So on paper it’s very similar to some of ANBERNIC’s recent releases such as the RG353P and RG353V just in a much more premium, comfortable form factor. The Linux OS runs a combination of Emulation Station and RetroArch to provide a wealth of gaming options on many classic game’s consoles from the 1970’s to more modern day on the RG353M. The Android OS requires some setting up but ultimately provides a wider range of computers and consoles to relive the classics on. You can also go the third route by installing a custom firmware on a SD card to use on the handheld gaming console which provides over 90 classic systems to choose from!

We ran the Antutu benchmark on a loop and got 5 hours 20 mins which is a decent time. Android Overview To find your pre-installed apps, use the touch screen to slide up from the bottom to open the app drawer. In the app drawer you’ll find an icon for each of the emulators that have been pre-installed with the system. All three devices in the lineup are dual boot Linux and Android with the exception of the RG353VS variant which is Linux only and only 1GB of memory in an attempt to reduce costs on the line. Now that the Linux card is built and setup we will build our second SD Card. You won't need the 1st card in this process, just leave it in the device.The RG353M is also a dual OS device, with the ability to easily switch between Android 11 and Linux systems. For the RG353M, I would recommend the latter OS as the 3.5”, 4:3 screen aspect ratio is apt for the systems it emulates well while the screen can feel rather restrictive for Android games. In addition, Google Play is not pre-installed on the device, which is a downer as this has been a perpetuating issue in the RG353 devices and the company still hasn’t provided a workaround. This means you’ll need to individually have to install APKs of emulators or games you wish to run on the Android side and it’s just extra hassle.

This new size, new weight and added exterior tech pumps make this feel like a far more polished handheld, and I didn’t think my favourite handheld could get even better, but ANBERNIC have really nailed it here. To boot into the Android system, you’ll need to ensure that the SD card has been removed from the TF1 card slot. Without the TF1 card, turn on the device and walk through the standard setup. Once competed you should be greeted with a pretty blank looking screen. And last but not least we have a screen protector and some wipes for when applying it to your handheld. Overview of the RG353M For 351Elec/AmberElec, just unzip the contents of PortMaster.zip to your storage/roms/ports folder then run PortMaster.sh from the Ports menu in 351Elec. Design-wise, whilst at first glance the two look very similar, if you look more closely, you can see subtle redesign changes, such as changing the squared corners you find on the RG353M and making them more rounded. I did find that this allowed the RG405M to be slightly more comfortable to hold for extended play sessions.The RG353M can run Android and or Linux, the Android OS is a little cumbersome to use with the tiny 3.5” touch screen, especially when typing, so I found myself using the linux OS because it’s just so easy to use and comes pre-setup straight out of the box. The R353 has two operating systems that are possible to boot to. You may find that you prefer one operating system over another or you may find yourself switching between the two depending on your needs.

On the Linux side of things, the experience is fairly better, even if it doesn’t support the touch screen, as it is more streamlined and especially if you like to tinker with your device to customise it to your liking. You can install custom firmware which have been around for other RK3566 devices and edit the UI. Further support on Linux can be expected as a strong community has developed over the chip and system, with the custom firmware already receiving regular updates. So we can see that the RG505 performs roughly between up to three times as much as the RG353 series and up to twice as much as the RG552, let’s see how that transforms for emulator performance. Emulator Performance My RG353M arrived a couple days ago and I have to say, relative to everything else in their lineup, they really hit the nail on the head with the 353M. Everyone's touched on gameplay and it's capable for sure, but user experience with the physical device ultimately is what's important to me. Stable sleep mode for most of the supported RK3326 devices (Gameforce Chi, Odroid Go Advance, RK2020, RGB10, and RG351MP), the RG353M, RG353V, RG353VS, and RG503. This can be accomplished by either using either network connectivity (samba share or ftp) or by shutting down the device (start + power) then inserting the SD card into the computer.

RG353M Specifications

I recently wrote an article about the new Anbernic RG353V gaming handheld and how the company had released a vertical gaming handheld that ran on both a Linux & Android OS. In the article I praised the RG353V for being a great hybrid handheld. Not only that, but it had a fantastic screen, could play most games really well, even up to PSP (but sorry, no God of War), and it was super portable due to its size. Do not delete any of the existing folders in the EASYROMS (roms) folder or any of their existing contents. There are some dependencies in some of these folders (ex. PSP and NDS) that's needed for those emulators to work correctly. One of the goals of PortMaster is to not install or upgrade any existing OS libraries for any ports. Any of the ports that need a particular non standard library are maintained within the ports' folder and made available specifically to that port during execution. Be careful that your Mac doesn't add any extra characters at the end of your files. This has been a known issue of why roms don't show up in the menu when added from a Mac with the use of a SD card reader.

The RG353 series of retrohandheld devices from Anbernic has become very popular recently. One of the reasons why these devices have become excellent gaming devices is because of JELOS, a community developed Linux-based operating system. This guide aims to help new users with some frequently used features of JELOS. Furthermore, the “M” version is actually made out of an aluminum shell instead of plastic. This really does give it a nice, premium feel, and it wipes the floor with its younger sibling. The purple version I received looks stunning, and I really liked it. Once the Linux OS has booted up for the first time and everything has been configured, making your way around is pretty straight forward. To add your games, simply find the corresponding file folder for the game system and add all of your favourite ROMs to it. There is also the built-in screen controller mapping which we have seen in Anbernic’s recent Android handhelds. It works very well and definitely gives you the upper hand on games such as first person shooters! Benchmark Results and ComparisonTurn it on and it will go through a process. Once you see the Main Menu you have successfully installed Linux on your RG353!