Portable gaming for less than four hundred. We know the prices and release date

Anbernic RG Vita and RG Vita Pro have been arousing the emotions of fans of retro games for a long time – those from the eight-bit era, but also newer consoles from two decades ago. Handhelds strongly inspired by PlayStation Vita are supposed to allow you to play titles from many platforms from various manufacturers, not only Sony. The dual-system Pro model looks particularly interesting, as we can even play PS2 titles on it. All in equipment that will fit into a larger pocket.

After many weeks of announcements, Anbernic is now ready to launch new consoles. Pre-sale of both devices will start on March 23 at 11:00 a.m. Polish time.

The manufacturer has prepared a special launch offer, which will last for the first 72 hours from the start of accepting orders. The basic RG Vita model was priced in the promotional window at USD 99.99 (approx. PLN 370), while its standard price will ultimately be USD 109.99 (PLN 408).

In turn, the more efficient RG Vita Pro variant will be available for purchase initially for USD 139.99 (PLN 520), and after the promotion ends, this amount will increase to USD 149.99 (PLN 557).

The differences between both variants justify the price difference. The standard RG Vita model received a 5.46-inch IPS touch screen with HD resolution and the Unisoc Tiger T618 system (ARM Mali G52 MP2 GPU) working with 3 GB of RAM. The whole thing runs on Android 12 and offers Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5 connectivity.

The Pro version has a slightly larger IPS display with a diagonal of 5.5 inches and Full HD resolution, powered by the newer Rockchip RK3576 system with 4 GB of RAM. The more expensive model also supports newer wireless communication standards, such as Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The GPU is Mali-G52 MC3, a variant with three cores.

What distinguishes the Pro version the most and arouses the greatest interest among enthusiasts is the ability to work in dual-boot mode. Users can freely switch between Android 14 and 64-bit Linux.

Regardless of the selected version, both handhelds are equipped with a 5000 mAh battery and 64 GB of built-in data memory. The manufacturer also took care of high-quality analog sticks using the Hall effect and a microSD card reader that supports media with a capacity of up to 2 TB.

The manufacturer’s announcement shows that both Anbernic RG Vita models will be able to emulate not only PS Vita, but also PS2, and will also support games from Android, GameCube, Nintendo N64, 3DS, Wii and PSP.

Although the specification and prices look quite attractive, the first, pre-release opinions of testers point out a certain problem. Even though the consoles’ name and design strongly refer to PlayStation Vita, smooth emulation of games from this platform may prove impossible or difficult. The cheaper Anbernic RG Vita, with its rather poor specification, is particularly questionable. However, the manufacturer’s video presenting Anbernic RG Vita Pro shows that this model can handle more demanding titles.