Miyoo Flip vs Anbernic SP
The Battle for GBA Nostalgia Dominance
This past year I let my love for the Gameboy Advanced SP get the best of me. I bought waaaay too many things that fold close like Pancheros’ Quesadillas and a Samsung Flip. I also bought the Miyoo Flip and the Anbernic RG35XXSP retro handhelds. Who won my heart? I love both of these handhelds but one stood out as a clear winner for me. Let’s Dig In!
The Anbernic has a lot of great things going for it like the very high build quality. The Anbernic SP is a touch larger than the Flip but still pocketable and is a little more comfortable to me. The outer shell feels more like my original GBA SP and a quality device. The 3.5 IPS on both devices are solid and hits the perfect compromise of readability and portability. Anbernic RG35XXSP comes from a long line of RG handhelds that have been around for while and have a lot of support. So this device has a number of operating systems to choose from. My favorite is Knulli OS which is a fork of Linux retro gaming os Batocera. I have Knulli os loaded up on a small sdcard and my games and my system settings/saves on a larger sdcard in the 2nd slot. This allows me to update the os without risk of losing my games/saves. I also have the 2nd card formatted in exFat vs ext4 so I can use Windows to add games and backup my files. This may cause issues with some PortMaster titles but that isn’t what I’m using this device for. One of the things I love about Knulli is all the cores are loaded up but won’t show up on display until I drop games into console folder for a specific system and run “games update”. Super clean and easy to use. Another nice feature is even though the Anbernic only has a single D-pad, you can press Function + Select buttons to change it into a functioning analog “stick”. I’ve had no issues playing Dreamcast, PS1 and PSP games with it.
The only issue I’ve had with the Anbernic is playing DS games as there is some bug with the fake analog controller for free moving cursor situations. Again, this isn’t an issue for me as I prefer a phone for DS emulation and only affects certain games.
On the flip side, the Miyoo Flip has some nice features like dual analog sticks for playing Dreamcast, PSP, NDS and some PS1 titles. The analog sticks are a little weird from placement as well as the controls but useable. The system does have dual sdcard slots so you can setup one for the operating system and one for roms. The Flip plays up to Dreamcast well and most PSP titles minus the heavier titles like God of War (same as the Anbernic). It also does a decent job of playing DS games. A cool aspect to the Flip is the size is exactly the same as the GBA SP so it has a smaller form factor than the Anbernic and a touch easier for pocket storage. The Onion OS that comes with the Flip is perfectly useable and a decent os.
The #1 issue I did have with the Flip was build quality. After very little use, I was already seeing hinge separation and had to reenforce it with some epoxy. I’ve seen a lot of folks online with hinge failure so buyer beware. The outer shell also is very cheap, plastic to the touch that makes it feel less like a handheld and very different from my original GBA SP. The other issue is the Onion OS is fine but pales in comparison to Knulli and the plethora of options that the Anbernic has available.
The clear winner for me is the Anbernic SP due to much higher build quality and more robust operating system choices. The couple of games you might be able to play on the Flip, just aren’t enough to justify taking a chance of it failing. Another advantage is the price, as the Anbernic can be found for $50-$70 range (as of this writing) while the Miyoo Flip is $85+. I love the dual analog idea of the Flip but I just can’t recommend it due to the hinge issue. Today the winner is the Anbernic RG35XXSP…