RF40H shows how cheap square-screen handhelds are still multiplying

The RF40H is another reminder that the retro handheld market has basically become a tiny plastic jungle. This budget device uses a 4-inch 720x720 square display, an RK3326 chipset, 1GB of RAM, dual joysticks, vibration, RGB lighting, Wi-Fi multiplayer and a custom Linux operating system. The 1:1 screen is the interesting part. It can maximize certain layouts and reduce side waste, but older consoles usually target 4:3, so some games will need black bars or stretching.

Performance is also very much budget-tier, with PSP and Dreamcast listed as possible but not guaranteed smooth. The legal elephant is the claim of thousands of preinstalled games, which is exactly the sort of thing buyers should treat carefully. As hardware, it is cheap and curious. As an ecosystem, it comes with the usual retro-handheld caveats.