Anbernic RG556 review – Android gaming handheld with AMOLED screen

The Anbernic RG556 is Anbernic’s latest Android handheld aimed towards the higher end of the market. Will the new T820 processor be enough to keep up with the Dimensity & Snapdragon processors found in more recent Android based handhelds? Let’s find out in our Anbernic RG556 review, as we unbox, take a closer look at the handheld, run some benchmarks for comparison and then check out a whole bunch of games for their performance.

Anbernic RG556 review video

Unboxing the Anbernic RG556

We start our Anbernic RG556 review with a brief unboxing. First out of the box is the Anbernic RG556 itself, we will take a closer look at it shortly.

Underneath the packing we have a user guide which is in English and Chinese. Inside the box is a USB Type-C cable for charging. And last but not least is a screen protector and screen wipes for when applying it.

Anbernic RG556 overview

Next in our Anbernic RG556 review, The Anbernic RG556 measures around 8.7 x 3.5 x 0.5 in (22.3 x 9 x 1.5 cm) and weighs 331g.

The Android gaming device is available in two colours Black and transparent Blue. The material is slightly different, the black case has a more matte finish while the Blue case looks and feels glossy in your hands.

The display is a 5.48” AMOLED touchscreen with a 1080P resolution. With it being OLED the display looks great with nice colours and brightness. On the left side we have hall effect analogues and a D-Pad, below are a Function and Return button. On the right side there are gaming buttons with SELECT and START below the right analogue stick.

The top has shoulder and hall effect trigger buttons, followed by the power and volume buttons.

The bottom has a 3.5mm headphone port, USB-C Type port and a covered micro SD card slot.

Anbernic RG556 technical specifications

Next in our Anbernic RG556 review we check out the technical specifications followed by battery life, fan noise and temperature tests. The Anbernic RG556 features the Unisoc T820 processor which is the first time we have seen this CPU so it will be interesting to see how it performs compared to the Retroid Pocket 4 PRO and AYN Odin 2 processors.

CPU	Unisoc T820 processor, 6nm EUV 5G SOC chip. Octa-core 1x A76 @2.7GHz, 3x A76 @2.3GHz, 4x [email protected]
GPU	Quad Core Mali G57 @850MHz
RAM	8GB LPDDR4X
STORAGE	128G UFS 2.2
DISPLAY	5.48-inch AMOLED screen, OCA full fit 1080*1920
COMMUNICATIONS	Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.0
BATTERY	5500mAh Polymer lithium battery
OS	Android 13
OTHER FEATURES	Built-in Hall joystick, six-axis gyroscope sensor, Hall trigger, high-speed fan + heat pipe active heat dissipation, support FOTA wireless upgrade, netplay, streaming, wireless screencasting, USB Type-C supports 1080p Display Port output, vibration motor, 3.5mm stereo earphones, energy-saving settings, joystick light control, display brightness, etc.

Powering the RG556 is a 5500mAh rechargeable battery. In our tests running Antutu on a loop we got just over four hours. 

While running Antutu we also tested the fan noise and thermals. We got 60db fan noise and a highest temperature of around 39 degrees C. As a note, the fan is generally not active often unless it’s being really stressed out, so we had to set it to the highest speed manually to get the highest noise.

Android OS overview

We continue our Anbernic RG556 review with a look at the operating system, its features and software. The Anbernic RG556 runs Android 13 which is fairly up to date. On first boot you have a brief setup screen which will pre install some emulators for you. I would however recommend going straight to the play store to update them as they were older versions.

You have a choice of running the individual emulators or using the Anbernic launcher to browse and play your games. If you have games on your micro SD card then the launcher will scan and add games. Once scanned, you will have a bunch of systems and games to browse and play. The software is quite simple, but it is easy to set up and use and performs very well.

Alternatively you can run the emulators individually. This will require a bit more setting up but often, especially with the more demanding systems, the emulators are more optimised than the ones used in RetroArch for example. If you do find games running slow in RetroArch then see if there is a standalone emulator to help improve performance, it can make a large difference. 

In the pull down menu you have options for Keymapping, processor speed mode and fan control. If you are not familiar with keymapping, it allows you to map the onscreen controls to the device’s physical controllers. It will let you play most games with a controller, even if they do not support one.

Video output via USB C is supported. You will need a suitable dock with HDMI output such as our DroiX SD1, or better still, the DroiX NH8 USB hub with NVME. Oh and our range of portable monitors work great with the setup!

Once connected you will have an option to switch between screen mirroring or a desktop like interface on your TV with touchscreen input on the device. The screen mirroring mode works perfectly, but we did  have some minor issues with getting into settings menus or quitting out while playing emulators. Overall though, it looks and plays great on a portable monitor.

System Benchmarks

As this is an Android operating system we can run some system benchmarks and compare the performance with other gaming Android handhelds as part of this Anbernic RG556 review.

3DMARK

We start the benchmarks with 3DMark which tests the CPU and GPU performance. In the Slingshot results we get 4,736 for the RG556, it’s an average score. The AYN Odin 2, AYANEO Pocket Air and Retroid Pocket 4 PRO all maxed out their scores.

On the more demanding Wildlife Extreme benchmark, the RG556 gets 564. While it is the lowest score, some of the lower performing handhelds can just about run the benchmark let alone get a score. 

Antutu

Antutu is an overall series of benchmarks which tests everything from UI performance to the storage speeds.

The Anbernic RG556 has a respectable score of just under half a million. The higher priced and performance devices do have a considerable lead though.

Geekbench

Our third and final benchmark is Geekbench which tests single and multi core performance.

We see decent scores for the RG556, again in fourth place behind the more expensive devices but not by massive differences. 

Benchmark Summary

The Anbernic RG556 remains in fourth place behind the mighty AYN Odin 2, AYANEO Pocket Air and Retroid Pocket 4 Pro Android gaming consoles. Do keep in mind the first two are at least twice the price of the RG556, however the price difference with the Retroid Pocket 4 PRO is much closer.

Gaming Performance

We recommend watching the Anbernic RG556 review video above for gameplay footage. We tried a few different games including Diablo, Dan the Man, Horizon Chase and Magic Rampage.

All games run just fine with no slow down or lag. As mentioned there is built in screen mapping and we were able to set it up with no issues.

Emulator Performance

Again, we recommend watching the Anbernic RG556 review video above for emulator footage across a good number of systems. Essentially all of your 8bit and 16bit systems through to PlayStation 1 and Dreamcast will work with no issues at all. You will also be able to upscale the internal rendering resolutions to 1080P to make the 3D graphics look far smoother.

For the more demanding systems from PlayStation 2 onwards you will find mixed success. For PlayStation 2 you will find the more demanding games will run slow unless you lower the rendering resolution. However for the lower demanding games you can increase the rendering resolution and remain running at full speed.

For more recent systems, including handhelds, you will again have mixed success. On the Vita for example there were a good number of games from those compatible that run at full 30 or 60 FPS. However games like Street Fighter X Tekken ran at around 40FPS.

For current generation handhelds, only the lower demanding 2D style games will be playable. If you want to emulate at this level then we recommend the AYN Odin 2 Pro

Final Thoughts

We will sum up our Anbernic RG556 review with our thoughts on the Android gaming console. The Anbernic RG556 is overall a good retro handheld but the performance is below that of the similarly priced Retroid Pocket 4 PRO. But for this price difference you do get a larger  5.48” AMOLED high resolution display, compared to a 4.7” IPS lower resolution on the 4 PRO. Depending on your preference you may want a larger or smaller display, but AMOLED will beat IPS in quality any day of the week. 

We like the easy to use Anbernic launcher, it simply scans your micro SD card and adds games to the appropriate system menus. It works great and is excellent to get up and running fast. However keep in mind that for the more demanding systems you will want to use the dedicated apps rather than the RetroArch cores. The dedicated apps do require a little setting up, but the performance increase you get is worth it.

If a larger and high quality display, with a fairly fast setup is something you are interested in, then the Anbernic RG556 Android gaming device is definitely worth considering. If you want a bit extra performance then go for the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro.

You can learn more and buy the Anbernic RG556 here. Use the discount code “RG5565OFF” for 5% off, the code expires one month from this review being posted and can not be used during store sales or promotions.

Thanks for reading (or watching) our Anbernic RG556 review. Let us know what you think about this Android gaming handheld in the comments, is it worth buying or are you looking at another handheld?