R36S

The R36S is the best 40 dollar handheld there is, and it is also a name rather than a product. Several different boards ship under it, and which one you receive decides whether the firmware that makes it good will run at all. Here is how to tell, before you buy.

Set up an R36S in the right order: find out which board you actually received, replace the stock card, install current firmware rather than the archived one every other guide names, then saving, Wi-Fi and the charging trap that makes a working device look dead.

All three run the same Rockchip chip, so they play the same games at the same speed. What actually separates them is the shape, whether there is Wi-Fi, and how much firmware community stands behind each one. That last one decides it.

Heavily advertised on social media, the Retroverse Pro 2.0 is a standard R36S handheld with a big markup. Here is what it really is, whether it is legit, and the better ways to spend the money.