It’s starting to feel like Anbernic is getting ready for liftoff here in 2025. After a slow start we saw 2 handhelds announced last week.
Now we might have an upgrade to Anbernic’s beloved RG405M. New leaked images of what appears to be an RG477M have resurfaced. This would be a huge win for the community after no new version of the RG405M was released in 2024.
Build
Last year did bring us the RG406H and the RG Cube. Both good devices in their own right, neither accepted as a sequel for the RG405M.
The RG477M has a lot of the features we would expect as an upgrade to the original. First off it is returning with a metal shell. This is something that made the RG405M feel like a premium device.
The RG477M also seems to have kept the inline triggers. This was one of the biggest points of contention on the original. Another thing that doesn’t make sense is having both joysticks at the bottom.
This new handheld is equipped for higher end emulation. The left joystick and DPad should be swapped at minimum. The screen here is big enough to do game streaming in a punch, another reason to move that left joystick up.
Display
This time around instead of a 4.5” display we are seeing a 4.7” display. Hence the name RG477M. ‘M’ being the metal body and 477 (4.7”) representing the screen. The RG477M also appears to share a screen with the new RG Slide.
The screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio and is 1280×960. I already know people are going to say a screen this size should be 16:9 and they might not be wrong. This is the conversation after the display specs were released for the RG Slide as well.
CPU
Lastly the SOC is far more powerful than the T618 found in the RG405M. The RG477M will be enjoying the power of the D8300. This should allow higher 3nd emulation without many tweets needed. This is good because there isn’t much you can tweak with the Dimensity SOCs.
We should see good GameCube and PS2 performance at 3X in most cases. Sure the screen is 4:3 but even systems like PSP will have higher resolution and more real-estate than a PSP Go.
Cost
This could be a spendy device. To be fair the RG405M was on the higher end of the price spectrum when it released as well. What we have here with the D8300 however is an expensive SOC. The SOC is partly to blame for the RG557 being about $100 more than the RG556. It’s possible that the same SOC is also in the RG Slide and Anbernic has been waiting as long as possible to release that handhelds price.
Sticker shock was is real with the RG557, especially in not even having a Snapdragon processor. With the metal shell it’s very possible that this will be a $250 handheld.
Kinda get the feel Anbernic doesn’t want to be mid tier anymore and is moving to be directly competitive with Ayaneo. I for one don’t want to see that happen. If would force them to stop having “borrowed” paid for emulators and ROMs included. With their new AI, Anbernic is making some premium moves.
Do you think the RG577M will make it to market? Is this a handheld you want to pickup?
Once I have more info I’ll post it here.
If I’m slow Anbernic will also post it on their blog here once they make it official.
GameOn
CellPhish
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