It has been a wild few weeks for AYANEO. I've been keeping a close eye on the handheld community, awaiting AYANEO's response to their concerns.
And although AYANEO has responded, they also launched another new colour-way of the AYANEO Pocket DMG, which feels very much like a middle finger to the community who have been annoyed at AYANEO's strategy of releasing not lots new devices, instead of focusing on actually shipping them to customers.
This Yellow Pocket DMG reveal comes just a few weeks after the reveal of the Silver colourway Pocket DMG. I'm all for new colour-ways, but a strategy of revealing them so close together will undoubtedly annoy those who have ordered a previous colourway and are awaiting its delivery.
And that's what the big uproar is about. Throughout 2025, AYANEO revealed well over 20+ different devices, most of them being "crowdfunded" on Indiegogo.
Which is also a little confusing, as AYANEO are a huge company now, they don't need support from crowdfunding, and they know that because at times, you can pre-order the same device on their website, and also third-party websites, often getting them earlier than Indiegogo backers.
So, early backers, the ones supporting AYANEO, are the ones getting the devices last, many months later, all while third-party customers and scalpers get their devices quicker. That's also ontop AYANEO, then revealing more devices, making their community feel left out.
In response, the CEO of AYANEO, Arthur Zhang, shared in a blog post: "I sincerely feel that we have let down those who have supported us. To all of our overseas users, I would like to express my deepest apologies".
Arthur and the team have revealed an improvement plan that will be implemented throughout 2026 in the hope that they can please their community and to continue building one of the most innovative handheld manufacturers in the world.
Alongside this plan, they have paused the upcoming launch of the Pocket Play, their first smartphone with slide-out control,s alongside the CEO being involved in more interactive sessions ans Q&A's.
I am hoping they take this plan seriously and really focus on their community, because they do create remarkable handhelds, and I don't want to see them fail because of the lack of simple respect. Here's hoping we see AYANEO buck up, which I believe we will.
And, all due respect to Arthur here for seeing the community concerns and acting appropriately. All we need now is action. You got this, AYANEO.
