Anbernic revives handheld that can actually play GBA carts

Anerbic has brought back its K101 Plus retro handheld, giving the GBA-cart reading device a brand-new Nintendo-inspired coat of paint.

Anbernic has built a name for itself in the retro gaming handheld scene by producing a slew of Nintendo-inspired devices. Its RG35XXSP took heavy inspiration from the Game Boy Advanced SP, while its RG28XX took after the Game Boy Micro. These handhelds depend on emulation and can’t read real, bonafide Game Boy carts.

Anerbnic’s K101 Plus is one of its only handhelds that can read Game Boy Advance cartridges, but it’s been out of stock for a while. Now, the brand has brought back the K101 Plus, giving the GBA-cart-supported device a fresh new colorway.

Anbernic

The refreshed K101 Plus handheld is based upon the past K101 Plus, originally released in 2015. Back then, it was known as the Revo K101 Plus, which, just to complicate things, was also an improved version of the K101.

This newly refreshed K101 Plus has “full compatibility” with official and unofficial Game Boy Advance game carts. However, unlike the Analogue Pocket, the K101 Plus is not running FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) and instead relies on emulation.

While the lack of FPGA may be disappointing to some retro gaming fans, GameCube fans may get a kick out of the K101 Plus’s new colorway. The “blue” coat of paint highly mirrors that of the old Nintendo console.

The refreshed K101 Plus can read your officially copied game dumps on a microSD through its TF card, with support of up to 256GB. It’s also equipped with an 800mAh battery offering up to five hours of gameplay and can link to other K101 Plus handhelds for games with multiplayer support.

If you still want to try out the refreshed Anerbnic K101 Plus for yourself, you can pick it up for $69.99 from the Anbernic store.