AYA have revealed their upcoming AYA Neo Air handheld that’s the same size as a Nintendo Switch but packs enough power to compete with the oh so popular Steam Deck.
Could it become one of the best handheld gaming PCs of the year? Maybe, but will the portable nature and small size of the handheld be it’s biggest demise?
Let’s take a look at all of the details they have revealed so far.
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What’s new with the AYA Neo Air?
The company behind this handheld are also the company behind the incredibly expensive AYA Neo and the AYA Neo Next. Both of these are fairly large handhelds, but the AYA Neo Air wants to become a “more affordable”, portable handheld device.
Our guess is that the team saw the incredible success of the AYN Odin, and decided that they want a piece of the pie.
The AYA Neo Air will be the world’s first OLED Windows handheld and features a 5.5″ screen, and a AMD Ryzen CPU, which has never appeared in a Windows handheld before.
They are really going all in on this one, and as you can tell from the images, it looks like it has been designed with ergonomics in mind.
Yes, it’s likely to be expensive, but AYA have a history of creating high end products, a bit like the Analogue Pocket, so we’re comfortable in saying that they’ll deliver in their promise, even if it means busting the bank.
AYA Neo Air Specifications (Rumoured)
- 5.5″ OLED Display (1920 x 1080) 404PPI
- AMD Ryzen CPU
- Fingerprint Reader
- Micro SD Slot
- WiFi/Bluetooth
- NVME Protocol SSD
- Weighs Less Than 400g
How does it look?
As mentioned previously the AYA Neo Air is very similar size to that of a Nintendo Switch Lite. On the top, you can see it has four shoulder buttons in a modern gradient that changes along the top bar.
We’ve never seen this before and we really like the way it looks, it gives it that unique look, which is hard to do in a market that launches new retro handhelds every few weeks!
You’ll also see a USB-C charging point, ventilation and a finger print reader, something we are seeing more and more of in these premium upcoming handhelds.
Around the back and sides you won’t find much apart from well designed ergonomics, something you don’t get in the Nintendo Switch, and even the Steam Deck for that matter because of the sheer size of it.
So perhaps the size, the curved back and the 400g lightweight nature of it will cause this handheld to be very comfortable to use? Who knows!
Unfortunately as of writing this article there’s no pictures revealing the front, however we can expect a very crispy bright screen, and maybe even some RGB buttons to go on the front and under the analogue sticks.
The AYA Neo Air wants to be known for lightweight power, which as we know is hard to do, but handhelds are achieving it, so if anyone can make the world’s first OLED Windows handheld under 400g, it’s going to be AYA Neo, for sure.
How well does the AYA Neo Air perform?
Not only will it be the world’s first OLED Windows handheld, it’s going to be one of the first to feature a high-spec AMD Ryzen CPU in a device of this size, meaning it’s going to pack a punch.
As of now there is no official information regarding the specs, but above you can see a video that showcases some larger games at silky smooth frame-rates. To be successful the AYANEO Air needs to be able to play some AAA games on the go.
As of now, the market is saturated with handhelds, many have cheaper emulators that are good enough to get by, some have purchased the Steam Deck for top tier handheld performance and now having a handheld come out that can’t do what the Steam Deck can is just silly in my opinion.
So it has to perform well and be at a price that is competitive with the likes of the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch, which should be under $400.
In terms of emulation, it’s like that it will be able to emulate the best PS2 games, Gamecube, Dreamcast, PS1 and more.
AYA Neo Air Release Date & Pricing
As of now there is no official pricing or release date. But if we had to guess from years of experience reviewing handhelds, it’s likely the AYA Neo Air will launch towards the end of 2022 and be priced at approximately $500.
If it prices itself over the $500 mark then we think it will really struggle to sell, this is due to competition and affordable handhelds like the AYN Odin taking up the “affordable” market.
A 29 year old fella that’s had a Gameboy addiction ever since he was a child. Brandon is the founder of RetroDodo and created a YouTube channel with 240,000 subscribers dedicated to retro gaming products. He now wants to create the No.1 site to showcase the latest retro products from around the globe.
