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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[Veho]

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 ​

Shut up and take my money!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Looked up Mendocino, looks like an ancient Celeron? Or is there a new Mendocino I'm not aware of?
Edit: So it's AMD. Unfortunate that they used the same codename as a Celeron platform from the 90s, I don't think anybody wants that in a modern handheld.

I wonder what the performance is like. You could get plenty of $200 x86/x64 Windows devices before, so this pricing is not unheard of, but those were using Atoms, only had 2GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage and were hardly usable. I'm not convinced you can get usable gaming performance in a Windows device for $200 but we'll see.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

For who loves emulation like me, this is promising. Maybe will be an awesome batocera build.

 

[Xzi]

Okay $199 for an OLED portable is pretty damn insane. It remains to be seen how many people are actually able to buy at that price, however.

 

[CompSciOrBust]

Okay $199 for an OLED portable is pretty damn insane. It remains to be seen how many people are actually able to buy at that price, however.

A 1080p OLED at that. I'm thinking about getting one so I can play Halo (don't want a bulky PC when I move house every year for uni) but I can't find the Indiegogo link anywhere.

 

[Prans]

A 1080p OLED at that. I'm thinking about getting one so I can play Halo (don't want a bulky PC when I move house every year for uni) but I can't find the Indiegogo link anywhere.

the IGG campaign isn't live yet as noted in the article (at the end)

 

[Xzi]

A 1080p OLED at that. I'm thinking about getting one so I can play Halo (don't want a bulky PC when I move house every year for uni) but I can't find the Indiegogo link anywhere.

Kinda pointless to make it 1080p TBH. AAA games won't be able to render at that resolution (unless you like 10 FPS), and older games both look better and drain battery slower at lower resolutions.

 

[tech3475]

Looked up Mendocino, looks like an ancient Celeron? Or is there a new Mendocino I'm not aware of?
Edit: So it's AMD. Unfortunate that they used the same codename as a Celeron platform from the 90s, I don't think anybody wants that in a modern handheld.

I wonder what the performance is like. You could get plenty of $200 x86/x64 Windows devices before, so this pricing is not unheard of, but those were using Atoms, only had 2GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage and were hardly usable. I'm not convinced you can get usable gaming performance in a Windows device for $200 but we'll see.

Supposedly some of the SoCs specs have been leaked:
https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-men...u-reportely-features-only-two-2-compute-units

 

[diggeloid]

Supposedly some of the SoCs specs have been leaked:
https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-men...u-reportely-features-only-two-2-compute-units

I wonder what kind of 1080p gaming you'd be able to do with 2 CUs. Probably not much? Plus it seems like the screen is both smaller than the Steam Deck's and a higher resolution. Battery life and performance sacrifices for likely imperceptible resolution improvements...for an (apparently) temporary $199 price tag. Maybe an ARM device would make more sense, but clearly their goal is to have the cheapest handheld Windows PC on the market, even if it sucks.

OLED is nice though.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I wonder what kind of 1080p gaming you'd be able to do with 2 CUs. Probably not much? Plus it seems like the screen is both smaller than the Steam Deck's and a higher resolution. Battery life and performance sacrifices for likely imperceptible resolution improvements...for an (apparently) temporary $199 price tag. Maybe an ARM device would make more sense, but clearly their goal is to have the cheapest handheld Windows PC on the market, even if it sucks.

OLED is nice though.

At that DPI you'll be fine lowering the resolution ingame or using RSR/FSR without noticing reduced quality from the scaling.
I also question why so many of these devices go with 1080p or 1200p though. 720p is really just fine unless the screen is larger than 7 inches. Though the UI in some modern games is not designed for resolutions that small and might be oversized, so I guess it's nice to have the option for some games. Something you could work around with supersampling anyways.

 

[subcon959]

The devices look nice but I wonder why they want to develop their own OS.

 

[tech3475]

I wonder what kind of 1080p gaming you'd be able to do with 2 CUs. Probably not much? Plus it seems like the screen is both smaller than the Steam Deck's and a higher resolution. Battery life and performance sacrifices for likely imperceptible resolution improvements...for an (apparently) temporary $199 price tag. Maybe an ARM device would make more sense, but clearly their goal is to have the cheapest handheld Windows PC on the market, even if it sucks.

OLED is nice though.

Probably low end/older/indie/emulation. I look at low end machines like this could be as 'if you know what you're buying' devices, as in if you buy these knowing their limitations they can still be ok depending on your needs.

x86 was likely chosen over ARM for compatibility and scalability, considering the other higher end models and they want to make their own OS.

The devices look nice but I wonder why they want to develop their own OS.

Likely to make revenue through their own store and reduce the base price, don't be surprised if in the future the 'from' price doesn't include a Windows license.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Vita showed the potential of OLED gaming and ever since others (Nintendo, Ayaneo, etc) are using it too.

This looks tempting, but I have plenty of handhelds as it is and I just prefer to game on a big screen.

 

[eyeliner]

They got me at
Childhood Experience
Trendy Painting
And ecological construction is an added bonus

 

[scoobydude51]

The devices look nice but I wonder why they want to develop their own OS.

to compete with the Steam Deck and SteamOS is my best guess.

 

[K3Nv2]

$200 has me more interested hopefully I don't miss out on that limited time thing,

 

[MrSandstorm]

So cool to see these new handhelds. Powerful desktops are nice and all, but with every generation component manufacturers (especially GPUs) seem to be increasing performance by simply throwing in more power and calling it a day. It's in these portable form factors that we're seeing the real advances.

 

[urbanman2004]

At $200, I think it's a/b that time I finally jump on the handheld train . Could someone keep me posted when their promo campaign starts, please.

 

[Marc_LFD]

At $200, I think it's a/b that time I finally jump on the handheld train . Could someone keep me posted when their promo campaign starts, please.

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