R36S Review: a thorough design of the PowKiddy RGB20S

Right after the R35S‘ review, I ordered a copy of the R36S – which is supposed to be an alternative to the PowKiddy RGB20S, with different controller board. It actually makes more sense for me, who enjoy playing retro games with D-Pad rather than analog sticks (especially when most systems don’t support analog sticks by default). So, get ready for a quick impression of R36 review.

R36S ranks B in my retro handheld emulator ranking list

This is the device that swaps the button positions from the PowKiddy RGB20S and R35S. Is this the perfect budget retro handheld emulator?

R36S Review: Price

With a powerful chipset, nippy performance and D-Pad oriented PCB, the R36S makes a great impression. This is only slightly dulled by no current support from community, so ArkOS is perhaps the only working custom firmware. Not to mention that you still need to tinker a lot to enjoy retro games on this handheld.

Pick a retro handheld, any retro handheld emulator identified as being “first tier” (a common term for lowest-end devices of the market, usually can handle up to SNES and PSX library), and three things will likely define it. An over-enthusiastic trend on Reddit, the vertical (portrait) form factor and – of course – a relatively low asking price.

It used to be the realm of the Miyoo Mini and Anbernic RG35XX, which can perfectly emulate everything up to GBA, SNES and PSX. These handhelds receive big support from their user community, and as a result, they can push the limit to more dedicated systems. However, it is still a hit-or-miss experience when trying NDS or even N64 on these handhelds.

Enter the R36S, which is an alternative design of the well-known PowKiddy RGB20S that drags the RockChip RK3326 chipset into RG35XX’s price point. As a non-brand handheld, the R36S (naming R35S+ on its box) can even lower the price to as low as $32. While you can get a RG35XX at the same price, the R36S has much more potential with more powerful processor and more RAM in total.

The only problem is you can get the R36S on AliExpress alone, as I don’t find any other suppliers bring it to Amazon. Well, should I try opening an online shop for this handheld?

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R36S Review: Design and Build Quality

The immediate first impression one might get from the R36S is it prioritizes D-Pad buttons over analog sticks, unlike the PowKiddy RGB20S and R35S. Though I bet that anyone would get another handheld just to try a different controller layout, the R36S actually makes more sense for me. Finally I can hold and play games on this device without hand fatigues, as I mainly use D-Pad for retro games. It is quite similar to the Anbernic RG353V, which is more expensive.

If the review is in your decision-making phase, I advise you to get the R36S instead of other PowKiddy clones with unplayable button layout. If the device is only for your kids, well, I don’t think the change in design plays any important role. It is still the same plastic shell, the same dimension and the same weight as the R35S, which is pocketable and portable for a cheap vertical retro handheld.

Remembering that it’s cheap, and to say it isn’t well built is fully correct. If you love things like the RG35XX and Miyoo Mini Plus, the high chance is that you will feel the difference. When you step into the $150 range with things like the Anbernic RG405V, you will even feel the cheap materials being used in the R36S. But hey, at least it is more pocketable than the chunky one of Anbernic.

One more thing to add up into the cheap build quality of the R36S is its buttons. They are too hard to press, unresponsive for a smooth gameplay. Shoulder buttons are loud when using, sometimes too loud that I wonder whether there are any membrane pads under the skin of the R36S?

Color options of the R36S are similar to the Anbernic RG353V, with Black and Purple being transparent. I am a sucker for transparent editions, so I choose the same transparent black option, just like the R35S.

Again, we have thin bezels on the R36S, which is a lot better than what’s being offered by the PowKiddy RGB20S. I think the R36S is copying the Miyoo Mini Plus, and it is clearly the right direction. It uses the same 3.5-inch IPS screen with 640 x 480 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio – the same as most current retro handheld emulators.

B for Design & Feel.

R36S Review: Gaming Experience

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Performance

🔵 A

🔵 A

🔵 A

🔵 A

🔵 A

🔵 A

🟢 B

🟡 C

🟡 C

🟡 C

🟠 D

🔴 F

🔴 F

🔴 F

🔴 F

🔴 F

🔴 F

The R36S is cloning the same mainboard from the PowKiddy RGB20S, so you can expect to find the RockChip RK3326 chipset powering the system. It is a quad-core CPU consisting of four powerful clusters of Cortex-A35 clocked at 1.3 GHz. It has its own GPU, something that you can’t find in a Miyoo handheld, for graphics. It is an important requirement for emulating PSP library.

It is not a powerful processor, but it is the lowest requirement for playing N64, Dreamcast and PSP games at 480p. You should read the RG351’s N64 compatibility list and RG351’s PSP compatibility list for what you need to try with the R36S, because both the RG351 family and the R36S share the same internal hardware.

On the plus side, the quad-core chipset is more than enough to cover most NDS titles out there.

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Gaming session

Unlike the R35S, the R36S comes with ArkOS as stock firmware. ArkOS is a frequently updated custom firmware with great support, so playing with the R36S is so similar to any PowKiddy devices that I tried in the past.

You can also try to make AmberELEC working on the R36S, which I prefer over ArkOS on the Anbernic RG351 family. However, it is quite complicated and I don’t really think it is worth the trouble, because ArkOS is decent enough to experience.

Playing with the R36S is more comfortable than the R35S or PowKiddy RGB20S, but no way you can enjoy the feeling when pressing buttons, which is hard and loud. The feeling is similar to pressing buttons on a cheap ring toss game, which is below even my lazy standard of retro handhelds.

But then, the R36S supports you playing more games from N64, Dreamcast and PSP, which is great considering how cheap you can get the handheld. You can’t play everything you throw at it, but you can enjoy many big titles that you can’t run well on the RG35XX and Miyoo Mini Plus. It is still not a native resolution for the PlayStation Portable, but many people will enjoy the IPS screen of current retro handhelds over the aging PSP.

It is the same story with playing NDS on the R36S. I always recommend using the native Nintendo DS or Nintendo 3DS for everything related to NDS and 3DS, because dual-screen emulation is non-existent at the moment. Still, many people can’t bear the low-resolution screen of the original DS system, and prefer something like the R36S. After all, it depends on you.

There is no Wi-Fi switcher for the R36S, again, and you need a Wi-Fi dongle for it to work. However, I can’t find a solution for my TP-Link dongle to work with the R36S.

Battery life

The R36S seems to have a 3500 mAh battery, which is the same as the PowKiddy RGB20S. It is supposed to draw out up to 8 hours of playing games. If you’re a multi-system hog like me, you’ll likely finish after 4-6 hours, which is still pretty good for a modern handheld.

You can use the normal USB-C cable for the R36S, and it needs 3 hours to be fully charged. Fast charging can speed up the charging process, but it will degrade your battery.

B for Gaming Experience.

My verdict

The R36S is a cheap handheld, and it needs to sacrifice the quality elsewhere to keep higher performance than the rest on market. However, for a cheap handheld, it is quite comfortable to hold the device. Perhaps this will be the next-gen baseline retro handheld emulator for me.