Miyoo Flip V2: Refresh of Anbernic RG35XX SP rival falls short with repeated reports of broken display hinges
All is not well in the world of the Miyoo Flip. Released in December after almost a year of teasers, the clamshell gaming handheld appeared to be a worthy alternative to Anbernic's popular RG35XX SP (curr. $76.99 on Amazon). While the RG35XX SP had a few teething issues of its own, there were enough issues with the Miyoo Flip for the company behind the device to introduce a revised version with an improved hinge mechanism in March.
Unfortunately, it seems that Miyoo has a way to go before it can consider its hinge issue to be resolved. Officially, Miyoo has not commented on the matter. However, the volume of reports of hinge failures on Miyoo Flip V2 models continues to mount online.
As Russ from Retro Game Corps discusses in the video below, the hinge failures appear to affect the grey variant of the Miyoo Flip more than the other colours in which the device is available. With that being said, there have been reports of hinges breaking on other colour options, too. Worse still, these issues have occurred quickly in some cases, much sooner than the 900 opening and closing cycles that Russ from Retro Game Corps mentions.
Based on the teardown portion of Retro Game Corps' video, a new metal hinge that Miyoo added to the Flip V2 variant looks to be the culprit. Somehow, this new part becomes loose and then grinds against the outer shell during the opening and closing process. As far as we can tell, the grinding motion then weakens the plastic hinge to the point that it deforms or breaks. Potentially, the dark grey variant could be more affected because Miyoo used softer plastic in its construction. Please see Retro Game Corps' video below for more details.
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