Anbernic will open orders for the RG SP on August 5 at 6AM ET / 3AM PT, with a starting price of $65. The announcement, reported by Engadget on August 3, confirms pricing and availability for a device the company had been teasing throughout July without an official launch date or price.

The RG SP is a handheld gaming device designed to play classic games from older consoles. It folds shut like the old Game Boy Advance SP, with a hinge that protects the screen when closed. Anbernic has tried this design twice before with earlier models; this third version refines the build with narrower screen borders, a metallic finish, improved button feel, a classic directional pad, and four color options (Anbernic).

The screen is a 3.4-inch IPS display, which means it shows bright, clear colors and stays visible from wide viewing angles. It runs at 720x480 resolution, the same shape and proportions as the original Game Boy Advance SP screen. This matters because older games were designed for specific screen sizes, and the RG SP can display them at their original sharpness without stretching or blurring. A dedicated button adjusts screen brightness and also lets you save your game at any point. The battery is rated for six hours of play on a single charge.

Inside, the device runs a simple operating system on a budget processor called the Allwinner H700. This chip is powerful enough to run games from 8-bit and 16-bit consoles like the NES and Super Nintendo, as well as PlayStation 1 titles, and it can handle some PSP games with varying success. The device includes 1GB of RAM (RetroHandhelds). It also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a headphone jack, a memory card slot, and a USB-C charging port. The Wi-Fi connection lets you download custom themes, automatically fetch cover art for your games, and track retro gaming achievements, features that were missing from Anbernic's earlier flip-style models.

Pricing scales with how much storage you want. The base model costs $65, a version with an extra 64GB of storage costs $80, and a 128GB version costs $95. Anbernic is also offering early bird pricing that can drop the starting price below $65, and a $7 discount applies to any purchase made within the first three days (Engadget).

As recently as July 25, the details were less certain. Anbernic had not officially announced a price or release date, though the device was listed around the mid-$60s at the company's own store (The Gadgeteer). The August 3 Engadget report now locks in the specifics.

For anyone comparing the RG SP to Anbernic's earlier flip-style models, the improvements are small but intentional. The processor handles older games well, though it can struggle with more demanding PSP titles depending on the game. The screen is sharp for the price, and the ability to display games at their original resolution means no blurriness. The addition of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth brings the device in line with other modern retro handhelds.

The broader context is that Anbernic has now refined this clamshell design across three generations, and each version has improved on the last. The first model established the concept, the second adjusted the screen size, and this one improves build quality, adds wireless connectivity, and lands at $65, well below what most name-brand portable gaming devices cost. Whether the processor will keep up as emulation software becomes more demanding is an open question, but at this price Anbernic is clearly aiming at the impulse-buy threshold for anyone who wants a pocketable, well-built device for playing classic games.

Orders open August 5 at 6AM ET.