Anbernic has started shipping the RG Rotate, a palm-sized retro gaming handheld whose defining trick is a hinged 3.5 inch display that folds down over the controls when you're not playing. Closed, the device measures just 80 x 80 x 21.6 mm (3.15 x 3.15 x 0.85 inches), small enough to disappear into a jacket pocket alongside a phone.
The square 720 x 720 pixel touchscreen sits on a hinge that flips upward to reveal a D-pad, four face buttons, three system keys, and shoulder triggers around back. There are no analog sticks, which limits its appeal for anything past the early 3D era. Inside is a Unisoc Tiger T618, an octa-core chip pairing two Cortex-A75 cores with six Cortex-A55 cores and an 850 MHz Mali-G52 GPU, backed by 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. A microSD slot accepts cards up to 2TB, which is where most of a retro library will live.
Software is Android 12, so when the screen is folded shut over the gamepad, the RG Rotate works as a touch-only device for music playback, a clock, or light browsing. On the gaming side, the T618 is comfortable with everything up through PlayStation 1, Dreamcast, and most of the Nintendo DS and PSP libraries, with PS2 and Wii emulation possible on a title-by-title basis. The handheld also packs a 6-axis gyroscope, stereo speakers, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, a 2,000 mAh battery, and a USB-C port that handles charging, data, and audio out.
The base configuration with a black aluminum-and-plastic shell starts at $88 (€81), while a silver model with an all-aluminum chassis runs $100 (€92). Anbernic is currently knocking $5 off the starting price as a launch promotion.
