Chinese firm AYANEO has created some of the most interesting handheld PCs of recent years, with the original model and the more recent AYANEO Air proving to be very popular with consumers and critics alike.
During a livestream event held yesterday, the company formally revealed two new products – the AYANEO Air Plus and AYANEO Slide – as well as teasing another pair of products, the NEXT II and KUN. However, at the end of the broadcast, the company added a cheeky 'post-credits' announcement (which we missed, but thankfully it was spotted by the lovely folk over at RetroDodo).
AYANEO CEO Arthur Zhang began the segment by discussing the company's affection for retro games, showing off an impressive selection of vintage devices.
He then revealed the 'Pocket Air', a new device which will leverage Google's Android operating system and will boast a similar design to the AYANEO Air, but smaller. It will have a 5.5-inch OLED display, as well as 'Hall effect' sticks and triggers (so there's no danger of analogue drift here). No physical product exists as yet, but Zhang did show off the motherboard for the system during the stream.
The Pocket Air is expected to launch in Q2 2023, and could be serious competition for the likes of Retroid, Anbernic and Miyoo, all of which have similar devices in the market at present (some of which also use Android).
The deciding factor will be the cost; AYANEO's products are a little on the expensive side, so the price point for the Pocket Air is going to be crucial to its success. Still, the fact that the company is moving into this space is exciting, and the extra competition should ensure that its rivals up their game.