Anbernic RG406V Review

Buy the Anbernic RG406V here: https://joeysrh.link/ANB_RG406V

Looking for the Anbernic RG406V Setup Guide? Find it here.

Specs

ColorsBlack Transparent/Beige White/Gray
Screen4″ IPS, 960×720 4:3 Touchscreen
CPUUnisoc T820
GPUMali-G57
RAM8GB LPDDR4X
Storage128GB UFS2.2
Operating SystemAndroid 13
Battery5500mAh
FeaturesWiFi, Bluetooth, Video Output
Good ForPS1 & Under, N64/DC, Saturn, PSP, GC/Wii, PS2
Custom Firmware (at launch)None

What is this thing?

So last year Anbernic released a very chonky big boy called the Anbernic RG405V. I called it the best vertical handheld you can purchase, and to this day, it still hasn’t been beaten by anything.

It was comfortable, had a massive battery that could go as much as 25 hours on a charge while playing games, had good performance with the T618 processor that let it do Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast perfectly and then some GameCube, PS2 and so on and the entire device just felt like a modern game boy in so many ways, they did very good on it.

So here we are a year later and Anbernic has just released the Anbernic RG406V, which you can basically consider the Samsung or Apple equivalent of a yearly updated release with a few new things, but the same general idea. We have a better screen, better performance, better sticks, better dpad and an all around better device that improves upon a lot of what made the RG405V great.

Price & Differences from the Anbernic RG405V

Now the Anbernic RG406V is $165 US dollars before shipping through Anbernic’s website, and that would be a $35 upgrade over last year’s RG405V. So let’s do a side by side here of what all changes between the two for anyone that has last year’s model.

First biggest change is the colors, the RG405V had wood grain, transparent purple and gray, and this years has beige white, gray and black. I’d say the 405V wins for color options, the purple was really nice and weird people liked the woodgrain.

Screen

Then it starts to get really different from here. For one, the screen on the Anbernic RG406V is a new 960×720 screen, still 4 inches, but a nice upgrade from the previous 640×480 screen Anbernic keeps using. I don’t have my 405v any longer, but the 405m uses the same screen it did, and we can take a look at here at a few examples of the differences. Is it a massive mind blowing difference? No. Is it a good upgrade nonetheless? Absolutely. Let 480p die and let’s move on to 720p and 1080p please. This is a great change and looking forward to seeing more of this panel in upcoming Anbernic releases.

Performance

Then we have the processor, the Anbernic RG406V is using the new Unisoc T820, while the 405v is using the T618. I’m not going to say these are close because they aren’t, and this is now the third Anbernic device using the T820 they’ve done, so there’s lots of performance videos you can check on both the Anbernic RG556 and the RG Cube to see how it performs, but the general idea is that it makes more of the catalogues of PSP, 3DS, GameCube and PS2 playable. They were fringe on the 405v, and now they’re a lot more accessible, but still nowhere near the performance of the newer Retroid Pocket Mini or Retroid Pocket 5 for example. It’s in between. 

There’s double the RAM here at 8GB from 4GB, Android 13 from 12, same 5500mah battery which is fantastic as battery life is super good on these two devices and then we get to some major differences.

The first is that the Anbernic RG406V now supports video out, however, like the other T820’s, you still can’t do video out and charging at the same time. It’s one or the other. Either way, even allowing video out is a benefit over the RG405V.

Controls & Speakers

And then the biggest differences are the controls. The first obvious one is the sticks. The Anbernic RG406V is using actual full sized sticks with RGB LED’s, and I never thought I’d see the day that we moved on from switch sticks. 

Sticks

These sticks are fantastic by the way, they’re loose feeling, they stick out nicely and overall are a fantastic improvement that I’m hoping we continue seeing on every new device from Anbernic. Although given the fact they just announced a CubeXX and it’s using the old switch sticks still, makes me guess that we might not. 

Dpad

The dpad here is the same loose, mushy feeling dpad that we’ve seen lately from them on releases like the RG40XX V and so on. It’s not like their old stiff dpads, this is softer, mushier and for me, I like this type of dpad way more. 

Buttons

Buttons wise they feel different than most Anbernic’s, mushy, not loud, and lots of travel. My buttons feel super hard to push down for some reason, which was surprising – I talked to a few others that own one, and they said there’s doesn’t. I have no idea if this is a me thing or not, but it was fatiguing using these. 

Triggers

Now one great change for anyone that used the RG405V is the shoulders and triggers. One major annoyance with the RG405V was accidentally hitting the shoulder buttons because they were so easy to press down. I haven’t had that issue with the Anbernic RG406V – they’ve solved that.

I have one big gripe though with the triggers and it’s that they aren’t analog triggers. Look, you’ve given us a performance bump to play GameCube and then you became one of the only devices in this price range to not include analog triggers. Even the Retroid Pocket 2S has them at half the price, there’s no real excuse not to have them here. Even if it’s a vertical form factor, it could have been done. 

Speakers

Another gripe is that despite all of this room on this chunky game boy, they still decided on down firing speakers. If they can do front firing on their RG35XXSP, they can do it here. Put more effort into speakers, for the love of all that is holy please. 

My Thoughts

Overall though, everything the Anbernic RG406V does is an improvement over the Anbernic 405v and I’d say there’s way more than $35 worth of improvements here that anyone considering between the two, should just get the Anbernic RG406V at this point. Better screen, better performance, better controls and still that same great battery life and comfort – this is a maximum effort vertical handheld in all its glory. If you have the 405v and you’re considering an upgrade – that’ll be on you and your priorities, but I see enough value here to make that jump worth it in certain scenarios, like using the sticks a lot, wanting a bit more power, and so on. 

Wrap Up

I think if you’re looking for a vertical handheld, there’s nothing better and this is sort of the best option for you right now and it’s a good option to have. I actually found myself enjoying my time with this quite a bit as I was using it, but I just don’t have a personal use case for a massive game boy so for me, I’d love to see most of this translate into a long awaited 406m or 406p or something of that nature. But there’s actually something very charming about the Anbernic RG406V and this feels more like the type of effort Anbernic should be putting into their devices, so it’s important to praise them for that when it happens.

The interesting thing to me is in comparison to their 8 H700 devices, the three T820 devices of the Anbernic RG556, Anbernic RG Cube and Anbernic RG406V feel vastly different to me. Despite using the same processor, each is using different parts – different screens, different sticks now, different dpads and so on. This, in my opinion, is the right way to do a differential lineup and the T820 lineup is very good in my eyes.

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