Anbernic RG Slide

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Device Overview: Anbernic RG Slide

The RG Slide is Anbernic’s tribute to the PSP Go and Sony’s old Xperia Play: a horizontal slab whose 4.7-inch screen rides up on a spring-loaded mechanism to reveal the buttons underneath, then slides shut to protect them in a pocket. It launched in June 2025 at roughly $189.99, with early-bird and later sale pricing dipping under $150. Mechanically it is the most interesting thing Anbernic has shipped in a while. Internally it is far more familiar: the Unisoc T820 that already powers the RG556 and RG Cube, which meant the RG Slide’s performance ceiling was predictable on day one. What you are really paying for is the slider and the 4:3 screen, not a leap in horsepower.

Emulation performance, generation by generation

The T820 is a 6nm octa-core chip, one Cortex-A76 at 2.7GHz, three more at 2.3GHz and four A55s at 2.1GHz, paired with a Mali-G57 MC4. In practice that makes everything up to the sixth console generation a non-issue. NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy Advance, PS1 through DuckStation, Nintendo 64 through Mupen64Plus FZ and Dreamcast through Flycast all run at or above full speed with headroom for upscaling. PSP on PPSSPP is the device’s comfort zone, with most of the library holding 2x-3x internal resolution. Sega Saturn via the Beetle and Kronos cores is playable, which is more than many rivals manage, and Nintendo DS through melonDS plus the bulk of MAME-era arcade run without complaint. The real ceiling sits at GameCube and PS2. Dolphin will hold 60fps in lighter GameCube titles but stumbles in the demanding ones, and AetherSX2 or NetherSX2 gives you a decent slice of the PS2 catalog at native or slightly boosted resolution, with the heavier 3D games needing per-game tuning or dropping frames. Switch is essentially off the table: a Yuzu-derived emulator will boot simple 2D indies, but expect single-digit to 20fps in anything ambitious. Treat anything past PS2 as a bonus, not a reason to buy.

Screen, build and controls

The panel is the highlight, a 4.7-inch LTPS in-cell LCD at 1280×960, fully laminated, with capacitive multitouch and a 120Hz refresh rate. The 4:3 aspect ratio is deliberate and correct for retro content: PS1, GameCube, Saturn and most pre-widescreen systems fill it without pillarboxing, and the pixel density is genuinely sharp. The slider action feels solid rather than flimsy. The problem is mass. At 379 grams the RG Slide is heavy for its 154 x 90 x 26mm footprint, and reviewers consistently report hand fatigue over long sessions; that weight is the price of the mechanism plus the 5000mAh battery, which returns roughly six hours of use and refills over about three hours on modest 5V/2A charging. Connectivity is dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, with no cellular despite the chip’s 5G branding. Controls cover dual analog sticks, a d-pad, four face buttons, L1/L2/R1/R2 shoulders and a six-axis gyro. Anbernic markets the sticks as high-precision, but the company has not clearly documented whether they use Hall-effect sensors, so I would not assume drift immunity until a teardown confirms it.

Software and setup

This is an Android 13 device, and that framing matters. The Linux custom-firmware ecosystem people associate with Anbernic’s cheaper handhelds, muOS, Knulli, ArkOS, ROCKNIX and Batocera, does not run here; those target RK3326 and H700-class Linux hardware, not a Unisoc Android board. Out of the box you get stock Android 13 with Anbernic’s own launcher and a bundle of gimmicks (a floating game assistant, AI game guides, real-time translation) that most owners will ignore in favour of their own stack. The realistic setup is to sideload RetroArch, standalone emulators such as PPSSPP, Dolphin, DuckStation and AetherSX2, and a proper front-end like Daijisho or ES-DE. The community-firmware angle here is GammaOS, a stripped-down Android build for Anbernic’s Unisoc devices, though at the time of writing full RG Slide support was still hoped-for rather than confirmed, so check current threads before counting on it. Because it is open Android, you also get the Play Store, streaming apps, cloud gaming and native Android titles.

Price, value and who it is for

At roughly $150 to $190 the RG Slide is priced right against the RG556 and RG Cube, which use the same chip and generally weigh less. You are paying a premium for the slider form factor and the pocketable, protected-controls design, not for extra performance. That makes it a niche pick. Buy it if the PSP Go silhouette genuinely appeals to you and you value being able to close the device over the buttons. If you only care about frames-per-dollar, a flat T820 handheld, or a Snapdragon-based Retroid for more PS2 and GameCube headroom, is the smarter spend. The weight is the single biggest reason to try before you commit. For a retro-focused player who wants everything through Dreamcast and PSP flawless, PS1 and N64 pristine on a crisp 4:3 screen, and GameCube and PS2 as an occasional treat, the RG Slide delivers, just don’t expect it to be light.