This Steam Deck alternative is perfect for retro gaming without the heavy price tag
Table of Contents
With the existence of the Steam Deck, or the recent announcements of the Zotac Zone and ASUS ROG Ally X, both priced at $800, the handheld gaming market has been flooded with premium options. However, there’s good news for gamers looking for a more budget-friendly alternative.
Yes, the Anbernic RG Cube may be the perfect option if you’re after something a little smaller, a little cheaper, and little more retro. It has recently been shown off and we can bring you all there is to know about it.
Prime Day is finally here! Find all the biggest tech and PC deals below.
- Sapphire 11348-03-20G Pulse AMD Radeon™ RX 9070 XT Was $779 Now $739
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core, 16-Thread Desktop Processor Was $449 Now $341
- ASUS RTX™ 5060 OC Edition Graphics Card Was $379 Now $339
- LG 77-Inch Class OLED evo AI 4K C5 Series Smart TV Was $3,696 Now $2,796
- Intel® Core™ i7-14700K New Gaming Desktop Was $320.99 Now $274
- Lexar 2TB NM1090 w/HeatSink SSD PCIe Gen5x4 NVMe M.2 Was $281.97 Now $214.98
- Apple Watch Series 10 GPS + Cellular 42mm case Smartwatch Was $499.99 Now $379.99
- ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) 16" FHD, RTX 5060 gaming laptop Was $1,499.99 Now $1,274.99
- Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro): Apple Intelligence Was $499.99 Now $379.99
*Prices and savings subject to change. Click through to get the current prices.
Anbernic RG Cube
This compact console offers a surprising amount of features for its starting price tag of $159.99. Running Android 13, it boasts over 30 emulators, allowing you to play classic games from various consoles. Additionally, Moonlight support enables you to stream PC games directly to the RG Cube. The RG Cube boasts comfortable controls with hall joysticks, shoulder triggers, and a touchscreen.
It also features Wi-Fi connectivity for multiplayer battles with other Anbernic users and 1080p DisplayPort output for connecting to a larger screen. The 7-hour battery life with a 3-hour recharge cycle ensures you can enjoy extended gaming sessions.
| Specifications | Anbernic RG Cube |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | Length 15.3cm; Width 8.6cm; Height 1.8cm |
| Weight | 0.26kg |
| Chipset | Unisoc T820 processor, 6nm EUV 5G SOC chip 8 cores 1*[email protected]+3*[email protected]+4*[email protected] |
| RAM | 8GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | 128G UFS2.2 |
| Wireless Connectivity | 2.4/5G WIFI 802.11a/b/g/n/ac,Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Display | 3.95-inch IPS screen, OCA full lamination, multi-touch, resolution: 720*720 |
| Graphics | Quad Core Mali-G57 850MHz |
| Battery | Polymer lithium battery 5200mAh, battery life 7 hours |
| Speakers | High fidelity dual speakers |
So, how does this model compare to the Steam Deck? Well, while both the Anbernic RG Cube and Steam Deck cater to handheld gamers, they target different user preferences. The Steam Deck boasts superior power, allowing you to play modern AAA titles on the go. However, this comes at a cost, with the Deck’s price tag significantly higher than the RG Cube.
The Cube focuses on retro emulation and PC game streaming, offering a more budget-friendly option for classic gaming enthusiasts. For the aesthetics-conscious gamer, the RG Cube comes equipped with RGB lighting, adding a flashy touch. This touch provides a bit more of modern touch to this retro gaming PC.
Anbernic showed themselves running popular titles such as Ocarina of Time 3D, Pokémon Sun, Genshin Impact, and even Tekken 3. From the video, we can see that the RG Cube is capable of emulating the following consoles/systems:
- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
- Nintendo 64
- Nintendo GameCube
- Nintendo Wii
- Game Boy Color
- Nintendo DS
- Nintendo 3DS
- Sega Saturn
- Sega Dreamcast
- PlayStation 1
- PlayStation 2
- PlayStation Portable
- Pico8
- Varcade
- Android
Sales begin on June 8th at 3 am PDT, with color options including gray, black, beige, white, and purple. That’s something for everyone.
About the Author