Retro Handheld Buying Guide - RG35XX Plus / R36S / Miyoo Mini Plus / RG35XX

hey guys Taki here if you're in the market for a  new budget handheld you may be overwhelmed by all   of the options that are currently out there  knowing the form factor that you like helps   to simplify this a bit but you can easily waste  hours sifting through everything that is out there   in this video we will focus on a small selection  of budget handhelds that all have the same form   factor this is going to be a deep dive video but  it should hopefully have all of the information   that you need let's get into it for this video I  selected four handhelds that will typically fill   the same role as either a first emulation handheld  or smaller emulation handheld these would be the   Miu Mini Plus the RG 35xx the r 36s and the RG  35xx plus let's start with an overview of the   specs on these I have these group from low to high  in terms of their performance and capability when   it comes to the emulation capabilities on these  they occupy the same space but the RG 35xx are   36s and the RG 35xx plus can all run more systems  than the Miu Mini Plus because they have a GPU   on the CPU side of things the Miu Mini Plus is  the weakest configuration by far but it's good   enough for the systems that it can run the RG 35xx  has more performance and a more powerful cortex   processor but it can get toasty on the higher end  when you push it the r 36s and the RG 35xx plus   are both better in that regard because they can do  a lot more without generating a lot of heat Ram is   kind of inconsequential on these but the 1 GB of  RAM for the r 36s and the RG 35xx plus will allow   them to run more applications and heavier UI than  the other two all of these have dual SD card slots   for their OS and ROMs with the exception of the  mini but they all have the same size screen and   the same size resolution battery capacity is all  over the place with these and I would say that   it's not super important each of these units will  have different amounts of power draw so a smaller   battery on one may go further than a bigger  battery on another connectivity is an important   point and the Miu Mini Plus and the RG 35xx plus  are the only handhelds in this bunch that have   built-in Wi-Fi support the RG handheld has support  for Wi-Fi 5 but the Bluetooth 4.2 support is more   useful when it comes to emulation due to the  limited control set that we have next I want   to go over the pricing of these and again I have  them sorted from low to high these prices change   all of the time so check out the links down below  for updated pricing I am using us-based pricing   for this so just be aware that if you live in a  country that has vat tax it will be higher than   what I'm showing the RG 35xx has the cheapest  pricing at the time that I'm making this video   but that is only for new users of AliExpress  I put a range of pricing for this to include   discounts like that compared to prices offered  directly by the manufacturer I also put shipping   information for the RG 35xx we have a range of  pricing starting at $32 with a Max of $70 with   free shipping included up from there we have the r  36s with a base price of $32.29 with free shipping   and a regular price of $47 with $8 shipping for  everyone else after that we have the Miu Mini   Plus this one is more annoying to get a hold of  but it goes for $53 up to $57 with free shipping   included the RG 35xx plus is the most expensive  device on this list and it will set you back $70   regardless of whether or not it comes with free  shipping again these prices can fluctuate a lot   depending on the sales that are currently active  so use the links down below for updated pricing   now that we got that out of the way let's get into  the meat of this video and we'll kick things off   talking about the controls and the build quality  of these four handhelds there's surprisingly   a great deal of variation between all of these  devices and there is one that is the clear winner   here but let's just go over each individual part  one by one when it comes to the size of the d-pad   these are all pretty close together there's only  about a 1 mm difference between all of the ones   that are here with the RG devices and the r36 S  having the bigger d-pad with that d-pad we also   have a few different styles the RG 35xx and the  r 36s both have a similar feeling d-pad in that   they have edges that aren't really smooth so if  you're going to be playing a lot of games that   you need to roll the d-pad constantly it's going  to feel a bit annoying to use either of these the   d-pad on the Miu Mini Plus is much better in  this regard with really nice rounded edges but   the new RG 35xx plus isn't far behind the physical  feeling of using the d-pad is quite different on   these the only ones that are similar are both  of the RG devices in terms of stiffness the r   36s d-pad is by far the worst if you don't DIY  this it's going to feel really rough to use this   I've already gone ahead and done that but it's  still worse than these other three both of the   RG devices use the same conductive rubber for  their d-pad and it's not the softest that I've   ever used but it is serviceable when it comes to  Everyday Use I think the d-pad on the Miu mini   is much better it's soft and it's comfortable  and a lot of this also transfers over to the   face buttons again if you don't modify the r 36s  those buttons will feel really bad I've already   done that so they don't feel bad but they're  not as good as these other ones both of the RG   devices are better in terms of stiffness than the  r 36s but they don't feel as good to use as the   ones that are in the Miu Mini Plus we also have  menu buttons on each one of these devices the   menu button on the r 36s doesn't work so we can  just ignore it I personally like the feeling of   the menu button that's on the RG 35xx more than  the Miu Mini Plus but it doesn't really matter   in my opinion the start and select buttons also  feel better on those devices than the other two   there's also a lot of variation when it comes to  the back buttons and I have these sorted from best   to worst with the r 36s being the worst out of  the bunch they're not terrible but they're not   as good as the other three they make a very loud  noise when you click them and they feel great to use the 35xx is the next one up  from here these make less noise   but they're not as comfortable to use as the other two the buttons in the Miu Mini Plus are  the quietest out of the entire bunch and   they also don't make a rattling noise you  can hear in the other three I'll show you   that in just a bit before recently these were  my favorite buttons in this form factor they   feel really good to use and I like how they  differentiated the buttons from each other that being said I think the 35xx plus has  the best buttons from a day-to-day use due   to the new design that they've implemented  it feels good in the hands and it's easy to   access either button this kind of ties into build  quality but as I mentioned the shoulder buttons   on these three make a lot of noise and I'll  just demonstrate that so you can hear it for yourself the Miu Mini Plus isn't perfect but it makes  significantly less noise than the other three   this rattling noise isn't the end of the world but  it does make the device sound kind of cheap when   you're using it moving over to the case quality  there's not really a clear winner out of this   bunch I like the feeling of the shell on the Miu  Mini Plus the most but they're all really good   there's no bad one in the bunch all of these are  smaller handheld so you don't usually get amazing   ergonomics but let's see how that Stacks up I'm  starting out first with the the Miu Mini Plus and   I want to point out that none of these are like  really terrible when it comes to ergonomics but   depending on your personal preference smaller  devices like the Miu Mini Plus might not be the   best option for you that being said I probably  would not buy something like the r 36s if I was   buying something for a very young child I would  limit my options to these three I view the Miu   Mini Plus as a pickup and Play device especially  if you use onion OS where you can just like pop   out of a game by pressing the menu button if  you're going to be playing for longer than   that then you might be better suited with one of  the other handhelds that are here if you've never   used any of these emulation handhelds before but  you've used an official console then I would say   the Game Boy Pocket is really the minimum size  that I like to go for in the handhelds that I   play on the min mini they kind of cut off the  bottom here so you don't have a lot of room to   rest your back fingers on you can still get by  but it's not as good as the other ones up from   there we have the 35xx which isn't as good  as the plus but it is within the same size   of the Game Boy Pocket having this bottom section  here really makes this more comfortable to use in   the hand and I like how similar it is is to a  Game Boy Pocket in terms of ergonomics I think   the 35xx plus is a bit better than the normal one  because of this redesigned shoulder button layout   this feels a lot better to hold in the hand and  it's easier to use but if I had to select one as   the best for ergonomics it would definitely be  the r 36s the shoulder buttons could use some   work but the whole device is more comfortable  to hold in the hand this device can play a lot   of different games and I like being able to switch  from the d-pad layout for retro games like this or   something like this for games that need an analog  stick all of these have a a single mono speaker   so headphones will be your best bet if you want  to get the best audio quality possible that being   said it's still important to be able to use the  built-in speaker in this section I want to do some   audio comparisons between all of these to find out  which one delivers the best audio quality we'll   use the audio from two different games for this  and I'm going to mic up the mono speaker directly   so you can hear the difference for yourself  this would be a great time to grab a set of headphones [Music] [Music] d [Music] anyway that's the audio tag I'm not going  to pass judgment for this section I'm going to   leave that up to you and I'm interested to see  what you guys say I think it's pretty obvious   which one of these is the worst one but I think  go either way for the best one after sound quality   we will move over to picture quality as we saw  with the specification section all of these use   the same size screen but they don't have the same  panel for many of these companies will go through   a few display providers over the life cycle of a  handheld and there's even a lot of variation in   the components that a single screen provider will  deliver that being said I still want to compare   all of these together but you should always  keep in mind that budget devices like these   do not have the same quality assurance standards  or validation standards as products from larger   companies as long as a screen can work it will  be used on the assembly line no one is rejecting   screens because the colors don't look perfect  a few of these panels are pretty bright so I   had to change the ISO on my camera so that way  we can see a clear difference between these so   here we have the title screen for Super Mario  World and I tried my best to get this to sync   up there is a bit of Vari here but you should be  able to see some differences between all of these   screens right off the bat I think the screen  in the Miu Mini Plus is by far the worst and   this is with onion OS if you use the stock OS  on this device the picture is not clear at all   and it looks really bad in comparison to these  devices when it comes to the two RG devices the   original can get a bit brighter but this could be  due to garlic OS between the two of them I think   this one looks better but it might not be that  obvious in this footage out of all of them the   screen in the r 36s is my my favorite it's a bit  brighter than the other ones and it also seems to   have a higher contrast ratio when I was getting  set up for that Super Mario RPG footage I could   see that there were a lot of black textures that  were darker on this screen than the other ones   however if we just exclude the Miu Mini Plus the  rest of these screens are perfectly adequate for   our second title we have Spyro Year of the  Dragon and a lot of the things that we said   about the last game carry over to this one except  that I can see that this R 36s has significantly   more contrast than the other devices it also seems  to have more saturation especially in the greens   and the blues I'm going to do a close-up shot on  all of these screens to give you a better idea of   what I'm talking about this is really the only  one of the bunch that doesn't stand up to the rest I want to briefly talk about the connectivity  of these devices the Miu Mini Plus and the RG 35xx   plus are the only handhelds in this Bunch that  have Wi-Fi functionality and that's going to   be the most useful for net play if you want  to play two player games with two handhelds   you can do it with two of the same handheld or  you can do it with two different ones but it's   easier to do everything with the same one the  Wi-Fi spec is a bit better on the RG handheld   but it doesn't do much for us when it comes to  simple Co-op for the other two handhelds you can   gain Wi-Fi functionality with the help of a USB  dongle but I'm not a fan of this route it's a lot   easier to go with a device that has Wi-Fi built  in Beyond Co-op you also gain the ability to do   retro achievements this is a cool quality of life  feature to use while you play through your retro   games however out of all of these handhelds the RG  35xx plus is the only one with built-in bluetooth   support and that's going to be useful if you ever  want to dock this and use it with a controller   that has analog sticks the two RG devices are the  only ones that have Wi-Fi support So if you care   about a simple docked experience the RG 35xx plus  is the better option of the two the next thing   that I want to talk about is software if you're  new to handhelds like this it isn't really that   important so don't get hung up on it because it  can be a rabbit hole at times with all of the   options that we have three of these handhelds have  been out for a while and one of them is a hardware   clone that has seen almost all of the development  that I will ever see so this shouldn't change that   much what I want to do now is just briefly touch  on some of the options that you have for different   operating systems that can run on these handhelds  with the Miu Mini Plus we have the stock OS which   is what I have installed here but we also have  three other options typically we would classify   these as being custom operating systems but these  are more or less customizations of the stock   operating system system that comes with the mini  plus it's not a fully open platform but developers   were able to make some meaningful improvements  out of all of these onion o is probably the best   it has a bunch of quality of life improvements  and it's kind of the gold standard for smaller   handhelds it's super easy to use and it has a  lot of room for tinkering if that's what you're   into the RG 35xx is the next one up from here  and it has support for even more systems this   has a mix of real operating systems to choose  from as well as improvements on the stock OS   my favorite is bota but I have the stock system  and garlic OS installed on my other two units the   bosera build is the closest that you will get to  the systems that run on more expensive handhelds   and getting used to it in this one will make it  easier to transition over to other handhelds in   the market in the future if you ever want to the r  36s comes with Aros which is similar to that last   system that we looked at this one is my favorite  type by default it's plug andplay out of the box   but you can configure this thing for days with  support for hundreds of themes and configuration   options if you like to customize handhelds or  Tech products this is a great option to go with   there's a second operating system for this but  it is very similar to Ros finally we have the   RG 35xx Plus at this point this runs a stock OS  and garlic OS 2.0 the stock OS is much better   on this than it is on the Miu Mini Plus or the  RG 35xx and it also has full support for all of   the hardware that this comes with it gives you  a simple menu to navigate through if you don't   want to mess with configurations but you can  also boot into a full retroarc system that you   can customize to your liking the only con is that  theme support isn't as robust as it is on other   handhelds at this point garlic OS 2.0 is another  option that you can go with but this one is super   Limited at this point so you really want to wait  for future updates to come along if you like the   look of Botto from the RG 35xx that should make  its way over to the RG 35xx plus and that will   make it a nice complimentary option to the stock  OS going forward so we've touched on a lot of   Topics in this video but I have saved one of the  most important ones for this point performance   depending on what you want to play the the gaming  experience can be very similar no matter which of   these options you go with for example if you  want to play Game Boy Color on any of these   the performance will be about the same so in that  sense it doesn't matter which device you go for   when we start adding things to this or we want to  run some emulators that require more power that's   when we can start to see a difference I don't  want to go too far in the weeds with this but   I do want to give you some concrete examples let's  say that I want to play Pokémon Ruby for the GBA I   want to grind out some levels as fast as possible  so I plan to turn on fast forward using fast fast   forward will push each of these devices to the  Limit and when we enable it there's a decent gap   between all of them with the RG 35xx plus leading  the pack now you have to imagine over the course   of a full playthrough this faster speed will add  up to a lot of time saved grinding out levels for   the next situation we want to play PS1 but we want  to play it with enhanced visuals to do this we   will turn on the enhanced resolution option which  will increase the rendering resolution with this   option enabled the game looks much better but it  only runs at 60 FPS consistently on the R3 6s and   the RG 35xx plus we could do many more examples  with stuff like rewind support shaders or very   demanding games generally speaking you'll have  way fewer limitations on the r 36s and the RG   35xx plus we did not touch on higher-end systems  like N64 Dreamcast or PSP our top two devices are   pretty close for those three but the RG 35xx plus  does not have an analog stick if you care about   those systems and you know you don't want to map  an analog stick to your d-pad or you don't want   to use a Bluetooth controller my advice would  be to just go with the r36 S it has all of the   buttons that you need to play those systems and  you'll have a much better experience let's wrap   up this video with some of my closing thoughts  hopefully by this point you have a good idea of   like which one of these is for you based on all  of the stuff that we covered but if you don't I   have some advice that might help you out let's  go one by one for the me Mini Plus I think this   is a great device if you're going to be buying  a handheld for someone that's younger let's say   you have a kid that's like 5 years old this one  would be the one that I would get for them and I   would just install onion OS on it and I would turn  off anything that I didn't want them to mess with   the experience is going to be good the buttons  won't be hard on their hands and it will be a   comfortable gaming experience for them if you're  on a budget and you want a full set of controls   and you don't need everything to be perfect then  I would say go with the r 36s it's cheap and it   will allow you to find out what you like and what  you don't like early on without having to spend a   lot of money I don't think it's worth considering  the RG 35xx anymore now that the plus exists but   it might be worth buying if you can get this for  a really good deal if you don't care about having   analog sticks and you just want to have a lot of  power in this this form factor then the RG 35xx   plus is the best thing that's on the market right  now if you know that you want to do anything that   requires Wi-Fi like Co-op functionality then I  would stick with these two I don't think it's   worth buying either of these and using a dongle  that experience isn't great so boil down to the   simplest that it can be by this one if you want  the most power in this form factor and you don't   care about not having analog sticks by this one if  you're on a budget you want to be able to play all   of the games that it can support and by this one  if you're looking for a gift for someone that's   younger but really you can't go wrong with any of  these if you enjoyed this video and you want to   see another take a look at a video that I did on  the RG 35xx plus happy gaming everyone Taki out

Channel: Taki Udon

Views: 256,163

Keywords: taki udon, RG35XX Plus vs. Miyoo Mini Plus, Budget handheld buying guide, RG35XX Plus vs. R36S, RG35XX Plus vs. RG35XX, cheap emulation handhelds, RG35XX Plus Review, Abernic, miyoo, retro gaming, RG35xx plus taki, R35s, cheap retro gaming handheld, best budget handheld

Id: PIdTcgI24YA

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2023