After reviewing handhelds for many years, I have only come across a small number of clamshell handhelds that aren’t owned by Nintendo.
One being the Powkiddy X18S, the Powkiddy V90, the NVIDIA Shield and so on.
So when I heard the news that AYANEO could be launching a clamshell handheld, I was over the moon, because it’s about time someone made a decent one!
Admittedly the V90 from Powkiddy is pretty good, but that’s aimed at affordable emulation, coming in at around $50.
Who is AYANEO?
AYANEO started releasing handhelds a few years ago, targeting AAA games with huge processors and typically running on a Windows operating system. Since they launched, they have created some of the best handheld gaming PCs of all time, competing with the Steam Deck.
They are a Chinese company looking to dominate the premium handheld market.
What is the AYANEO Flip?
AYANEO hosted a livestream a few weeks ago, showing their future handheld lineup, and one handheld that came to our attention was one titled “AYA NEO Flip”.
This was the only product which had no image, but thankfully for the internet one concept from AYANEO came to fruition, and it looks to be a clamshell design.
This is the only image we currently have of the AYANEO Flip.
As you can tell from the design, it is 100% a clamshell handheld. It has a curved back shell which will add to the comfortability, and flared shoulder buttons which you know we love here at Retro Dodo!
If you take a closer look, you can see that the analogue sticks are sunk into the shell. At first I thought “wow, they are really hidden”, but then I realised they have to be in order for the handheld to shut.
So even though they look odd, there’s no real way around it, unless the somehow “pop out” of the shell, which would be an incredible feature, but highly unlikely.
AYANEO Flip Specifications
As of now there is no official information released about the AYANEO Flip, apart from the image above, approximate release date of “2022 Q4” and that it will have an AMD 6800U CPU.
But below are rumoured specs from the handheld community (Credit: source) :
- Windows Operating System
- 2.7GHZ – 4.7GHZ 8-Core AMD Ryzen 7 6800U CPU
- AMD Radeon 680M GPU
- 8/16GB RAM
- 7″ Touchscreen Display
- WiFi + Bluetooth
- 4000+ MAH Battery
That’s as much as we can guess. From the image it also looks like there’s no traditional keyboard, so you will have to use the on-screen keyboard to get around the device.
This is becoming the norm with these types of consoles as it frees up more space for buttons.
AYANEO Flip Release Date
The AYANEO Flip will release in Q4 of 2022.
AYANEO Flip Pricing
As of now their is no official pricing for the AYANEO Flip, but if we have to guess it will be between $500 – $999.
Should you buy a AYANEO Flip?
It’s certainly too early to to tell, but I do think the community would welcome a decent clamshell handheld that can play AAA games on the go.
The Nintendo DS has crafted a nostalgic love for these types of the devices and nobody has yet to pull the trigger on making a decent version. We hoped Analogue would get there but it looks like AYANEO are on step ahead.
The only issue I have, is that AYANEO are releasing so many handhelds so quickly that it would worry me that I would spend all of this money on a handheld for a newer, more powerful one to be announced just a few weeks after paying.
But this is a worry about the company, not the product.
