Is Anbernic tanking in QC? Negative reports of devices "catching fire" and screen quality

[K3Nv2]

I've came across a few reddit topics with complaints of quality control lately one comment stood out to me about one of their latest product the rg35xx sp catching fire or melting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ANBERNIC/s/MhpfcgJfPO

https://www.reddit.com/r/ANBERNIC/s/qruTdvLatH

Agreeable 100% when companies release so many devices. Another about their RG Cube, a nearly $200 device with reports of light bleed and Anbernics main reasonable thought of fix is to send user a screen replacement and fix it themselves.

https://www.gamesradar.com/hardware...s-is-reportedly-suffering-from-screen-issues/

https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/s/m1bgZF7RgK


Will update with more products to follow, however much, one negative device may impact an entire company remember that not all products will have the same results.

 

[AmandaRose]

My boyfriend for his birthday wants me to get him the ANBERNIC RG35XX H. Think I will pass on that purchase after seeing this thread.

 

[Veho]

Anbernic is going Samsung on us!

I was going to say they weren't used to making devices so cheap (compared to their previous handhelds) so they cut too many corners, but the SP issue is down to the design itself. The battery is the heat sink for the CPU. Let that sink (HA!) in. Whoever came up with that bright idea deserves a smack to the face. Or several.


EDIT:

Reading more about the SP, and the incident you posted, I found this theory:

It looks like the device’s USB-C PD charging circuit has a poor quality voltage regulator that can fail to operate within spec and then burns up. Because this chip is located so close to the battery, it can overheat the battery and start a fire. To reiterate, regulator chips don't typically pose a hazard, they are designed to shutdown when forced out of spec, however, its location near the battery is a fire hazard if the chip were to fail anyway.

I recommend only using the included power cable and a power brick that’s limited to 10W (preferably even less). This will ensure the device charges at 5V. Using a USB-C to USB-C cable is a bad idea because these can go over 5V which puts stress on the internal charging circuit.

Anbernic is obviously using a very low quality MOSFET or their engineering team is incompetent to create a safe USB-C power delivery circuit. If the MOSFET says “AMS” on it, then I can guarantee the former, as this chip is commonly forged.


Also, this from another user:

when I got my SP yesterday and opened it to perform the button mod, I noticed they added an isolating piece of cardboard (or something like that, it was shiny) between the board and battery. So it looks like they are aware of the problem and decided to "fix" it this way

 

[WhoIAm]

Damn, and I was actually thinking of picking up the SP due to its form factor. Glad I held off. Probably never buying anything from this company at this rate.