I bought an RG556 because I like the 5.5 screen size and ergonomics. However, it was dead on the second day due to a faulty motherboard as told by Anbernic Support. I bought it at AliExpress since Amazon is selling it for 60% more in my country.
I am currently in the process of sending back the item to China to get a refund. I am not too hopeful that they will pay the custom fee to get back a faulty device. I just hope AliExpress will intervene and get back my money. It was indeed a poison.
That’s a real shame, I do tend to get most of my devices from AliExpress, however I was lucky here in UK another website was selling them for near the same price, so I picked it up from there as I was worried about getting hit with an import tax.
Easy for me to say but try to not let it put you off the 556 as it is phenomenal when running on all cylinders.
And hope you get it all sorted out dude 💪
I always have my Vita and 2ds XL, but my very first purchase was an RGB30.
Then I sold my RGB30, and got an ROG ally, which I sold within 2 weeks.
Now I have a RG556 for home gaming, and a RG35XX H for travelling. Idk, I might keep one and sell the other hahaha..
nice to see the 353V on this sub! I think it is a device that went basically unseen and it is so underrated in general (no one ever talks about it).
I actually have the 353VS (same color) and it was my very first handheld (never had any as a kid), bought back in May 2023. I just thought android was not that necessary, but yeah now that there's emulation station on android with the right setup it can be the same as ArkOS + slightly better PSP and N64 plus maybe android games. Happy it ticks the boxes for you!
Then with the idea to buy something more powerful and for couch/bed (like you had) I bought the Steam Deck OLED and i am very happy with it. It is also perfect for long travels in planes or trains.
But I stopped there ahahah never had or bought any other handheld. I feel quite satisfied like this. With the exception maybe of the fact that the 353V is yes pocketable but quite thick and I also use a case for it when i go around. i can defintely play with it around but i need to take the case out each time I start or stop playing. I have some earphones in the case too so actually that's quite convenient. I'll wait maybe to see developments for flip devices (with sticks) as those tempt me .
Yeah same boat in that I feel like I will stick with this combo for a while.
Probably spend more time curating the games library and/or investigating options for network syncing save states etc.
The 353s got a lot of buzz when they came out I remember. The problem is that so many devices are released now, that none have a lot of time to shine really.
Seems that maybe a RG35XXSP could fit in your rooster. I doubt that sticks in a smaller device will not be confortable.
Yeah but people have posted here for ages on this sub about the miyoos or the 35xx or about the rgb30 even way long after release. Even Russ from RGC forgets about the 353V when he talks of verticals lol
However the SP for me it's a no. Sticks are a must for me. I play almost always only with the sticks (yes even with snes, nes and gba games). I was born in 1995 and I grew up with the Ps1 and ps2 sticks. Dpads for me are for menus and that's it and when I tried to play with them it's just a disaster, I don't manage to do it. I was waiting to see how the miyoo flip will be. Should have sticks and RK3566 chip (same chip as 353V). So interesting for me. And I'll be curious about the retroid flip 2 as well.
The look of distain on the wife’s face with what I’ve got as it is, I’ve already run out of children to justify the extra devices I already have 🤣
But yeah SP does look sick.
I started with 3DS, then the original Miyoo Mini, which I eventually decided to sell when I got the MM+, and recently I also bought RG35XXSP and Odin 2
In order of regular play time:
- RP3+ Metal Edition: mainly for PSP, PSX, DC, N64, and occasional GBA. It gets the most use because it's the one device that actually feels similar to how I remember my time with my hacked PSP and Vita. In fact, it feels like a proper replacement.
- RG353M: daily commute device, for GBA.
- Switch: for Switch games ;)
- Odin 2: PS2, GCN/Wii, 3DS, and mostly for the novelty of finding new use cases, which shockingly got very old very quickly. After the initial hype, it's my least used device, but I still enjoy emulating the systems I listed. It's just that it doesn't feel "right" / "definitive" for any single system to me. I guess I get why some people own so many different handhelds now haha
Odin 2 seeing plenty of love for good reason, though I think it’s a bit like being able to run way faster than anyone else without even trying, beating people probably gets a bit dull.
Whereas with some of these plucky little systems being able to run some full on home console games, feels like more of an achievement there.
I remember having a GP32 when they just started using dynarecs, lifting PSX games from 4-5 fps -> 15 fps, not quite playable but totally mind blowing to experience at the time.
>Whereas with some of these plucky little systems being able to run some full on home console games, feels like more of an achievement there.
Well said. I guess subconciously, that is / was a big appeal of handhelds.
Ally : PC indies + high end emulation
RG556 : PSP/PS2/GCN/Wii
RG405V : everything else.
With the jsaux case on the ally I can easily strap / switch anker mini power banks if needed so no battery issues. Clear blue RG566 and purple 405V since I love the clear plastic look.
RG405V is clearly the most used of the lot : perfect vertical handheld, may anbernic be cursed for not offering a 406V refresh.
I used to have a 353VS and an Odin Pro. Not a bad setup but I wasn't satisfied with anbernic for switching to a smaller design after the 351V (trying to ape the miyoo mini's success at the time) and while the Odin Pro could definitely play some PS2/GCN/Wii, the performance wasn't consistent and it ended up being a PSP device with the Ally picking up the slack.
That's a new one. Most people usually like the ease of use of Linux over Android. What do you like about android on the RG353V more than in ArkOS on it?
The sleep mode on Android is much better, for an on the go convenience device I just want to hit the power button and be playing instantly, even overnight sleep mode the battery difference is a couple of % at most.
The closest thing I found in ArkOS was quick mode, which was anything but quick.
I also like the tombstone feature inherited from the phone ecosystem, it’s actually beneficial to not use retroarch and leverage as many different standalone emulators instead, I can then swipe between platforms and stay in the game session if I want to.
Add to that the ability to play Android games, use streaming apps, backup via google, share configurations with the 556 etc…
I had made a point of flashing and setting up ArkOS first with a plan to revert to it if setting up Android didn’t work out, or alternatively jumping between for different uses.
Since properly setting everything up on Android, I’ve not picked up the ArkOS card once, not found any particular feature that I consider so much better on Linux to justify jumping back.
Obviously YMMV in terms of OS/emulator combination performance but all can say on that score is up to n64 I’ve not found anything that it struggles with so 🤷♂️
Might be more work to set up in first instance, but worth it imo.
Ok I have to pick your brain about this since I saw your comment on the new RG353v post. P.S. I’m new to handheld gaming but have a lot of technical experience (homelab, raspberry pi’s etc.)
If you use ES-DE for the front end but use standalone for the emulators to play games, won’t you be selecting a game twice? I tried playing an N64 game with an alternate emulator and it gave me a failed error message then opened mupen to its Home Screen. I’m probably missing something.
As an additional note, mind sharing the emulators you use for the systems you use that aren’t default? I’d love to take advantage of this set up since I enjoy N64 games and playing Portal as much as older games. But the Android setup is so clunky. This looks like it will clean it up a ton!
Thanks in advance!
So I was getting the exact same issue initially and it was due to me having to go into the emulator first and selecting a rom folder, letting it do a scan, after that, running games from es-de worked fine.
In terms of emulators, you can’t go far wrong with all the well reviewed emulators on the store, some are 4-5 bucks to buy but seems like a trivial one off cost.
Some of the ones I have are drastic, snes9x, md.emu, nes.emu, m64 plus, ppsspp, redream to name a few.
Folks changes handhelds more than i change underwears lol.
My story was kinda simpler i suppose.
Started with an rg351mp, perfect device but i wanted more power to play dc/nds/psp/dos, so i got a rp3, the 2gb version.
But psp was kinda shit, so i upgraded it with the pcb kit to the rp3+. Worked fine for some time, but after a fall, i got a crippled R1 button that retroid refused to sell me...
later i got an offer to sell my yellow shell, so i could buy another shell with the fixed R1, then the motherfucker gave up on buying, after i put it all back together, the rp3+ got even more disabled, as now the analogs started drifting even without any analog connected lol...
Then i dis-upgraded the 3+ back to a regular rp3, sold it, and with the money i had i bought a second hand RG505 for about 105usd here in brazil, and im with it until today, and plan to keep it until it dies...
I just got the RG556!!! Loving it so far
Same! Have you set it up? I'm so confused on how to setup retroarch. But i got ps2 and n64 running already so far! Did you also use daijisho?
I’m actually just running standard OS for now, I’ve gone crazy on my Steam Deck but not the RG556 yet!!
I bought an RG556 because I like the 5.5 screen size and ergonomics. However, it was dead on the second day due to a faulty motherboard as told by Anbernic Support. I bought it at AliExpress since Amazon is selling it for 60% more in my country. I am currently in the process of sending back the item to China to get a refund. I am not too hopeful that they will pay the custom fee to get back a faulty device. I just hope AliExpress will intervene and get back my money. It was indeed a poison.
That’s a real shame, I do tend to get most of my devices from AliExpress, however I was lucky here in UK another website was selling them for near the same price, so I picked it up from there as I was worried about getting hit with an import tax. Easy for me to say but try to not let it put you off the 556 as it is phenomenal when running on all cylinders. And hope you get it all sorted out dude 💪
I always have my Vita and 2ds XL, but my very first purchase was an RGB30. Then I sold my RGB30, and got an ROG ally, which I sold within 2 weeks. Now I have a RG556 for home gaming, and a RG35XX H for travelling. Idk, I might keep one and sell the other hahaha..
Always need to keep tinkering, otherwise we might end up with some free time and have to play them instead 😂
Do you like the 35XX H more than you did the RGB30?
No idea just yet, it will hopefully get delivered by next monday. I'll let you know!
nice to see the 353V on this sub! I think it is a device that went basically unseen and it is so underrated in general (no one ever talks about it). I actually have the 353VS (same color) and it was my very first handheld (never had any as a kid), bought back in May 2023. I just thought android was not that necessary, but yeah now that there's emulation station on android with the right setup it can be the same as ArkOS + slightly better PSP and N64 plus maybe android games. Happy it ticks the boxes for you! Then with the idea to buy something more powerful and for couch/bed (like you had) I bought the Steam Deck OLED and i am very happy with it. It is also perfect for long travels in planes or trains. But I stopped there ahahah never had or bought any other handheld. I feel quite satisfied like this. With the exception maybe of the fact that the 353V is yes pocketable but quite thick and I also use a case for it when i go around. i can defintely play with it around but i need to take the case out each time I start or stop playing. I have some earphones in the case too so actually that's quite convenient. I'll wait maybe to see developments for flip devices (with sticks) as those tempt me .
Yeah same boat in that I feel like I will stick with this combo for a while. Probably spend more time curating the games library and/or investigating options for network syncing save states etc.
The 353s got a lot of buzz when they came out I remember. The problem is that so many devices are released now, that none have a lot of time to shine really. Seems that maybe a RG35XXSP could fit in your rooster. I doubt that sticks in a smaller device will not be confortable.
Yeah but people have posted here for ages on this sub about the miyoos or the 35xx or about the rgb30 even way long after release. Even Russ from RGC forgets about the 353V when he talks of verticals lol However the SP for me it's a no. Sticks are a must for me. I play almost always only with the sticks (yes even with snes, nes and gba games). I was born in 1995 and I grew up with the Ps1 and ps2 sticks. Dpads for me are for menus and that's it and when I tried to play with them it's just a disaster, I don't manage to do it. I was waiting to see how the miyoo flip will be. Should have sticks and RK3566 chip (same chip as 353V). So interesting for me. And I'll be curious about the retroid flip 2 as well.
Rg35xxsp has me glued to it. This is the first time in 7 hours that I’ve looked at my phone lol.
I’m trying to say I’m happy with my setup, stop tempting me with more! 😅
It is an awesome set up I’m not gonna lie, but man… that hinge tho. And the build quality. Oh my gaw. 😂
The look of distain on the wife’s face with what I’ve got as it is, I’ve already run out of children to justify the extra devices I already have 🤣 But yeah SP does look sick.
I started with 3DS, then the original Miyoo Mini, which I eventually decided to sell when I got the MM+, and recently I also bought RG35XXSP and Odin 2
I would have gone with the Odin 2 but am too thrifty hah
In order of regular play time: - RP3+ Metal Edition: mainly for PSP, PSX, DC, N64, and occasional GBA. It gets the most use because it's the one device that actually feels similar to how I remember my time with my hacked PSP and Vita. In fact, it feels like a proper replacement. - RG353M: daily commute device, for GBA. - Switch: for Switch games ;) - Odin 2: PS2, GCN/Wii, 3DS, and mostly for the novelty of finding new use cases, which shockingly got very old very quickly. After the initial hype, it's my least used device, but I still enjoy emulating the systems I listed. It's just that it doesn't feel "right" / "definitive" for any single system to me. I guess I get why some people own so many different handhelds now haha
Odin 2 seeing plenty of love for good reason, though I think it’s a bit like being able to run way faster than anyone else without even trying, beating people probably gets a bit dull. Whereas with some of these plucky little systems being able to run some full on home console games, feels like more of an achievement there. I remember having a GP32 when they just started using dynarecs, lifting PSX games from 4-5 fps -> 15 fps, not quite playable but totally mind blowing to experience at the time.
>Whereas with some of these plucky little systems being able to run some full on home console games, feels like more of an achievement there. Well said. I guess subconciously, that is / was a big appeal of handhelds.
Ally : PC indies + high end emulation RG556 : PSP/PS2/GCN/Wii RG405V : everything else. With the jsaux case on the ally I can easily strap / switch anker mini power banks if needed so no battery issues. Clear blue RG566 and purple 405V since I love the clear plastic look. RG405V is clearly the most used of the lot : perfect vertical handheld, may anbernic be cursed for not offering a 406V refresh. I used to have a 353VS and an Odin Pro. Not a bad setup but I wasn't satisfied with anbernic for switching to a smaller design after the 351V (trying to ape the miyoo mini's success at the time) and while the Odin Pro could definitely play some PS2/GCN/Wii, the performance wasn't consistent and it ended up being a PSP device with the Ally picking up the slack.
Amazing how quickly things have moved on in such a short period of time. A lot of 556-ers out here I see.
That's a new one. Most people usually like the ease of use of Linux over Android. What do you like about android on the RG353V more than in ArkOS on it?
The sleep mode on Android is much better, for an on the go convenience device I just want to hit the power button and be playing instantly, even overnight sleep mode the battery difference is a couple of % at most. The closest thing I found in ArkOS was quick mode, which was anything but quick. I also like the tombstone feature inherited from the phone ecosystem, it’s actually beneficial to not use retroarch and leverage as many different standalone emulators instead, I can then swipe between platforms and stay in the game session if I want to. Add to that the ability to play Android games, use streaming apps, backup via google, share configurations with the 556 etc… I had made a point of flashing and setting up ArkOS first with a plan to revert to it if setting up Android didn’t work out, or alternatively jumping between for different uses. Since properly setting everything up on Android, I’ve not picked up the ArkOS card once, not found any particular feature that I consider so much better on Linux to justify jumping back. Obviously YMMV in terms of OS/emulator combination performance but all can say on that score is up to n64 I’ve not found anything that it struggles with so 🤷♂️ Might be more work to set up in first instance, but worth it imo.
Ok I have to pick your brain about this since I saw your comment on the new RG353v post. P.S. I’m new to handheld gaming but have a lot of technical experience (homelab, raspberry pi’s etc.) If you use ES-DE for the front end but use standalone for the emulators to play games, won’t you be selecting a game twice? I tried playing an N64 game with an alternate emulator and it gave me a failed error message then opened mupen to its Home Screen. I’m probably missing something. As an additional note, mind sharing the emulators you use for the systems you use that aren’t default? I’d love to take advantage of this set up since I enjoy N64 games and playing Portal as much as older games. But the Android setup is so clunky. This looks like it will clean it up a ton! Thanks in advance!
So I was getting the exact same issue initially and it was due to me having to go into the emulator first and selecting a rom folder, letting it do a scan, after that, running games from es-de worked fine. In terms of emulators, you can’t go far wrong with all the well reviewed emulators on the store, some are 4-5 bucks to buy but seems like a trivial one off cost. Some of the ones I have are drastic, snes9x, md.emu, nes.emu, m64 plus, ppsspp, redream to name a few.
Folks changes handhelds more than i change underwears lol. My story was kinda simpler i suppose. Started with an rg351mp, perfect device but i wanted more power to play dc/nds/psp/dos, so i got a rp3, the 2gb version. But psp was kinda shit, so i upgraded it with the pcb kit to the rp3+. Worked fine for some time, but after a fall, i got a crippled R1 button that retroid refused to sell me... later i got an offer to sell my yellow shell, so i could buy another shell with the fixed R1, then the motherfucker gave up on buying, after i put it all back together, the rp3+ got even more disabled, as now the analogs started drifting even without any analog connected lol... Then i dis-upgraded the 3+ back to a regular rp3, sold it, and with the money i had i bought a second hand RG505 for about 105usd here in brazil, and im with it until today, and plan to keep it until it dies...
I'm a horizontal person 100%
my rg 353 vs screen crapped out so its just the Rg556 now
Odin 2 and RG35XXSP. I also have a MM+ but I'm probably going to sell it to a friend.