameboys and SNES etc because it feels amazing to play them on stuff like the RGB30 or the Miyoo Mini. When I play on my phone it's stuff like PS2, dreamcast, gamecube, and even Switch. Since these games can be 10-15GB each, you are not getting "hundreds of them" with the device anyway, you are lucky if you get a few, so you need to source each game yourself anyway. I have a 512GB snapdragon 8 gen 2 and 16gb RAM phone, so I can play switch with zero problems, even ultra heavy switch games like the latest zelda, all smooth full speed. My phone is better than the Odin 2 which costs 370€, so I thought why the fck would I spend all this money when I can just use my phone for these ultra high end systems? So I installed retroarch, yuzu, dolphin etc, and installed a launcher (daijisho). It's not the default launcher so I just open it when I connect the controller. I created an automation of my phone that when the controller is connected it auto opens daijisho. It's beautiful.

[@azenyr]

@@Rudizel note that I said "high end systems only" on my phone. Ofc I love all the simple systems to be played on a dedicated small gameboy-like device, love that. But switch and PS2... that's great on my phone and much cheaper than looking for an handheld that can play those high end systems too

[@Rudizel]

@@azenyrWait how do you play retro games on a device like iphone? What emulator lets you run gameboy games and n64 games? I was thinking of picking up the asus rog ally and just using that for all the emulators. I know there is a emulator platform on windows that manages it all called Emu Deck for handhelds so it might work well with the rog ally.

[@azenyr]

@@Rudizel hummm.... on iPhone you can't do anything like this. And this is just one of the hundreds of reasons that I refuse to have iPhones. You feel like you can only do what Apple allows you to do and not what you want to do. And Apple doesn't allow emulators or anything remotely like this on the iPhone. The devices he is reviewing here on this video are Android, so every emulator, every game, every launcher he uses can easily be installed on any android phone. It's the same OS as these devices, but since my android is a very high end one (Fold 5) i have more power and better screen (playing games on this huge oled screen is beautiful) than any device that he reviews here. So why not just play on my phone... For example I have been playing switch games like Zelda tears of kingdom, Mario odyssey, and sea of stars on my phone with Yuzu emulator. Its as easy as opening the play store, searching yuzu, install, done. Then go to a website and grab the game and put it into the internal storage (android has a real file manager and file system). Or connect the phone to the computer and drag and drop the huge packs of games to your phone and then open RetroArch on the phone and load anything you want. Android is freedom. And with yuzu and these heavy emulators we actually need a lot of RAM and good specs on Android phones, since yuzu needs a lot of RAM. 12GB on my phone is sometimes not enough for zelda and yuzu crashes. Other times it runs fine, but I need to close all other apps. iPhones are single tasking devices, only one app at a time on the screen and cant run emulators like yuzu so they are fine with very little RAM. Even if you find a way to "jailbreak" the iPhone and load yuzu (yuzu doesn't even exist for iOS) the phone will not be able to run anything because of the lack of RAM. This kinda turned into a rant because you reminded me that I had an iPhone 3 years ago and I felt so extremely limited and with my hands tied because yes the phone worked fine but anything outside of the ordinary isn't possible or is very limited. Like youtube revanced, youtube music revanced, emulation, retroarch, launchers, etc. Grab the gamesir G8 and play switch, ps2, 3ds, dreamcast etc games? Yes, no limits.

[@poupou5833]

The portability is the biggest difference

[@Francestoke]

are you going to do a follow up video with the rg556 in your hands?

[@adinwalls]

Yes I am.

[@lemonlimelukey]

you can buy grips for the retroid so thats helps =)

[@Loyidus]

with taxes and shipping the RG556 is almost 250$ to ship to Germany.... way to expensive.

[@adinwalls]

That’s a bit extreme.

[@adinwalls]

Although that’s about what my Retroid Pocket 4 pro cost in the end.

[@bsmarques]

Wow, just discovered this channel and I'm loving it so far. Adin, I have a Steam Deck and I like it a lot, but I found it too big for my retro games, like gameboy (spoiled kid, I know) and I'd prefer something smaller just for that. I bought the RGB30 against your advise, but then quickly discovered the perks of charging and I'm thinking of returning it. However, I felt in love with the screen and the form factor. Now I wonder what should I replace it with, can you help me by recommending similar devices, please? Or should I just wait for a RGB30 revision with (hopefuly) those problems fixed? Thank you, +1 sub

[@adinwalls]

Hey man. Thanks for the kind words. The Miyoo Mini plus is my goto small device. It has a bit less power than the RGB30 though. Hmmm… horizontal form factor would be the RG34xx H. I will think a bit more though. You can connect on my discord. discord.gg/4ccrVEgT

[@alfonsofernandog.3086]

hi, how can you add emulators on Anbernic Front-End, there are 27 preloaded emulators, I would like to add others: Atari, Gamecube etc..etc...

[@adinwalls]

Hey there on Android you just need to download the relevant emulators. Check my retroid pocket flip / 3+ setup guide

[@Denotum]

@adinwalls is it worth getting a 556 having an rp4 pro already. Ergonomics and oled is better but pocketability & performance in wii & vita high end, Im not sure.

[@adinwalls]

Hey man I don’t think it’s worth it unless you reeeeally want a big screen.

[@drogba6487]

that transparent blue looks like a those cheap water guns we used to take to the pool. Wish the RP4 came in the smoked black from the 2s.

[@adinwalls]

Yes that transparent black is excellent but I’m loving the Crystal White that I bought.

[@RetroidFuture]

"Talking about something i dont have in the studio yet" *shuts off video*

[@supergooglelee]

Retroid Pocket 4 Pro wins hands down for me. If I wanted a larger screen I would just go with my Steam Deck.

[@adinwalls]

I feel like this whole debate is worth an entire video. Or maybe a livestream. Arguing with viewers about which is best. Hmmm….

[@robert-h2x]

the rg556 is also 199 aFTER MARCH 5

[@adinwalls]

No SD card version will be $185. But that does bring it very close to the RP4 Pro. Which makes it a definite decision between performance and ergonomics.

[@Loknath009]

Thank you for the first seconds, I was able to speculate too, that your video would be useless to me. Thanks for the time!

[@adinwalls]

You're welcome

[@yowamushi9557]

Weird the RP4 Pro has the firepower to play PS2 games at higher resolution but does not provide a good screen to appreciate it and the RG556 has a good screen but lacks the power to play PS2 games at higher resolution or even native resolution at some cases.

[@adinwalls]

Well at this stage it’s the emulator that’s truly letting up down. But yes that’s essentially the long and the short of it: decent power but a small device or less power but a really great screen and ergonomics.

[@pintobeans994]

My fav retro gaming channel !

[@adinwalls]

Yessss! 👍👍

[@miravi5547]

Не люблю черные консоли это скучно, но прозрачный анберник не взял бы из за убогой неровной подсветки и глянца

[@adinwalls]

Ya the blue is weird but I think I prefer it over the black.

[@deadfred69]

The shape of it weirds me out

[@adinwalls]

Haha. Now that would have been great to say in the review 😂

[@toycoma98]

Its a built in grip, you dont have to get a aftermarket 3d printed grip.

[@tannycourtad2858]

🤣 "Promo sm"

[@-Airwalk1616-]

I'm starting to m realize that you just hate Anbernic ad a whole.

[@adinwalls]

lol okay. Then my next video will confuse you.