‘Flipout’ for Anbernic’s New Handheld Leak

Anbernic has been pretty quiet this year but a leak is showing there is still innovation going on over there. You know this leaked footage isn’t from Anbernic as it lacks a Country Music soundtrack.

In a video posted to r/SBCGaming today they are showing off what appears to be a new Anbernic gaming handheld. This handheld closely seems to mimic Motorola’s 2010 social media phone, the Flipout.

Recent Releases

Anbernic has been on a roll bringing out handhelds that mirror previous popular devices in their last few releases so this fits right in. We have had the RG DS that really didnt play DS games prior to custom firmware from RockNIX and GammaOS and then it is being followed up by the RG Vita that doesn’t play Vita games [and still doesn’t have a release date at time of writting]. 

At least with the new ‘Flipout’ we won’t have to worry about it not being able to play Motorola’s games. I guess I would hope anyway seeing as the Moto Flipout ran on Android 2.1 Moto Blur with a 2.8” display, 512MB RAM and a TI OMAP 3410 processor [one of the first dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 SOC’s].

Features

The screen seems to be near square, but knowing Anbernic its a 3.5” 640×480 display. I’m not sure if that’s accurate but it’s a solid guess coming from them.

The new Anbernic handheld that I am calling the ‘Flipout’ after its similarities to the Motorola handheld is also running on Android which is neat. Probably another opportunity for Anbernic to sell a new T618 device with 3GB of RAM. Granted you wouldn’t want to emulate Steam or Switch on this anyways.

Going over the screenshots I took from the short video [that scans the room to um I dunno try to prove its not AI maybe and how about that massive picture frame] we can get a good feel for the button layout. The Anbernic is stickless but does appear to have bumpers/triggers located on the back of the shell.

All the controls appear to be here for systems up to GBA and even some PS1 titles that were released prior to the joystick craze we still enjoy today. 

Oh yeah, the screen also pivots on a single point like a pocket knife to reveal the gamepad. I wonder if it will have a switch to fold it closed like a lock blade?

Thoughts

I am all about devices coming out with new form factors. I fear we are going to lose innovation in this space due to the RAM-pocalypse and handhelds like this will hopefully keep things exciting.

I think they should remove the Anbernic stamp on the bottom of the handheld. Anbernic moved away from the crazy branding that makes cheap handhelds look cheap a long time ago, so I hope they don’t bring it back here.

Even with the addition of Android the Anbernic ‘Flipout” might be a perfect pocketable handheld to use as an EDC device. I am a little concerned about the screen being open to the elements but a screen cover and making sure the display is facing your leg should be enough to protect it. 

What do you think about this new Anbernic ‘Flipout’ handheld? Is this interesting to you or do you feel like Anbernic is kicking the wrong tires recently to come up with innovative designs?

Once we have more info I’ll be sure to keep you updated. I’ll be stalking their blog if you would like to join.

GameOn

CellPhish

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