Anbernic Win600 Review

Signed-off-by: Xe <me@christine.website>

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+---
+title: Anbernic Win600 Review
+date: 2022-08-18
+series: review
+tags:
+ - anbernic
+ - win600
+---
+
+<xeblog-hero file="limitless-handheld" prompt="a portal into limitless possibilities inside a handheld game console, digital art, anime style"></xeblog-hero>
+
+The [Anbernic Win600](https://anbernic.com/products/new-anbernic-win600) is a
+portable gaming handheld that can run Steam and itch.io games. I did a [first
+impressions](https://xeiaso.net/blog/anbernic-win600-first-impressions) post
+about it recently and I think I've played enough on it to write up my full
+review. I don't know who I would reccomend this device to. The premise of this
+device has a lot of promise, but in practice it has so many problems that it's
+overall not really worth choosing in comparison to devices like the Steam Deck.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">I want to stress, I bought this device
+with my own money. I was not paid to write this review or given a free unit for
+purposes of review. If I was sponsored to write this review I doubt I would be
+given a review unit for the next time Anbernic released a device.</xeblog-conv>
+
+I admit, my standards are kind of weird. The Steam Deck was my first taste of PC
+gaming in a handheld form factor and I love the snot out of my deck. However,
+the Steam Deck is built from the ground up to play games from both hardware and
+software perspectives. SteamOS is made for the deck and it integrates so fluidly
+that I've had no reason to try anything else. I wish I could say the same about
+the Win600 because OH GOD windows is NOT made for this kind of PC form factor.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">See the [first
+impressions](https://xeiaso.net/blog/anbernic-win600-first-impressions) for more
+details about this. It only gets worse as you do more complicated
+things!</xeblog-conv>
+
+Once you get into Steam Big Picture mode though, it's okay to navigate. Going
+outside of Steam is an exercise in futility. Thank goodness Retroarch is in
+Steam now.
+
+![The device in action playing Sonic Mania](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/blog/FZ6UQnlWIAIt7G6.jpg)
+
+With my unit, a couple of times when I rebooted the device claimed that the fTPM
+got nuked (presumably from an update or something?), which meant I needed to
+attach a mouse and keyboard, press `Y` and then log into my Microsoft account
+again and set a new PIN for logging into the Win600. This happening once is
+tolerable but kinda bad. This happening twice is annoying. This happened three
+times and is bordering on inexcusable.
+
+The Anbernic Win600 doesn't really have the same kind of comfort and build
+quality that I've come to associate with my Deck. There was an attempt to make a
+sculpted shape so that it sits in your hands better, but the natural way to hold
+the device makes using the thumbsticks physically painful. Changing your grip
+makes this slightly better, but then it makes you feel like you are going to
+drop the device at any point. The battery life ranges from "okay" to
+"atrocious". A release model Nintendo Switch without any of the battery life
+optimizations has more battery life (2-6 hours) than the Win600 (1-2 hours). The
+device uses integrated graphics and _single-channel_ memory, which means that
+the overall potential performance you can get out of this device is utterly
+handicapped.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">Even when you use the sticks, the
+sensitivity curve is really off. It's almost like they are a d-pad of sorts.
+There is on or off, not really an analog curve unless you consider asymptotes to
+be a curve. I'm not convinced that this can be fixed in software, it feels like
+a hardware issue with the sticks they used.</xeblog-conv>
+
+Windows also keeps prompting me to upgrade to Windows 11 and I am genuinely
+afraid that doing that will break the hell out of everything. The device feels
+barely stapled together as it is on the software side of things. Windows updates
+make the fan max out. Booting the device makes the fan start going crazy. Doing
+anything makes the fan kick up. It's really a sad situation. The CPU is way
+underpowered for Windows and probably even SteamOS. I have no idea what they
+have done to create such a tortured creature, but they have managed to create a
+device where basic compositors on Linux chug and spin up the fan. My laptop from
+high school was an underpowered machine but even then it was still able to
+render fancy desktop effects without making the fan kick up to overdrive.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">If you tweak the hell out of it you can
+get longer battery life according to [Retro Game
+Corps](https://youtu.be/wLHbrWVj8B8), but then the question really becomes
+something like "how much do you value your time?". Life is very short and
+spending it with underpowered hardware is not a good way to spend it unless you
+really love squeezing every last bit of blood out of stones. In that case, more
+power to you.</xeblog-conv>
+
+There are games that work really well on it though. Most 2d stuff off of itch
+will run flawlessly. There's a huge part of my Steam library that this thing can
+run and when it is able to run something, it runs it decently well. I was
+surprised that Tetris Effect ran smoothly on the device, but it can
+realistically drop down to something like 45-30 FPS in more graphically dense
+areas. Retroarch works like a dream, I've been combining it with Tailscale in
+order to let me store my roms on my NAS and then SMB mount it to the Win600.
+
+After playing all the way through Super Metroid, I can say that the d-pad is one
+of the best d-pads I've used in recent memory. You can do walljumps fairly
+reliably with Super Metroid, which is an almost frame-perfect trick. All 2d
+consoles run flawlessly, and anything newer can be hit and miss depending on the
+emulator's maturity. Dolphin works fine on some games, but the thumbstick
+position issues make actually playing things painful enough that I don't bother.
+
+![Super Metroid clear screen](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/blog/Super_Metroid_Redux-220721-175515.png)
+
+I don't think I can reccomend that people buy this device. It could have been
+really great for its money if the price was about half of what it currently is,
+but it's really just an overly expensive "Steam Deck at Home". It's a wholly
+inferior product compared to the Steam Deck in just about every single way I can
+think of. Its speakers are okay, but they can be kind of tinny at times. About
+the only thing it really got right was the d-pad, but a good dpad can't carry a
+portable gaming console. It will do its job, but overall it's not really an
+ideal experience.
+
+Its main value proposition was that it existed and you can buy it while the
+Steam Deck was unobtanium. The Steam Deck is no longer unobtanium and if you
+really are in the market for this kind of thing, get a Steam Deck. You'll be
+much happier with it.
+
+![Me: can we stop and get food? Mom: we have food at home. Food at home: a
+banana in a frying pan in a bed of pasta sauce with cheerios sprinkled over it
+haphazardly](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/blog/ca3.png)
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">Now imagine that but with the Steam
+Deck. It's seriously that kind of experience overall.</xeblog-conv>
+
+I try not to live life with regrets, but if I was still in the return window
+for this device, I'd try to get my money back. I can't really suggest that
+anyone actively go out and purchase this device. It's not worth the price they
+are charging. I can't even imagine what the low-spec model is like if the
+high-tier one is this much of a shitshow. If the price point really is an issue,
+buy a Switch Lite. It'll be a better experience.