The Anbernic RG35XX Plus had everything I wanted: Nice buttons, a nice shape for my hands, and good enough specs that I could try to run my Godot games on it without worrying about fitting into the ~128MB RAM of the Miyoo Mini+.

Unfortunately, the Anbernic is very fragile. The screen falls out, the motherboard dies, something in hardware breaks if you use the wrong MicroSD card slots, and you can't charge it in the USB C port with any usual USB C charger. I've given up trying to figure out why mine won't boot, and I've had bad experiences with Anbernic. (They added an "insurance" I didn't want, giving my information to a shitty third party, after which I got a deluge of scam texts purporting to be from USPS. I'm not the only one with this experience.

So, "Anbernic" joins HP, Lenovo, and Boar's Head on my "Never Buy From These Bastards" lists.

With tariffs, I'm making all the purchases from China that I can before they hit. I've purchased two alternatives, the Miyoo Mini+ and the Trimui Brick. I've read a lot on r/SBCGaming that they consider it a "hobby" to buy these devices and never use them, and I loathe to know I'm approaching that. I think that's silly, I want to play games on these.

But which of the three will win? Will I fix my Anbernic and use it? Will the Miyoo win out despite its specs? Or will the newcomer Trimui Brick make the top spot?

	Anbernic RG35XX+	Miyoo Mini+	TrimUI Brick
CPU	Cortex-A53 1.5GHz 4 cores	Cortex-A7 1.2GHz 2 cores	Allwinner A133+ 1.8GHz
RAM	1GB	128MB	1GB
Durability	Paper skin and glass bones	TBD	TBD

I'll let you know once I've beaten Castlevania SotN. Ta ta

Comments

missingno wrote on February 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM

I bought a Miyoo Mini Plus almost two years ago. Love it so much that I wish I'd bought a more expensive model with analog sticks.

Now I'm in the rabbit hole of salivating at all these fancy new handhelds on the market, but never actually buying another one because something better will be right around the corner. Holding out for the day someone gets SteamOS running in this form factor.

twovests OP wrote on February 17, 2025 at 10:11 PM

I'm feeling similarly. I want these GameBoy shaped devices to target up to the PS1 (2D games, at least, like SotN), and then maybe a SteamDeck or similar device.

As an update, I got my RG35XX+ working again. Not sure why, but I might have re-flashed the firmware incorrectly. So, it's back in the running.

twovests OP wrote on February 17, 2025 at 8:37 PM

Miyoo Mini Plus review:

It has four shoulder buttons but they are difficult to use in its form factor, and the one speaker is covered during normal play.