This New Retro Handheld Is Nostalgia Bait for Early-2000s Sliding Telephones

Anbernic is used to taking part in on our nostalgia, and to be trustworthy, that technique appears to be working. Simply final month, the corporate launched its Anbernic RG34XXSP, which is a Recreation Boy Advance SP-like retro handheld that in some way crams your love for Recreation Boys and the GameCube into one (very inexpensive) gadget. My millennial lust for gaming nostalgia is tingling simply occupied with it. Now, Anbernic is taking that very same technique and making use of it towards one other retro gadget you might not have had in your retro gaming bingo card—2000s-era sliding telephones.

Anbernic’s RG Slide is the corporate’s latest handheld in a really lengthy stream of handhelds that in some way appears to be getting longer and longer. The slide has a TPS IPS display that is available in a 4:3 facet ratio with a decision of 1,280 x 960 pixels. The show, in contrast to my iPhone 13, helps a 120Hz refresh fee, has a distinction ratio of 1200:1, and has a max brightness of as much as 500 nits. Emulation-wise, Anbernic says this sliding handheld will have the ability to play PS2, Wii, GameCube, and Dreamcast video games at a 640 x 480 decision. It’ll additionally emulate PS1 and N64 video games at a 320 x 240 decision.

I feel the headlining function of this handheld isn’t what it emulates or how good or unhealthy the display is— it’s the shape issue. The RG Slide, as you will have guessed from the identify, has a sliding display that pushes as much as reveal two thumbsticks, a D-pad, ABXY buttons, and a begin and choose button within the center. That design is likely to be evocative of a few issues, however for me, it has 2000s-era telephones written throughout it. Sure, it’s additionally acquired huge Xperia Play energy—Sony’s gaming-centric smartphone from 2011—however my thoughts goes again even additional to the times of sliding telephones from LG or Nokia. What I’d pay to slip open my LG Shine Slide one final time…

In case you have been questioning, sure, the display can be a touchscreen, so theoretically you may use contact controls to play video games, however I can’t consider a single cause to really try this given the built-in thumbsticks. You may as well play in a cursed vertical orientation, which ought to be good for some cell video games. Talking of cell video games, this factor additionally runs Android, not Linux, so if taking part in Genshin Impression is excessive in your checklist of priorities, the RG Slide ought to have you ever lined. There’s nonetheless no info on when the RG Slide might be launched or how a lot it’ll value, but when Anbernic’s earlier handhelds are something to go by, then we are able to anticipate a aggressive beginning worth. It’s no sliding cellphone, however perhaps, simply perhaps, it’ll scratch that very same itch.