BOYHOM New R36H Retro Handheld
Apr. 11th, 2025 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThis is just an R36S in a horizontal format, which means it strongly resembles the Anbernic RG35XX-H and earlier 3.5” screen/horizontal form-factor line. It has pretty much exactly the same internals and software; to the point I suspect you could swap cards between them--It’s running ArcOS and EmuElec and plays most things decently, including managing some N64 and weaker PSP titles. (“Tier 2” is the standard for anything but the bottom-level crap at this point—even the $30 devices are playing SNES perfectly with cheat codes and fast-forward options.)
My only real complaint is that they left off a function or menu button, so you need to use Select, and that’s a miss. They also flipped the D-pad and left analogue stick to match X-Box configuration rather than Playstation, so using the D-pad is just generally less comfortable; but I understand this is a matter of personal preference. I’m just more about the D-pad, especially for retro games. Like the R36S, this has two SD card slots. It’s also got a headphone jack, but no TV-out. It’s interesting how common that feature was on the bottom-of-the-line devices for years (including coming packaged with RGV cables!) but it seems be dropped from the newer bargain-basement devices.
In other news:
The crap SD cards that came with my R36S started to die, so I replaced them with a single SanDisk card with the latest fully-updated ArkOS image and just put my ideal roms list on the card. I needed to tweak a couple of settings, but overall it’s better than it was—actually, the N64 emulation has gotten shockingly playable. In case it wasn’t clear, the R36S and R36H can take one or two cards—you can either put your roms on a separate partition from your OS, or a separate card. The advantage of the second card is that you can swap it (and your saves) to other devices quickly. In practice...I know I’m never going to do that.
I also bought a silicone cover for my R36S, because it was $4 and I was curious how it would work. It’s decent to hold—honestly, the plastic shell of the R36S isn’t super-comfortable for long play sessions—and along with a screen protector, it makes the R36S feel like something you can throw in your bag or big pocket without a proper hard case. I actually put the GB300 into my winter coat pocket so I could play it on the subway and then started alternating in my old Powkiddy Q90 as the weather got warmer. I have so many devices and there are so many “pick up and play” games (especially from portable systems) that it seems silly not to pretty much always have one. And frankly, anything that keeps me from scrolling social media, on train platforms or elsewhere, is a plus.
Overall: While the build quality of the RG35XX-H is a little better, and the stock software is arguably a little better, there’s a lot to be said for getting this at half the price to fit the same form-factor and run basically all the same things.
My only real complaint is that they left off a function or menu button, so you need to use Select, and that’s a miss. They also flipped the D-pad and left analogue stick to match X-Box configuration rather than Playstation, so using the D-pad is just generally less comfortable; but I understand this is a matter of personal preference. I’m just more about the D-pad, especially for retro games. Like the R36S, this has two SD card slots. It’s also got a headphone jack, but no TV-out. It’s interesting how common that feature was on the bottom-of-the-line devices for years (including coming packaged with RGV cables!) but it seems be dropped from the newer bargain-basement devices.
In other news:
The crap SD cards that came with my R36S started to die, so I replaced them with a single SanDisk card with the latest fully-updated ArkOS image and just put my ideal roms list on the card. I needed to tweak a couple of settings, but overall it’s better than it was—actually, the N64 emulation has gotten shockingly playable. In case it wasn’t clear, the R36S and R36H can take one or two cards—you can either put your roms on a separate partition from your OS, or a separate card. The advantage of the second card is that you can swap it (and your saves) to other devices quickly. In practice...I know I’m never going to do that.
I also bought a silicone cover for my R36S, because it was $4 and I was curious how it would work. It’s decent to hold—honestly, the plastic shell of the R36S isn’t super-comfortable for long play sessions—and along with a screen protector, it makes the R36S feel like something you can throw in your bag or big pocket without a proper hard case. I actually put the GB300 into my winter coat pocket so I could play it on the subway and then started alternating in my old Powkiddy Q90 as the weather got warmer. I have so many devices and there are so many “pick up and play” games (especially from portable systems) that it seems silly not to pretty much always have one. And frankly, anything that keeps me from scrolling social media, on train platforms or elsewhere, is a plus.
Overall: While the build quality of the RG35XX-H is a little better, and the stock software is arguably a little better, there’s a lot to be said for getting this at half the price to fit the same form-factor and run basically all the same things.
