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Anbernic RG DS Plus: The Screen Math Is the Whole Story

2026-09-04 · Preview

Anbernic has revealed the RG DS Plus. It is a dual-screen clamshell, it follows the RG DS from late 2025, and the reveal came as a trailer on Anbernic's own YouTube channel rather than a press release.

The headline features are easy to list. Bigger screens, a redesigned hinge, three colours, and a capacitive stylus that stores inside the body instead of rattling around in the box. Anbernic also wrote its own dual-screen emulator for it.

But there is one number in that trailer doing more work than everything else combined, and most of the coverage has repeated it without unpacking it. So let us unpack it.

The Short Version

Screens: two 4.3 inch panels at 1024x768
OS: Linux, not Android
DS emulator: NNDSS, built in house by Anbernic
Stylus: capacitive, stored inside the shell
Hinge: redesigned, opens from 15 to 180 degrees
Colours: pink, blue, black
Chipset, RAM, battery, price, release date: not announced

The Screens Are the Whole Story

Anbernic's trailer describes "4x pixel scaling" and "16-in-1 pixel density." That sounds like marketing noise. It is not.

A Nintendo DS screen is 256x192 pixels. Multiply each axis by four and you get exactly 1024x768. That is the RG DS Plus panel resolution, and it is not a coincidence.

What that gives you is perfect integer scaling. Every single DS pixel becomes a clean 4x4 block of sixteen screen pixels. No interpolation, no blending, no guessing what belongs between two pixels. The image you see is the image the game drew, just larger.

Now compare that to the original RG DS. It runs 640x480 panels. Divide 640 by 256 and you get 2.5. That is not a whole number, so the scaler has to fake it. Some source pixels get two screen pixels wide, some get three, and the result is the slightly soft, slightly uneven look that RG DS owners have been describing since launch. It was never a panel quality problem. It was arithmetic.

	RG DS	RG DS Plus
Screens	Dual 4.0" IPS	Dual 4.3"
Resolution	640x480	1024x768
DS scale factor	2.5x	4x
Clean integer scaling	No	Yes
OS	Android 14 / Linux	Linux
DS emulator	Drastic and others	NNDSS, in house
Stylus	Loose, in the box	Stored in the shell
Chipset	Rockchip RK3568	Not announced
Price	$94 to $100	Not announced

This is the upgrade. Everything else on the RG DS Plus is nice. This one is the reason to care.

One caveat worth stating plainly. The maths above is ours, not a claim Anbernic made. Anbernic said "4x pixel scaling" and gave a resolution, and 256x192 times four happens to land exactly on it. That is a very strong indication of intent, but nobody has put a DS ROM on retail hardware and photographed the result yet.

Anbernic Wrote Its Own DS Emulator

The second real change is software, and it is a bigger shift than it looks.

The RG DS shipped with Android 14 and leaned on existing apps, mainly Drastic, to do the actual DS emulation. That works. It also means Anbernic controlled the hardware and almost nothing about the experience.

The RG DS Plus runs Linux with NNDSS, a dual-screen emulator Anbernic says it built itself. The announced feature list covers screen swapping, touch control on the bottom panel, 76 shader options, save states, microphone support and cheat codes. There is a custom system interface designed around dual-screen play rather than a stock Android launcher with two displays bolted on.

A hardware company writing its own emulator instead of shipping someone else's is unusual for Anbernic, and it cuts both ways.

The good version: the software is tuned for this exact panel resolution and this exact hinge, the shader list suggests someone thought about how DS output should actually look, and microphone support means the games that used the DS mic can work properly.

The cautious version: Anbernic's software track record is mixed, NNDSS has no public testing behind it, and a brand new emulator competing with years of Drastic and MelonDS development is a tall order. Moving to Linux also means losing the Play Store and the enormous Android emulator ecosystem that came with it.

Worth being clear on one thing: none of this helps with 3DS. NNDSS is a DS emulator. 3DS emulation is a chipset question, and Anbernic has not told us the chipset.

The Stylus Finally Lives Inside

The RG DS came with a capacitive stylus in the box. A loose one. If you have ever owned a device with a loose stylus, you know exactly where it is right now, which is nowhere.

The RG DS Plus stores the stylus inside the shell. That is a small change that turns a DS-shaped device into something closer to an actual DS successor. Touch-heavy games are the entire argument for a dual-screen handheld, and a stylus you cannot find is a stylus you do not use.

The hinge was redesigned too, and now opens from 15 to 180 degrees. Fifteen degrees is barely cracked open, and 180 lays the thing completely flat. Flat is genuinely useful for two-player tabletop games and for anyone who wants to prop it up rather than hold it.

What Anbernic Has Not Said

This is a trailer, not a launch. The gaps are large and they matter.

No chipset. This is the big one. The RG DS used a Rockchip RK3568, which was enough for DS, PS1 and below and ran out of road well before PS2 or 3DS. Whether the RG DS Plus repeats that or moves up decides what the device can actually do. Driving 1024x768 across two panels is also more work than 640x480 across two panels, so a straight chip carryover would be a concern.

No RAM or storage figures.

No battery capacity. The RG DS managed about six hours from 4,000 mAh at 640x480. Bigger, denser panels pull more power.

No price. The RG DS landed at $94 to $100 and undercutting Nintendo was most of its appeal. A Plus model with better panels will cost more. How much more is the question.

No release date.

Anbernic has not even posted about the RG DS Plus on its own news blog yet. Everything known comes from the trailer.

Should You Wait, or Buy the RG DS Now?

Buy the RG DS today if you want a dual-screen handheld under $100 right now, you want Android and the Play Store, and slightly soft DS scaling does not bother you. It is a genuinely decent device at its price and it is available. Our full RG DS review covers it in detail.

Wait for the RG DS Plus if Nintendo DS is the entire reason you are buying. The integer scaling difference is the single biggest image quality improvement available in this category, and no firmware update will ever give the RG DS a resolution it does not have.

Wait and watch either way if you care about PS2, GameCube or 3DS. Nothing announced tells you whether the RG DS Plus can do any of it, and buying on hope is how people end up disappointed by budget handhelds.

Look elsewhere if you need power more than you need two screens. A single-screen device at the same price will out-emulate both of these, and our DS and 3DS emulation guide covers the stronger options.

Our honest read: this is the device the RG DS should have been, and the fact that Anbernic fixed the scaling rather than just making the screens bigger suggests somebody there was listening. We will hold judgement until there is a chipset and a price.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Anbernic RG DS Plus?

A dual-screen clamshell retro handheld revealed by Anbernic in early September 2026. It follows the RG DS with two 4.3 inch 1024x768 screens, a redesigned hinge, a built-in capacitive stylus and Anbernic's own DS emulator called NNDSS.

How much does the RG DS Plus cost?

Anbernic has not announced a price. The original RG DS launched at $94 to $100, so the Plus will likely sit above that, but nothing has been confirmed.

When does the RG DS Plus release?

No release date has been announced. Anbernic has only released a reveal trailer.

Why does the 1024x768 resolution matter so much?

A Nintendo DS screen is 256x192. Multiplying by four in each direction gives exactly 1024x768, so every DS pixel maps to a clean 4x4 block with no interpolation. The original RG DS runs 640x480, which is 2.5 times the DS resolution and cannot divide evenly, which is why its DS output looks softer.

Does the RG DS Plus run Android?

No. Anbernic says it runs Linux. That means no Play Store and no Android emulator ecosystem, unlike the original RG DS which shipped with Android 14.

What is NNDSS?

NNDSS is a dual-screen emulator Anbernic says it developed in house for the RG DS Plus. The announced features are screen swapping, bottom-screen touch control, 76 shaders, save states, microphone support and cheat codes.

Can the RG DS Plus emulate 3DS?

Unknown. Anbernic has not announced the chipset, and 3DS emulation depends entirely on that. The original RG DS could not manage it. NNDSS is a DS emulator, so it does not address 3DS either way.

What colours is the RG DS Plus available in?

Pink, blue and black, according to the reveal trailer.