Is the RG300 King Of The JZ4760B Handhelds?

Despite being almost 10 years old, the JZ4760/B SoC from Ingenic is currently living it up in a whole host of different handheld systems. It’s said that they can currently be had for as little as $5 with a large enough order, so it’s hardly surprising that this capable little chip is so prevalent at the moment.

The RetroGame 300 (or RG300) is the latest in a line of handhelds powered by this SoC, and by now we should all be very familiar with its performance. In short, it’s good for everything up to and including the SNES, though some more demanding SNES titles could benefit from extra juice. A very small handful of PS1 games are also playable, but you can forget about N64, Dreamcast or anything from that era and later.

The RG300 is the 2nd portrait mode handheld to contain the JZ4760B (the LDK being the first) and the design is very reminiscent of the RetroMini, albeit it’s a good bit bigger and more comfortable to use.

The first thing that I noticed lifting the thing out of its box is the weight on it. at 150g it’s almost double the weight of the PocketGo and a good 25g heavier than the RS-97 too. This can be attributed in part to the choice of battery. We usually see the 800mah BL-5B clone in these devices, but the designers of the RG300 have opted for the mammoth 1800mah BP-5L in this thing – which gets you between 5 and 6 hours of game play.

We also have a larger LCD than normal in here, it’s a 3 inch TFT panel and it sits underneath a tempered glass screen lens. The LCD is the devices weak point, it’s by no means bad but we’ve been spoiled by the beautiful IPS panel inside the PocketGo.

The viewing angles are actually decent from all but the bottom edge where the image inverts at around 45 degrees. But the biggest issue is with the brightness, it’s not as bright or vivid as the PocketGo panel and outside in direct sunlight it really shows its weakness. It’s actually not quite as good as the panel in the latest non-IPS version of the RS-97 either – but it’s pretty close. To tell the truth, before the BittBoy and PocketGo I wouldn’t have really thought twice about this LCD considering the price of the unit – but as mentioned earlier we’ve definitely been spoiled by those IPS panels.

top: RS97 | bottom left: PocketGo | bottom right: RG300

The D-Pad is the same as the one found in RetroMax and RetroMini as well as some of those newer Famiclone handhelds. It has some shallow textured cut outs for grip, it’s firm but easy to manoeuvre and the pivot is set just right. Likewise the face buttons are perfectly good with a couple of millimetre travel and a soft click once pushed all the way in.

This shell is very similar to the RetroMax and the (apparently) forthcoming RetroPlus, but one major difference is the shoulder buttons. I actually prefer the shoulder buttons of the RetroMax, but only really for aesthetic reasons. These have a short travel and respond with a quiet dull click once pressed. They’re also very well placed for larger hands. You can easily use either your finger tips or the middle of your fingers to hit them without any trouble.

Overall this is one of the most comfortable devices I’ve ever played and if you’re an adult with adult sized hands you’ll be able to play this thing for many hours without cramping up.

It goes without saying that RetroFW is available for this handheld, and to install it’s as simple as removing the SD card from behind the battery and flashing the image. There’s no disassembly required.

My unit came with a 16GB microSD behind the battery, and a 32GB microSD in the slot on the left hand side which will be more than enough. I know some people tend to replace these SD cards as it’s claimed that they’re unreliable – however I’ve not yet had any issues. In fact for what it’s worth the ones in this unit are branded by Toshiba (whether or not they’re genuine though is anyone’s guess).

This is also the first device to come with USB-C on board and it of course comes bundled with a cable too.

RetroFW 1.2 with the FontiGrid skin.

In my opinion this iteration of the JZ4760B wins. The obvious alternatives being the RS-97 which is great but has no screen protection and wobbly shoulder buttons and the LDK Portrait which is too uncomfortable to use for extended periods of time. The LDK Landscape is probably better than the LDK Portrait, but it uses the slightly less powerful non-B version of the chip, and they all have a smaller screen and a less powerful battery.

The only weakness of the RG300 is the LCD, but it’s by no means a deal breaker. There is talk of the possibility of manually replacing the LCD with an IPS panel – I’ll be watching out for results on that because that would make this the absolute best JZ4760B machine possible I reckon.

The RG300 can be had at any of the below stores. I got mine from Aliexpress but it’s worth shopping around for the best deal.

32 thoughts on “Is the RG300 King Of The JZ4760B Handhelds?”

  1. Hi guys. Do any of you know of a device that uses wireless tech to play games in versus mode? Gemei used to do that but my a330 is bricked and i need a second one for my colleague at work so we can play from distance. Would be awesome. Why do they omit it in the newer devices? Thanks for your suggestions.

    Reply
  2. I’m not so sure about that battery capacity. That thing is rated at least 20% higher than any other BP-5L I’ve seen. The spec sheet doesn’t really matter though. Can anyone say if they’re actually getting 5-6 hours of real world battery life?

    Reply
    • It’s not even an original BP-5L. Try to replace the Battery with a Nokia BP-5L and be surprised…
      The Connectors are 1cm to the left in this fake battery from china wich they bought out of a rest ramp.
      I’ve asked Anbernic about that and there is no replacement battery on the market, you could buy.
      So within a year the RG-300 will be worthless for everyboy because there’s no replacement battery.
      Don’t let them fool you. All those YouTubers didn’t check the battery – they just praised the (good) device and got fooled, too…

      Reply
  3. Think this is a buy right now or is there something better on the horizon? I swear my hobby is collecting these guys. Spend more time reading reviews and collecting hardware than I do playing games on them.

    Reply
    • To answer my own question: the RG 350 (landscape w/ dual analog, better screen and jz4770) and 351 (portrait) are on the horizon.

      https://boards.dingoonity.org/ingenic-jz4760-devices/bring-on-the-rg-350-(jz4770-based)-handheld/?PHPSESSID=1t43v6a2e9ck1j08nm7h6ojbm3

      SPECS
      – jz4770 CPU @1Ghz
      – 512MB DDR2 RAM
      – 3.5 inch IPS screen at 320×240 resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio, 60hz refresh rate with vsync, so no tearing (suck it, Bittboy!)
      – Battery capacity undecided, but no smaller than 2200mah

      INPUTS
      – Full DualShock button layout, with L2+R2 and dual analogs with L3+R3
      – Analogs will be sticks, not slide pads, apparently similar to the Nintendo Switch
      – Shoulder buttons are arranged like on the New 3DS, horizontally
      – Volume through +/- buttons instead of a wheel

      CONNECTIVITY
      – USB Type-C connection
      – Mini-HDMI video output
      – Headphone jack (yes, it’s important!)

      FORM FACTOR
      – Horizontal shape, size seems to be similar to the GCW 0
      – Low battery LED indicator (power LED will blink)
      – LCD will have a glass cover/lens

      MISC
      – Price expected to be under $100

      Reply
      • Sorry for the brief reply previously, I was walking home. Yep the RG350 looks great, aside from the negative aspects I mentioned in the post. Most notably the d-pad position is very unfortunate. There’s another device that also looks interesting that I haven’t posted on here yet and could potentially be more powerful than the JZ4770 if it doesn’t turn out to be vaporware. More on that later I guess, if it amounts to anything.

        Reply
  4. I am not talking about systems that use the same chip. I am talking about the system YOU are comparing this to in your review. right up there you have this sitting next to Pocket go, which only uses 32MB of RAM and performs much worse than systems like LDK and RG300.

    Outside of the LDK, and RetroGame RS-97 variants, many of these other systems only have 32MB of RAM. So its certainly worth noting that competing systems like the Digi-retroboy, Retro mini, Bit boy V1-3, pocket Go, Retro arcade RS-07 etc…which is a LARGE portion of this system’s current competitors, only use 32MB of RAM.

    With only 3 systems, LDK, RetroGame RS-97 , and Retro Game 300 using 128MB. It isn’t important with lower end systems, but PS1, and more taxing SNES games do much better with increased RAM.

    I guess my point is, if you are comparing this to other systems, it is important to say, note that it sits among the 3 systems capable of running several (2D and minimal 3d) PS1 titles very well. Whereas other competitors like the bit-boy, pocket go, and all the others, really can’t handle much on the higher end. So they shouldn’t even be held against these systems.

    Reply
    • You clearly said that 128MB “is double what all the other versions using the same SoC have”. The other versions with the same SoC have the same RAM, so your statement was incorrect – that’s why I was confused.

      Reply
      • I followed immediately with “quadruple” in the next comment. Sadly it won’t let me edit the comments. Sorry for the confusion.

        Reply
      • But to be clear the Retro Arcade Mini RS-12, RetroMini RS-90, Retro Arcade RS-07 which all use the same SoC, all do indeed use 32MB of RAM, And I was lumping in the Bit-boy and pocket go because they are so often compared to this and the LDK as equally powerful handhelds.

        Reply
        • The RS-12 and RS-90 have a different SoC – JZ4725B. That SoC has 32MB of RAM. The RS-07 has the JZ4760/B and has 128MB.

          Reply
  5. um yeah, do a quick googling of bit-boy Ram, the pocket go and Bitboy v1-v3 all have 32MB of RAM. In fact, a quick search of the RAM of these systems seems to indicate that the LDK was the first one to use 128MB, followed by the RG300 here. All previous systems seem to use 32MB. But let me know which other ones have 128MB, because I honestly think I am right here, I did quite a few rounds of googling on this rabbit hole.

    Reply
  6. Two things you missed in this review, and they are MAJOR!

    first: You knock the screen for not looking as nice, but you completely forget to mention the screen beats ALL others in this field because it is 940×480 so not only does it scale gameboy color games perfectly, (as well as GBA AND GB) but there is NONE of the screen tearing found on every other screen using this particular SoC. This is a massive thing for a lot of people who want this for handheld games specifically.

    Second, this system has 128MB of DDR2 RAM, which is double what all the other versions using the same SoC have, Except the LDK. Most other consoles have 32MB RAM, so the difference is what games this puppy can run on the higher end is night and day.

    Reply
    • Hi mate. I’m not sure where you’re getting the quadruple RAM from – to my knowledge all the JZ4760/B machines have 128 DDR2 RAM. Also the screen resolution isn’t really 960×480, the pixels aren’t square. It equates to something like 320×480 and it’s the same type of screen found in the RS97 albeit bigger. GBA scaling looks just as bad on this as it does on the LDK and RS97.

      You’re right, I should have mentioned that the screen does not tear. Believe me I would have mentioned if it DID though 🙂

      Reply
    • The “””960 by 480″”” panels in these LCDs only have 320 x 240 logical pixels. It’s my understanding that you cannot draw to this screen at any other resolution. That is, in CRT terms, you cannot resolve more than 320 distinct white and black lines on that screen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_lines. Academics please respond.

      The factory arrives at that stupid number by counting all subpixels. Dividing by three to make way for R, G, B, subpixels, we arrive at 320×480. Now here is the weird part. It’s a “RGB-Delta” array, basically this means there is a top RGB set and a lower RGB set that is offset to the side by some amount. Somewhere out there you can find an academic paper with “RGB-Delta” searching, I saw one with good pictures, but I can’t find it now.

      The effect of this is that straight lines white lines become tiny little back and forth zig-zags. The screen is similar in nature to the one in the GB Boy, only scaled to a higher DPI.

      The supposed advantage of this subpixel rendering method is that it reduces chroma artifacting. This is seen as a feature in the video camera market for which these screens were originally produced.

      So finally, we arrive at a 320 x 240 logical resolution, except now all your crisp squares turn into these little diagonal zig-zags.

      Now, all that said, you can only really notice this stuff if you bring it close in when you play. It’s great to just put it to fullscreen bilinear and rock out. It has enough vertical and horizontal resolution to display every line of SNES, MD, and NES games, and it runs at 60 hz vsync no tearing. It’s just not as good as V- or H- RGB stripe if you’re into the ‘classic’ lcd look.

      Reply
      • This is an excellent explanation. It was helpful to me and I’m sure it’ll be helpful to others as well. Thanks.

        Reply
  7. I put in an order for one and should be getting it in within about 10 days. Compared to my LDK landscape, the slightly larger screen and hopefully more comfort should be nice. Hows the speaker on the RG300?

    Reply
      • Yep you were spot on about that one. Really enjoying the RG300 for all the reasons you mentioned, most notably the comfort. Even the LDK landscape can get a bit crampy for me after some time while I don’t experience that at all with the RG300. I quite enjoy the USB-C convenience and screen size, so for me it does seem to be the best JZ4760B handheld out there right now. I got about 5 hours and 15 minutes out of the battery yesterday playing primarily snes.

        Basically my only gripe with the handheld compared to other in this power category is the screen brightness. Not a huge deal though.

        I’d love this form factor with an analog stick and the power to run PS1 reliably. Kinda disappointed the RG350 is changing so drastically from this design.

        Reply
        • Really glad you’re enjoying it, it’s my favourite from this generation as well, despite the slightly inferior screen.

          Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.