"Which OS is the best?"

This is a common question for newcomers to the hobby diving head-first into grabbing their first emulation handheld. Currently we have quite a handful of popular H700 handhelds that are out there in the market. 

Anbernic

• RG35XX 2024
• RG35XX Plus
• RG35XX SP
• RG35XX H
• RG40XX H
• RG28XX

With these 6 devices that are already out there and with more to be added like a vertical 40XX and a Cube-like device, many would be at a loss when it comes to knowing which operating system is more suited for them due to the abundance of options right now. This entry would be a short summary of the features that each firmware comes with and how suitable it is for your gaming needs. 

 

Anbernic Stock OS

The Anbernic stock OS has came a long way. Most had their first experience with the OS when they used it on the original RG35XX. The current stock firmware has included more features and applications and a little bit of user interface facelift. 

Technically, everything would work right out of the box. However, the annoying broken English, the mediocre user interface could be a huge turnoff to users who are used to polished firmware and want something visually appealing and intuitive to use. 

Some of the pros and cons of the firmware are as follows: 

✅ Everything works decently well right out of the box.  ✅ You can just press the menu/hotkey to access Retroarch and not a combination of hotkeys.  ❌ It is unclear what other configurations and bloat they have applied at the back end and we can also assume that the Retroarch version is not the latest as well.  ❌ The romset that comes with the stock microSD has quite a number of questionable roms and different romhack versions and duplicate versions thrown into the mix.  ❌ The romset on the original microSD is also prone to corruption due to their questionable origins.  ❌ Bluetooth and wifi functions are enabled but bluetooth only allows for controller connections and not anything else.  ❌ UI design looks clunky, with both RA games section on the menu and game rooms section being a duplicate of each other.

 

MuOS

This OS has really came a long way from being labelled as just a "reskinned Retroarch" firmware. 

With the community-voted and funnily named MuOS Baked Beans, the firmware now packs a whole lot of features including full access to all of Portmaster's titles. 

Visually, this OS is perhaps the closest thing we have to OnionOS on these H700 device, as we can implement themes to turn it from a vertical list-based menu into a horizontal icon menu. 

✅ The boot time of the OS is extremely fast due how light-weight the OS is. ✅ You would have full access to all settings in Retroarch and other standalone emulators as the OS doesn't dictate or lock down some of those settings. ✅ Full access to all of Portmaster's titles ✅ MuOS is device-agnostic - you can just pop out the SD card for your current 35XX H and put it into a 35XX SP and use it there with ease. ✅ Great charging power monitoring interface when the device is off and charging. It shows the voltage that is going into the device, the percentage, and will also cut off the charging indicator light (orange LED) once the charge is completed. ✅ Most of the emulator performances are optimized and running fairly well.  ❌ No bluetooth support as of now. ❌ No built-in scraper for box arts, users have to generate or download box art from the internet and drop it into the console's microSD. ❌ Simplistic themes might not be for everyone. ❌ On a fresh install, could be more challenging to use than other OS's due to the need for customization.

 

Batocera/Knulli

For those of you that are already familiar with Emulation-Station on JELOS/ROCKNIX or any other firmware that are reliant on the Emulation-Station frontend, this might be something that will let you navigate the device with ease. This would definitely be a choice for those that want the same sort of experience again on these H700 models!

✅ Great frontend menu and the ability to download Emulation-Station themes and console system bezels via wifi. ✅ Built-in scraper allows you to download box art of game titles without the need of using scraper on a computer and loading the art into the console.   ✅ For those that do not want to meddle too much with software like Retroarch, the overall game settings menu would be able to toggle various settings like autosave, bezels, overlays and more.  ✅ You can access Portmaster on this right now, though not the entire library.  ❌ The heavier frontend causes initial boot time to be quite long ❌ Although bluetooth is enabled in this firmware, it is still quite unstable and bugged. ❌ Certain systems are not performing at its full potential eg. Dreamcast in its standalone emulator and so on.

 

MINUI

MINUI could be the ultimate no-nonsense OS for the folks that really want to focus on playing the games themselves. With minimal need for setting up as the options for customization and optimization are limited, the interface is purely text-driven, simple and intuitive for day-to-day gaming. It is somehow akin to the aesthetics of Analogue Pocket handhelds' simple user interface. Therefore if you don't want to shell out all that money to get a vertical handheld like the Analogue Pocket, you can simply get a RG35XX 2024 or Plus and install MINUI to get a pretty similar software emulation experience, though without the ability to do any FPGA hardware emulation. 

✅ Simple, clean and intuitive, the interface is for those that want minimal distractions on their retro handheld.  ✅ Streamlined gaming process - if you shutdown mid-game, the OS will auto save states and auto load states upon boot.  ✅ Such a simple frontend would also mean it's going to be power-efficient and would have a longer battery life. ❌ Wireless connectivity are not utilized in this OS even if your device has it.  ❌ This also would mean additional features like RetroAchievements, Netplay, etc are not available.

 

Honorable mention - GarlicOS 2.0 Alpha

Off the success of GarlicOS 1.49 on the original RG35XX, lots of people were hopeful that the new GarlicOS 2.0 would make it in time for the new releases of consoles this year. However, updates are few and far between due to the developer, BlackSeraph running into some health issues in the earlier part of the year. Hopefully he's back to health and is actively clearing the bottleneck of testing out the new devices with his GarlicOS 2.0. 

The Alpha version is far from complete and does not utilize any hardware acceleration as of now. Therefore you can only safely emulate up to PS1 right now which is less than ideal for this current chipset. 

However, without GarlicOS 2.0 being completed, we are still spoilt with so many custom firmware options out there. Times are definitely good for those who are diving into retro handheld gaming right now!

Conclusion

Ultimately, it really boils down to the individual's needs and preferences when operating one of these devices. For me, I feel like MuOS has really hit the sweet spot of being both lightweight and customizable. The boot time is extremely fast and at the same time, you can dive into RetroArch, use wireless to access Portmaster and also configure internet services such as Syncthing.

Although there's no Bluetooth available on MuOS, I wouldn't say I'm missing out a lot as the Bluetooth option on the other firmware that offer it are not complete or stable. 

The team of developers and community are also extremely helpful and active in helping out folks who have burning questions about the OS. The community has come a long way and MuOS has really grown in popularity compared to when it was first offered on the original RG35XX. 

With the community giving so much attention to the new handhelds getting released every month, and with all of the current releases seemingly recycling the H700 chip, it seems like firmware development progress has been much faster and smoother in ensuring that non of the new devices are left in the lurch when it comes to usability and customizability. 

We are indeed living in the golden age of retro emulation handhelds!