This New Retro Handheld Is Nostalgia Bait for Early-2000s Sliding Telephones

Anbernic is used to enjoying on our nostalgia, and to be trustworthy, that technique appears to be working. Simply final month, the corporate launched its Anbernic RG34XXSP, which is a Sport Boy Advance SP-like retro handheld that in some way crams your love for Sport Boys and the GameCube into one (very inexpensive) gadget. My millennial lust for gaming nostalgia is tingling simply fascinated by it. Now, Anbernic is taking that very same technique and making use of it towards one other retro gadget it’s possible you’ll not have had in your retro gaming bingo card—2000s-era sliding telephones.

Anbernic’s RG Slide is the corporate’s latest handheld in a really lengthy stream of handhelds that in some way appears to be getting longer and longer. The slide has a TPS IPS display screen that is available in a 4:3 facet ratio with a decision of 1,280 x 960 pixels. The show, not like my iPhone 13, helps a 120Hz refresh price, has a distinction ratio of 1200:1, and has a max brightness of as much as 500 nits. Emulation-wise, Anbernic says this sliding handheld will be capable to play PS2, Wii, GameCube, and Dreamcast video games at a 640 x 480 decision. It’ll additionally emulate PS1 and N64 video games at a 320 x 240 decision.

I feel the headlining function of this handheld isn’t what it emulates or how good or unhealthy the display screen is— it’s the shape issue. The RG Slide, as you will have guessed from the identify, has a sliding display screen that pushes as much as reveal two thumbsticks, a D-pad, ABXY buttons, and a begin and choose button within the center. That design is perhaps evocative of a few issues, however for me, it has 2000s-era telephones written throughout it. Sure, it’s additionally acquired large Xperia Play energy—Sony’s gaming-centric smartphone from 2011—however my thoughts goes again even additional to the times of sliding telephones from LG or Nokia. What I’d pay to slip open my LG Shine Slide one final time…

In case you had been questioning, sure, the display screen can also be a touchscreen, so theoretically you might use contact controls to play video games, however I can not consider a single cause to truly do this given the built-in thumbsticks. You can even play in a cursed vertical orientation, which needs to be good for some cell video games. Talking of cell video games, this factor additionally runs Android, not Linux, so if enjoying Genshin Affect is excessive in your record of priorities, the RG Slide ought to have you ever coated. There’s nonetheless no info on when the RG Slide will likely be launched or how a lot it would value, but when Anbernic’s earlier handhelds are something to go by, then we will anticipate a aggressive beginning worth. It’s no sliding cellphone, however perhaps, simply perhaps, it’ll scratch that very same itch.