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Anbernic makes a lot of handheld game consoles, most of which are relatively inexpensive devices capable of playing games designed for older consoles. But the new Anbernic RG557 has the kind of hardware you might expect to find in a decent mid-range smartphone. A recent teaser video suggests that it should be able to handle recent Android games as well as Wii U emulation.
While the company hasn’t announced how much the Anbernic RG557 will cost or when you’ll be able to buy one, most other details have been released.
The handheld has a 5.48 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel AMOLED display, 12GB of LPDDR5X memory, and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. It ships with Android 14 using Anbernic’s RG front end user interface optimized for gaming.
Anbernic equips the system with a MediaTek Dimensity processor, which features:
- 1 x ARM Cortex-A715 CPU core @ 3.35 GHz
- 3 x ARM Cortex-A715 CPU cores @ 3.2 GHz
- 4 x ARM Cortex-A510 CPU cores @ 2.2 GHz
- Mali-G615 MC6 graphics
The company says the system’s 5500 mAh battery should provide up to 8 hours of battery life, although that will most likely vary depending on usage. The handheld supports 27W charging.
Other features include a microSD card reader with support for up to 2TB of removable storage, WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 support, and a pair of stereo speakers. There’s a USB Type-C port for charging and video output (at resolutions up to 1080p) and a 3.5mm audio jack. And the system has a fan inside the case for active cooling.
Gaming hardware includes “high-resolution, anti-magnetic interference capacitive joysticks” with RGB lighting, hall triggers, a vibration motor, and a 6-axis gyroscopic sensor.
This isn’t Anbernic’s first premium handheld – the RG557 will most likely replace the the RG556 in the company’s lineup. The older model currently sells for $174 and has a similar design and display. But it featured a lower-performance Unisoc T820 processor, 8GB of LPDDR4X memory, 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage, Android 13 software, and support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.
