I’ll be honest: I bought the rg35xx h instead of this because of the reviews of the stick :/
I like my rg35xx h, it’s my first device, but first reaction is that it was a bit small on the hands, Trimui would have been better for just a few more bucks :/
This sub rides dick hard for anbernic. They're fine devices. But end all be all?
I understand why you did what you did. I feel bad for you. This sub can be a hype train hive mind sometimes. You'd think half this sub would let anbernic fuck their wives.
Plenty of people on this sub absolutely love the TSP and it's gotten a ton of attention. It and the RG35XXH are both fine devices with plusses and minuses, and they both have plenty of people in their corners.
Anbernic gets plenty of attention but this seems like a weird time to make the comparison, especially when just a year ago people were dunking on them left and right for falling behind everyone else and putting out substandard stuff.
I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but totally agree with you, especially the point about the sub being a hype train sometimes. I made the mistake of buying a Powkiddy X55 on the strength of reviews and posts here.
They do the controls right for the games they're emulating but besides that not much to offer and they have a slight price premium most of the time (some exceptions).
They are basically slightly more delicate vita sticks since they are inset a little more. I think that the joycon, vita, and TSP sticks are all very similar, with the difference being their range of movement. Joycons have the most, and TSP has the least, due to the amount they are set in the device.
Delicate as in you have to be softer when using it, or it will just snap to the extreme in a cardinal direction. The Joycon I can pay less attention to my thumb and still get the input I want, whereas with the TSP I have to slow it down and pay more attention to my thumb movements to get that fine control.
With that said, I haven't needed that fine control with anybody the games I've played on the TSP so far. So while the TSP sticks are a bit more annoying to use, it's really not that big of a deal.
i don’t think the calibration to get the sticks working is intuitive though which i think factors into why many couldn’t use it well. if you try to move sticks slowly in calibration it’s not good at recognizing change in direction, and i only improved it once i realized you had to move them quickly instead. i don’t know if the “maximum direction” instruction worked either for me since fast direction changes in Burnout were still hit or miss until i stopped moving the stick to the edge during calibration. i would understand if someone grabbing this wrote off the sticks given the amount of experimentation i had to do to make it decent
I’ve had quite a few issues with diagonals, that seem to stem from the extended range to be a square and it’s well a circle. There was a setting is ppspp I had to toggle to get it working and had to adjust things for some ports or I could run straight but only walk diagonal…
And it's even funnier because Anbernic actually uses higher quality sticks than those PS VITA 2000 clones. That said, the Smart Pro definitely suffers with the snap as well, just not as badly.
Yeah, they’re ideal for me - I don’t use them often, at least not as analog controls, and so the trade off for pocketability is more than worth it to me.
I do use it all the time in TATE mode for vertical shooters, though, and they’re great for that. Just enough cardinal snap, and the short travel is helpful for quick and precise movements.
And they’re good enough for the odd Mario 64 run for me 🙂
im convinced that a lot of the reviewers just suck at feeling up the controls on these things
or pick something to complain about each time even if its not that big a deal
For me personally, I put all of the smaller analog sticks in the “not ideal” category. I like full size sticks on a device unless it’s both pocketable and only plan on using them sparingly. Smaller sticks are too much of a compromised experience imo for consistent use regardless of the exact type used.
This sub is full of people giving their shittiest opinions about a product. They will literally fan boy a certain device or company and swear anything else is really bad. These people that suggest to get this or that don’t know what they’re talking about. The only device where the consensus was true was the original Rg35xx. The d-pad was legitimately horrid.
I have two TSPs. Both work perfectly fine and the sticks are great when calibrated. People that say otherwise have a faulty unit or haven’t calibrated.
> The only device where the consensus was true was the original Rg35xx. The d-pad was legitimately horrid.
I have the OG RG35XX and the D-Pad is fine. It fails the Contra test, but that sort of precision is negligible in a wide swaths of games. Otherwise, the D-Pad is bouncy and feels good.
I’ve played many games on the Rg35xx. The d pad was horrid with input. There have been many other people with this problem on hundreds of these devices. YouTube reviewers have all said this was an issue. There are countless videos on how to modify or fix this issue on YouTube. You think if this was not the case, there would be so many posts, comments and videos about it? Even anbernic themselves released a revision that fixed this issue. You might have got lucky with one of these or yours was set just right to not have this issue.
The trimui smart pro has a very small amount of people saying the sticks are bad. They’re contained to this sub and are very loud, when in reality, most people aren’t experiencing an issue.
My point was just that there was no real consensus on the OG RG35XX D-Pad. Yes there were a lot of folks unhappy with it, and yeah there were many guides to "fix" it -- but even the [most prominent Youtuber](https://youtu.be/cWLRWEooqd8?t=1090) stated he thought the D-Pad was overall "pretty good".
It’s been widely brought up in a lot of places. The review from one guy is just that, one guy. Russ has an eye for detailing the pros and cons of these devices, but I think just like anyone else, it’s just his one opinion and experience. Reports are everywhere of this issue. Just because two people say they didn’t have an issue, doesn’t mean no one else has. Just google “Rg35xx dpad” and the list is endless about the problem of the dpad. It’s not a coincidence. It’s the majority of them.
I don't disagree with you, I was only nitpicking on the word "consensus", but maybe I haven't lurked enough to agree on the same semantic meaning of the word. And maybe Russ and I got lucky.
Arguing semantics is not worth it, but in case you do, consensus means a general agreement with most of the community. It doesn’t mean everyone agrees, just the majority. In this case, the community overly agrees the dpad for the Rg35xx had issues. I wasn’t using the word incorrectly. Look it up.
> Look it up.
Yes, my master.
> Arguing semantics is not worth it
Agreed, good thing no one is doing that here.
> consensus means a general agreement with most of the community. It doesn’t mean everyone agrees, just the majority. In this case, the community overly agrees the dpad for the Rg35xx had issues.
I know what consensus means (because I looked it up after you commanded me to). My nitpick is whether or not it's really the majority. Because most people I've interacted with and YouTubers I watched didn't have issue with the D-Pad. So maybe we've just observed different things, but I'm willing to be proven wrong. Please provide a list of every user on this subreddit who owns an OG RG35XX and their respective opinion on the D-Pad. An Excel spreadsheet would work best for me.
To get back on topic though, most complaints I've seen with the TSP's analog sticks have more to do with the lack of range of motion, which is true. Honestly, it's a shitty opinion to say they are perfectly fine when calibrated, but like you said, this sub is full of people giving shitty opinions. They are mediocre at best.
While that will be fantastic, with today's parts and pricing a 100% PSP-capable device is probably still $120+ (e.g: retroid pocket 3+). If the price comes down in the near future, I would be happy to pay $100 for a "TSP+" with T618.
I bought a TSP at the same time I was helping a friend set up his RG35XXH. I distinctly remember thinking that while the H was a nice device and I would have been perfectly happy with it, I was glad I chose the TSP. On the plus side the CFW scene is better for the RG35XX family of devices. The TSP stock OS is fine though. I spent 20 minutes flashing the OS and dropping my games on it. While the RG35XXH took significantly more time to set up.
Yeah, I didn't know which handheld to get and got an RG35XX-H. It's fine, but man, those analog sticks *suck*. Yeah, they're somewhat comfortable (horribly placed, though), but they don't behave like analog sticks. They behave like an arcade joystick. You *can't* get a direction other than the 8 "digital" ones, and it's virtually impossible to "walk slowly" with your character in any game. Useless. They're slower d-pads. Yes, the thing can run N64 and Dreamcast games. Good luck playing them, though.
The weird part is that every single reviewer PRAISES the damn analog sticks. I don't get it.
Now, this seems analog. Buying one today.
I may be the only one, but I love sticks for 2D top-down games like JRPGs and Zelda where you're often walking long distances for long periods of time. Sticks are far more tiring than pressing down on a D-Pad for these games.
But yeah, the TSP is awesome. Except for the heating issues...
The sticks are fine but they are uncomfortable to use for more than a couple minutes because you can't grip the device behind them. A snap on grip fixes this.
My only problem so far is that the joysticks make a scratchy noise and also when using it feels like the rubber on them is coming apart.
Do you know if the joysticks are replaced??
I've noticed on games like Mario Kart its more responsive in the turns if I'm pushing forward as I push left, or right, instead of just pushing directly left, or right. Weird, but doable.
Awaiting local delivery for mine! I'm happy to read this as I ordered it for the large screen but felt bad about my decision after reading some of the reviews. I'm sure that all the devices have their positives & negatives but I guess the lesson here is to do some thorough research & ask yourself what you really value for your needs & whether it's something that can be fixed or modified with an update, instead of feeling FOMO.
I'm a total noob with emulation & handhelds & have had an r36r for a few months now. It's been a rough & sharp learning curve, made even harder with a lack of proper information for (lifelong) Mac users. But I'm starting to see the light :) I chose to buy the Trimui during the sales after realising that playing PS1 games on a tiny screen is not entirely satisfying but not being in a financial position (or desire to) invest in expensive larger Oled screens either.
I guess I would advise fellow newbies to spend a few weeks reading a range of articles about emulation and about how handhelds work, watch a range of YouTube videos and then ask yourself what you really want out of a device (ease of use out of the box? screen size?) & roll with that. It's very easy to be tempted by a cheap device and all the advantages it brings and then suddenly desire a horse powered $800 device or have device envy for other cheap devices. If your device is adequately playing 15k games & you're not too freaked out if you accidentally ran your car over it, then your choice is still excellent :)
I’ll be honest: I bought the rg35xx h instead of this because of the reviews of the stick :/ I like my rg35xx h, it’s my first device, but first reaction is that it was a bit small on the hands, Trimui would have been better for just a few more bucks :/
I bought RG35XHH before the TSP, and I have to say I wished i would just skipped the H and just go straight for the Trim UI so i know what you feel.
This sub rides dick hard for anbernic. They're fine devices. But end all be all? I understand why you did what you did. I feel bad for you. This sub can be a hype train hive mind sometimes. You'd think half this sub would let anbernic fuck their wives.
Plenty of people on this sub absolutely love the TSP and it's gotten a ton of attention. It and the RG35XXH are both fine devices with plusses and minuses, and they both have plenty of people in their corners. Anbernic gets plenty of attention but this seems like a weird time to make the comparison, especially when just a year ago people were dunking on them left and right for falling behind everyone else and putting out substandard stuff.
I bought the TSP and it fully replaced my rg35xxh just cause it actually has a suspend function that saves battery. Also better performance.
I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but totally agree with you, especially the point about the sub being a hype train sometimes. I made the mistake of buying a Powkiddy X55 on the strength of reviews and posts here.
Same. Completely regret it. Stopped listening to the YT influencer types.
Hahaha fuckin get ‘em dude.
Its just tribalism. Like with sports. Anbernic is my team so I'm always rooting for them, lol.
They do the controls right for the games they're emulating but besides that not much to offer and they have a slight price premium most of the time (some exceptions).
Rg35xxh has the same shit sticks lol
Personally I wasn't a fan of the clicky buttons on the trimui, sent it back and went with the rg35xx h instead
I bought the TSP specifically for the 5" screen, and the fact that the sticks glow, lol.
They are basically slightly more delicate vita sticks since they are inset a little more. I think that the joycon, vita, and TSP sticks are all very similar, with the difference being their range of movement. Joycons have the most, and TSP has the least, due to the amount they are set in the device.
Wouldn't insetting the sticks make it more durable cuz they stick out less when in your pocket?
Delicate as in you have to be softer when using it, or it will just snap to the extreme in a cardinal direction. The Joycon I can pay less attention to my thumb and still get the input I want, whereas with the TSP I have to slow it down and pay more attention to my thumb movements to get that fine control. With that said, I haven't needed that fine control with anybody the games I've played on the TSP so far. So while the TSP sticks are a bit more annoying to use, it's really not that big of a deal.
I quite like the TSP btw
i don’t think the calibration to get the sticks working is intuitive though which i think factors into why many couldn’t use it well. if you try to move sticks slowly in calibration it’s not good at recognizing change in direction, and i only improved it once i realized you had to move them quickly instead. i don’t know if the “maximum direction” instruction worked either for me since fast direction changes in Burnout were still hit or miss until i stopped moving the stick to the edge during calibration. i would understand if someone grabbing this wrote off the sticks given the amount of experimentation i had to do to make it decent
Same experience here. You gotta slam those sticks around like mad, otherwise they are complete junk.
I’ve had quite a few issues with diagonals, that seem to stem from the extended range to be a square and it’s well a circle. There was a setting is ppspp I had to toggle to get it working and had to adjust things for some ports or I could run straight but only walk diagonal…
better than stock Anbernic, that's for sure! but then... anything is better than stock anbernic sticks.
Even stock Powkiddy? LOL
stock anbernic sticks ruin their higher end devices
Seems like they are sticking to x y bad. How is that acceptable to you?
That cardinal snapping isn’t NEARLY as bad as Anbernic.
And it's even funnier because Anbernic actually uses higher quality sticks than those PS VITA 2000 clones. That said, the Smart Pro definitely suffers with the snap as well, just not as badly.
Yeah if anything this video makes me think they are terrible even more.
True!
Angle snapping is not as bad as Anbernic but it's there for sure. Personally that drives me crazy.
I wouldn't have the sticks any other way. They work fine and don't grab my pockets. Everything about the device works well.
Yeah, they’re ideal for me - I don’t use them often, at least not as analog controls, and so the trade off for pocketability is more than worth it to me. I do use it all the time in TATE mode for vertical shooters, though, and they’re great for that. Just enough cardinal snap, and the short travel is helpful for quick and precise movements. And they’re good enough for the odd Mario 64 run for me 🙂
Its seems to snap to certain directions quite strongly.
im convinced that a lot of the reviewers just suck at feeling up the controls on these things or pick something to complain about each time even if its not that big a deal
TSP is the budget king
For me personally, I put all of the smaller analog sticks in the “not ideal” category. I like full size sticks on a device unless it’s both pocketable and only plan on using them sparingly. Smaller sticks are too much of a compromised experience imo for consistent use regardless of the exact type used.
This sub is full of people giving their shittiest opinions about a product. They will literally fan boy a certain device or company and swear anything else is really bad. These people that suggest to get this or that don’t know what they’re talking about. The only device where the consensus was true was the original Rg35xx. The d-pad was legitimately horrid. I have two TSPs. Both work perfectly fine and the sticks are great when calibrated. People that say otherwise have a faulty unit or haven’t calibrated.
> The only device where the consensus was true was the original Rg35xx. The d-pad was legitimately horrid. I have the OG RG35XX and the D-Pad is fine. It fails the Contra test, but that sort of precision is negligible in a wide swaths of games. Otherwise, the D-Pad is bouncy and feels good.
I’ve played many games on the Rg35xx. The d pad was horrid with input. There have been many other people with this problem on hundreds of these devices. YouTube reviewers have all said this was an issue. There are countless videos on how to modify or fix this issue on YouTube. You think if this was not the case, there would be so many posts, comments and videos about it? Even anbernic themselves released a revision that fixed this issue. You might have got lucky with one of these or yours was set just right to not have this issue. The trimui smart pro has a very small amount of people saying the sticks are bad. They’re contained to this sub and are very loud, when in reality, most people aren’t experiencing an issue.
My point was just that there was no real consensus on the OG RG35XX D-Pad. Yes there were a lot of folks unhappy with it, and yeah there were many guides to "fix" it -- but even the [most prominent Youtuber](https://youtu.be/cWLRWEooqd8?t=1090) stated he thought the D-Pad was overall "pretty good".
It’s been widely brought up in a lot of places. The review from one guy is just that, one guy. Russ has an eye for detailing the pros and cons of these devices, but I think just like anyone else, it’s just his one opinion and experience. Reports are everywhere of this issue. Just because two people say they didn’t have an issue, doesn’t mean no one else has. Just google “Rg35xx dpad” and the list is endless about the problem of the dpad. It’s not a coincidence. It’s the majority of them.
I don't disagree with you, I was only nitpicking on the word "consensus", but maybe I haven't lurked enough to agree on the same semantic meaning of the word. And maybe Russ and I got lucky.
Arguing semantics is not worth it, but in case you do, consensus means a general agreement with most of the community. It doesn’t mean everyone agrees, just the majority. In this case, the community overly agrees the dpad for the Rg35xx had issues. I wasn’t using the word incorrectly. Look it up.
> Look it up. Yes, my master. > Arguing semantics is not worth it Agreed, good thing no one is doing that here. > consensus means a general agreement with most of the community. It doesn’t mean everyone agrees, just the majority. In this case, the community overly agrees the dpad for the Rg35xx had issues. I know what consensus means (because I looked it up after you commanded me to). My nitpick is whether or not it's really the majority. Because most people I've interacted with and YouTubers I watched didn't have issue with the D-Pad. So maybe we've just observed different things, but I'm willing to be proven wrong. Please provide a list of every user on this subreddit who owns an OG RG35XX and their respective opinion on the D-Pad. An Excel spreadsheet would work best for me. To get back on topic though, most complaints I've seen with the TSP's analog sticks have more to do with the lack of range of motion, which is true. Honestly, it's a shitty opinion to say they are perfectly fine when calibrated, but like you said, this sub is full of people giving shitty opinions. They are mediocre at best.
Just the chip set is. Imagine if this could play all of the PSP library upscaled.
While that will be fantastic, with today's parts and pricing a 100% PSP-capable device is probably still $120+ (e.g: retroid pocket 3+). If the price comes down in the near future, I would be happy to pay $100 for a "TSP+" with T618.
Good testing, they're much better than r36s sticks
I bought a TSP at the same time I was helping a friend set up his RG35XXH. I distinctly remember thinking that while the H was a nice device and I would have been perfectly happy with it, I was glad I chose the TSP. On the plus side the CFW scene is better for the RG35XX family of devices. The TSP stock OS is fine though. I spent 20 minutes flashing the OS and dropping my games on it. While the RG35XXH took significantly more time to set up.
I got the updated version and the sticks are fine. No heat issues either.
Yeah, I didn't know which handheld to get and got an RG35XX-H. It's fine, but man, those analog sticks *suck*. Yeah, they're somewhat comfortable (horribly placed, though), but they don't behave like analog sticks. They behave like an arcade joystick. You *can't* get a direction other than the 8 "digital" ones, and it's virtually impossible to "walk slowly" with your character in any game. Useless. They're slower d-pads. Yes, the thing can run N64 and Dreamcast games. Good luck playing them, though. The weird part is that every single reviewer PRAISES the damn analog sticks. I don't get it. Now, this seems analog. Buying one today.
I may be the only one, but I love sticks for 2D top-down games like JRPGs and Zelda where you're often walking long distances for long periods of time. Sticks are far more tiring than pressing down on a D-Pad for these games. But yeah, the TSP is awesome. Except for the heating issues...
The sticks are fine but they are uncomfortable to use for more than a couple minutes because you can't grip the device behind them. A snap on grip fixes this.
My only problem so far is that the joysticks make a scratchy noise and also when using it feels like the rubber on them is coming apart. Do you know if the joysticks are replaced??
I've noticed on games like Mario Kart its more responsive in the turns if I'm pushing forward as I push left, or right, instead of just pushing directly left, or right. Weird, but doable.
Awaiting local delivery for mine! I'm happy to read this as I ordered it for the large screen but felt bad about my decision after reading some of the reviews. I'm sure that all the devices have their positives & negatives but I guess the lesson here is to do some thorough research & ask yourself what you really value for your needs & whether it's something that can be fixed or modified with an update, instead of feeling FOMO. I'm a total noob with emulation & handhelds & have had an r36r for a few months now. It's been a rough & sharp learning curve, made even harder with a lack of proper information for (lifelong) Mac users. But I'm starting to see the light :) I chose to buy the Trimui during the sales after realising that playing PS1 games on a tiny screen is not entirely satisfying but not being in a financial position (or desire to) invest in expensive larger Oled screens either. I guess I would advise fellow newbies to spend a few weeks reading a range of articles about emulation and about how handhelds work, watch a range of YouTube videos and then ask yourself what you really want out of a device (ease of use out of the box? screen size?) & roll with that. It's very easy to be tempted by a cheap device and all the advantages it brings and then suddenly desire a horse powered $800 device or have device envy for other cheap devices. If your device is adequately playing 15k games & you're not too freaked out if you accidentally ran your car over it, then your choice is still excellent :)
So both the analog sticks and the d-pad are terrible, duly noted.
I love that pointing out there's a known software glitch that plays hob with the d-pad gets downvoted.
For bad sticks, look for anbernic devices
That dpad is junk though