RG35XX, RG34XX, RG40XX, SP, Plus, H, V — the naming makes no sense until you know the pattern.
Anbernic ships more SKUs than almost any other handheld maker, and the names give you nothing to go on — there's no clean "generation 1, generation 2" story here. It's closer to a menu: a body style, a screen size, and a suffix that tells you what's different from the base model. Once you can read that menu, the lineup stops being a wall of near-identical numbers.
The number (35XX, 34XX, 40XX...) roughly tracks screen size and body generation, not power — a lot of these share very similar internals. The suffix is what actually tells you what you're getting:
H and V variants in particular are often the exact same board and chipset in two screen orientations built for different console targets — a V model suits GBA/Game Boy-shaped libraries, an H model suits SNES/Genesis-shaped ones.
The entry point and the most-recommended line for a reason — see our under-$100 picks. Covers up through PS1 comfortably. The base, Plus, SP, and H variants are mostly body-style choices around similar internals, not a performance ladder.
I went with the Plus over the SP — the clamshell was tempting for pocket protection, but I wanted the exposed D-pad and buttons for anything twitchy, and I didn't want a hinge as a long-term failure point. No regrets there, mushy D-pad aside.
A step up in screen size with a 3:2 aspect ratio that suits certain systems' native resolutions better than the 35XX's screen. Same general performance tier as the 35XX line — the appeal is the display, not extra headroom.
Where the H/V split matters most: the RG40XXV (vertical) and RG40XXH (horizontal) share a chipset but are built around different screen orientations for different libraries. Figure out which orientation matches the systems you actually play before picking one.
The small one — a tiny, GBA-adjacent form factor for pocket-of-your-pocket portability. Same rough performance class as the rest of the RG line; the pitch here is purely size.
Pick the body style first (candybar, clamshell/SP, or tiny/28XX), then the screen orientation that matches your library (H vs V), then treat "Plus" as a minor spec bump rather than a different tier. If you want real PS2/GameCube headroom, you're outside the RG-series entirely — that's Retroid or Anbernic's Android tier.
I went in circles between three RG35XX variants before I understood any of this — the naming genuinely reads like marketing noise until you know it's body-style-then-suffix, not model-generation.