Anbernic RG552 Custom Firmware Guide

Several months into its lifecycle, the Anbernic RG552 finally has some great options when it comes to improving the user experience. Let’s take a look at three different firmware options (two on Linux, and one on Android) which will give you better gameplay performance and some nice quality of life upgrades, too.

Buy one here:
AliExpress ($227 before sales)
Amazon Prime ($249 with fast shipping)

Firmware links:

Android
Black Seraph’s Patreon page
OpenGapps webpage
Android emulation starter guide

JELOS
Wiki page
Releases page
PortMaster page

AmberELEC
home page
latest AmberELEC release
PortMaster page

Recommended accessories

The RG552 will come bundled with a single microSD card, and in some cases two SD cards, but they are from a generic brand and will be prone to failure. The “TF1” slot on your device holds the system firmware, so for that card 16GB is ideal. The “TF2” slot is for your game files, so you will want a larger card for that one. Your safest bet is to replace your cards with microSD cards from a well-known brand. I recommend you store that original card somewhere safe in case you run into any issues in the future, and buy new SD cards from a reputable brand like SanDisk or Samsung to use in your device.

In general, I recommend the cards listed below, in order or preference. The prices fluctuate all the time, so keep an eye out for deals. In general, I would expect to pay $7 for a 16GB card, $20 for a 128GB card, and $30 for a 256GB card. A 128GB card will allow you to load EVERY 8-bit and 16-bit game out there, all of the arcade games that work, and quite a few PS1, Dreamcast, PSP, and Sega CD games (those systems have the largest file sizes). A 256GB card will allow you to store even more of those larger games.

16GB cards: 
SanDisk Ultra  
SanDisk Industrial (more reliable but pricey)

128GB cards:
SanDisk Extreme
Samsung EVO Select
SanDisk Ultra

256GB cards:
Samsung EVO Select
SanDisk Ultra

One more accessory to consider: if you don’t have a nice microSD to USB adapter, you might want to think about getting one. A nice adapter like this one from Anker will give you the fastest transfer speeds possible, and won’t cause any corruption issues with your card.

If you are looking for the 5GHz WiFi and Bluetooth module that will work with all three firmware options, this option is about $15 and has been tested thoroughly. You can even pull the chip from this dongle and solder it to the RG552 board; instructions on how to do that are found in Black Seraph’s Patreon page.

Batocera 34 has also be recently released for the RG552. Here is my video on this firmware:

If you haven’t seen it already, check out my Anbernic RG552 preliminary review: