Will the Anbernic Cube be another Over Priced RG552?

There is a good chance that like myself initially we will see Anbernic price the Cube against the ZPG Unicorn A1. This after more thought I believe could be a monster mistake. Don’t get me wrong they will push some units mostly to enthusiasts who are familiar with their brand with money to burn and yes the Cube should be comparable in specs to target the ZPG Unicorn A1 as well as playability. But this is their chance to edge out their direct competion and make an even bigger household name for themselves.

Time and time again Anbernic launches prior to a similar offering from Retroid Pocket. I think there is solid arguments that Retroid continues to take sales from Anbernic every time they launch a new handheld. Retroid’s schedule is more selective as a company when it comes to releasing new devices, which if they stick to it will have them putting out less new handhelds for the year than Anbernic does in 2 months.

I’ve been assuming that the Cube will come out around $199. That would allow them to undercut the Unicorn without pricing out their biggest of fans. It also puts them inline with their recent offering for the Anbernic RG556 using a similar T820 SOC. I’ve been wrong before as I thought the RG35XXSP was going to be about $20 more. I assumed to cover R&D that pricing made sense but it came out priced to compete with the previously alluded to Miyoo Flip offering. Miyoo is another direct competitor with Anbernic but only brings out a handheld or two every year.

Now that we have the history I think the Anbernic Cube needs to come in at/under $149. I have some reasoning for this. It’s a happy medium between the Powkiddy RGB30 or RGB20SX in the 1:1 4” handheld space and the ZPG Unicorn A1 (I fear they think $199 is that happy median). This will also give customers looking at the Powkiddy RGB30 a choice for a more premium handheld though still nearly doubling the price depending on promotions. One does have to wonder if it even compares at all to the RGB30 being an Android handheld? There aren’t many decent solutions out there for systems like Pico8 on the platform right now but we can’t forget GB, GBC and NGPC all using this aspect ratio as well. On top of that it’s matching the Metal RP2S though still out pricing by a third against the more popular non metal addition. I think the RP2S is the most important handheld in this space to compete against right now.

Yes they are different spec wise to an extent but they are similar enough. With its T610 SOC the RP2S has good performance in playing PS2, GameCube and even lite Switch games. We also know what the T820 is capable of as it’s in Anbernic’s RG556 handheld that released a few months ago. Even though the T820 is a far superior SOC both chipsets run into limitations being unable to play entire library’s above PSP/N64. Had emulators continued getting support for PS2 and Switch this may be a different conversation but this is where we are.

If you have spent any time on the Powkiddy RGB30 forms or Reddit looking at handheld emulators, than you are aware when people are looking for more capabilities than what the RGB30 offers there is 2 answers as to what to get: “buy an Odin 2” or “get the Retroid Pocket 2 S”. These answers come up time and again. The Odin 2 being the handheld GOAT it is normally the answer to any post asking what to get and the RP2S being the next logical upgrade to the RGB30. The RP2S is widely recognized as the most well rounded offing right now in price to performance. Though the RP2S doesn’t seem like it should fit in with a 3.5” 4:3 screen, if you scale your games to 8:7 to many it’s close enough. This is undoubtedly a hobby that continually requires us to make sacrifices. As much as the Cube probably wants to be an Odin 2 we know it won’t realize those dreams with the current SOC. There isn’t a better place to find what the 1:1 handheld enthusiasts want right now than the RGB30 forms as the device is by far the most popular device with a layout like this sold in over a decade.

My suspected $199 pricing will leave not only an opportunity for the forms to stay consistent recommending the RP2S but also give Retroid a wide open window to sneak in a new handheld. They could once again take the legs out from under Anbernic and launch another RP2S type of handheld. This is why I believe the Cube needs to come out at a price point at/under $129. If they fail to do this the cube is likely to go down into obscurity with the likes of the the RG552 (I didn’t even take the time to review the RG552 and today it’s stuck at a $188.99 price).

This won’t dramatically be a make or break moment for a company like Anbernic releasing new handhelds bi-weekly, but it’s an opportunity to upgrade there base to mid-tier handhelds if done correctly. A win here could allow them to slowdown the release schedule for Anbernic and create more time to continue plugging away at their stock firmware (it’s oddly my recommendation on a handful of handhelds right now) or fix their device naming conventions to at minimum remove some Xs.

How do you think Anbernic is going to position the Cube in the marketplace? Is this a handheld you are even have any interest in?