Anbernic RG557: New AMOLED gaming handheld released as Retroid Pocket 5 challenger to mixed reviews
The Anbernic RG557 has been a known quantity for a while now after nearly a month's worth of teasers. For some reason, the company has waited until today before actually releasing the device. In summary, the RG557 features the following hardware:
- Display: 5.48-inch AMOLED, 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, 60 Hz refresh rate
- SoC: MediaTek Dimensity 8300, 4x ARM Cortex-A715, 4x Cortex-A510, Mali-G615 MC6 GPU
- Memory: 12 GB LPDDR5X RAM/256 GB UFS 4.0 flash storage
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3/Wi-Fi 6E
- Battery: 5,500 mAh with 28 W wired charging
In short, the RG557 should be much more powerful than last year's RG556 (curr. $229.99 on Amazon), which utilises a Unisoc T820 chipset. According to our benchmarks, the Dimensity 8300 is about 76% faster than the Unisoc T820 in CPU-heavy tasks. Meanwhile, the gap between the pair's GPUs is even wider. However, this performance leap is somewhat offset by Anbernic's 33.5% price increase, which sees the RG557 priced at $234.99 on launch day.
Our benchmarks suggest that the RG557 should have the edge over the Retroid Pocket 5 in CPU and GPU-intensive tasks too, albeit only by a few percent in the latter's case. The Dimensity 8300 will remain an unknown quantity in the gaming handheld space for a while, though. As a result, its GPU drivers are unlikely to be as well optimised as those for the Snapdragon 865 inside the Retroid Pocket 5. The Anbernic RG557 will rise to $249.99 on April 28, meaning that it will soon retail for over 13% more than the Pocket 5. For the time being, reviews have not looked favourably upon Anbernic's latest gaming handheld, many of which we have embedded below.
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