Anbernic RG SP is an ultra-slim, modern reinterpretation of the Game Boy Advance SP

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Game Boy SP Advance, released way back in 2003, captured the imagination of portable gaming fanatics for all the good reasons. The retro handheld still has an unquenched appeal for its nostalgic design and folding form factor. Anbernic has a profound affinity for the GBA SP, as we saw the Linux-based Anbernic RG35XXSP bring back old memories.

The gaming accessories maker is back again with a GBA SP-inspired emulation handheld that looks and feels more refined than the earlier interpretation. This ultra-slim clamshell gadget dubbed Anbernic RG SP is designed “to relive the pure joy of the 2D golden era.” The handheld instantly takes you back to the era with its premium metallic finish and the acrylic logo badge.

Designer: Anbernic

In a world where we have graduated to the modern design of the RG Rotate, the RG SP handheld has a distinct place in the hearts of millennial-era gamers like me. Playing 2D games on this gadget is going to be a focused affair as Anbernic understandably drops the idea of adding a joystick on this one. Instead, there is a classic D-pad and button layout with refined tactile input. The handheld has narrow screen bezels, making the 3.4-inch IPS display (720 × 480 resolution) – which is three times the resolution of the original GBA SP stand out. Retro games can be scaled to perfection courtesy of the 3 times scaling, making emulation an easy affair.

Also, the body is 10 percent thinner than the original GBA SP. On the inside, there is the H700 chipset to play any 2D retro game without any lag. In the gameplay video, Anbernic demos the device playing Game Boy Advance titles including Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Fire Emblem, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and Pokémon Emerald. Running games made for PSP, PlayStation 1, and SEGA Dreamcast should also be no problem. What’s interesting is the gadget running Stardew Valley port and PC version of Cuphead: Don’t Deal with the Devil from Steam.

The sleek handheld can be connected wirelessly to your TV with the casting option, and paired to a Bluetooth controller like the Gamesir G8 Plus for an enhanced level of gameplay. Dual alloy hinges on the gadget make it easy to place the handheld in any desired orientation, or have multi-angle positioning. The gadget also gets a microSD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack to keep the nostalgia flowing.

Anbernic RG SP will be available in premium metallic finishes including Platinum, Graphite, Black, Teal and Pearl Pink. The only color I would have loved to see is the Metallic Blue, which defined the GBA SP for me. That said, there is no word yet on the pricing or the availability of the ultra-slim retro gaming handheld, but we’ll keep our eyes and ears open.

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Get Ready for the $349 Smart Ring That Vibrates on Your Finger

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Smart rings have quietly become one of the more compelling wearable categories, but they’ve also settled into a familiar pattern. Almost every new model competes on the same promises: better sleep tracking, a more refined readiness score, and slightly longer battery life. The hardware keeps improving, but the relationship between the wearer and the device hasn’t shifted much. It still mostly communicates through morning reports and app dashboards.

RingConn Gen 3, which launched on July 25, 2026, is making a case for something different. Beyond the usual cardiovascular basics, it introduces vascular trend tracking, giving wearers a longer-view picture of their health over time. It also adds haptic vibration alerts, a feature no other smart ring currently offers. The whole package comes in at $349 with no subscription fees, which keeps the ownership model refreshingly straightforward.

Designer: RingConn

Most attention will drift toward the vascular tracking angle, but the haptic motor deserves a closer look. A smart ring that vibrates on your finger isn’t the same experience as a watch tapping your wrist. The finger is one of the body’s most tactile zones, so a buzz there lands differently, more directly, and in a way that’s harder to tune out or dismiss as background noise.

That difference matters most in the moments when you’d least want to pull out your phone. A quiet nudge during a meeting, a gentle prompt after sitting still for too long, or a discreet alert in the early hours when something shifts overnight, none of those need a screen. They just need a ring that knows when to say something and how to say it without disturbing everyone around you.

The vascular trend tracking feature is the bigger headline in category terms. Rather than adding another single-moment metric to the app dashboard, it monitors patterns over time, giving wearers a broader sense of how their body is trending across days and weeks. It’s framed as a wellness insight rather than a clinical reading, which keeps the expectations grounded and the interpretation squarely in the wearer’s hands.

What makes this interesting from a design standpoint is that RingConn managed to fit optical sensors, a vibration motor, and up to 14 days of battery life into a 2.3mm titanium body. The inner surface uses medical-grade resin for comfort, and the ring itself weighs between 2.3 and 3.5 grams depending on the size. That’s a serious hardware challenge for something designed to sit on your finger all day.

The Gen 3 comes in five finishes: Future Silver, Royal Gold, Matte Black, Brushed Silver, and Brushed Rose Gold. At $349, it’s firmly in premium smart ring territory, but the lack of a subscription fee makes that price easier to justify over time. Rivals that tack on monthly charges for full app access end up costing noticeably more in the long run, which makes RingConn’s flat-fee model considerably more appealing.

Then there’s the Warner Bros. Lord of the Rings collaboration, a limited-edition partnership that RingConn isn’t shy about mentioning. It’s a smart piece of brand alignment, a ring company partnering with the most famous, or infamous, ring in pop culture. Whether the tie-in feels like genuine collector appeal or calculated marketing depends on the buyer, but it does add some character to a category that tends to take itself rather seriously.

What RingConn Gen 3 really proposes is that a smart ring doesn’t have to stay quiet. The category has spent years refining how it listens to the body, and Gen 3 asks what happens when it starts talking back. Whether that’s a light nudge during a sedentary afternoon or a vascular trend surfacing across a few weeks, there’s something worth considering in a ring that finally has something to say.

The post Get Ready for the $349 Smart Ring That Vibrates on Your Finger first appeared on Yanko Design.

The $20 Pen That Makes a Very Loud Case for Minimalism

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At 75mm, DeFF’s Refill Pen Jacket Extra Short is roughly the length of a thumb. Closed up, it sits in your palm like a pocket-sized secret. Open it, cap flipped to the back end, and it extends to 125mm, long enough to write comfortably, short enough to forget you’re carrying it. That particular trick, the transformation from almost-nothing to just-enough, is the whole point.

DeFF is a Japanese design firm that has been quietly building a reputation around the idea that the tools you carry every day deserve more thought. The Refill Pen Jacket concept is clever at its core: rather than designing a pen from scratch, they designed a jacket, a precision-crafted body that wraps around whatever standard refill you already love. You’re not locked into DeFF’s ink. You’re not buying a disposable. The jacket works with D1 (ISO) and 4C (JIS) standard refills, covering a staggering range of off-the-shelf options. You bring the ink. They bring the experience.

Designer: DeFF

The Extra Short version takes that idea and compresses it further, prioritizing portability without sacrificing the writing feel. And it works. Knurled grip, balanced weight, magnetic cap snap, a collet structure that holds your refill without any modification needed. All of it feels deliberate rather than decorative. It doesn’t feel like a product that was engineered and then handed off to a designer to make pretty. It feels like it went the other direction entirely.

Materials matter here in a real way. DeFF offers the Extra Short in aluminum (jet black, aquamarine blue, and ruby red), brass, titanium gray, natural wood including ebony, and carbon fiber. Each one wears differently, weights differently, and will age differently. The brass version is the most compelling to me personally. It will patina. It will develop character. You’ll use it for years and it won’t look the same as the day you bought it, which is either a selling point or a dealbreaker depending on who you are. I happen to think it’s a selling point.

Pricing starts at $19.99 for the aluminum model, which makes this genuinely accessible. The more premium finishes push the price higher, but the entry point is honest. And it’s worth noting that the Refill Pen Jacket Extra Short won the iF Design Award 2026, one of the most recognized design prizes in the world. That context matters. It’s not a novelty or a clever gimmick. It was evaluated alongside global competition and came out on top. For a pen that fits in the breast pocket of your shirt, that’s a significant thing to carry around.

The engraving option is worth a mention too. Custom engraving turns this from a premium daily carry into a gift that actually lands. Not a generic gift, either. Giving someone a beautifully made writing instrument personalized with their name or a date is a completely different category of thoughtful, and it’s the kind of thing people keep in a drawer for years before deciding it’s too good not to use every day.

There’s a larger conversation embedded in a product like this. We spend a lot of time talking about sustainability in broad strokes, in systems and policies, but very little time thinking about how individual design choices contribute to the same goal. A pen jacket, by definition, asks you to stop throwing away the whole thing when the ink runs out. The object stays. Only the cartridge changes. That’s a small shift in behavior, but it’s also a shift in how you relate to the things you carry. You’re not using it up. You’re carrying it forward.

For anyone who writes by hand regularly, whether you’re a journaler, a designer who sketches on paper, or just someone who prefers the feel of pen over stylus, the Extra Short is the kind of object that rewards attention. It doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t need to. It isn’t trying to be the loudest thing in the room. It’s just trying to be the one you always reach for.

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