Their Best Yet?.. With One Issue - Anbernic RG556 In-Depth Review

Links to buy the Anbernic RG556
www.aliexpress.us/item/325680...
anbernic.com/products/rg556?s...
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Chapters:
00:00 - Anbernic RG556 Is Actually Pretty Good!
00:27 - Anbernic RG556 Specs
02:24 - Best Case Battery Life - 15 Hours
04:05 - Emulation Spotlight
05:10 - Playstation 2 Emulation
06:07 - Gamecube Emultation
06:56 - Accurate Saturn Emulation
08:11 - Game Streaming - Xbox XCloud
09:23 - Netflix / Android Gaming
10:36 - Build Quality Review
14:06 - Let's Talk About Those Analog Sticks
15:20 - Anbernic's Best Traditional DPAD Yet
16:15 - Initial Screen Is Too Cool
17:00 - AMOLED PWM
17:52 - AMOLED Display and Touch Input Results
18:26 - Switch Emulation and Closing Thoughts

[@bear532]

I have a feeling this type of device is a test run for anbernic. They’re likely to release a better version of this one soon. I would love it if they used full sized buttons and analog sticks. I just want a home device that’s not as bulky as the steamdeck (5.5”-6.5”) with controls as similar/comfortable as a real controller as possible. There are enough small portable devices, time to focus on comfort, that means finding the sweet spot of not too bulky and not too small.

[@hiepbenh88]

they all have bad stick, and only 60hz, maybe coz they only forcus on RETRO gamers, not android FPS Gamers.

[@CrumpetsNBiscuits]

Sure hope. Give me decent switch for sub 250 and I'm happy. RP too thin, odin too expensive.

[@cosmicgamingunlimited]

@@CrumpetsNBiscuitsswitch emulation is dead. RIP yuzu. We await your return in 10 years.

[@jasonrodriguez2963]

​@@cosmicgamingunlimited Dude it's not like Yuzu would stop working or something, you could still use it to run a lot of games at full speed.

[@cosmicgamingunlimited]

@@jasonrodriguez2963 I was being overly dramatic. You can get Suyu and ryujinx. I just really enjoyed yuzu and it seemed easy to get and was trustworthy. Now you have to go other websites and hope nobody added datacollection to it.

[@JaviPlayRetro]

Bro you are the goat of battery test. I can not believe the results of the battery compared to the RP4Pro

[@LoudMime]

Anbernic is amazing because its OLED. Retroid should last longer

[@thomassmith4467]

It's 180 dollars. It's absolutely perfect for that price. It plays every ps2 game for me at 1.5x. The screen size, the grips, the quiet fan, battery life. It's perfect.

[@Pridetoons]

I was waiting for your review phawx.

[@Flyingboots1]

It's trash lmao! Retroid Pocket wins again. When I buy a handheld I want it to play games at the proper framerate, not limp along at half the FPS! What a piece of GARBAGE!!

[@ultimategohan1551]

Love a retro handheld phawx review in the morning

[@elemileTLDR]

Thank you very much. I began to consider this for its ergomic advantage, despite being such an eyesore. The bad analogue sticks broke the deal.

[@VKsChannel]

The problem is not with the analog sticks, it's with their firmware, in fact, you can take these sticks and install them on a Nintendo Switch and it will work flawlessly

[@lnrdo49]

I would love to see this screen and ergonomics on a Retroid device, a 4 Pro 'XL' would be an instant buy for me. It's a shame the RG556 is a little underpowered for such a great display, while the RP4P has an underwhelming screen for its power.

[@samh5886]

This was supposedly to have a dimensity 1200 when it was teased by Max Zhou/周哥(one of the bosses) on Chinese media quite long ago. Pity they change their mind, or maybe they leaving it for another model. Or maybe this screen will end up stuck on 1 device just like the rg552 's screen even though people were asking them to use a better chip with that screen. Or maybe another company will get access to the same screen and do it.

[@chrisflowers-smoker154]

Device I am curious about, and would love your Input on - AYN Oden 2

[@shibidi]

You can change out the sticks for better quality ones. Makes a big difference.

[@wandilemkhize9455]

This is the year we hit 100k 🥰

[@Pridetoons]

The best part is Gamma Squeeze is going to be working on this Handheld. So Battery Life and maybe performance will improve on this Handheld. 😁

[@RodaLisoRetrogames]

Wow, how wonderful, the best news I could hear.

[@wavergray]

When you tested F-Zero GX did you do the setting changes that are needed for the game to run properly? 1. Making sure Dual Core is on. 2. Changing the clock speed to 300% You have to do it in the individual setting for the game in dolphin or they won't stick. Last I checked, this has to be done on the Steam Deck for the game to run well. If you did do those changes and the game still ran that bad, maybe there something wrong with the RG556? Because with those setting changed, F-zero GX runs at near full speed on the RP3+ at native res.

[@samh5886]

Better to ensure "Synchronize GPU thread" is ticked and leave the dual core unticked unless your device is really too weak. They purposely auto disable it due to possible stability issue, can refer to the dolphin wiki for this game.

[@bankbank]

they sell different size emmc configs? are you sure about that?

[@nihiltube]

Thanks for the review! I care about dpads _a lot_ and I loved to see you pulling shoryukens one after the other. Do you prefer RP4P or RG556 for dpad in general, and for dpad in street fighters / other fighting games? How would you compare the dpad accuracy between the two? Also, is the different position of dpads (top vs bottom) influencing ergonomics and accuracy?

[@liamconverse8950]

My Odin light only has 4 gig RAM and gets the same if not better performance than this one. Also since the 556 has a bigger screen than the Retroid pocket 4 doesn't that mean it would shoot out more light and use more battery?

[@KNYGHTLORE]

With Gamma getting a dev kit model surely when GammaOS releases it takes the 556 to the stratosphere.

[@samh5886]

He won't be releasing anything until there is a way to unlock the bootloader and people can unbrick the device if something went wrong.

[@Vul-Pin3]

when are we gonna get an Odin 2 Review?????? i noticed you haven't done one of the odin 2 yet

[@MrZakuRetro]

17:01 it would be cool if dc dimming could be activated, i cant use oled screen because this reason is like putting my eyes in a fry pan.

[@goodfodder]

To me the analogue sticks are just set to sensitive, is there no way to change this like in ppsspp?

[@DudeMcPunchy]

Repping that Shadow Tower Abyss

[@TheMartiansLoveKuato]

The Anbernic RG556 looks great but I look forward to what follows it.

[@tonyrosario1940]

Anbernic's D-pads feel great to press, but the majority of them suffer from hitting false diagonals now and then. Games like Tetris, Dr. Mario and other precision platformer games will be affected. If they could fix this ongoing issue in their products, they would have the best D-pad in the handheld industry. 🍻🤞🏼

[@FonderASalvastine]

I bought my RG556 from Aliexpress a few days ago and the listing says the Joysticks are already Hall Sensor Sticks, is it possible that after the demos they had the sticks switched from Analog to Hall?

[@crocodiluscz1353]

So problem with sticks isnt there anymore? Is it ok now? Thanks

[@BandoidView]

Thank you! I'm very sad to hear your assessment on the sticks. Is this something they can address through a software update?

[@shto4782]

No

[@BandoidView]

​@@shto4782they're Hall effect sticks. Do you have any details on why the hardware isn't signaling deflection gradient?

[@joseg1201]

They can be replaced, more or less easily, for gullikit's switch joysticks, which are much better. Descrew, screw. Perfect fit and they even don't need to be calibrated.

[@sunnyc2624]

Can the Analog sticks be replaced with better ones? Any suggestions?

[@smykster007]

I'm curious about this as well.

[@chazmcdaniels6173]

Russ over at RGC says yes and has a link to Amazon. Guilkit NS40 is the part. I don't have my 556 yet and I've never replaced joysticks so you take this advice and ignore it.

[@sunnyc2624]

@@chazmcdaniels6173 I have the RG556 now and the Analog sticks are fine, I still need to test a bit more but initial impression is good

[@jierenzheng7670]

I am looking to play games like these: Tales of the Abyss, Front Mission 4, Front Mission 5, Tenchu: Fatal Shadows, Suikoden V, will it run well?

[@dllacuna69]

what device is the best value if im really just trying to play ds games? i was leaning towards this or the retroid pocket 4 pro but maybe these might be overkill

[@iTheBeep]

you'll be able to play DS games on a RP3+ or RG405M just fine

[@greenbeetless]

I’m still debating on getting this or waiting a few more months. The retroid pocket 4 looks amazing, but I dislike the analog stick placement. The RG556 just needs a Hall effect sticks.

[@rabenovich]

They are Hall sticks.

[@TheRed02151]

@@rabenovich nope

[@TheRed02151]

@@rabenovich they lied,it's not true

[@derosam69]

Awesome review man, can you do an updated review on the win mini?

[@sarfraz733]

Got mine for 129 USD including shipping which I think is a steal.😊

[@Sadtiric]

I wonder how much of a pain it'd be to swap the sticks out..

[@Sadtiric]

For context, I'm not referring to the physical process, but the sourcing of sticks and then whether or not the software will play nice.

[@zerocool4life]

Does it come with all the games?

[@numberoneappgames]

I would love to see these guts on a 7 inch screen. :)

[@tbsschevy4027]

How did you get forza horizon 5 on the rg556?

[@o5you86]

I’ve had my Anbernic 556 for a couple of Days now, I loaded some PSP Games but get a message: ‘Give PPSSPP permission to access storage’ I have no idea how to get my PSP Games to work? any ideas?

[@julioarroyo9101]

You have to give the app permission to check the folder for roms.

[@rorivers180]

8 cardinal stick OUCH!

[@LatinLegacyNY]

The price is the best thing going for it. That's about it.

[@mikegmcg]

This would have been my pic for the $ if the sticks were better.

[@jeramzPC]

that steam deck running the burn in test in the background is highly distracting

[@ronaldomanzoli3964]

Wow i didn't know Netflix had Android games, nice!

[@afireinside421]

battery test?

[@chrisbenefield9963]

I wonder if they’ll be marking down their rg505. Cause who’s going to pay like $20 less for the the 505. If your able to afford the 556 why not shell out a tiny bit more for a substantially better device

[@onepiece_96172]

What game is 19:20

[@AsabaEnuel]

"The analogue sticks are not responsive at all" come on that's very misleading

[@paparansen]

i thought russ is the howeveroni, but i was wrong...

[@adelin081]

Nah, russ is the "all the same"-oni

[@paparansen]

@@adelin081 cant stand that guy and now this one neither

[@madarasoun3018]

Joysticks are the only complaint I have for this device.

[@dragon2knight]

I think Anbernic is responding to this market better than Retroid is atm. They know older folks are using the more expensive Retro handhelds and realized that a larger sized screen, better ergonomics and good enough performance are all that's really important at the end of the day. Doing this for under $200 is just an added bonus as far as I'm concerned. As you're the first reviewer I've seen that has totally blasted the sticks so badly that you deem them unusable, I'll defer to others on that point or until I get my unit in and see for myself. Either way, hopefully software can help with that down the road or even before release as this still has some way to go before shipping out yet. Time will tell. Lastly, and I'm getting tired of this honestly, this was never meant to compete against the more expensive RP4 PRO, it's more lined up to be a bigger, more comfy handheld with a huge beautiful screen and all day comfort over using a standard ergonomically poor, tiny screened RP4. It only cost's a bit more than that model and offers so much more all told. I hope Russ can finally do a proper comparison of the two as it seems he's the only reviewer who has a standard RP4 on hand to do that. His final review still isn't out and I hope he does do this, as it's obviously the one Anbernic was shooting for after all. Thanks for the review.

[@samh5886]

Doesn't help that many crazy people, including some of those Anbernic partners who get free devices/earn commission, are trying to compare it to the rp4 pro by saying they "perform about the same", "above the rp4 and closer to the rp4 pro", "just slightly weaker than the rp4 pro" , "no actual difference when running games", when it is solidly on the same level of the d900 (a tiny bit stronger in multi core cpu and abit weaker in GPU).

[@livewithoutregrets4056]

Классно 👍

[@o0Dan0o]

Honest question, what's the benefit of a device like this over a phone with a controller?

[@Fly-to-the-sky2004]

it's cheaper and doesn't clog up your phone

[@yorkyalmanzar8959]

Active cooling my LG v60 starts to slow down after a while of playing 2x

[@nikolaikai940]

First!

[@MrFlashpan]

Hoooray better ergonomics and a nice screen! Booooo crappy sticks! Why do Anbernic include a booooo every time! You can bet your life on it.

[@bear532]

there’s boos: the sticks and the very slightly underpowered soc. If they switch sticks and maybe introduce a pro version that uses the D1100, it would be a godsend. Or maybe retroid makes a similar model in replacement of the flip.

[@MrFlashpan]

I almost think they do it on purpose, to keep you buying the next device when its been corrected. After all, who's going to get their next device if the previous device was perfect?@@bear532

[@shto4782]

The sticks are a no, no. So there is no better handheld then rp4 pro and odin 2

[@Pridetoons]

I'm happy Anbernic went with an AMOLED instead of an OLED screen. I suggested this to Anbernic because AMOLEDs are far superior than OLEDs. They're better in Sunlight and hotter climates, far less burn-in issues, all with the same amazing color depth.

[@Angultra]

I think it's expected since phone screens are AMOLED not OLED, so not hard to source. But definitely a plus they went with it over standard IPS.

[@jonathanhersey8313]

Save the extra cash and get a ROG Ally. No comparison.

[@srvuk]

ANBERNIC certainly has a good handle on how to openly practice piracy, boosted by so many reviewers that have no care for legality whatsoever.

[@seitostockman]

Boohoo 😢

[@samhuang683]

I think they did not bundle roms with their android handhelds unlike the Linux ones? Edit: Oh wait, they still do it.

[@Boomstwin]

@The PHAWX the mad scientist of gaming 🎮🥽🥼💻💡🔎📖📈⚗️🧪🧫🧬🔬🔭🩻

[@solkalibri1376]

Why?