Recently the TEMU store got me with some offers and I tried to order some products. In my first order, I also got this beautiful R36S gaming console (blue color). I was a bit skeptical about it, but after a while I saw the great potential it holds.
Find out about the impressive features it has and also the setbacks I faced in this article.
The package has arrived relatively quick (about 1 week) and it was a bit skewed due to handling. Luckily, the device itself didn't face any harm so it was basically plug and play. In the package there's no charger, just the console and a Type-C cable. Yes, now they comply with EU standards!
After I charged it fully, I digged in exploring it. It booted up quickly and then I was presented this selection screen where all games are grouped by their corresponding retro console. You can find these retro consoles in the list and more:
In total, you can enjoy like 3000+ games which is really impressive. Only if you have the time and the patience 🕰️!
Generally speaking, the console feels great, is quite responsive and has a good battery life (up to 6 hours). You can put the device into sleep mode by pressing the power button and next time you press it again you resume from wherever you left. There is also a save/load functionality if you press FN+L1 and FN+R1. Beware, this is dependent on the emulator the game is using, so not all games may have this.
As for the performance, usually is quite good, can't complain that much. There are some 3D games like Monster Truck, Re-volt or Quake 2 which don't perform that well. Maybe they are not properly optimized, but they work enough to bring that nostalgia feeling into your spine. There are some games which don't work at all and others which are not that playable because they don't react properly to controls. It's really a marketing point that they offer 3000+ games, since many of them are just unplayable, are poor quality or the emulation is buggy. For instance, I played Angry Birds which performed ok, but at times it simply didn't react correctly to controller input.
Not everything is sugar and honey though 🍯. Oftentimes, the device simply freezes leaving you with no other option than to use the handy Reset button located on the left side. Really useful that they added that!
Of course, being the explorer that I am, I wanted to have the latest version of the software. To do that you can do it the hard way via an SD card flash or the easier way via the options menu. I always say that "The hard way is the right way!", it was true in this case, I should've started with the hard way anyway. By the way, the device doesn't have WiFi included, so make sure you get an USB dongle or use my method in the video below:
What happened is that everything seemed ok with the update, but now the games were no longer starting, expect for a very few maybe🤷.
I just didn't know exactly what to do, no helpful advice on the Internet found, so I reflashed the SD card with the newest version. Here as well there were some issues but I manged to find a way.
Now I've got the latest version, but I lost all 3000+ games from the library. It seems there's no way to get an original image from the Internet. I'll check this further and get back with an update here. It's not the end of the world for me, because many of those games are pretty much junk IMO. There were some good games which I'll try to install manually. I'm experimenting with Portsmaster for now.
Being a Linux device powered by ArkOS, this implies a great customization regarding almost everything. Besides porting existing open-source games into the platform, I see the potential of new games emerging. I'd like to explore that, since as a Software Engineer myself I focused more on enterprise-level business applications. It's for me an opportunity of exploring my creativity.
More than that, I see a window of developing apps which communicate to sensors, show dashboards or control appliances in your home. It's a new universe.
I really like this device and I'm fascinated by it. Not really into those 3000+ games, since I'm more of a casual gamer these days, but I see a great potential of further developing apps and games on this platform due to the high level of customization. So go ahead, grab this device and let me know what you think about it! Cheers!