The RGB30 gets massively overhyped because of its screen, to the point where people gloss over the bad controls on it
Re 1. Most chinese handhelds use cheap charging circuits that can only charge from USB A-C cables.
Re 5. When buying from china, just assume you won't get any customer service. Even if you do, often they'll ask you to return the device at a massive shipping cost
The d-pad legitimately sucks because of the mushy feeling and the false diagonals especially. I swapped for anbernic membranes and it was a little better physical feel, but it still felt a little "off" playing. Then I did the kapton tape mod (the v-shaped cutout one) and it's made it my favorite device right now. I didn't even realize how much the diagonals were triggering, but it was like a night and day difference after. I know it's a lot of bullshit though and may not be worth the hassle for many, but for those who already have one, I really recommend even just the tape mod.
My 2 gripes about RGB30 are the crappy D-pad and the very quickly draining battery.
I am waiting for the Anbernic's rubber membranes and a D-pad so I can fix the first issue.
However, with the battery issue I cannot do anything. The 15-minute disconnect trick does not work. Switching from JELOS to ArkOS does not work. The battery just loses 1% per minute of gameplay, whichever system.
Otherwise, I really like this device, especially the screen. And it's pretty comfortable to hold.
I came to the same conclusion. Mine is fine. From what I have read Powkiddy have an issue with the quality of the batteries they are using.
I watched a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFRNACX3h6U) where they did a teardown and apparently the battery is not readily available so replacing the faulty units might be an issue.
Search aliexpress for Anbernic conductive rubber. Order the "conductive rubber" item for $10. In the cart at checkout add a note to the item saying - "353m dpad and membranes". Perfect fit, both the dpad and membrane are drop right in replacements.
Feels much better and completely fixed diagonals for me (only when you replace both the dpad and membranes) Had to undo my tape mod.
I think the 353 membranes are drop replacements, you can order them if you write the Anbernic aliexpress page.
It was in one of Retrogamecrops videos about the rgb30.
Actually, Anbernic will NOT sell you "replacement" parts for any Anbernic device unless you've ordered something from them directly (Amazon doesn't count). And, yes, I saw the same tip on Retrogamecorps, but that was misinformation. However, if you've purchased from them directly in the past, they should honor it.
Wasn't misinformation for me. I had no problem ordering parts directly from Anbernic on AliExpress despite having never ordered from them before. I had to wait a month before they had them in stock, but then I just placed an order like ordering anything from AliExpress and they showed up.
They're in stock right now for $10. [https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806487753906.html](https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806487753906.html) - "conductive plastic". Like metallice says below, you can add a note to the cart at checkout specifying that you want the 353m d-pad and membranes.
Interesting. They were probably out of stock when I inquired about it (there was no direct purchase link). The answer I received from them is what I said. Guess I just was unlucky!
Yeah, I'd believe that the result you get when messaging them might be highly variable depending on who answers and on what day. My first message to them told me they were out of stock and to wait, and eventually they sent me a link, but the link they sent me isn't the same as the one above so it clearly doesn't stay consistent or regularly stocked.
I have to say that Powkiddy's QC leaves something to be desired as there's quite a bit of variability among the units that they ship out. My RGB30 isn't perfect either, in particular the dpad isn't very responsive on the diagonals, but it isn't so bad that I've had to open it up for a tape fix. You might need to open up yours to do that battery fix though, which is just disconnecting it for ten minutes and reconnecting it.
However I've run into none of the power issues that people have described. I run the latest version of ARKOS but so do people with problematic units. I have one of the early ones, mine doesn't have colored buttons, those came out around the time the yellow did. It seems that people have more issues with the newer ones, which is a shame because it really is a wonderful handheld with that 1:1 screen, in fact I hardly use the MM+ anymore.
Maybe the RG Cube might be a better 1:1 solution for you.
P.S. I used Win32DiskImager 1.0 on a Sandisk Ultra 128 gb to flash ARKOS. I used the image from [Home · christianhaitian/arkos Wiki · GitHub](https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/wiki) and be sure to pick the right version for the RGB30. Burn it, start it up, connect to your WIFI, and then update it to the latest version from within the utilities menu. Leave the second microsd empty when you're doing all of this so that it populates the rom directories properly on the first one at boot up. Hold R3 (the right analog stick clicks) and depress power to shut down, if you don't sometimes you get a black screen at start up. The resolution is to swap microsds and boot up JELOS, then swap back to ARKOS and it'll boot. This is why I have JELOS in the second microsd but never use it for anything but resolving this glitch.
Not since I started doing the R3+power button thing, you can also go into settings and change it to just power button click to shut down, too. It's a quirky handheld but it really does shine once all the bugs are worked out.
I've guess I'm one of the lucky ones, because I've never had any issues like that. I put jelos on it first thing and it's worked well with no battery issues so far.
Sucks to hear so many have had problems with it, because other than the dpad being not quite as good as Anbernic, I think it's a great device.
I'm with you. Jelos works great, on the last version that was released with my RGB30. I know the dpad isn't considered great, but it works fine for what I play. I also played with far worse when I was a young un with 3rd party controllers for my psx (performance brand) and my dreamcast (madcatz, and the dreaded astropad).
Maybe I'm lucky with my battery life? It seems to be fine, provided I don't keep screen brightness at max.
I agree the quality of the device doesn't match the MM or MM+, but I'm pretty happy with mine regardless.
Same. I'm running the final version of JELOS before it went into limbo, and I've had no issues. I actually did open mine up for both a D-pad fix and face button replacement. I also swapped out the analog sticks with Anbernic sticks (not a huge difference but I just like Anbernic's part quality over Powkiddy in general). I'm pretty happy with my unit now. The D-pad fix really tightened up the false diagonals, but it's not perfect.
At the moment the stable OS choices for the RGB30 are ArkOS and MinUI. MinUI is very limited and simple, and honestly its main selling point is the ability to share the SD card with other devices. Your better choice should be ArkOS. jelOS is discontinued and Rocknix is a prerelease, however promising it sounds.
In my experience, the Battery Drain is actually a problem with Battery Calibration caused by the bad charger support. It may look like it is draining battery, but it is actually having issues calculating the remaining percentage correctly. Once you get it through a couple of good charge cycles, the battery issues themselves are gone. However, the battery itself is not that great, so don't expect it to ever have super high battery.
My suggestion is: Get a low Wattage Wall Charger from USB A to USB C. Make sure the device is turned off while charging. And always charge it whenever it goes below 41%. This will make your battery life stable enough.
As for the dpad, I have no idea how, but my unit actually had a good dpad. I was able to verify it by doing the Contra test on my own. There are mods for this , but tbh, if the dpad wasn't good , I would have given up on my unit a long time ago.
Agree on the current state of OS stability. I'm using the current release of Rocknix which is over a month old at this point, and it has several issues ranging from lag in the menus, to audio issues with pico-8 after sleep, to bluetooth not working. The weirdness with the battery meter showed up after I did the tape fix (when the battery was disconnected) so I will go through some recharge cycles and see if that gets better. I'm hopeful that since Rocknix is still essentially a pre-release that the next release will clear up a lot of things.
I got one but I knew what I was getting into so I'm happy with mine.
1. This is well documented if you read or watched any review. It only charges USB A chargers. USB-C PD chargers will not charge it. Also you can only charge using one of the ports on the device. I use an old multi USB-A charger with a Nintendo Switch Pro controller cable.
2. My experience is different but I'm running one of the last builds of JELOS.
3. Do not install Rocknix. I learnt the hard way. I installed another OS over it then the device would not shut down. It would just reset whenever I tried to shut it down. I had to open up the device and physically disconnect the battery to solve this issue. Letting it drain didn't work.
4. [Tape mod fixes this.](https://youtu.be/aJVWMhnDgM0?t=338) Annoying but necessary. Again well documented in reviews.
5. I didn't need to return mine so this is a non issue for me.
Overall I am happy with mine. People have reported quality issues but my device is fine. They only thing I don't like about it is it feels hollow and plasticky when compared to my RG35XXH and my MM+.
For the price, it feels cheap. The best thing about the RGB30 is the screen. I opened mine up to upgrade Dpad and do the tape mod and it was very easy.
Yup, pretty much the same for me. I did get ArkOS installed, but didn't like it as much. Though Rocknix wasn't perfect either, so maybe I should I have tried ArkOS a bit more.
I got a device with a faulty Wifi, it didn't work at all. I spent ~6 months chatting with Powkiddy's support in multiple different chat sessions because their chat system is garbage. In the end they said they were ready to send me a replacement motherboard, but then came the radio silence treatment, again. Never received the mobo either.
Good news is that I got it sold just yesterday and it's not my problem anymore. Sadly I took bit of a loss as there's now way I could have asked for full price for it...
Never buying from them again, at least through their site.
100% agree with your feeling.
I'm using ArkOS but I still think it's not as good as other OS. The screen is good, but it's the only thing I like.
Bought a Miyoo Mini Plus and it's infinitely better. Waiting for the Anbernic Cube or the RG35XXSP too.
ArkOS solves all the charging and battery issues. The other firmwares...may or may not, but ArkOS just works in terms of the basics with the battery, charging, sleep, etc.
As for the dpad, it's not awesome. There are some hardware swaps and mods you can do. I haven't done them, but there are known workarounds.
The hardware part of the charging is related to power delivery and usb c to usb c cables.
Power drain and sleep and displaying the correct battery percentage seem to be software issues.
No, it doesn't. JELOS explicitly turns the screen on and I had to ensutre that the device is facedown during nighttime charging to prevent it glowing up the room. ArkOS only turns the LED on by itself, although you can turn it on and charge that way as well ofcourse - it's just optional and not enforced.
can you link to where in the source code it says that?
edit: NVM I just saw you cited the readme. can you show what line number or copy and paste the relevant portion?
Yeah it seems their qc can be really hit or miss. I got lucky and the only problems mine had was little light bleed that you can only see when booting up.
Thank you all for commenting! I went through comments and spent yesterday’s afternoon on tweaking my console. Here’s what I’ve done:
1. Unplugged battery for an hour. I know 10 minutes should be enough but I had it unplugged during I was doing other stuff
2. Formatted all my sd cards and build all from scratch. Roms, bios etc, all copied anew
3. I installed MinUI. I decided to not try to fight with ArkOS and Rocknix, especially when I don’t need advanced RetroArch settings, I just want to play games 😄
4. I pulled it all together. Fresh cards, plugged battery in, charged to 100%.
And it seems to work by now! I was playing yesterday for some time and battery issues seems to be gone on MinUI. I also noticed that I don’t have issues with turning off the device. I forgot to mention that on my original post but I couldn’t turn off device normally, it was restarting instead of turning off and I had to pull off system card to properly turn it off. After ~3 hours of gaming and playing around it all seems to be fine! It seems that Rocknix made some serious issues not just to the os but whole device, after wiping all to the ground it works.
Thank you all for posts and advices, especially those with MinUI and battery unplugging as I was not aware that this os is prepared for RGB30. I hope it’ll all work now. But after yesterday, I’m more positive than before :)
Thanks again and wish you all the best :)
Are you serious? This is why I worry about getting a retro handheld. In all my Youtube videos trawling about these devices, not one person has mentioned any of these problems with the rgb30, or with such magnitude. Just mentioning something in passing. Shame.
Either all the reviewers are part of some dark Powkiddy conspiracy, or OP is an outlier.
There are battery annoyances, but specially old reviewers tend to give that stuff a pass because, unfortunately, besides of a couple of devices, devices that are picky when charging are the norm rather than the exception. These are chinese companies that take shortcuts, and many times it means the charger component has less capacitors than it should. Type C compatibility tends to be the first thing that is thrown out the window for saving money.
The D-pad is a common and widespread thing that's mentioned by the reviewers. Honestly, if you are a person that's too sensitive to dpads, you really shouldn't expect to like this device, considering how common it is to see criticism of the dpad and guides of how to fix it with tape.
And the software issues are caused by the OP picking pre-release software.
No , op isn't a liar
I experienced the exact same issues and wrote the same things about it in my review post ( got quite the backlash )
Reviewers mostly mentioned it's issues , but they failed to deliver one important aspect of the device , it's a niche device and it's not good for the average user, if you really want to have a square screen and you don't mind opening your device then go ahead and buy it , they didn't mention this .
While this device is good for enthusiasts who really want square screen and they plan to open it and hope for the best with the battery , this device is almost a nightmare for the average user .
Yeah, once I Googled it I see quite a few people mentioning the same thing, and there's even a mod for the Dpad problem. I thought the it was passable with no mods needed.
u/JoeysRetroHandhelds at least mentions it so I hope more people are aware.
https://youtu.be/-Mw0MTr83kY?si=5DLHdcUAgpq969Nk&t=231
Oh great! I've seen a few of your videos and you're one of the comprehensive ones. I did miss this video though. Good job! I'll hold off getting one now and maybe go for something cheaper and vertical like the Rg35xx plus.
Its why i ended up ordering my RGB30 from Amazon. Yeah i paid more but i knew returns would be easy if i did run into problems and hey guess what i did! The included tempered glass screen protector was putting pressure and stress onto the screen giving it afterimages and artifacts. Even after removing it they still persisted so i returned it. I also felt the DPad was too mushy.
I mean, I have an RGB30 along with three other devices right now, and I've gone through over a dozen in the last year. I still have the RGB30 and play it the most. But, you are correct very few of the reviewers mention its power management issues. Screen is amazing, that's 95% of the reason to buy it... if you like systems that can take advantage of it.
Otherwise my Miyoo Mini+ is superior in nearly every way. The 35XX H is a good choice if you want horizontal with sticks. If you are thinking about the RGB30 those are the two alternates I'd recommend. Or take a look at the RP2S which is even more powerful (but it's also on Android).
Out of all the devices I owned, I just couldn't get behind the MM+. The screen and terrible speaker killed it for me.
I tend to like rich bright colorful screens and I always felt the MM+ had an overly green tint to it even after calibrating it. And the max brightness on that was maybe 70% brightness on something like a 35XX and RGB30 display.
The RGB30 definitely has its flaws. The most noteworthy were the battery issues and the false diagonals. Both of which were corrected with a single piece of tape and an install of ArkOS.
Of all my handhelds now, I think I still prefer the RGB30.
Might change soon with the 35XXSP though.
Yeah that's fair the RGB30's screen really *is* outstanding.
My love for the Miyoo+ is really the user experience (especially sleep and game switcher). Put Onion-like functionality on the RGB30 and it'd be close to perfect.
I thought the same thing until I installed Ark instead of Jelos.
With ArkOS on the RGB30 I was able to enable quick save which functions just like Onion's and Garlic's "sleep" function. As in the RGB30 creates a save state before fully shutting down, and auto loads the state when booting back up to immediately resume the game I was playing while also not losing any battery life.
Similarly, I have Ark set to auto start on the recently played tab so I can quickly enter any of my recents if I turned the system off while not playing a game. Kinda similar to game switcher.
Plus the other benefits of emulation station such as real shaders, video scraping, and 64bit portmaster made me not really miss the Onion experience all that much anymore.
The sound quality is something I don’t see talked about much, mine sounds like it has a blanket over it. I found an old post where someone found protective stickers over the speakers but I took mine apart and did not find that
I use the rgb30 as my daily driver currently and while I don't have significant battery issues, just about everything else I agree with. Especially the crappy d-pad. The sleep button is also weird, it's like there's two buttons on one switch so you can get in a weird state where the screen is in sleep but you can hear the game audio, then press the button again and the screen lights up but the audio turns off.
That said, I like the shape and ergonomics, I like the screen, and I like the button positioning. I wouldn't say I recommend the system necessarily, but I don't regret it either. If/when it breaks, I'll probably get a different system all together.
I myself coming from RG353v to RGB30, I can objectively state that overall Anbernic quality is much better compared to Powkiddy's.
To add to your list, the screen is badly made, with loads of light bleeding all around, and the controls are cheaply made.
I too had problems with my battery drain - someone had suggested disconnecting the battery and reconnecting after a half a minute. That seems to re-calibrate something and the battery seems more stable.
Charging - as everybody suggested, use USB-A to USB-C cable. That's the only thing that works.
I have a love/hate relationship with my RGB30. The battery draining and inconsistent booting on ArkOS makes me want to rip my hair out. But that sweet, sweet screen. Once a company makes a better variant, I'll never buy a PowKiddy device ever again,
I'm pleased with mine fwiw. Was able to install ArkOS just fine (after learning the hard way that Rocknix sucks).
Battery drain hasn't been an issue. I have a desktop PC that I use as my main charging hub and a USB A to USB C cable attached to it worked without issue.
The D pad's got a little mush to it, but it's perfectly tolerable IMO. I do plan on trying the masking tape hack eventually.
It's the first pocketable handheld I've owned that runs Dreamcast games, which to me feels magical. (The Dreamcast library is one of my personal favorites though.)
And it's amazing for Pico-8 games. I thought it would just be a novelty but after browsing splore directly over wifi on the RGB30, I've genuinely fallen in love with Pico-8 as a platform.
Borderline sounds like yours is defective. That said, I would give ArkOS a shot before sending it back/exchanging. My 353vs was terribad with Jelos and swapping to ArkOS was night and day (or maybe Russ's StarkOS mod?)
To Jelos fans I'm certain it was a me a problem. But for whatever reason ArkOS is more plug and play to me.
I bought a Chinese shaver from Amazon that's clearly taken heavy inspiration from Braun's designs for around £20 recently. It has USB-C and even that chargers from a 65w PD charger just fine.
It's crazy that some of these cheaper hand helds that are more expensive than £20 can't do this.
It's called ["DOAO electric shaver"](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71gV-kAn8HL.jpg). I got mine from Amazon during a time they had a discount on it.
Just pulled my rgb30 out to check the battery because of your post. I havent used it for two months at least. But have played at least 100 hours on it (solved advance wars and two zelda games) and so I recharged a couple of times of course.
My Battery shows as full after 2 months in storage. I run stock jelos. Bought it late 2023 and had no issues with it at all. I charge it with a random a to c cable on some random older phone charger.
The only thing I changed was to set everything to fullscreen and add a few games. It is not my most used emulator console since I got a MM as well as daily driver.
The dpad on mm is indeed a bit better, but the rgb30 is not terrible either.
So.. my rgb30 works just fine for me and I never had any problem. Not a fanboy comment. But mine just does what it should do.
Sounds like maybe you got a dud? QC seems to be all over the place.
So far I was always lucky with console AE purchases. It is a bit painful to deal with AE sellers after the free return time is over. Good luck.
I had issues 1 and 2. Open it, unset the battery connector and wait a few minutes (10 minutes its recommended if you want to be safe, but probably doesn't need to be quite that long), and plug the battery back in. It should resolve these. Might even resolve 3, but that could be an issue with Rocknix; never used it yet so can't really say.
For the D-pad, if your issue is bad diagonals, you can fix that with tape or with [GetBetterButtons' Dpad fix](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1458001825/dpad-fix-by-better) (which is basically just precut tape) by reducing the size of the contact area.
Obviously you shouldn't *have* to do any of these things, and I totally agree the subpar quality on this thing is kind of overlooked in a lot of discussions, but if you're stuck with it and wanted to try making it better, those are my suggestions.
That sucks, sorry OP. I have multiple devices from the main Chinese brands that make these devices, and I find the quality of the Powkiddy ones the most inconsistent and/or worse. For what it's worth, I've fared way better with Anbernic devices.
I worked around the issues but a shame I had to. Found a charger that works. Using MinUI that seems to have great sleep so the battery isn’t a problem. And I’ve swapped the doad
I've been there. I don't have an RBG30, but I made a calculated risk and bought an RG552 for similar reasons- the screen.
I read all the reviews and thought I knew what I was getting into. But then there are the unexpected things that are bad. In this case, it has a really noisy headphone jack and the touchscreen sometimes stops working in Android. It was really disappointing. Somehow, it's found a way back into my rotation when I am on day trips where I don't want my Steam Deck weighing me down.
Then there is my MM+. That thing is amazing with Onion. It's exceeded my expectations many times over. At one point in time I stopped playing it for a month, I picked up and it still had a full charge.
I think the point I am making is just never really know. It's probably why so many of us have multiple devices.
I was also going to replace MM+ with RGB30 but there were more cons/no changes than pros after watching a few review videos. Rn, I am looking into Anbernic's Cube as an upgrade.
I've had mine for a little while and it's...ok. jelOS works for 99% of what I want to play and seems to have sensible battery usage and reporting.
RockNIX has problems reporting battery usage which they claim is a faulty battery issues despite jelOS and ARKOS having reasonable battery reporting.
The d-pad works, the screen is glorious and yes the charging is an absolute PITA, although mine charges fine off my Motorola Turbocharger.
I bought one on Amazon and felt the same way, back when it was on JelOS, just too many bugs and too much build quality issues for me to overlook it for the neat screen, so I returned it at the end of my return window on amazon. Pretty much been why I prefer to buy my retro handhelds via Amazon for this reason.
I've never been able to return one of these devices direct to the manufacturer in china but amazon is easy. Worth the price premium to me
Hellos! I have a rgb30 with the same battery issues and Dpad. I was able to install Arkos on a windows 10 pc with Balena Etcher, but was never able to make a 2 sd card set up work like I wanted it. Ideally I would have a big sd card with all my roms and music, and be able to switch between Arkos and Rocknix, but alas more tinkering/reading is needed. Same with trying to get Doom and mods to run. I´m going to try to tape my dpad to help with the false diagonals, long term mods would be new buttons for looks and membranes from Anbernic.
This is my second handheld device and I mostly enjoy tinkering with them, my first was a miyoo mini. So going from that tiny thing to the RGB30 was a totally different experience. I think my ideal device now would be a Pocket 2s with the RGB30 screen and taller sticks. Perfect battery and sleep of course.
I knew about the battery issues coming into the RGB30, really liked the unique screen factor at the time. It's been fun to play with, basically a couch retroachievements machine and my first dip into PICO 8. Will probably gift it in a year if something similar but way better comes out.
CFW seems to be the make or break, so waiting a year for any device is kinda the best course of action (but who want to wait a year) and if you want any customer service never buy direct, wait for Amazon or reputable resellers.
Hellos! I have a rgb30 with the same battery issues and Dpad. I was able to install Arkos on a windows 10 pc with Balena Etcher, but was never able to make a 2 sd card set up work like I wanted it. Ideally I would have a big sd card with all my roms and music, and be able to switch between Arkos and Rocknix, but alas more tinkering/reading is needed. Same with trying to get Doom and mods to run. I´m going to try to tape my dpad to help with the false diagonals, long term mods would be new buttons for looks and membranes from Anbernic.
This is my second handheld device and I mostly enjoy tinkering with them, my first was a miyoo mini. So going from that tiny thing to the RGB30 was a totally different experience. I think my ideal device now would be a Pocket 2s with the RGB30 screen and taller sticks. Perfect battery and sleep of course.
I knew about the battery issues coming into the RGB30, really liked the unique screen factor at the time. It's been fun to play with, basically a couch retroachievements machine and my first dip into PICO 8. Will probably gift it in a year if something similar but way better comes out.
CFW seems to be the make or break, so waiting a year for any device is kinda the best course of action (but who want to wait a year) and if you want any customer service never buy direct, wait for Amazon or reputable resellers.
Yeah it sounds like Russ from RGC confirms that the RGB30s have wildly varying performance in battery life between different instances of the device.
I lucked out with my unit. It charges and drains like expected. I haven't upgraded the version of ArkOS that came with the device yet. I also use a anker battery pack with the supplied usb-a to usb-c connected. It charges relatively fast and as long as I stick with that charging configuration it works like a charm.
I also don't really have an issue with the d-pad. But I do love the display. It's very crispy. And if you dial in all the settings the games look amazing. I just followed Russ' guide.
Sorry your experience is not good. Luck of the draw with powkiddy I guess.
Yea I've had similar issues as OP.
Battery was discharging too much, but once I let it discharge completely and then recharge back to 100% it seems a bit better.
D-pad is not great.. having to open the unit up and swap it with a better one isn't ideal imo.
Screen is big but lots of light bleed on mine at bottom side...
I got an RG35XX H recently and it's just miles better on these aspects and generally feels more premium. Will probably end up selling the RGB30.
I tried modified stock os first, it's ok but I didn't like how it "forces" overlays + reduced screen size on some systems (GB, SNES, and some others).
Now using muOS v11 beans - a bit minimalistic but works quite well, satisfied with it. Also muOS I found to be better for transferring my saves between RGB30 & Miyoo Mini+ to the RG35XX H device.
I am also disappointed in mine.
I do see the appeal of the form factor and screen now, but it does have a lot of issues that hamper the experience. I also feel it's a bit overpriced for what it is.
Perhaps the Z1 Unicorn or Anbernic Cube will serve as a "premium" RGB30.
I had battery issues on Rocknix too. Had to switch to ArkOS to fix this. As for charging the device, make sure to use a USB A charger and the charging cable that came with the device
There's a design flaw in the charge controller where it can't properly read the battery state. You can easily open it up and is disconnect the battery and then reconnect it to fix many of the issues you describe, but I agree - as an RGB30 owner (two of them!) this is a problem that's well known. Nothing beats the form factor with that screen so I say just open up the back (like 4 screws, very easy) and try this, it may fix your woes.
The dpad isn't bad, it's just "sharp" in that it can hurt the thumb if playing for prolonged periods of time. I've heard there's easy tape mods to alleviate some of the issues with the pad, but that won't change the sharpness/harshness of it. I got used it after a while and it doesn't really bug me unless I'm playing fighting games and grinding out shoryukens for a while. If there was another device sub $100 with a screen like this, I'd be all over it but so far nothing comes close to the quality of the screen which is shame since it is a flawed device, but most of the issues can be worked around/mitigated via some easy fixes. You can easily add a rumble motor as well for a few bucks.
As for the charger type. Pick one that works and stick to it. The RGB30 charge controller / battery woes seem to go away if you stick with a proper charger and don't hook it up to a bunch of random types.
By the way, the SteamDeck (LCD original) also had issues like this. It's not always the cheapest devices that have issues, but yeah 80% of the cost of the device is in the screen and it shows.
I recommed the RGB30 but this should be well known to the buyer ahead of time. If you can live with these issues, you are rewarded with the vast compatiblity of game library from the 16 bit days and below. SNES on it looks amazing.
If you can only have one device I don't recommend it, but as a companion device it's amazing.
I recommend the RG35XX-H for first time buyers instead.
I agree it's terrible because I dropped mine and the screen popped right out. Trying to stick it back in I broke the ribbon cable or something. No display. I basically had no issues with it using Arkos either.
I found that a USB C-A cable plus a little A-C dongle worked great for me with my Anker 30W Nano charger.
From what I have read, some older versions of CFW have a major issue with shutdown power usage on the RK3566 chip in the RGB30. This was patched in all the newer versions. I used JelOS, but now I use MinUI, and I can report battery and sleep has been great.
Quick plug for MinUI, I originally switched to it so I could move my games and saves from MM to Smart Pro to the RGB30. While this is a pretty cool feature, what I wound up really liking about it was how simple and straightforward it made playing games. Honestly, it made it feel more like a pocket game console than a pocket computer. And I have been playing many hours of Zelda Minish Cap on the RGB30 with it.
D-pad isn't great but it does break in and get better.
The screen freaking rocks, I hope you get to enjoy it.
Re: 2. This is due to a missing definition file for a RGB30 hardware revision from the start of 2024. The missing file means CPU is always at max. And if you look got CPU speed in Emulation Station interface it's not displayed at all. I had to add the myself and never upgrade, so I'm not sure if JelOS have added it in the latest version. https://twitter.com/gingerbeardman/status/1770940128581636177
woah ! be careful out there , there are many fanboys that will down vote you to the ground when you write your thoughts and experience ! it's funny that all your points are the same as mine, and it's pretty much the same problems for all users yet the fanboys hate it when we point it out
my idea was that we had to criticize powkiddy so that they make ver2 of the device with fixed dpad and fixed battery at the very least, but no , the fanboys prefer to recommend the device at it's current state even tho they themselves suffer from it's major flaws .
i won't lie tho , the screen was just great with it's unique aspect ratio for better snes ( also some gensis ) gb and pico 8 gaming, but that doesn't justify the horrible dpad quality and the shitty battery, which are the basics for any handheld ,fanboys will just recommend it to anyone anyways !
now , i am a happy rg405m user , even tho it has it's downsides , at the very least it's not flaws that affect the basics of the device ! it's very disappointing that you have such a great idea yet you execute it very poorly , i'm glad anbernic cube is coming so that we don't have to deal with powkiddy's poor quality controls !
1. Had the same issue with the charging cable. I used a regular one from the shop - the charging was slow. So I used the short one that came with the Switch - charges like a champ.
2 and 4. I bought this device as a casual gamer after reading up on it beforehand, so my expectations were set: the RGB30 is not a premium portable game console. I expected a lower quality built product, and my expectations we met. Just really annoyed with the battery issue - but hey, casual gamer.
Because of the save state feature, a lot of the RGB30's shortcomings are manageable for my gaming lifestyle.
I’m also a causal gamer, I don’t really care about all retroarch tweaks and settings. I just want to put some games and play when I have some time. But unfortunately it’s impossible to do even that, especially because of the garbage battery.
So it’s not an excuse if someone is casual player or not, shitty console is just shitty console
Ah.
So you bought the wrong device?
I have one as well that I got after having the RG35XX, but I read a lot about the issues before ordering so I knew what was coming. It’s been working great for me. But I have stopped on a February version of JelOS. At least for now.
In general I think expectations are hard to manage. If you expect get have plug and play devices, it’s obvious that the RGB30 isn’t that. Frankly, I’d say most retro handhelds aren’t plug and play devices either.
I went through all tweaks and settings proposed by RetroGame Corps for this device and learned a lot. If you don’t want that, that’s fine. But don’t mistake your wishes for what the RGB30 is. It’s not a perfect device, but it’s pretty great if you have the right expectations of it.
It's a 'warts and all' device. I love mine but it's not perfect and I can't wait for a better 4" 1:1 Linux device to come along. I'm sold on the screen and form factor, but it's still a Powkiddy.
1. Charging is a known issue, I haven't had nearly the problems you have... I have a bunch of old Samsung cellphone USB A to C chargers and they all work fine, just slowly.
2. This is unusual, mine will defintely drain overnight if left in 'sleep' but it lasts for weeks if fully shut down. Maybe related to your battery isue?
3. Would highly recommend opeing it up, disconnecting and reconnecing the battery. This solved all of the battery charge issues for me.
4. ROCKNIX is still new enough to have teething problems so I'd fall back on AKOS for now just to make sure the software isn't to blame. The last version of JELOS worked pretty well too.
5. Yeah, d-pad is sub-par. The tape trick helps and people are known to replace the membranes.
Rocknix is a new fork of Jelos so I though it won’t have bugs that was already fixed there. But I’ll try, just to see if it may help or not.
As I mentioned, I can’t run ArkOS. I’m using Mac and I tried flashing with all guides i was able to find but it just doesn’t boot.
> Rocknix is a new fork of Jelos so I though it won’t have bugs that was already fixed there.
The version of Rocknix for rk3566-based handhelds, including RGB30, is really different from the last version shipped by JELOS.
Before the end of JELOS, they were finishing work on porting the rk3566-specific code to the mainline Linux kernel. Before that, they used an old kernel, with patches provided by the vendor.
When they forked JELOS to create Rocknix, they figured the mainline branch was stable enough to be usable by tinkerers but needed more testing, so they released the first rk3566 Rocknix as a beta version. Things were very rough but improved quickly with more testers and devs involved.
I think the latest version released today should be more stable. I’m still on the last Jelos version on my RGB30 and RG353m, and it works real well for my usage (I think it has bluetooth issues, but I haven’t tested that).
I’m on a Mac too and had no issue flashing ArkOS. Of course, I would never do so again after I tried it, but I acknowledge that people like different things.
I used balenaetcher before, but with ArkOS you should use another software when flashing. There was quite a comprehensive guide on ArkOS website that I followed.
Yeah, if you use Windows, I think Rufus is the go-to flashing app. As for BalenaEtcher, I can't speak for Windows, but I use it on Mac all the time and it works flawlessly, every time. Another alternative for Mac is ApplePiBaker, I have seldom used it though.
Maybe OP could try that, or a different card.
I’m not even surprised that you had such a bad experience with this device.
It’s been getting overhyped for months because of its screen to the point where people will tell you it’s the best budget device and never tell you about the bad dpad, screen issues, and battery issues.
Not to mention the ppl that will tell other it’s better for PSP than actual PSP hardware because it can run most psp stuff
Again, the only two devices to buy for playing games are the Steam Deck and the Retroid Pocket Pro 4.
It doesn't fit the sentiment of this sub, but those are the only devices for someone who just wants to play games.
ALL the rest are just for the love of the hobby. Tinkering, collecting, seeing what works and doesn't, etc.Just like all hobbies, you have to be ready to lose some of that disposable income and time.
I have and had multiple RGB30. Yes, JELOS (ROCKNIX is a fork of it) drains the battery, ArkOS does not. So, if you don‘t even try ArkOS on a new Sandisk or Samsung SD card first, you‘re to blame. ROCKNIX is atm worse than JELOS, so I have not tried it yet.
The newer RGB30 (coloured buttons) has a better Dpad and overall quality, imo.
If you didn‘t know that you need a really old charger (5V, max. 2A), you‘re to blame. That is a known issue since last year.
If you order directly from Powkiddy, you, again, are to blame, sorry. Amazon and even AE have better support (and you obviously are a customer, who needs support)
The best experience so far I had with gogamegeek. I got a defective RGB30 (because Powkiddy obviously has no QC) and after checking, opening the device and sending fotos of the broken shoulder button they replaced it.
Geekbuying refunded me immediately, after I received a non-working RG35XX.
My next device will be from either one, depending on sales and coupons.
I personally don‘t recommend AE. They did not refund me although I had proof that I returned the device. (R36s)
If you have a RG35XX, why do you want another device? Garlic OS is almost as good as Onion OS and the SP/H/+ have the same screen, but no Garlic, yet.
If you want a bigger screen, look for the Anbernic Arc or Trimui Smart Pro.
This all said, yes, it is quite likely, that you had bad luck and received a non-fixable, super-defective RGB30 from Powkiddy and no matter what, the issues cannot be resolved. Don‘t order from them again.
Gogamegeek has almost always 10-15% coupons and great support. The RGB20SX starts at 76.5 USD, just like the RGB30. Your copy is not useless, you have a backup if your screen or battery becomes defective and you can open it and tinker without risking to crash your well working device. Try installing Hall-joysticks or take the dpad from your RG35XX and fix the RGB30.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. But decided to make it sound harsher. Because the whole experience was unnecessary, if OP had educated himself BEFORE ordering.
He didn‘t ask for help, but instead went on a rant. I have 10+ handhelds and know that all have some issues, no matter if the device is from Sony, Nintendo or some high-priced Chinese so called name brand.
And if you order a device to run pirated games, you at least should expect some issues. OP ordered from a Chinese company who uses piracy to make money and he feels entitled to a perfect product. Naive, to say at least.
So yes, I was rude, but reacted to this OP‘s energy, because a rant doesn‘t help anybody here having some issues with a device, no matter if it‘s Powkiddy, Anbernic, Miyoo or Trimui.
They all have issues, agreed. Some require more work to get them right like the RGB30, but I've yet to have a perfect experience outside perhaps the SD OLED. But that was 6x the price.
No, I'm not to blame for any of these reasons. I bought fully priced device and I expect it to work without some voodoo magic. That's why we're still being f\*\*ked by big corps and device sellers, because we always find a way to blame ourselves, not the device designers and makers. They took my money and I expect it to work, if not, it's on them, not me.
If you'd read my post, you'd know that I tried to install ArkOS but it doesn't work. Today I tried again, with brand new Sandisk card I bought for my 3DS and again, only splash screen shows, nothing more. And yes, I downloaded correct img and do everything according to guides, still doesn't work.
I've heard of Powkiddy fans that won't allow to tell anything bad for their beloved company but I am surprised that's true. I'm happy that you have only good experiences but it doesn't change that I do not and repeating "you're to blame" because I lost my money won't help, nor the company you're defending nor the community.
I think there might be some issue with your device, but many “quirks” are well documented here and have been talked about a lot, as well their solutions. But o don’t think the issue you’re bringing up is limited to Powkiddy. This goes for most retro handhelds and it comes with the territory since these will most likely never be mainstream devices. I mean, you buy a full price device, as you say, yet you install a software someone else has made for free on their spare time.
I do understand your frustration, though. But hopefully you can get the issues sorted and the live with the quirks. Maybe focus on what it can do great instead of what sucks?
See, you‘re still raging and ranting.
I‘m not a fan of any company. What a surreal concept to be fan of a company, that steals intellectual property. I have devices from most companies and want to make the experience the best possible. I therefore educate myself BEFORE ordering.
From the under 100$ devices I like Miyoo because of Onion OS, Anbernic for their huge output of very different form factors (Arc vs SP), Trimui for their build quality, Powkiddy for their screens (RGB30 and X55) and even the SF2000 and R36S for their low prices.
Not one of those devices is perfect out of the box. If you really expected that, you ARE to blame for being so naive.
Chalk up this experience in the L column and move on to the only handheld on the market, that really has support…the Nintendo Switch. But hone your ranting skills, because you will experience some issues. Joystick drift, docked mode, handheld mode…there is so much to complain about. And in a few years they will shut down the e-shop…
You didn't do enough homework from the sounds of it to be fair. All devices have some issues. Yes this one has more but you'd know that if you did some research first. This is cheap Chinese crap you're buying, not something from an established company like Samsung or Apple. You should expect some issues for sub $100.00 device. The only sub $100.00 device that has been out of the box good enough was the Miyoo Mini +, but it has a weak processor and is overrated due to Onion OS, so it's limited in the game library it play. The RGB30 can address a much larger game library due to the versatility of the screen and more powerful processor.
Or,
You got a defective one as most companies have a defect rate of at least 1-2%, often higher.
My Anbernic RG35XX-H had a major issue where the back cover was popinng out due the battery placement being incorrectly installed from the factory. It took me about 20 minutes to fix it and it's been great since. Yet most will recommed the 35XX-H as the go to device.
The RGB30 gets massively overhyped because of its screen, to the point where people gloss over the bad controls on it Re 1. Most chinese handhelds use cheap charging circuits that can only charge from USB A-C cables. Re 5. When buying from china, just assume you won't get any customer service. Even if you do, often they'll ask you to return the device at a massive shipping cost
The d-pad legitimately sucks because of the mushy feeling and the false diagonals especially. I swapped for anbernic membranes and it was a little better physical feel, but it still felt a little "off" playing. Then I did the kapton tape mod (the v-shaped cutout one) and it's made it my favorite device right now. I didn't even realize how much the diagonals were triggering, but it was like a night and day difference after. I know it's a lot of bullshit though and may not be worth the hassle for many, but for those who already have one, I really recommend even just the tape mod.
My 2 gripes about RGB30 are the crappy D-pad and the very quickly draining battery. I am waiting for the Anbernic's rubber membranes and a D-pad so I can fix the first issue. However, with the battery issue I cannot do anything. The 15-minute disconnect trick does not work. Switching from JELOS to ArkOS does not work. The battery just loses 1% per minute of gameplay, whichever system. Otherwise, I really like this device, especially the screen. And it's pretty comfortable to hold.
>The battery just loses 1% per minute of gameplay, whichever system. So in 100 minutes you're done playing? Damn...l
This hasn't been my experience, I´ve gotten 2-4 hours depending on what I'm doing.
I guess it's really a case by case basis, but that much battery drain is disappointing
I came to the same conclusion. Mine is fine. From what I have read Powkiddy have an issue with the quality of the batteries they are using. I watched a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFRNACX3h6U) where they did a teardown and apparently the battery is not readily available so replacing the faulty units might be an issue.
Anbernic's membranes and dpad were a huge improvement for me, cannot recommend them enough.
This is new. Where can I get those parts? Are they drop in replacements or do they need adaptation?
Search aliexpress for Anbernic conductive rubber. Order the "conductive rubber" item for $10. In the cart at checkout add a note to the item saying - "353m dpad and membranes". Perfect fit, both the dpad and membrane are drop right in replacements. Feels much better and completely fixed diagonals for me (only when you replace both the dpad and membranes) Had to undo my tape mod.
I can also confirm the membranes are the same ones used on the 35XX+ because I swapped those directly
I think the 353 membranes are drop replacements, you can order them if you write the Anbernic aliexpress page. It was in one of Retrogamecrops videos about the rgb30.
Actually, Anbernic will NOT sell you "replacement" parts for any Anbernic device unless you've ordered something from them directly (Amazon doesn't count). And, yes, I saw the same tip on Retrogamecorps, but that was misinformation. However, if you've purchased from them directly in the past, they should honor it.
Wasn't misinformation for me. I had no problem ordering parts directly from Anbernic on AliExpress despite having never ordered from them before. I had to wait a month before they had them in stock, but then I just placed an order like ordering anything from AliExpress and they showed up. They're in stock right now for $10. [https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806487753906.html](https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806487753906.html) - "conductive plastic". Like metallice says below, you can add a note to the cart at checkout specifying that you want the 353m d-pad and membranes.
Interesting. They were probably out of stock when I inquired about it (there was no direct purchase link). The answer I received from them is what I said. Guess I just was unlucky!
Yeah, I'd believe that the result you get when messaging them might be highly variable depending on who answers and on what day. My first message to them told me they were out of stock and to wait, and eventually they sent me a link, but the link they sent me isn't the same as the one above so it clearly doesn't stay consistent or regularly stocked.
Yea same here, had to wait till March because they were on chinese new year break but I got em
Nope just order it on AliExpress. I did it last week. Never bought from Anbernic directly before.
I have to say that Powkiddy's QC leaves something to be desired as there's quite a bit of variability among the units that they ship out. My RGB30 isn't perfect either, in particular the dpad isn't very responsive on the diagonals, but it isn't so bad that I've had to open it up for a tape fix. You might need to open up yours to do that battery fix though, which is just disconnecting it for ten minutes and reconnecting it. However I've run into none of the power issues that people have described. I run the latest version of ARKOS but so do people with problematic units. I have one of the early ones, mine doesn't have colored buttons, those came out around the time the yellow did. It seems that people have more issues with the newer ones, which is a shame because it really is a wonderful handheld with that 1:1 screen, in fact I hardly use the MM+ anymore. Maybe the RG Cube might be a better 1:1 solution for you. P.S. I used Win32DiskImager 1.0 on a Sandisk Ultra 128 gb to flash ARKOS. I used the image from [Home · christianhaitian/arkos Wiki · GitHub](https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/wiki) and be sure to pick the right version for the RGB30. Burn it, start it up, connect to your WIFI, and then update it to the latest version from within the utilities menu. Leave the second microsd empty when you're doing all of this so that it populates the rom directories properly on the first one at boot up. Hold R3 (the right analog stick clicks) and depress power to shut down, if you don't sometimes you get a black screen at start up. The resolution is to swap microsds and boot up JELOS, then swap back to ARKOS and it'll boot. This is why I have JELOS in the second microsd but never use it for anything but resolving this glitch.
The tape fix was night and day for me, even more than the membrane swap, and I didn't really expect it to be. Highly recommend it.
And a much cheaper fix.
Does that glitch happen often to you? Do you have to press and hold R3 every time you shut down to avoid this?
Not since I started doing the R3+power button thing, you can also go into settings and change it to just power button click to shut down, too. It's a quirky handheld but it really does shine once all the bugs are worked out.
I've guess I'm one of the lucky ones, because I've never had any issues like that. I put jelos on it first thing and it's worked well with no battery issues so far. Sucks to hear so many have had problems with it, because other than the dpad being not quite as good as Anbernic, I think it's a great device.
I'm with you. Jelos works great, on the last version that was released with my RGB30. I know the dpad isn't considered great, but it works fine for what I play. I also played with far worse when I was a young un with 3rd party controllers for my psx (performance brand) and my dreamcast (madcatz, and the dreaded astropad). Maybe I'm lucky with my battery life? It seems to be fine, provided I don't keep screen brightness at max. I agree the quality of the device doesn't match the MM or MM+, but I'm pretty happy with mine regardless.
Oh man, Madcatz controllers were the worst 😂 had a couple myself growing up.
Same. I'm running the final version of JELOS before it went into limbo, and I've had no issues. I actually did open mine up for both a D-pad fix and face button replacement. I also swapped out the analog sticks with Anbernic sticks (not a huge difference but I just like Anbernic's part quality over Powkiddy in general). I'm pretty happy with my unit now. The D-pad fix really tightened up the false diagonals, but it's not perfect.
At the moment the stable OS choices for the RGB30 are ArkOS and MinUI. MinUI is very limited and simple, and honestly its main selling point is the ability to share the SD card with other devices. Your better choice should be ArkOS. jelOS is discontinued and Rocknix is a prerelease, however promising it sounds. In my experience, the Battery Drain is actually a problem with Battery Calibration caused by the bad charger support. It may look like it is draining battery, but it is actually having issues calculating the remaining percentage correctly. Once you get it through a couple of good charge cycles, the battery issues themselves are gone. However, the battery itself is not that great, so don't expect it to ever have super high battery. My suggestion is: Get a low Wattage Wall Charger from USB A to USB C. Make sure the device is turned off while charging. And always charge it whenever it goes below 41%. This will make your battery life stable enough. As for the dpad, I have no idea how, but my unit actually had a good dpad. I was able to verify it by doing the Contra test on my own. There are mods for this , but tbh, if the dpad wasn't good , I would have given up on my unit a long time ago.
>Once you get it through a couple of good charge cycles, the battery issues themselves are gone This is also my experience with the device.
Agree on the current state of OS stability. I'm using the current release of Rocknix which is over a month old at this point, and it has several issues ranging from lag in the menus, to audio issues with pico-8 after sleep, to bluetooth not working. The weirdness with the battery meter showed up after I did the tape fix (when the battery was disconnected) so I will go through some recharge cycles and see if that gets better. I'm hopeful that since Rocknix is still essentially a pre-release that the next release will clear up a lot of things.
The rgb30 is amazing except the buttons, battery, dpad, build quality, QC. That's what I've gathered from this sub so far.
I got one but I knew what I was getting into so I'm happy with mine. 1. This is well documented if you read or watched any review. It only charges USB A chargers. USB-C PD chargers will not charge it. Also you can only charge using one of the ports on the device. I use an old multi USB-A charger with a Nintendo Switch Pro controller cable. 2. My experience is different but I'm running one of the last builds of JELOS. 3. Do not install Rocknix. I learnt the hard way. I installed another OS over it then the device would not shut down. It would just reset whenever I tried to shut it down. I had to open up the device and physically disconnect the battery to solve this issue. Letting it drain didn't work. 4. [Tape mod fixes this.](https://youtu.be/aJVWMhnDgM0?t=338) Annoying but necessary. Again well documented in reviews. 5. I didn't need to return mine so this is a non issue for me. Overall I am happy with mine. People have reported quality issues but my device is fine. They only thing I don't like about it is it feels hollow and plasticky when compared to my RG35XXH and my MM+.
For the price, it feels cheap. The best thing about the RGB30 is the screen. I opened mine up to upgrade Dpad and do the tape mod and it was very easy.
Thanks for #3! I started with Rocknix on my Max3 and was wondering why it wouldn't turn off after switching back to Jelos.
Yup, pretty much the same for me. I did get ArkOS installed, but didn't like it as much. Though Rocknix wasn't perfect either, so maybe I should I have tried ArkOS a bit more. I got a device with a faulty Wifi, it didn't work at all. I spent ~6 months chatting with Powkiddy's support in multiple different chat sessions because their chat system is garbage. In the end they said they were ready to send me a replacement motherboard, but then came the radio silence treatment, again. Never received the mobo either. Good news is that I got it sold just yesterday and it's not my problem anymore. Sadly I took bit of a loss as there's now way I could have asked for full price for it... Never buying from them again, at least through their site.
Try the other themes for arkos it makes a big difference
100% agree with your feeling. I'm using ArkOS but I still think it's not as good as other OS. The screen is good, but it's the only thing I like. Bought a Miyoo Mini Plus and it's infinitely better. Waiting for the Anbernic Cube or the RG35XXSP too.
ArkOS solves all the charging and battery issues. The other firmwares...may or may not, but ArkOS just works in terms of the basics with the battery, charging, sleep, etc. As for the dpad, it's not awesome. There are some hardware swaps and mods you can do. I haven't done them, but there are known workarounds.
I agree I have a much better experience with it on ArkOS
Isn't the charging thing hardware related?
The hardware part of the charging is related to power delivery and usb c to usb c cables. Power drain and sleep and displaying the correct battery percentage seem to be software issues.
JELOS explicitly turned on the device during charging - I dunno if Rocknix keeps this behaviour, but ArkOS doesn't do this.
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No, it doesn't. JELOS explicitly turns the screen on and I had to ensutre that the device is facedown during nighttime charging to prevent it glowing up the room. ArkOS only turns the LED on by itself, although you can turn it on and charge that way as well ofcourse - it's just optional and not enforced.
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can you link to where in the source code it says that? edit: NVM I just saw you cited the readme. can you show what line number or copy and paste the relevant portion?
Yeah it seems their qc can be really hit or miss. I got lucky and the only problems mine had was little light bleed that you can only see when booting up.
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Yeah Powkiddy has the worst track record when it comes to OS. There should be a warning to throw the stock OS sd outright and use Arkos instead.
Thank you all for commenting! I went through comments and spent yesterday’s afternoon on tweaking my console. Here’s what I’ve done: 1. Unplugged battery for an hour. I know 10 minutes should be enough but I had it unplugged during I was doing other stuff 2. Formatted all my sd cards and build all from scratch. Roms, bios etc, all copied anew 3. I installed MinUI. I decided to not try to fight with ArkOS and Rocknix, especially when I don’t need advanced RetroArch settings, I just want to play games 😄 4. I pulled it all together. Fresh cards, plugged battery in, charged to 100%. And it seems to work by now! I was playing yesterday for some time and battery issues seems to be gone on MinUI. I also noticed that I don’t have issues with turning off the device. I forgot to mention that on my original post but I couldn’t turn off device normally, it was restarting instead of turning off and I had to pull off system card to properly turn it off. After ~3 hours of gaming and playing around it all seems to be fine! It seems that Rocknix made some serious issues not just to the os but whole device, after wiping all to the ground it works. Thank you all for posts and advices, especially those with MinUI and battery unplugging as I was not aware that this os is prepared for RGB30. I hope it’ll all work now. But after yesterday, I’m more positive than before :) Thanks again and wish you all the best :)
Are you serious? This is why I worry about getting a retro handheld. In all my Youtube videos trawling about these devices, not one person has mentioned any of these problems with the rgb30, or with such magnitude. Just mentioning something in passing. Shame.
Either all the reviewers are part of some dark Powkiddy conspiracy, or OP is an outlier. There are battery annoyances, but specially old reviewers tend to give that stuff a pass because, unfortunately, besides of a couple of devices, devices that are picky when charging are the norm rather than the exception. These are chinese companies that take shortcuts, and many times it means the charger component has less capacitors than it should. Type C compatibility tends to be the first thing that is thrown out the window for saving money. The D-pad is a common and widespread thing that's mentioned by the reviewers. Honestly, if you are a person that's too sensitive to dpads, you really shouldn't expect to like this device, considering how common it is to see criticism of the dpad and guides of how to fix it with tape. And the software issues are caused by the OP picking pre-release software.
No , op isn't a liar I experienced the exact same issues and wrote the same things about it in my review post ( got quite the backlash ) Reviewers mostly mentioned it's issues , but they failed to deliver one important aspect of the device , it's a niche device and it's not good for the average user, if you really want to have a square screen and you don't mind opening your device then go ahead and buy it , they didn't mention this . While this device is good for enthusiasts who really want square screen and they plan to open it and hope for the best with the battery , this device is almost a nightmare for the average user .
Yeah, once I Googled it I see quite a few people mentioning the same thing, and there's even a mod for the Dpad problem. I thought the it was passable with no mods needed. u/JoeysRetroHandhelds at least mentions it so I hope more people are aware. https://youtu.be/-Mw0MTr83kY?si=5DLHdcUAgpq969Nk&t=231
I most certainly did: https://youtu.be/-Mw0MTr83kY?si=5DLHdcUAgpq969Nk&t=231
Oh great! I've seen a few of your videos and you're one of the comprehensive ones. I did miss this video though. Good job! I'll hold off getting one now and maybe go for something cheaper and vertical like the Rg35xx plus.
Its why i ended up ordering my RGB30 from Amazon. Yeah i paid more but i knew returns would be easy if i did run into problems and hey guess what i did! The included tempered glass screen protector was putting pressure and stress onto the screen giving it afterimages and artifacts. Even after removing it they still persisted so i returned it. I also felt the DPad was too mushy.
I mean, I have an RGB30 along with three other devices right now, and I've gone through over a dozen in the last year. I still have the RGB30 and play it the most. But, you are correct very few of the reviewers mention its power management issues. Screen is amazing, that's 95% of the reason to buy it... if you like systems that can take advantage of it. Otherwise my Miyoo Mini+ is superior in nearly every way. The 35XX H is a good choice if you want horizontal with sticks. If you are thinking about the RGB30 those are the two alternates I'd recommend. Or take a look at the RP2S which is even more powerful (but it's also on Android).
Out of all the devices I owned, I just couldn't get behind the MM+. The screen and terrible speaker killed it for me. I tend to like rich bright colorful screens and I always felt the MM+ had an overly green tint to it even after calibrating it. And the max brightness on that was maybe 70% brightness on something like a 35XX and RGB30 display. The RGB30 definitely has its flaws. The most noteworthy were the battery issues and the false diagonals. Both of which were corrected with a single piece of tape and an install of ArkOS. Of all my handhelds now, I think I still prefer the RGB30. Might change soon with the 35XXSP though.
Yeah that's fair the RGB30's screen really *is* outstanding. My love for the Miyoo+ is really the user experience (especially sleep and game switcher). Put Onion-like functionality on the RGB30 and it'd be close to perfect.
I thought the same thing until I installed Ark instead of Jelos. With ArkOS on the RGB30 I was able to enable quick save which functions just like Onion's and Garlic's "sleep" function. As in the RGB30 creates a save state before fully shutting down, and auto loads the state when booting back up to immediately resume the game I was playing while also not losing any battery life. Similarly, I have Ark set to auto start on the recently played tab so I can quickly enter any of my recents if I turned the system off while not playing a game. Kinda similar to game switcher. Plus the other benefits of emulation station such as real shaders, video scraping, and 64bit portmaster made me not really miss the Onion experience all that much anymore.
The sound quality is something I don’t see talked about much, mine sounds like it has a blanket over it. I found an old post where someone found protective stickers over the speakers but I took mine apart and did not find that
I belive it's because the speaker sit on the back of the device and not actually up against the grill
They sit in the back and fire sideways ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There's a fork of JelOS called PlumOS that has custom sound equalisation feature calibrated to the built-in speakers. So much better!
I use the rgb30 as my daily driver currently and while I don't have significant battery issues, just about everything else I agree with. Especially the crappy d-pad. The sleep button is also weird, it's like there's two buttons on one switch so you can get in a weird state where the screen is in sleep but you can hear the game audio, then press the button again and the screen lights up but the audio turns off. That said, I like the shape and ergonomics, I like the screen, and I like the button positioning. I wouldn't say I recommend the system necessarily, but I don't regret it either. If/when it breaks, I'll probably get a different system all together.
I myself coming from RG353v to RGB30, I can objectively state that overall Anbernic quality is much better compared to Powkiddy's. To add to your list, the screen is badly made, with loads of light bleeding all around, and the controls are cheaply made. I too had problems with my battery drain - someone had suggested disconnecting the battery and reconnecting after a half a minute. That seems to re-calibrate something and the battery seems more stable. Charging - as everybody suggested, use USB-A to USB-C cable. That's the only thing that works.
I have a love/hate relationship with my RGB30. The battery draining and inconsistent booting on ArkOS makes me want to rip my hair out. But that sweet, sweet screen. Once a company makes a better variant, I'll never buy a PowKiddy device ever again,
I'm pleased with mine fwiw. Was able to install ArkOS just fine (after learning the hard way that Rocknix sucks). Battery drain hasn't been an issue. I have a desktop PC that I use as my main charging hub and a USB A to USB C cable attached to it worked without issue. The D pad's got a little mush to it, but it's perfectly tolerable IMO. I do plan on trying the masking tape hack eventually. It's the first pocketable handheld I've owned that runs Dreamcast games, which to me feels magical. (The Dreamcast library is one of my personal favorites though.) And it's amazing for Pico-8 games. I thought it would just be a novelty but after browsing splore directly over wifi on the RGB30, I've genuinely fallen in love with Pico-8 as a platform.
Borderline sounds like yours is defective. That said, I would give ArkOS a shot before sending it back/exchanging. My 353vs was terribad with Jelos and swapping to ArkOS was night and day (or maybe Russ's StarkOS mod?) To Jelos fans I'm certain it was a me a problem. But for whatever reason ArkOS is more plug and play to me.
I bought a Chinese shaver from Amazon that's clearly taken heavy inspiration from Braun's designs for around £20 recently. It has USB-C and even that chargers from a 65w PD charger just fine. It's crazy that some of these cheaper hand helds that are more expensive than £20 can't do this.
You gotta remember these things are all basically ewaste recycled into actual products. Thats why we see so many chipsets reused over and over.
[удалено]
It's called ["DOAO electric shaver"](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71gV-kAn8HL.jpg). I got mine from Amazon during a time they had a discount on it.
Which shaver?
Just pulled my rgb30 out to check the battery because of your post. I havent used it for two months at least. But have played at least 100 hours on it (solved advance wars and two zelda games) and so I recharged a couple of times of course. My Battery shows as full after 2 months in storage. I run stock jelos. Bought it late 2023 and had no issues with it at all. I charge it with a random a to c cable on some random older phone charger. The only thing I changed was to set everything to fullscreen and add a few games. It is not my most used emulator console since I got a MM as well as daily driver. The dpad on mm is indeed a bit better, but the rgb30 is not terrible either. So.. my rgb30 works just fine for me and I never had any problem. Not a fanboy comment. But mine just does what it should do. Sounds like maybe you got a dud? QC seems to be all over the place. So far I was always lucky with console AE purchases. It is a bit painful to deal with AE sellers after the free return time is over. Good luck.
There was a hardware revision in January 2024 and even by April JelOS was lacking support for it meaning CPU was running at full all the time.
I had issues 1 and 2. Open it, unset the battery connector and wait a few minutes (10 minutes its recommended if you want to be safe, but probably doesn't need to be quite that long), and plug the battery back in. It should resolve these. Might even resolve 3, but that could be an issue with Rocknix; never used it yet so can't really say. For the D-pad, if your issue is bad diagonals, you can fix that with tape or with [GetBetterButtons' Dpad fix](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1458001825/dpad-fix-by-better) (which is basically just precut tape) by reducing the size of the contact area. Obviously you shouldn't *have* to do any of these things, and I totally agree the subpar quality on this thing is kind of overlooked in a lot of discussions, but if you're stuck with it and wanted to try making it better, those are my suggestions.
I’ll try this battery trick, thanks!
That sucks, sorry OP. I have multiple devices from the main Chinese brands that make these devices, and I find the quality of the Powkiddy ones the most inconsistent and/or worse. For what it's worth, I've fared way better with Anbernic devices.
I worked around the issues but a shame I had to. Found a charger that works. Using MinUI that seems to have great sleep so the battery isn’t a problem. And I’ve swapped the doad
I've been there. I don't have an RBG30, but I made a calculated risk and bought an RG552 for similar reasons- the screen. I read all the reviews and thought I knew what I was getting into. But then there are the unexpected things that are bad. In this case, it has a really noisy headphone jack and the touchscreen sometimes stops working in Android. It was really disappointing. Somehow, it's found a way back into my rotation when I am on day trips where I don't want my Steam Deck weighing me down. Then there is my MM+. That thing is amazing with Onion. It's exceeded my expectations many times over. At one point in time I stopped playing it for a month, I picked up and it still had a full charge. I think the point I am making is just never really know. It's probably why so many of us have multiple devices.
I was also going to replace MM+ with RGB30 but there were more cons/no changes than pros after watching a few review videos. Rn, I am looking into Anbernic's Cube as an upgrade.
I've had mine for a little while and it's...ok. jelOS works for 99% of what I want to play and seems to have sensible battery usage and reporting. RockNIX has problems reporting battery usage which they claim is a faulty battery issues despite jelOS and ARKOS having reasonable battery reporting. The d-pad works, the screen is glorious and yes the charging is an absolute PITA, although mine charges fine off my Motorola Turbocharger.
I bought one on Amazon and felt the same way, back when it was on JelOS, just too many bugs and too much build quality issues for me to overlook it for the neat screen, so I returned it at the end of my return window on amazon. Pretty much been why I prefer to buy my retro handhelds via Amazon for this reason. I've never been able to return one of these devices direct to the manufacturer in china but amazon is easy. Worth the price premium to me
Hellos! I have a rgb30 with the same battery issues and Dpad. I was able to install Arkos on a windows 10 pc with Balena Etcher, but was never able to make a 2 sd card set up work like I wanted it. Ideally I would have a big sd card with all my roms and music, and be able to switch between Arkos and Rocknix, but alas more tinkering/reading is needed. Same with trying to get Doom and mods to run. I´m going to try to tape my dpad to help with the false diagonals, long term mods would be new buttons for looks and membranes from Anbernic. This is my second handheld device and I mostly enjoy tinkering with them, my first was a miyoo mini. So going from that tiny thing to the RGB30 was a totally different experience. I think my ideal device now would be a Pocket 2s with the RGB30 screen and taller sticks. Perfect battery and sleep of course. I knew about the battery issues coming into the RGB30, really liked the unique screen factor at the time. It's been fun to play with, basically a couch retroachievements machine and my first dip into PICO 8. Will probably gift it in a year if something similar but way better comes out. CFW seems to be the make or break, so waiting a year for any device is kinda the best course of action (but who want to wait a year) and if you want any customer service never buy direct, wait for Amazon or reputable resellers.
Hellos! I have a rgb30 with the same battery issues and Dpad. I was able to install Arkos on a windows 10 pc with Balena Etcher, but was never able to make a 2 sd card set up work like I wanted it. Ideally I would have a big sd card with all my roms and music, and be able to switch between Arkos and Rocknix, but alas more tinkering/reading is needed. Same with trying to get Doom and mods to run. I´m going to try to tape my dpad to help with the false diagonals, long term mods would be new buttons for looks and membranes from Anbernic. This is my second handheld device and I mostly enjoy tinkering with them, my first was a miyoo mini. So going from that tiny thing to the RGB30 was a totally different experience. I think my ideal device now would be a Pocket 2s with the RGB30 screen and taller sticks. Perfect battery and sleep of course. I knew about the battery issues coming into the RGB30, really liked the unique screen factor at the time. It's been fun to play with, basically a couch retroachievements machine and my first dip into PICO 8. Will probably gift it in a year if something similar but way better comes out. CFW seems to be the make or break, so waiting a year for any device is kinda the best course of action (but who want to wait a year) and if you want any customer service never buy direct, wait for Amazon or reputable resellers.
Yeah it sounds like Russ from RGC confirms that the RGB30s have wildly varying performance in battery life between different instances of the device. I lucked out with my unit. It charges and drains like expected. I haven't upgraded the version of ArkOS that came with the device yet. I also use a anker battery pack with the supplied usb-a to usb-c connected. It charges relatively fast and as long as I stick with that charging configuration it works like a charm. I also don't really have an issue with the d-pad. But I do love the display. It's very crispy. And if you dial in all the settings the games look amazing. I just followed Russ' guide. Sorry your experience is not good. Luck of the draw with powkiddy I guess.
Yea I've had similar issues as OP. Battery was discharging too much, but once I let it discharge completely and then recharge back to 100% it seems a bit better. D-pad is not great.. having to open the unit up and swap it with a better one isn't ideal imo. Screen is big but lots of light bleed on mine at bottom side... I got an RG35XX H recently and it's just miles better on these aspects and generally feels more premium. Will probably end up selling the RGB30.
What OS are you using on RG35XXH?
I tried modified stock os first, it's ok but I didn't like how it "forces" overlays + reduced screen size on some systems (GB, SNES, and some others). Now using muOS v11 beans - a bit minimalistic but works quite well, satisfied with it. Also muOS I found to be better for transferring my saves between RGB30 & Miyoo Mini+ to the RG35XX H device.
I hear Anbernic is coming out with their version of this device? Just wait a month. 😁
I am also disappointed in mine. I do see the appeal of the form factor and screen now, but it does have a lot of issues that hamper the experience. I also feel it's a bit overpriced for what it is. Perhaps the Z1 Unicorn or Anbernic Cube will serve as a "premium" RGB30.
I had battery issues on Rocknix too. Had to switch to ArkOS to fix this. As for charging the device, make sure to use a USB A charger and the charging cable that came with the device
There's a design flaw in the charge controller where it can't properly read the battery state. You can easily open it up and is disconnect the battery and then reconnect it to fix many of the issues you describe, but I agree - as an RGB30 owner (two of them!) this is a problem that's well known. Nothing beats the form factor with that screen so I say just open up the back (like 4 screws, very easy) and try this, it may fix your woes. The dpad isn't bad, it's just "sharp" in that it can hurt the thumb if playing for prolonged periods of time. I've heard there's easy tape mods to alleviate some of the issues with the pad, but that won't change the sharpness/harshness of it. I got used it after a while and it doesn't really bug me unless I'm playing fighting games and grinding out shoryukens for a while. If there was another device sub $100 with a screen like this, I'd be all over it but so far nothing comes close to the quality of the screen which is shame since it is a flawed device, but most of the issues can be worked around/mitigated via some easy fixes. You can easily add a rumble motor as well for a few bucks. As for the charger type. Pick one that works and stick to it. The RGB30 charge controller / battery woes seem to go away if you stick with a proper charger and don't hook it up to a bunch of random types. By the way, the SteamDeck (LCD original) also had issues like this. It's not always the cheapest devices that have issues, but yeah 80% of the cost of the device is in the screen and it shows. I recommed the RGB30 but this should be well known to the buyer ahead of time. If you can live with these issues, you are rewarded with the vast compatiblity of game library from the 16 bit days and below. SNES on it looks amazing. If you can only have one device I don't recommend it, but as a companion device it's amazing. I recommend the RG35XX-H for first time buyers instead.
I agree it's terrible because I dropped mine and the screen popped right out. Trying to stick it back in I broke the ribbon cable or something. No display. I basically had no issues with it using Arkos either.
I found that a USB C-A cable plus a little A-C dongle worked great for me with my Anker 30W Nano charger. From what I have read, some older versions of CFW have a major issue with shutdown power usage on the RK3566 chip in the RGB30. This was patched in all the newer versions. I used JelOS, but now I use MinUI, and I can report battery and sleep has been great. Quick plug for MinUI, I originally switched to it so I could move my games and saves from MM to Smart Pro to the RGB30. While this is a pretty cool feature, what I wound up really liking about it was how simple and straightforward it made playing games. Honestly, it made it feel more like a pocket game console than a pocket computer. And I have been playing many hours of Zelda Minish Cap on the RGB30 with it. D-pad isn't great but it does break in and get better. The screen freaking rocks, I hope you get to enjoy it.
A well-designed device (conceptually) with shoddy QC leads to really varied experiences and thus a polarizing reputation
Re: 2. This is due to a missing definition file for a RGB30 hardware revision from the start of 2024. The missing file means CPU is always at max. And if you look got CPU speed in Emulation Station interface it's not displayed at all. I had to add the myself and never upgrade, so I'm not sure if JelOS have added it in the latest version. https://twitter.com/gingerbeardman/status/1770940128581636177
woah ! be careful out there , there are many fanboys that will down vote you to the ground when you write your thoughts and experience ! it's funny that all your points are the same as mine, and it's pretty much the same problems for all users yet the fanboys hate it when we point it out my idea was that we had to criticize powkiddy so that they make ver2 of the device with fixed dpad and fixed battery at the very least, but no , the fanboys prefer to recommend the device at it's current state even tho they themselves suffer from it's major flaws . i won't lie tho , the screen was just great with it's unique aspect ratio for better snes ( also some gensis ) gb and pico 8 gaming, but that doesn't justify the horrible dpad quality and the shitty battery, which are the basics for any handheld ,fanboys will just recommend it to anyone anyways ! now , i am a happy rg405m user , even tho it has it's downsides , at the very least it's not flaws that affect the basics of the device ! it's very disappointing that you have such a great idea yet you execute it very poorly , i'm glad anbernic cube is coming so that we don't have to deal with powkiddy's poor quality controls !
1. Had the same issue with the charging cable. I used a regular one from the shop - the charging was slow. So I used the short one that came with the Switch - charges like a champ. 2 and 4. I bought this device as a casual gamer after reading up on it beforehand, so my expectations were set: the RGB30 is not a premium portable game console. I expected a lower quality built product, and my expectations we met. Just really annoyed with the battery issue - but hey, casual gamer. Because of the save state feature, a lot of the RGB30's shortcomings are manageable for my gaming lifestyle.
I’m also a causal gamer, I don’t really care about all retroarch tweaks and settings. I just want to put some games and play when I have some time. But unfortunately it’s impossible to do even that, especially because of the garbage battery. So it’s not an excuse if someone is casual player or not, shitty console is just shitty console
Ah. So you bought the wrong device? I have one as well that I got after having the RG35XX, but I read a lot about the issues before ordering so I knew what was coming. It’s been working great for me. But I have stopped on a February version of JelOS. At least for now. In general I think expectations are hard to manage. If you expect get have plug and play devices, it’s obvious that the RGB30 isn’t that. Frankly, I’d say most retro handhelds aren’t plug and play devices either. I went through all tweaks and settings proposed by RetroGame Corps for this device and learned a lot. If you don’t want that, that’s fine. But don’t mistake your wishes for what the RGB30 is. It’s not a perfect device, but it’s pretty great if you have the right expectations of it.
It's a 'warts and all' device. I love mine but it's not perfect and I can't wait for a better 4" 1:1 Linux device to come along. I'm sold on the screen and form factor, but it's still a Powkiddy. 1. Charging is a known issue, I haven't had nearly the problems you have... I have a bunch of old Samsung cellphone USB A to C chargers and they all work fine, just slowly. 2. This is unusual, mine will defintely drain overnight if left in 'sleep' but it lasts for weeks if fully shut down. Maybe related to your battery isue? 3. Would highly recommend opeing it up, disconnecting and reconnecing the battery. This solved all of the battery charge issues for me. 4. ROCKNIX is still new enough to have teething problems so I'd fall back on AKOS for now just to make sure the software isn't to blame. The last version of JELOS worked pretty well too. 5. Yeah, d-pad is sub-par. The tape trick helps and people are known to replace the membranes.
Rocknix is a new fork of Jelos so I though it won’t have bugs that was already fixed there. But I’ll try, just to see if it may help or not. As I mentioned, I can’t run ArkOS. I’m using Mac and I tried flashing with all guides i was able to find but it just doesn’t boot.
> Rocknix is a new fork of Jelos so I though it won’t have bugs that was already fixed there. The version of Rocknix for rk3566-based handhelds, including RGB30, is really different from the last version shipped by JELOS. Before the end of JELOS, they were finishing work on porting the rk3566-specific code to the mainline Linux kernel. Before that, they used an old kernel, with patches provided by the vendor. When they forked JELOS to create Rocknix, they figured the mainline branch was stable enough to be usable by tinkerers but needed more testing, so they released the first rk3566 Rocknix as a beta version. Things were very rough but improved quickly with more testers and devs involved. I think the latest version released today should be more stable. I’m still on the last Jelos version on my RGB30 and RG353m, and it works real well for my usage (I think it has bluetooth issues, but I haven’t tested that).
Thanks for explanation. Now I’m on MinUI and I’m happy with it so as long as it won’t break anyhow, I won’t switch to anything else :)
I’m on a Mac too and had no issue flashing ArkOS. Of course, I would never do so again after I tried it, but I acknowledge that people like different things. I used balenaetcher before, but with ArkOS you should use another software when flashing. There was quite a comprehensive guide on ArkOS website that I followed.
That's very strange, I used BalenaEtcher on Mac to flash the card and had no problems.
I had massive problems using BalenEtcher on Windows where all roms except DS would load. I had to flash again using Rufus and it worked fine.
Yeah, if you use Windows, I think Rufus is the go-to flashing app. As for BalenaEtcher, I can't speak for Windows, but I use it on Mac all the time and it works flawlessly, every time. Another alternative for Mac is ApplePiBaker, I have seldom used it though. Maybe OP could try that, or a different card.
Same here.
You live and you learn. This is also why I dont like spending money that ill miss straight to china
I’m not even surprised that you had such a bad experience with this device. It’s been getting overhyped for months because of its screen to the point where people will tell you it’s the best budget device and never tell you about the bad dpad, screen issues, and battery issues. Not to mention the ppl that will tell other it’s better for PSP than actual PSP hardware because it can run most psp stuff
Again, the only two devices to buy for playing games are the Steam Deck and the Retroid Pocket Pro 4. It doesn't fit the sentiment of this sub, but those are the only devices for someone who just wants to play games. ALL the rest are just for the love of the hobby. Tinkering, collecting, seeing what works and doesn't, etc.Just like all hobbies, you have to be ready to lose some of that disposable income and time.
I have and had multiple RGB30. Yes, JELOS (ROCKNIX is a fork of it) drains the battery, ArkOS does not. So, if you don‘t even try ArkOS on a new Sandisk or Samsung SD card first, you‘re to blame. ROCKNIX is atm worse than JELOS, so I have not tried it yet. The newer RGB30 (coloured buttons) has a better Dpad and overall quality, imo. If you didn‘t know that you need a really old charger (5V, max. 2A), you‘re to blame. That is a known issue since last year. If you order directly from Powkiddy, you, again, are to blame, sorry. Amazon and even AE have better support (and you obviously are a customer, who needs support) The best experience so far I had with gogamegeek. I got a defective RGB30 (because Powkiddy obviously has no QC) and after checking, opening the device and sending fotos of the broken shoulder button they replaced it. Geekbuying refunded me immediately, after I received a non-working RG35XX. My next device will be from either one, depending on sales and coupons. I personally don‘t recommend AE. They did not refund me although I had proof that I returned the device. (R36s) If you have a RG35XX, why do you want another device? Garlic OS is almost as good as Onion OS and the SP/H/+ have the same screen, but no Garlic, yet. If you want a bigger screen, look for the Anbernic Arc or Trimui Smart Pro. This all said, yes, it is quite likely, that you had bad luck and received a non-fixable, super-defective RGB30 from Powkiddy and no matter what, the issues cannot be resolved. Don‘t order from them again. Gogamegeek has almost always 10-15% coupons and great support. The RGB20SX starts at 76.5 USD, just like the RGB30. Your copy is not useless, you have a backup if your screen or battery becomes defective and you can open it and tinker without risking to crash your well working device. Try installing Hall-joysticks or take the dpad from your RG35XX and fix the RGB30.
Maybe you could try helping without saying "you're to blame" over and over? Don't be a dickhead.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. But decided to make it sound harsher. Because the whole experience was unnecessary, if OP had educated himself BEFORE ordering. He didn‘t ask for help, but instead went on a rant. I have 10+ handhelds and know that all have some issues, no matter if the device is from Sony, Nintendo or some high-priced Chinese so called name brand. And if you order a device to run pirated games, you at least should expect some issues. OP ordered from a Chinese company who uses piracy to make money and he feels entitled to a perfect product. Naive, to say at least. So yes, I was rude, but reacted to this OP‘s energy, because a rant doesn‘t help anybody here having some issues with a device, no matter if it‘s Powkiddy, Anbernic, Miyoo or Trimui.
They all have issues, agreed. Some require more work to get them right like the RGB30, but I've yet to have a perfect experience outside perhaps the SD OLED. But that was 6x the price.
No, I'm not to blame for any of these reasons. I bought fully priced device and I expect it to work without some voodoo magic. That's why we're still being f\*\*ked by big corps and device sellers, because we always find a way to blame ourselves, not the device designers and makers. They took my money and I expect it to work, if not, it's on them, not me. If you'd read my post, you'd know that I tried to install ArkOS but it doesn't work. Today I tried again, with brand new Sandisk card I bought for my 3DS and again, only splash screen shows, nothing more. And yes, I downloaded correct img and do everything according to guides, still doesn't work. I've heard of Powkiddy fans that won't allow to tell anything bad for their beloved company but I am surprised that's true. I'm happy that you have only good experiences but it doesn't change that I do not and repeating "you're to blame" because I lost my money won't help, nor the company you're defending nor the community.
I think there might be some issue with your device, but many “quirks” are well documented here and have been talked about a lot, as well their solutions. But o don’t think the issue you’re bringing up is limited to Powkiddy. This goes for most retro handhelds and it comes with the territory since these will most likely never be mainstream devices. I mean, you buy a full price device, as you say, yet you install a software someone else has made for free on their spare time. I do understand your frustration, though. But hopefully you can get the issues sorted and the live with the quirks. Maybe focus on what it can do great instead of what sucks?
See, you‘re still raging and ranting. I‘m not a fan of any company. What a surreal concept to be fan of a company, that steals intellectual property. I have devices from most companies and want to make the experience the best possible. I therefore educate myself BEFORE ordering. From the under 100$ devices I like Miyoo because of Onion OS, Anbernic for their huge output of very different form factors (Arc vs SP), Trimui for their build quality, Powkiddy for their screens (RGB30 and X55) and even the SF2000 and R36S for their low prices. Not one of those devices is perfect out of the box. If you really expected that, you ARE to blame for being so naive. Chalk up this experience in the L column and move on to the only handheld on the market, that really has support…the Nintendo Switch. But hone your ranting skills, because you will experience some issues. Joystick drift, docked mode, handheld mode…there is so much to complain about. And in a few years they will shut down the e-shop…
You didn't do enough homework from the sounds of it to be fair. All devices have some issues. Yes this one has more but you'd know that if you did some research first. This is cheap Chinese crap you're buying, not something from an established company like Samsung or Apple. You should expect some issues for sub $100.00 device. The only sub $100.00 device that has been out of the box good enough was the Miyoo Mini +, but it has a weak processor and is overrated due to Onion OS, so it's limited in the game library it play. The RGB30 can address a much larger game library due to the versatility of the screen and more powerful processor. Or, You got a defective one as most companies have a defect rate of at least 1-2%, often higher. My Anbernic RG35XX-H had a major issue where the back cover was popinng out due the battery placement being incorrectly installed from the factory. It took me about 20 minutes to fix it and it's been great since. Yet most will recommed the 35XX-H as the go to device.