Anbernic’s sliding screen handheld might be too chunky and heavy for your pockets

Anbernic hasn’t officially released oregon adjacent enactment its caller RG Slide handheld up for preorder yet, but a fistful of reviewers person precocious shared their archetypal impressions of the caller console. Anbernic whitethorn beryllium leaning a spot excessively acold into novelty and nostalgia with the RG Slide’s design, portion not really capitalizing connected what made devices similar the airy and compact PSP Go and Xperia Play smartphone truthful fondly remembered.

The RG Slide volition beryllium priced astatine $189 and is expected to spell connected merchantability starting connected June 20th, 2025, according to RetroDodo. It’s powered by an octa-core Unisoc Tiger T820 CPU, which is simply a processor Anbernic already uses successful its higher-end handhelds similar the RG Cube that tin emulate astir games from the PS2 and Nintendo GameCube era. That’s paired with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a microSD paper slot, and a 5,000mAh rechargeable artillery that’s estimated to powerfulness the console for up to six hours betwixt charges.

Retro Dodo liked the RG Slide’s 4.7-inch, 1280 x 960 pixel solution screen and recovered it makes “retro consoles specified arsenic GameCube, Dreamcast, and PS2 look somewhat much vivid successful examination to erstwhile Anberic products.” It besides recovered the console’s sliding mechanics to beryllium satisfyingly solid, but lamented the large “clack” it makes erstwhile opening oregon closing the device.

The console’s controls are arsenic bully arsenic what’s recovered connected different Anbernic devices and look reasonably comfy and well-balanced, but not rather arsenic ergonomic arsenic different handhelds. 

Both Retro Dodo and Russ Crandall, who runs Retro Game Corps, consciousness that Anbernic missed the people erstwhile it comes to the RG Slide’s size, which feels excessively ample and heavy to beryllium comfortably pocketable. It besides weighs 380 grams, which is conscionable shy of the archetypal Nintendo Switch that weighed 390 grams and overmuch heavier than the 158-gram PSP Go.