G80 R36S Clone

The G80 R36S Clone is an unlabeled counterfeit device sold under the R36S name by third-party marketplace sellers. It is externally identical to the genuine R36S, including the box art, button layout, dual MicroSD slots, dual USB-C ports, and dual RAM chips. The only reliable way to identify it is through the firmware: genuine R36S units ship with ArkOS; this clone ships with EmuELEC, a different Linux-based emulation frontend not maintained for RK3326 hardware.

Internally, the G80 Clone uses a G80 or G80D SoC rather than the Rockchip RK3326 found in genuine units. The GPU is an ARM Mali-G31, running OpenGL ES 2.0. The system string reported by EmuELEC identifies itself as G80-CA-HH-R36S-EE-TF-R, with a build date suffix indicating assembly in late 2025. The CPU core count is four, consistent with a quad-core ARM SoC, but the CPU model field is blank in the firmware information screen, a typical characteristic of G80-board devices.

Game performance on the G80 Clone is adequate for systems up to PlayStation 1. Most 16-bit and early 32-bit titles run without significant stuttering. Some Dreamcast titles run at reduced speeds. The stock SD card includes preloaded ROMs, which is standard practice for these clone devices and carries obvious licensing concerns.

The build quality is where it can be anyone's guess. Maybe it will be bad, good, or great. You never know.