R36S Review: An Amazing Budget Retro Gaming Handheld

The R36S is a pocketable, budget gaming handheld that emulates gaming systems all the way up to Playstation 1, Dreamcast, and some N64. It is one of the most budget-friendly handhelds that packs this much power, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a way to enjoy their retro games on the go.

This is where the R36S shines. I bought my first R36S for $23, which included shipping, from AliExpress. Compared to other gaming handhelds, like the ANBERNIC RG35XX, the price seemed incredibly cheap – nearly half of what other consoles in this category go for. It took about 10 days to get to my doorstep after I placed my order, which is faster than I usually expect from AliExpress.

After I received the R36s and played it a while, I realized that I’d prefer the white one that looks more like an old school GameBoy. So I watched for a sale and bought the white version for $30. Actually, I bought 4 of them because I wanted to give some away as gifts.

The price of the device varies depending on the color, but even more on what size microSD card you get with it. DO NOT BUY A 128 GB VARIANT! The 64 GB version has all of the games you could probably ask for, and as I will note later, the microSD cards that come with the system are garbage and you will be immediately replacing them anyway.

Not Tariff-ic

A big caveat on the price is that I got my devices before tariffs hit Chinese goods in the US. As of this writing, these devices are getting hit with a large tariff in the US, bringing their total cost over $50.

The 64GB variant of the R36S comes with games for nearly every retro system up to the PS1/N64/Dreamcast. This includes:

• NES
• Famicon
• SNES
• Super Famicon
• GameBoy
• GameBoy Color
• GameBoy Advance
• Sega MegaDrive
• Sega Genesis
• NeoGeo
• MAME2003
• N64
• Nintendo DS
• PCEngine
• PSP
• Playstation 1

The game libraries for each system don’t appear to be complete, especially anything after the 16-bit generation of consoles. I noticed that many MAME classics were not included, so I ended up wiping that entire directory and starting from scratch. I also removed the Famicon and Super Famicon ROMs and just stuck with the NES and SNES versions of the games to make things less cluttered.

No Atari 2600 games were included, which I found a bit odd. The directory is there to add your own though.

Also, there are a large number of Chinese hacked games on the console. I ended up purging most of the card and putting on my own games. Luckily, I was able to move over my .sav and .state files to bring over saved states to the R36S and pick up where I left off on them.

One nice surprise I found was that the R36S can play MS-DOS games that don’t require typing. I threw Hocus Pocus on, and it worked right off the bat. Same for Raptor: Call of the Shadows.

The R36S plays everything up and through the 16-bit systems incredibly well. I’ve experienced no slow down with any of those systems. It’s once you get into the 32-bit and above consoles that games are hit and miss.

Playstation 1 games, for the most part, play really well on the device. I have had no issues with any games that I’ve played for the system so far. I’m about 1/4 of the way through Final Fantasy VII on it, and even a demanding game like that performs really well.

Dreamcast games also perform surprisingly well. Some more intensive games have some slowdown, but everything I’ve tried so far has been playable. I was surprised that Virtua Fighter 3 actually worked (again, with some slowdown), and Crazy Taxi 1 and 2 both work well too. It’s not going to be a perfect gaming experience with Dreamcast, but I was still shocked that the R36S emulated Dreamcast so well.

PSP games are very hit and miss. There is a running list of the PSP games that work on the R36S along with the settings they need.

N64 games are also hit and miss. Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 both work great, but more than half of the games for the console either don’t work well or completely don’t run. Like the PSP, there is a list of N64 games that work on the R36S.

Sega Saturn is basically a no-show on the platform. Saturn emulation is still incredibly difficult, especially on budget devices, and I’d say that if you’re looking for something to run your Saturn library that you should invest in a higher performance device. I was able to get Clockwork Knight working, but Nights into Dreams, Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona USA and Sega Rally were all unplayable when I tried them.

The R36S has two microSD slots. The one on the right is needed to house your operating system and nearly any microSD card will work in that slot. I am running a 128 GB PNY Elite card in that slot, which includes the OS and all of my games. But if you wanted to keep your OS separate from your games, you can load a second microSD expansion slot on the left side of the R36S, allowing you to keep your OS completely separate from your ROMs. Some people may find that very helpful if they want different ROM sets saved on separate drives.

I love the idea of this, but all of the ROMs I want easily fit on a 128 GB card, so I only use the main slot. Also, the expansion slot is VERY finicky on which microSD cards it’s compatible with. You can find a list of the R36S compatible microSD cards here. The main slot is compatible with most microSD cards.

Every forum or discussion about the R36S makes the same first recommendation: Ditch the SD card that comes with the system and get yourself a name brand card. The microSD cards that come with the system are notorious for crapping out after only a few days or weeks. Your best bet is to get yourself a name brand microSD card and make a clone of the microSD that came with the R36S.

If you buy your R36S from a reputable seller, it should already have the latest version of ArkOS on it. You can make a clone of the card using a tool like balenaEtcher, and then adjust the games on it to play what you want.

The R36S comes pre-loaded with ArkOS running Emulation Station as the front end. I love Emulation Station, as it’s incredibly intuitive. There are also a number of themes included by default, so you can customize your experience.

If you’re adventurous, you can always flash your own software onto the microSD. That’s one of the great things about the R36S – the entire Linux-based OS is on the microSD card, so you can play around with different operating systems and configurations.

The R36S has a 3.5″ IPS screen at 640×480 resolution. For retro gaming, this resolution is just fine. Newer games won’t be upscaled because the hardware on the device can just barely handle PS1, N64 and Dreamcast games, but older titles look great on it. The screen is also incredibly bright, and I can easily play games even in bright sunlight (I would actually recommend turning the brightness WAY down when playing indoors to conserve battery life.)

This is one place that really shocked me. I figured the screen would look pretty cheap and have some major issues. But it’s a surprisingly high quality screen for this price point.

The controls for the R36S are…fine. Everything responds well and there’s very little input lag. The face buttons are snappy and have good travel. The D-pad is also sufficient and I find that I’ve very rarely blaming the D-pad for mistaken inputs. If you’re using the system for most retro games that just use the face buttons and D-pad, you’re going to have a good time.

The analog sticks are…not great. They are not force sensitive and basically act exactly like the D-pad in terms of being all or nothing for directions. This is really annoying for driving games where you’d want some finesse around corners. Instead, you have to to the quick taps to one side to get a slight turn instead of just slightly moving the analog stick.

The trigger buttons are also okay, but they are pretty loud compared to the other buttons. They click when pressed, which makes it a bit annoying for people around you if you’re playing in a waiting room or a quieter environment. You can open up the back of the R36S and add some padding to quiet this down, but that shouldn’t be something we have to do. The Select and Start buttons have the same annoying click to them.

I’m a big guy (6′ 4″) and I have big hands. The vertical form factor of the R36S is fine for me, but my hands definitely feel cramped with it, and I cannot play it for very long stretches of time.

It’s kind of annoying to play games that require the shoulder buttons because my hands wrap entirely around the back of the device and don’t sit nicely where the buttons are. Also, because the shoulder buttons are beside each other and not mounted vertically, it makes it hard to switch from R1 to R2 or L1 to L2 quickly because your fingers have to move side to side instead of up and down like on a regular controller.

But the controls on the front of the device feel good and the layout of having the D-pad above the analog stick is great for retro games because your thumb naturally sits up higher on the device.

Like any populate device that is drop shipped from China, there are a number of nefarious sellers out there who are selling clones of the R36S. The good folks over on the /R36S sub-reddit have done their due-dilligence to identify the best sellers to buy from. I bought all of mine from the BOYHOM store on AliExpress and all seem to be legit R36S handhelds.

If you’re looking for something to play the classics and a few PS1 and Dreamcast games while on a budget, it’s hard to go wrong with the R36S. I love playing NES, SNES and Genesis titles on it, and that’s where it really shines with nearly flawless gameplay.

If your system of choice is PS1 and above, you may want to go for a more powerful device, because even though you can run many PS1 and Dreamcast games on the R36S, your experience probably won’t be flawless. Those games also upscale really well on more powerful devices, and honestly, you’d probably want a bigger screen for them.

But if you want to relive memories of the 16-bit era and prior, it’s really hard to pass on the R36S as a budget-friendly portable device.

Pros

• Budget-friendly price
• Front-facing buttons and D-pad are solid
• 3.5″ IPS screen is great at this price point
• Emulation up until PS1 is really great
• Emulation Station and ArkOS are intuitive and look great
• Comes pre-loaded with a ton of games…but also lots of junk
• Dual micro-SD slots double your storage

Cons

• Cannot handle much 3D rendering in later retro games
• Micro-SD card that comes with it needs to be replaced immediately, adding a little to the cost
• Analog sticks are not great
• Triggers and Select/Start buttons are very loud and clicky
• Form factor may be too tight for larger hands
• Pre-loaded games have a lot of junk titles