I’ve been wanted to review this from the day it arrived. Now it’s finally time. This time I decided to buy this device with extra micro-SD card. I was curious to see how far Anbernic came when it comes to their stock cards compared to the 2 micro-SD cards, I have got from them last year with my first Anbernic device. Those were no good and crashed.

I was surprised in a good way. Compared to the last ones, that are/were NO brand cards, this time it came with a KIOXIA micro-SD card so we have a brand name now. That is good progress. The games that are on this card I have are also way better selected with fewer double ones on it. Only there are no Super Mario games in the card. For me this card has more games I would like to play and I wasn’t really thinking about adding games right away (okay maybe the Mario ones) The card had some good names such as Pokémon, Zelda, Kirby, Sonic and we can go on like that.

For me this was a plug and play experience. This card even had some PSP and N64 roms, but I would not expect too much of those games. There are some PlayStation 1 games there not much on this card but they work very well. This is of course different when you order a Micro-SD card that has more storage. Mine was only 64GB. I have to say points for Anbernic on the Micro-SD cards they use now.

The Stock OS that comes with this device is okay. It’s not difficult and I am sure if you have no experience this will work out for you as long as you order one with games on it. It’s all quite clear maybe it’s not the prettiest software but it runs and does what it needs to do. The games I have played for a while didn’t need to do any tweaking. Thou I don’t think you need to do that on any of the 35xxx series. Something that surprised me is that it has a multimedia application. You do need to use a computer for the micro-SD card if you want to add that kind of files, but I still wanted to point it out. It’s nice that they added it, read on the internet that people are watching anime on it.

This device is just a little bigger that the Gameboy advance SP, but then again, it’s almost an exact replica. This makes it feel very nostalgic. Because of this its really easy to take with you. I Always have this device in my bag when I go somewhere and were I have to wait. Not to mention a lot of people don’t even see the difference until they ask me.

Now it sounds like I only have good thing to write about this, actually there are like in all device’s flaws. The buttons are really clicky. I thought this was just an overestimation from other people but when you play button mashers for example there is a good chance the sound will annoy you. So, I don’t recommend button mash games on this one unless you want to have earplugs in. Or you can solve this problem with opening it up, and I believe use electric tape or Kapton tape on the motherboard where the place of the buttons is. There are guides of it on YouTube. On the other side I do not play those games and even thou the buttons are clicky I can live with it.

I also heard that some people where very unlucky with these series of Anbernic and some had battery swelling. I heard that also some motherboards stopped because of overheating. I honestly didn’t know it was a thing. I mean it can happen to any device but it seems like specially this one had more complaints about it online. I also found people who tried to see what the conditions are with these things happening but I found no concrete proof for this. Mostly the device was already faulty or damaged due bad shipping or that it was charged the wrong way. Keep in mind that these devices need simple low voltage chargers like an old iPhone or Samsung charger with 5 volts. I use an old Samsung travel adapter and that has an output of 5.0V and 2.0A so far, no problems or I use my old iPhone charger. Also, I use the cable that comes with the Anbernic device. I do want to state this since I think it’s pretty important.

When I was messing around with installing new software on it the device became actually a little warmer than I would like it to be. I shut it down after installing and setting everything up. Added my roms on my Micro-SD card and after that this didn’t happen again. I do not know what triggered it, it was warm in the room that time maybe it was just a one of thing, but I want to share this.

I do think it’s a good device for this price as long as you don’t plan playing PSP or N64 games on it. Some very low-end games will play, but I just think it will not give me a fun experience. Like with all of these devices keep an eye out on AliExpress. They have lots of deals and if you have coupons or they have special sales sometimes you can get one even cheaper than on the Anbernic website itself. We do like a cheap deal right. Last time I checked,I already saw some for like 55 euro that is even cheaper than on the Anbernic website.

This device also looks great with other software on it for the ones that like a challenge. Keep in mind to get yourself a micro-SD card for a reliable brand, because in the end I don’t think that the Micro-SD cards the devices have been strong enough flashing.

So that comes to my overall thoughts.

I would say this would be a great device to start out with. Get yourself one with a card and you have enough games to play. I think there is something on it for everyone keep in mind that there are no Mario games on the 64GB card and I cannot guarantee if they are on the 128GB. So keep that in mind if you want to play those games. Also, if you have no interest in tweaking or don’t care for that, this device with a good card is a nice one. You can have fun with it right out of the box.

There is also fun for people that want to change the software and want to mess around in setting things up. This device has some good other software online like for example Knulli or MUOS. So, if you get bored with it after a while like me and think you need to change the software, there are good options. Also, if you want to have something that looks like the famous Gameboy advance SP this is the one, let’s face it who cannot resist that.

Some cons that can be different for everyone