Retroverse Pro 2.0

About this device

The Retroverse Pro 2.0 is a rebranded R36S sold at two to four times its usual price through social media ads. The RK3326 hardware is fine for 8 bit through PS1, but the N64, PSP, and Dreamcast claims are overstated.

The Retroverse Pro 2.0 is a rebranded R36S. That is not our inference. The Retroverse store's own product page titles the device an "R36S Retro Handheld Console." The hardware underneath is a well documented budget handheld that normally sells for around $35, and it is genuinely decent at what it does: the RK3326 with its Mali-G31 GPU handles 8 bit, 16 bit, the Game Boy lines, and most of PS1 on a nice 3.5 inch 640x480 IPS panel. The problem is the business model. It is bought in bulk, wrapped in social media advertising, and resold at $79 to $149. The marketing also overstates the hardware badly, listing N64, DS, PSP, Dreamcast, and NAOMI as supported when most of those libraries run poorly or not at all on this chip. There is no Wi-Fi, so no RetroAchievements and no netplay, and a drop-ship storefront offers none of the support, parts, or firmware community a real manufacturer does. Buy a standard R36S at its honest price, or an Anbernic RG35XX H for about $58.