The Allwinner H700 refuses to retire. Anbernic has opened preorders for the RG SP, a Game Boy Advance SP-inspired clamshell that packs the quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC into a body measuring 83 x 82 x 24 mm and weighing just 168 g (5.9 oz). It is the fourth H700-based clamshell in the company's lineup, but the real story is the chip inside: the H700 has become the most actively supported SoC in the retro handheld custom firmware scene, with projects like muOS, Knulli, and ROCKNIX all delivering polished open-source alternatives to the stock Linux OS.
The 3.4-inch IPS display runs at 720 x 480 in a 3:2 aspect ratio, providing 3x pixel-perfect integer scaling for GBA-era titles at 254 PPI. Anbernic has stripped the controls down to a D-pad and face buttons with no analog sticks, leaning fully into the 2D retro aesthetic. The body is roughly 10% thinner than previous clamshell models thanks to dual alloy hinges, and a 3,300 mAh battery provides around six hours of play with 7.5W USB-C charging. Connectivity covers Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and two microSD card slots.
The custom firmware ecosystem around the H700 is what separates these handhelds from the pack. muOS offers a minimal, hotkey-driven launcher that boots in roughly eight seconds and puts RetroArch front and center, while Knulli wraps everything in a full EmulationStation frontend with scraped box art and per-game overrides. Both are actively maintained and typically support new H700 devices within weeks of launch, so community builds for the RG SP should arrive quickly. Knulli's work across prior H700 clamshells has also produced configurable lid behavior, letting users set the hinge-close action to either sleep or full shutdown, a detail that matters on a form factor built around the lid.
The RG SP ships in four colors (Platinum, Graphite, Pearl Blue, Pearl Pink) starting at $58 (€53) during the launch window, rising to $65 (€60) at retail. Bundles with a 64 GB or 128 GB microSD card run $80 (€74) and $95 (€87) respectively.
