The handheld gaming PC market is booming and a new trend is emerging within this niche field: compact devices. We have the upcoming Anbernic win600 and the newly-announced AYN Loki; and earlier this month AYANEO announced several lines of new handheld gaming PCs, among which is the compact AYANEO AIR. Over the weekend, the company held a press conference to provide more details about the device:

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Akin to the AYN Loki, the AYANEO AIR will rather be a line of handheld gaming PCs rather than a single device. The line includes consoles with OLED screens packing different specs, including the first Mendocino-based gaming handheld which will retail at $199 for a limited time (and $289 later). Other devices in the AYANEO AIR line include the 5560U-equipped AIR Youth with an early bird price of $499 and the 5825U-equipped AIR Pro with an early bird price of $749. The latter model also comes in different colour variants based on a partnership with B.Duck.

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In addition to the new OLED handheld gaming PCs, AYANEO also announced a few new products during its press conference. This includes a Special Edition of the SN30 Pro Controller from 8BitDo, an expansion dock for the AIR handheld as well as dedicated carry cases and tempered glass screen protector. The company also announced that it is working on an AYANEO OS which could be considered as a competitor or alternative to the SteamOS.

The AYANEO AIR line of handheld gaming PCs will launch globally via an Indiegogo campaign but the exact date has yet to be announced.

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[MohammedQ8]

Oled screen or almond screen?

 

[kristianity77]

These devices are pretty sweet but apart from aya neo (and steam deck) why do they insist in putting screens in that are high resolutions when the chipset inside can't really drive them apart from video and a windows desktop ui.

Seriously, I've got the retro aya neo and it's only 1280x800 but that is razer sharp even on the 7 inch display. There's no need to push more pixels than that. That is amazing in itself for emulation. You'd be amazed how good ps2, gamecube and cemu look on an 800p screen, especially running at native and at 60fps. It's glorious.

 

[Xzi]

These devices are pretty sweet but apart from aya neo (and steam deck) why do they insist in putting screens in that are high resolutions when the chipset inside can't really drive them apart from video and a windows desktop ui.

Seriously, I've got the retro aya neo and it's only 1280x800 but that is razer sharp even on the 7 inch display. There's no need to push more pixels than that. That is amazing in itself for emulation. You'd be amazed how good ps2, gamecube and cemu look on an 800p screen, especially running at native and at 60fps. It's glorious.

Only reason I can think of is that 1080p OLED panels at this size were actually cheaper to source than 720p ones, simply because Nintendo is currently buying those up too.

 

[kristianity77]

Only reason I can think of is that 1080p OLED panels at this size were actually cheaper to source than 720p ones, simply because Nintendo is currently buying those up too.

Your probably right to be fair. But in my opinion, the more powerful these devices come, just don't change the resolution. Just give us more power to take sliders up in graphic settings, but leave the resolution at 720p, put the power where its needed, don't waste it on pixel counts

 

[Xzi]

Your probably right to be fair. But in my opinion, the more powerful these devices come, just don't change the resolution. Just give us more power to take sliders up in graphic settings, but leave the resolution at 720p, put the power where its needed, don't waste it on pixel counts

Until we have a major breakthrough in battery technology, I totally agree. The 800p screen on Steam Deck makes emulation look amazing anyway. Not quite on the level of CRT pixel smoothing, but close.

 

[GBADWB]

im curious on how mendicino will scale because Vega 8 to steamdeck RNDA2 (disregarding CPU bound differences) is about 60%, and vega scaling per CU between vega 6 > vega 7 > vega 8 is about 10% per CU. Given shitty math, a 2 CU RDNA2 could possibly be seen as 60% better than a theoretical 2 Vega CU, which if following the scaling above linearly (realistically, performance scaling isn't linear, but this is just a guesstimate) which would be 40% of a Vega 8. Getting 60% performance boost from something that is 40% of a Vega 8 would put it around 64% of a Vega 8 die, making it theoretically similarish to what a 5 CU vega core would be (end result is ~64% of a vega 8)

64% of a vega8 wouldn't be that bad for a zen 2 based handheld pc thats sub 300 tbh.

 

[urbanman2004]

This is honestly a better deal than the OLED Switch ($350).

To add insult to injury, it could probably emulate Switch fairly well by way of YuZu, lol .

 

[Marc_LFD]

Only reason I can think of is that 1080p OLED panels at this size were actually cheaper to source than 720p ones, simply because Nintendo is currently buying those up too.

If Nintendo makes "Super Switch" (as in the successor), with an OLED screen it's an instant win for Nintendo as well as customers, too.

Paying $350 for a five year old is just.. unreasonable.

 

[AngryCinnabon]

Well, That's a nice surprise! this should be nice for the people who can't order a deck or don't need the beefiest hardware.

To add insult to injury, it could probably emulate Switch fairly well by way of YuZu, lol .

I hate to be that person to say it but the Deck struggles with Yuzu (Mostly higher demand games though) so i doubt this will do too well for anything 3d. switch exclusive indies on the other hand might run pretty good though

 

[Rahkeesh]

Meh most modern games have upscaling options and the 7th gen stuff should probably run OK at native. I don't think 1080p is that big a detriment, bit of a help if anything in making that emulation and indies look a touch sharper.

Curious to see how much Aya OS is leaning on Valve. Certainly using some version of proton and the open source AMD driver. Will they go so far as to rebrand steamOS, legally or not?

The deck's resolution is mostly fine but the screen is kind of garbage, poor saturation and response time. These things will have an enormous edge being OLED, especially for the price.

 

[gumbyx84]

While I use a Zenfone 5z (and now a Miyoo Mini) for emulation, this definitely has my attention. I have a M1 Pro MacBook Pro so I'm limited to what systems have M1/ARM emulators and whatever I can get working in Crossover and Porting Kit. Sadly since the SoC is an unknown I don't know what we'll be able to play on it. I have a feeling I might still get one if I can get the Early Bird pricing. I missed out on the Ayn Odin and I greatly regret it,

 

[urbanman2004]

I hate to be that person to say it but the Deck struggles with Yuzu (Mostly higher demand games though) so i doubt this will do too well for anything 3d. switch exclusive indies on the other hand might run pretty good though

I'd wait and see before making any judgement calls.

 

[orangy57]

had to sell the Steam Deck since the size was ridiculously big and i didn't need the extra performance on the go, hoping these umpcs will be the perfect screen/body ratio but its going to be so hard to choose with how similar they all are

With the prices going down these Steam Deck alternatives are actually starting to feel like alternatives

 

[ganons]

@Prans you might want to update or post new thread as they announced more new devices today which is in direct competition to Loki.

 

[Veho]

@Prans you might want to update or post new thread as they announced more new devices today which is in direct competition to Loki.

They announced another ~$300 device? Other than the Air Plus?

 

[Prans]

@Prans you might want to update or post new thread as they announced more new devices today which is in direct competition to Loki.

which device if it hasn't been mentioned in the original post already?

 

[ganons]

which device if it hasn't been mentioned in the original post already?

Air plus with i3 1215u / pentium 8505

Neo 2 geek 6600u/6800u both 7"

 

[Redhorse]

Ayaneo Air is touted to be small but can you (realistically) read any of the text at that size? the zoom function of the switch is just BS.. And what about the battery time?