AYANEO Pocket DS Review: Double The Screens, Double The Fun

The tidal wave of dual-screen devices is on its way, and the first to land on our desks is the AYANEO Pocket DS, "the world's first dual-screen, clamshell Android handheld".

This device is unlike anything I have reviewed before. That's saying something considering I have reviewed hundreds of handhelds since launching Retro Dodo in 2019, and it's the first time in a long time where I have been genuinely excited to review something that feels and looks "different".

Different in the sense that this takes Android retro gaming to a new level. It's packed with more power than I need, two screens, a well-crafted body, and it's the reason why I haven't touched my Nintendo Switch 2 in weeks, which has surprised me.

This review that you are reading today will be heavily focused on retro gaming, seeing as how we are a retro-focused website. I will, however, dabble in the likes of Cloud gaming and Android gaming, as this device has seemed to pull me into that category naturally.

Sit back, grab a cup of tea and enjoy my written review of the AYANEO Pocket DS, my new best friend... Though, like all best friends, it comes with some baggage.

• Release Date: Late 2025
• Pricing: $399 - $759
• Where To Buy: Indiegogo.com (it's still in crowdfunding)
• Competition: AYN Thor (launching soon)

AYANEO Pocket DS Specifications

Screen 1 Specifications

• 7" OLED 165Hz high-refresh main display
• 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution
• 800nits global maximum brightness
• 90% DCI-P3
• 150% sRGB gamut volume
• HDR true colour quality

Screen 2 Specifications

• 5" 1024 x 768 4:3 secondary display
• 550nits global maximum brightness
• 256PPI high pixel density
• 100% sRGB colour gamut coverage
• 120% colour gamut volume

Other Specifications

• Qualcomm Snapdragon G3X Gen 2 Chipset
• Qualcomm Adreno A32 GPU
• 8GB - 16GB RAM
• 128GB - 1TB Storage
• 8000MAH Battery
• Android 13
• 540G In Weight
• Price ranges: $399 - $759 (based on early bird pricing to final retail pricing)

How well is this handheld designed?

Let's jump straight into the design. This is a big, heavy device; there's no denying it. It is not pocketable, and is just about portable in a sling. It's very much a handheld that you transport in a backpack.

It weighs 540g, the same weight as an original Nintendo Switch, and when opened up, you'll be shocked at the real estate that this device covers. That's due to the large 7" OLED display up top, partnered with a very ergonomic and very thick bottom half that feels great in the hands.

If it were any thicker, it would likely feel too big in the hands, but for my big-ish, neanderthal hands, it fits well and enables me to touch all of the buttons naturally without stretching or blocking the back ventilation.

The only ports around the device are a single full-feature USB-C port (that allows for fast charging and video out) and an SD-card slot at the front to load your retro games and expand memory.

When shut, it's a very sleek-looking device, featuring a CNC'ed metal top shell, which gives off a slight metal shimmer to it. I like the sleekness here, and it pains me that I have to transport this in a carry case due to its weight.

A small drop will likely damage this thing because of the weight, so I recommend a carry case of some kind and try not to game while walking/moving.

When opened, the bottom section takes up 80% of the weight, making the incredibly thin, light top display feel as if it's floating, so I experienced no issues with weight distribution at all, and it genuinely feels comfortable and natural to play on for long periods of time, due to the low centre of gravity.

It does look like a lot is going on when you open it up to see the face, and I agree here. It's cluttered AF, but that being said, I need every button that's being featured and I use them regularly, so I don't see how AYANEO could have got around this cluttered look without sacrificing buttons to the sides, which would remove the sleekness of this device when shut.

The Hinge

Handheld companies in the past who have made clamshell devices have struggled with perfecting hinges. GoRetroid screwed up with their original Pocket Flip, and Miyoo had many returns of their Flip handheld.

However, for AYANEO, this isn't their first clamshell handheld, so they've had time to test and read community feedback.

The hinge on the AYANEO Pocket Flip is a hinge I trust. Will it snap if I put force on it after fully extending it?

Yes, of course, this isn't made of adamantium! However, it can open to a full 180 degrees, with a little flexibility beyond that, so it will take some small pressure here.

When fully extended, you will be greeted with a click that locks it in place. Up until then, it's simply pressure which holds the display with a lot of force, so much so that it will not close if you're swinging it around.

Are two screens worth the hype?

I have been wanting to see a dual-screen retro handheld for a long time now, so I will admit I am a little biased here as I feel like a kid that just got hold of some kind of futuristic handheld that is overwhelming me every time I use it... in a good way.

That said, I have had a couple of moments where I'll come out of a 1-hour gaming session and feel like it was a little "too much".

The displays chosen are both beautiful. The large 7" 1080p display is an absolute pleasure to play a wide selection of games on, from 8-bit classics upscaled to stupid resolutions to cloud streaming AAA games at 1080p resolution that's comfortable to enjoy.

It's a display that can do many things, at a great brightness for outdoor gaming with a beautiful scale of saturated colours and decent sharpness that has made me say "wow" on several occasions.

99% of portable gamers will enjoy this top screen, I have very little issues with it, if I had to nit-pick, I would like to see a border-less display here but that's going to near impossible due to the curvature of the top shell, but AYANEO are renowned for creating bezel-less displays, so perhaps that will come in the Pocket DS 2?

The bottom screen is smaller, coming in at 5" with a 1024 x 768 4:3 resolution. It has less brightness, less colour density and bigger borders, but it gets the job done.

I found myself using this second screen for less-important things, such as keeping an eye on my power usage, multitasking by watching YouTube videos or searching for guides and sometimes turning it off completely because, let's be real, when both screens are on, it's... a lot.

I did notice some very obvious light bleed on the bottom screen too, most evident when playing DS games, where the bottom screen stays on but just shows a black colour to keep your attention on the top screen when there's a cut scene.

Placing a small bit of pressure around the screen will move the light bleed, so it's evident that this display is sitting in this shell a little too tightly and is causing some strain around the corners and edges. This is disappointing as it's incredibly obvious to see at night when playing in bed, for example.

It's also worth noting that both screens have different brightness levels, so I found myself at times noticing the lower screen being darker than the top screen when I wanted full brightness on both.

And that takes me back to my overwhelming comment earlier. When both screens are on, and you're using them, it's a lot of screen just inches from your face, and because the bottom screen is small, you're trying to focus on small text continuously, so at night, when playing before bed I often had to just say "alright, that's too much for me right now" and would either turn off the bottom screen, or turn off the device completely.

Both screens are touchscreen and both can be used independently if you want to, so if you're a weird gamer, you could use the bottom screen exclusively if you want to or save some battery life by using only one, and you'll be surprised at how much battery you save by turning the bottom screen off too.

When I am not overwhelmed with all of the screen space, I am thoroughly enjoying my time with it. Two screens does indeed mean double the fun, especially when it comes to multi-tasking or playing Nintendo DS games if you're willing to tinker with settings for ages.

The large, beautiful top display makes gaming feel incredibly captivating, allowing you to enjoy retro and Android gaming at full capacity. The additional display feels like a treat, allowing you to explore ways to use it as you please. My most common combo is games up top, and YouTube videos or music down below.

The Button Quality

Let's cut to the chase - the button quality could be better. Starting with the exterior shoulder buttons, these are stacked, which I like and are big enough not to be missed. They don't feel out of proportion at all, and even come with a third RC/LC shoulder button next to them, making it a total of 6 on the back to be mapped to your pleasure.

The main triggers are hall-triggers for extra precision, and the bumpers are thin, buttons with light presses needed to click them in. However, my right bumper is awful... it sticks on almost every press, which has made some games fairly annoying to play on. It's incredibly frequent, and can be easily stuck into the shell when pressed on one side, the side that my finger naturally presses.

If I press the outer corner of the shoulder button, it does not stick, but it's not the area I naturally press. This is disappointing. It could be just my sample unit that does this, but I have to review it as it is. It's so bad that it's close to me stating that the right bumper is broken entirely.

Luckily, I can map this button to the extra third shoulder button, but that shouldn't need me to do that, nor does it feel natural to do so.

Onto the face. The TMR joysticks (which are more precise than hall joysticks) sit inside of the shell, which enables the handheld to shut without it touching the screen. These sticks are great quality, have a good grip to them, and a lot of travel, but they do feel somewhat claustrophobic at times, especially when playing fast-paced games, as I can constantly feel the plastic shell on my large thumbs when playing.

But there's no getting around this: the thumbsticks have to sit inside the dome, and I am okay with that.

The ABXY action buttons have little travel to them, feature soft, quiet clicks with minimal designs and have good distance between them so that you're not pressing multiple buttons at the same time.

On the other side, the DPAD feels modern but fragile in a way. It only requires a light touch and is somewhat flat, so at times I struggle to feel what direction I am going. I would have liked to see a deeper, sturdier DPAD here, requiring a little more force, but I understand this is personal preference. It's just a little too "light" for me.

The chin houses a lot of buttons, from menu buttons to Android buttons that change tabs, to two speaker grills that give off great sound quality, to your volume buttons and on/off buttons. It looks cluttered, yes, but I prefer chin buttons to them being located above the second screen; my thumbs can get to these nicely.

Setting It Up

With most Android handhelds, there's a pretty long setup process when you include the fact you have to download emulators, log in to applications, install ROMs, set up locations and so on...

This is the case for the Pocket DS. I spent 3 hours or more setting this device up to the way I like it, and you will also have to put in the work to get applications and controllers working. You will be reading guides unless you are a professional; there's a lot to do because, well, it can do a lot.

AYASpace, which is their custom launcher, is a place to organise your games, tweak settings and keep everything in one area.

Overall, it's great, but there are areas that need work. For example, a feature I have asked for, for almost two years now, is a way to download box art through AYASpace.

Other competitors have this, such as GoRetroid, which can be done with the press of a few buttons, so I know it can be done, but AYANEO keep overlooking it, so if you don't have box art files in your ROM library (which I do not) it looks pretty plain in AYASpace.

Emulation Performance

This can emulate a lot, it packs enough power to do everything you need in the emulation space, including PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii U, SEGA Saturn and more. I have no worries about what this can emulate, and it's one of those handhelds that can take my entire retro gaming library without batting an eyelid at it.

The 7" display makes many retro games look beautiful on here, especially when you consider that this can emulate PlayStation 2 games up to 3x native resolution. It makes my PS2 games look modern in a way.

The same goes for PSP emulation, because the screen ratio on these PSP games fits it entirely, and I was pushing it to 8x native resolution while watching YouTube videos. This was one of those "wow" moments because it looked so darn crispy.

I rarely found myself dipping below GameCube or Dreamcast emulation in all honesty, as those older consoles felt a little overkill for what I was holding, as if I have a powerful gaming computer in my hands trying to emulate something a potato can emulate.

While reviewing this device, I was actually on holiday for a week, away from the office, so I paired this device with my TRIMUI Brick, which took on all of my smaller emulation needs, and this would be pulled out in the evenings for the big boy stuff.

When playing single-screen games, I found myself using the extra screen to track the performance of the device using the AYANEO button on the face. This shows FPS, CPU, CPU usage, RAM usage and battery usage. You can also move it from a "balanced" setting to a "max" setting, depending on how much output you want from the Pocket DS.

Up to gaming mode did most of the emulating work; however, if I wanted 3x - 4x PS2 performance, I did have to pump it up to Max, and the fans turned up to full speed, making such a loud noise that I thought a helicopter was landing on my house.

I am not entirely sure who is going to use this at Max settings due to the crazy sounds that this things make, and as an example, I am writing this review in a coffee shop with it next to me, after turning it on Max people are giving me dodgey looks and the napkin that is behind my handheld is flapping slightly due to the wind output this is pushing through its ventilation.

This is by far one of the loudest handhelds I have reviewed when on Max settings. Now, I am not sure if that's a good thing because the fans are doing their job, or the fact that the fans should be designed better to sound less like an Apache?

Perhaps that's my inexperience reviewing big PC gaming handhelds in the past, but for me, this is incredibly unnatural, and I rarely pump this up to Max because of the sheer noise that it makes.

Nintendo DS Emulation

Many of you will be wondering how this works with Nintendo DS emulation due to the extra screen, and I am here to let you know that it works... just. Yes, it can play Nintendo DS and 3DS games with dual-screen capabilities, but it can be very buggy at times.

This isn't down to AYANEO at all; the screens can be set in emulators to be seen as one, but the sheer setup required to get the screens to work together naturally is a pain in the backside, and sometimes they're trying to fight each other to get things to show up properly.

Citra is one of the only reliable ones that can do this, and yet it crashes on me a couple of times a week. I had to find the Citra MMJ build to get it to work, and after spending a few minutes getting the screens to look good, I realised that it wouldn't save my settings when I come back to it later in the day.

So, I would have to change the settings again every time I want to play it in a dual-screen mode. This only takes a few seconds but it does get a tad annoying!

I believe these Nintendo DS Android applications, such as Citra, melonDS and DrasticDS, are still in the midst of making dual-screen gaming less buggy. It's not too reliable and requires tweaking every time you want to do it, so if you are a patient gamer and can get past that, then you will have a lot of fun playing Nintendo DS/3DS games.

I just think we need to wait a while before these applications become more reliable in this area and are patched/updated to handle these types of devices.

With the release of more dual-screen Android handhelds such as this and the AYN Thor I can imagine updates will come thick and fast, but as of now, it's not a pleasant, fast experience, which is disappointing as this is a $600 device with an extra screen that I want to put to use with DS emulation. I just have to wait a while.

Performance-wise it can easily handle Nintendo DS/3DS games, there's no issue there, making this a very well-rounded retro gaming handheld for those wanting a powerful, dual-screen device with a beautiful 7" main display and great ergonomics.

Android and Cloud Gaming

I am a retro gamer first, for sure, but I found myself naturally moving towards more Android and Cloud gaming. I think this is because of the larger 7" display, making these bigger games feel more playable "on the go".

Diablo Immortals is a game I put many hours into while watching YouTube videos on the small screen, and it worked really well. It was incredibly relaxing and it made me realise that this is missing a headphone jack.

Only because I found myself playing music on YouTube when gaming and wanted to stop annoying my partner who was also on the sofa. It's the first time I have wanted a headphone hack on a handheld.

Yes, the first time. On other smaller devices, I have never needed or used a headphone jack, but on this one, I missed it because of the multitasking possibilities. I wish it were added, or slipped into the SD-card flap stealthily.

Larger Android games such as Call of Duty and other JRPG's worked well on here in gaming mode (without the Apache helicopter going off) and will certainly hit all of your Android gaming needs if it has controller support.

Cloud Gaming

The same goes for Cloud Streaming, a 7" display is as small as I'd go when Cloud Streaming because of the small text, but that is possible on here, and it feels great. I have XBOX Game Pass, and I had a bunch of fun exploring my library on here without the need to put the CPU to work.

Somehow, combining the power, with the dual-screen multi-tasking possibilities and the big screen, it has enabled me to explore all of my gaming needs and my retro gaming library without much issue in a way that is natural, fun and incredibly different

Battery Life

This device has a wide range of life spans, an incredible range in fact, both good and bad. Because of the two screens, and higher-end emulation possibilities, it means this can drain its battery quicker than you can use the toilet on a bad weekend at a stag do.

After a couple of weeks testing this, I did find myself noticing the battery dip after a couple of hours, forcing me in a way to turn off the second screen if I knew I had an hour or two left of gaming.

So you will find yourself having to compromise at times, especially if you are using this for intensive gaming, which is what you will be doing most of the time, realistically.

4 hours on gaming mode is what you'll get, with the requirement to turn off the second screen at hour 3. Max mode is not one I dived into much, but that'll pull you closer to 3 hours.

However, Nintendo DS, Dreamcast, Gamecube and smaller Android games can push this to 5/6 hours if you're careful, so it's a device that you will certainly be charging daily, so remember your charging cable on your trip away.

With great power comes terrible battery life if you don't keep an eye on it. You'll quickly get to know how far you can push the battery after a few days, and then you'll master it.

Overall Opinion

I didn't know how much I needed a dual-screen Android handheld until this landed on my desk. It's now my go-to for higher-end emulation, alongside the pairing with my favourite Android and AAA gaming needs.

It's that device that lives in my home and comes with me on long trips away. It's not my daily driver, admittedly, but it's my fun driver, the one I pick up to take gaming seriously for a few hours, in a handheld form factor that tickles my nostalgic spot.

I believe Nintendo DS emulation will become more natural throughout the next year or so if updated specifically for dual-screen devices, which will make this an even more pleasurable handheld and will finally tick all my retro emulating boxes, even if the power output is a little overkill for DS-emulating needs.

I would also say that it's reasonably priced for what it offers. It's a unique form factor that takes Android and retro gaming to a completely new level, jammed into a unique and very well-built shell with modern touches and two gorgeous displays.

If you want a powerful, beautifully designed dual-screen Android handheld that can emulate everything up to PS2 and has a big enough display to make Android games and AAA cloud streaming pleasurable, then you will not be disappointed.

I am just hoping that you don't have an issue with the right bumper like I do, as it is fairly annoying. AYANEO are good here and will likely refund you or send you a new unit, but I needed to make that clear in this review.

This is the most fun I have had with a handheld all year, and that is exactly what I want from a handheld. Well played, AYANEO, well played.