ANBERNIC's PS Vita clones finally get a price tag and pre-order date, but there's a catch

ANBERNIC announced the RG Vita and RG Vita Pro earlier this year, but the company has been slowly drip-feeding information about the gaming handhelds ever since. We got the full spec sheet of these PS Vita clones earlier this month, and now, we finally have the price and availability details.

According to a report from Retro Handhelds, ANBERNIC’s RG Vita will be priced at $99.99 for the first 72 hours of sale, then rise to $109.99 after that, its retail price. Meanwhile, the ANBERNIC RG Vita Pro’s early-bird pricing is $139.99 for the first 72 hours, rising to $149.99 at retail. Pre-orders for both handhelds will open on March 23 at 6 am ET.

While the pricing looks decent, the report highlights that the experience with the RG Vita and RG Vita Pro isn’t exactly stellar, according to early impressions from content creators. The primary issue with these PS Vita clones is that it is practically impossible to emulate PS Vita games, so the design inspiration appears misplaced. People who will buy these for the PS Vita nostalgia will end up disappointed.

On the bright side, the report notes that the RG Vita Pro’s ability to dual-boot Android 14 and Linux is giving it more excitement than the standard RG Vita.

The RG Vita comes with a 5.46-inch IPS HD touchscreen display, Unisoc Tiger T618 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5, and Android 12.

The RG Vita Pro comes with a 5.5-inch IPS FHD touchscreen display, Rockchip RK3576 SoC, 4GB RAM, 64GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and Android 14 alongside 64-bit Linux. Both gaming handhelds have a 5,000mAh battery, 3D hall joystick controls, and support up to 2 TB of TF card storage for expansion.

Will you be picking up either of the gaming handhelds? Let us know in the comments below!