Hands on: the Anbernic R351V offers a real ‘Game Boy’ vibe

Chinese firm Anbernic has done a good job cornering the market when it comes to high-quality emulation-based handheld devices, and their most famous endeavor, the RG351, is the weapon of choice for many fans of portable retro gaming. Available in plastic and metal case flavors, the RG351 is capable of playing 8-bit and 16-bit titles with ease, a fact that has made it very in fact popular.

Anbernic also has another variant of the RG351 on the market, the RG351V. The ‘V’ stands for ‘vertical’ because, unlike the other two models, this one is inspired by the iconic Game Boy. That means you have room for a larger 4: 3 ratio screen, but you also lose one of the analog sticks. However, in almost all other respects, it is identical to the other members of the RG351 family.

Available in wood effect, Game Boy gray and skeleton black case designs, the RG351V is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU (RK3326) and 1GB of RAM. It ships with EmuELEC installed by default (although we recommend switching to 351ELEC), while the 3900 mAh battery offers 3-5 hours of playtime. The D-pad and buttons are excellent, even the four side buttons, which are located on the back of the device in what initially feels like a rather odd position. The speaker is powerful and you also get the added benefit of a second MicroSD card slot. Finally, the RG351V has a clear advantage over the RG351P (the plastic case version) because it has built-in WiFi.

While the RG351V’s DMG-style proportions mean that it’s not as user-friendly as the RG351P and RG351M, it’s comfortable to use and the display is absolutely fantastic; Not only does it offer the perfect aspect ratio for the vast majority of retro games, it’s bright, has stunning contrast, and is blessed with rock-solid viewing angles.

Removing that second analog stick isn’t as big of a hit as you’d expect, although the one that remains is a bit too at the bottom of the front of the device, making it difficult to use for prolonged periods with pain in the thumb. Otherwise, the portrait orientation greatly improves the user experience, if you ask us.

As is the case with the other RG351 variants, the RG351V offers excellent emulation for NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, SNES, Mega Drive, PC Engine, Neo Geo and (most) of the games of arcade, but has problems with N64 Titles and Dreamcast. However, PlayStation One games work fine. As always, we highly recommend that you get your own ROMs instead of downloading them from the internet.

Anbernic is strongly suspected of working on the successor to the RG351 line which will hopefully feature more powerful internals and better performance, but at the moment the RG351V is perhaps our favorite handheld emulation device in the range of $ 100 price; we’re just sucking for anything that looks like a DMG-01.

Thanks to KeepRetro to supply the Anbernic RG351V used in this function.