RG351MP Review – The Ultimate Metal Handheld

Today we are checking out latest retro gaming handheld, it’s the RG351MP from Anbernic! In our RG351MP review, we will be unboxing it, taking a closer look at the device, its features and of course checking out some emulators and retro games!

RG351MP Review Video

RG351MP Unboxing

Inside we have the RG351MP which we will show in more detail shortly.

Next, when purchased from DroiX you get a free 64GB card ready to go. There is a USB Type-C adaptor and WiFi dongle as this model does not have built in WiFi.

There is a USB Type-C charge cable. It comes with a screen protector and wipes to use when applying it to the retro handheld. And last but not least is a User Manual which is in full English and has everything you need to get started.

RG351MP Overview

The RG351MP measures 5.7 x 2.8 x 0.7 inches (14.5cm x 7.3cm x 1.8cm) and weighs 267g. 

It has a 3.5 inch IPS Display with a 4:3 ratio 640×480 resolution. This is the newer screen found in the RG351V and it looks amazing!

You have your standard left and right analogue sticks, along with a classic D-Pad. There are SELECT & START buttons above, and four gaming buttons.

Along the top are the left and right shoulder and trigger buttons. There’s an OTG port to connect the WiFi dongle to. And a 3.5mm headphone jack and the USB charge port.

On the bottom are stereo speakers. There’s two micro SD card slots, one for the operating system and the other for your games. And in between them is the reset button.

On the sides you can find the volume rocker. And the power button.

RG351MP Technical Specifications

The RG351MP comes in three colours; Mint Green, Ocean Blue and Matt Black. The Mint Green colour looks more golden in colour in the photo due to the lighting. 

CPU	RockChip RK3326 Quad Core @ 1.5 GHz
GPU	Mail G31-MP2
RAM	1GB DDR3L
STORAGE	16GB Slot 1 (Dedicated to the OS), Expandable in 2nd Micro SD Card Slot
DISPLAY	3.5″ IPS 640×480
BATTERY	3500 mAh Li-Polymer
I/O	USB Type-C OTG

User Interface

The RG351 series uses EmuELEC and RetroArch which you may be familiar with from other systems. You can browse using the controls to select a system and then a game.

Supported systems include Arcade with MAME and Final Burn, WonderSwan Mono and Color, CPS 1, 2 and 3, MSX, PC Engine, OpenBOR, Master System, Genesis, Neo Geo, Dreamcast, PlayStation and PSP.

The menus can be accessed via the START button. From here you can change various system settings including game settings, controller, sound and so on.

By plugging in the supplied WiFi adaptor you can use it to connect to a WiFi Access Point. Simply connect with the access point name and password and you are ready to go!

Once connected you can scrape newly added games which will download the game image and description for example. These show in the game lists when browsing systems.

You can also check for any system updates as well as download new themes if you want to change the main menu look and operation.

You can also quit from this menu. We recommend shutting down this way as it safely closes any open files and then shuts down correctly.

Emulator Gameplay Footage

Arcade

We continue our RG351MP review with testing some emulators and games. We start with 1945K II on the Arcade. You should have no issues with the vast majority of arcade games on the Anbernic RG351 series.

Dungeon & Dragons Tower Of Doom on Arcade also works great. Do check it out if you have never played it before!

PC Engine

Fantasy Zone on the PC Engine works with no issues at all, all the PC Engine games I tried work just fine.

Master System

Aladdin on the Master System, much like every other game I tried for it, works great. I had no issues at all. All the classic 8bit systems will be spot on.

Mega Drive

Alien Storm on the Mega Drive works great. There’s plenty of games on this system to enjoy and they all run great on the RG351MP!

Dreamcast

The Dreamcast is still very much a mix of what works and does not work. A lot of the games I tried ran OK but you may have frame drops in busy scenes or just constantly, depending on the game. Sonic Adventure 2 for example plays very well but it is not running at full speed.

Neo Geo Pocket

No RG351MP review would be without Metal Slug, but instead of the Neo Geo MVS/AES we will test it on the Neo Geo Pocket. It has some great games including Metal Slug that are very enjoyable to play. You will have no issues with this system on the RG351MP, all the games I tried work great.

PlayStation

PlayStation games overall are not too bad. You will find some games that do not run well due to compatibility issues, and a few that run at lower frame rates. But there are many games that do run very well.

PlayStation Portable

PlayStation Portable games, much like the Dreamcast, are a mix of what works well and not. There are a fair number of games that are playable. But if you are looking for high compatibility, I would recommend waiting for something like the GPD XP which runs the vast majority of games fine.

Summary

The RG351MP is as mentioned the latest in a varied line of the Anbernic RG351 series, we have had vertical plastic and metal case versions, horizontal models and models with and without WiFi.

The RG351MP doesn’t really add anything new to the mix, but instead Anbernic took some nice features from earlier models and added them to this one. The great looking 640×480 IPS display is an example of an improvement, as is the Ocean Blue colour which everyone loves!

But on the other hand, the lack of built in WiFi is a little disappointing. With the built in WiFi, this would be the best retro game console out at the moment. However, the WiFi is not essential for the majority of people, so you can just connect the dongle when necessary. 

If you have been sitting on the fence to buy one of the RG351 series, then the MP model is a very good choice. It has a premium feeling case, amazing display and it feels very comfortable to play for extended periods of time. It is definitely worth your consideration!

Where to buy the RG351MP from Anbernic

We hope you have found this RG351MP review useful in deciding if it is suitable for your needs. You can learn more and buy your RG351MP here, or browse our range of retro gaming handhelds.

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RG351MP FAQ – A new Anbernic’s Hybrid Metal/Vertical Handheld?

Originally posted by benjamin on: 07/09/2021

Hi there! We’ll not mince words – we at DroiX have come across some exciting news relating to ANBERNIC‘s newest retro gaming handheld, the RG351MP. We’ll update this RG351MP FAQ as more information becomes available!

RG351MP Specifications

You can find the full specifications for the RG351MP in the following table:

Category	Specification
Colours Available	Ocean Blue Matte Black Mint Green
CPU/Processor	Rockchip RK3326 @ 1.5GHz; Quad-Core
GPU	Mali-G31 MP2
RAM	1GB DDR3L
Display Size	3.5 Inches
Resolution	640x480p
Aspect Ratio	4:3
Control Layout	Dual Analog; Symmetrical
SD Card Layout	2x External
Speakers	Stereo
Battery	3500mAh
Operating System	Unknown (Most likely EmuELEC)
Weight (Approx.)	267g
Dimensions (Approx.)	14.5cm x 7.3cm x 1.8cm
Other Features:	3.5mm Headphone Jack Dual OTG USB-C Ports Wi-Fi Connectivity (external adapter required)

A Hybrid Handheld?

At a first glance, the RG351MP immediately appears to be a slightly slimmer version of the RG351M. There are a few key differences however.

The first is that the screen on the ANBERNIC RG351MP is a higher resolution 640x480P display. The screen of the RG351MP also appears to be in a 4:3 “vertical” aspect ratio. This is likely similar to the existing RG351V‘s screen, although it is yet to be seen if it is entirely identical.

The RG351MP also features two SD card slots, as was seen in the RG351V. This will most likely enable you to split your operating systems and games across separate SD cards, making it easier to manage your firmware and game collections.

One curious note is the apparent absence of a built-in Wi-Fi chip. No mention is made of one. Instead, only support of an “External network card” is mentioned. This likely means that you’ll need a USB-C OTG adapter to take full advantage of any online features. [09/09/2021 Update]: We’ve received word from ANBERNIC that the RG351MP will require an external Wi-Fi adapter. It will not have internal Wi-Fi functionality.

The RG351MP also features two previously unseen colours for ANBERNIC handhelds, these being a refreshing “Mint Green” and cool “Ocean Blue”.

All-in-all, the RG351MP is an interesting mixture of the RG351P, RG351M and the RG351V, that combines positive aspects of each system into one composite package.

How will the RG351MP perform?

Because the RG351MP uses the same internals as it’s predecessors, it’s easy to get an idea of how the RG351MP will perform by checking out the RG351V.

In other words: we can expect near-perfect emulation for most 8-bit platforms (NES, Master System, etc.), 16-bit platforms (SNES, Genesis, etc.), 32-bit handhelds (GBA, etc.) and the PS1.

Other 32-bit home consoles (Jaguar, Saturn, etc.), 64-bit platforms (N64, Dreamcast, etc.) and beyond (PSP, DS, etc.) will need to be considered on a game-by-game basis.

Should there actually be any performance difference in the real units, we’ll update this RG351MP FAQ with more info.

RG351MP Price

No official pricing has been announced for the RG351MP yet.

However, we can expect it to be more expensive than the RG351M, given that it incorporates both a metal shell and a 480p display. As an upside, the (apparent) lack of an internal Wi-Fi chip may help keep the costs down.

[09/09/2021 Update] RetroDodo, a popular retro gaming blogger/reviewer, has been informed that the launch price for the RG351MP will be approximately $150.

RG351MP Release Date

No release date has been announced as of yet for the RG351MP.

Given the pattern between announcement and release for past models however, we expect the RG351MP to be available at some point in November or December 2021 (at the earliest!).

We’ll update this RG351MP FAQ with more information as it comes to light!

[09/09/2021 Update] RetroDodo, a popular retro gaming blogger/reviewer, has been informed that the release date for the RG351MP is the 15th of September.

This is a much sooner estimate than we initially expected (as typically devices hit the market about 1-2 months after they’re announced). You can probably expect the RG351MP to become more readily available towards the end of September, factoring in international shipping/etc.

[07/09/2021 Update] RG351MP Video Footage

Check this out! Video footage has surfaced of the RG351MP in action, as you can see below:

View post on imgur.com

We get a glimpse of both the “Ocean Blue” and “Mint Green” colours in-person here. We think the blue one looks incredible, the green one could look more… “green”, though. What do you think?

(For those curious, the game being played is Warriors Orochi on the PSP!)

[09/09/2021 Update] Wi-Fi on the RG351MP

Hey there! Quick update!

There’s been a lot of confusion regarding the RG351MP and its Wi-Fi functionality, so we’ve pushed ANBERNIC for more details on it.

We can now confirm that the RG351MP supports Wi-Fi via the use of an external adapter, much like the original RG351P.

Additionally, RetroDodo – a popular retro gaming blog – has informed us that the RG351MP will “launch” on the 15th of September!

This is much sooner than we were initially expecting! However, do note that it is unlikely many people will actually be able to have devices in their hands at this date. International shipping times must be factored in, so we’d still only expect them to become readily available towards the end of September at the earliest.

[13/09/2021 Update] Final Word On The Wi-Fi + Video Footage

Hello once more!

Over the past couple of days, ANBERNIC have released a number of pieces of information relating to the RG351MP. However, one thing that has had everyone confused (ourselves included) is the presence of Wi-Fi on the unit.

The specification sheet (from which we transposed the information in this article from) made no mention of internal wi-fi, leading us to assume that the device required an external dongle. We reached out to ANBERNIC to verify this, who informed us that the Wi-Fi was indeed external.

Then – ANBERNIC released this teaser video for the unit:

This mentioned that the device did in fact have built-in Wi-Fi, which is contrary to what we were lead to believe and had been explicitly told.

We chased ANBERNIC once more regarding this conflicting information, and we’ve now received word that due to chip shortages, the RG351MP units will not have built-in Wi-Fi. They will require an external dongle.

With that matter laid firmly to rest (we hope, at least) check out this first official video footage of the RG351MP below: