Anbernic is used to playing on our nostalgia, and to be honest, that strategy seems to be working. Just last month, the company released its Anbernic RG34XXSP, which is a Game Boy Advance SP-like retro handheld that somehow crams your love for Game Boys and the GameCube into one (very affordable) gadget. My millennial lust for gaming nostalgia is tingling just thinking about it. Now, Anbernic is taking that same strategy and applying it toward another retro gadget you may not have had on your retro gaming bingo card—2000s-era sliding phones.
Anbernic’s RG Slide is the company’s newest handheld in a very long stream of handhelds that somehow seems to be getting longer and longer. The slide has a TPS IPS screen that comes in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a resolution of 1,280 x 960 pixels. The display, unlike my iPhone 13, supports a 120Hz refresh rate, has a contrast ratio of 1200:1, and has a max brightness of up to 500 nits. Emulation-wise, Anbernic says this sliding handheld will be able to play PS2, Wii, GameCube, and Dreamcast games at a 640 x 480 resolution. It’ll also emulate PS1 and N64 games at a 320 x 240 resolution.
I think the headlining feature of this handheld isn’t what it emulates or how good or bad the screen is— it’s the form factor. The RG Slide, as you may have guessed from the name, has a sliding screen that pushes up to reveal two thumbsticks, a D-pad, ABXY buttons, and a start and select button in the middle. That design might be evocative of a couple of things, but for me, it has 2000s-era phones written all over it. Yes, it’s also got big Xperia Play energy—Sony’s gaming-centric smartphone from 2011—but my mind goes back even further to the days of sliding phones from LG or Nokia. What I would pay to slide open my LG Shine Slide one last time…
In case you were wondering, yes, the screen is also a touchscreen, so theoretically you could use touch controls to play games, but I cannot think of a single reason to actually do that given the built-in thumbsticks. You can also play in a cursed vertical orientation, which should be good for some mobile games. Speaking of mobile games, this thing also runs Android, not Linux, so if playing Genshin Impact is high on your list of priorities, the RG Slide should have you covered. There’s still no information on when the RG Slide will be released or how much it will cost, but if Anbernic’s previous handhelds are anything to go by, then we can expect a competitive starting price. It’s no sliding phone, but maybe, just maybe, it’ll scratch that same itch.
English (US) ·