Last week I sat through 90 minutes of AYANEO's CEO livestream, and boy was it a waste of everyone's time, even going as far as announcing "one more hting" for it just to be a custom AYANEO t-shirt. It didn't go down well with their community and for good reason, last time they did a lievstream, they announced the Pocket Micro 2, and it sold out in just 20 minutes after allocating just 100 units to Western buyers.
So, as you can imagine AYANEO enthusiasts kept their eyes peeled to be met with no new announcements at all, but today, on AYANEO's social channels, they teased the name of their upcoming retro handheld from their sister-company KONKR, called the "Pocket Advance".
KONKR is aimed at more affordable devices, with their most recent announcement being the KONKR Pocket Block, a mini vertical retro handheld that's releasing over the next few months. It looks great and one I am excited for, however a couple of months ago a additional KONKR Pocket handheld leaked alongside it, and there's no been no reveal of it yet.
That said, AYANEO's latest post states the KONKR Pocket Advance is "coming soon", and could match the leaked images of the past seeing as its name is similar to the recently announed Pocket Block, both design similarly too. I could be wrong however as an older social post shows the outline of a GAME BOY Advance. Could AYANEO design it closer to one of the greatest handhelds ever made? Perhaps, seeing as they just released the Micro Pocket 2 which upscales GBA games perfectly at 4X native resolution and looks similar to the leaked images of the Pocket Advance.
Though, I believe, this will be a more affordable, fully plastic, portable version of the Pocket Micro 2, using the same display, no glass front, just a plain, and simple build with a sub $199 price tag, opening strong GBA emulation at 4x resolution and nostalgic ergonmics. That to me, is their best bet, seeing as nobody can buy the Pocket Micro 2 right now, and it would pair well with the Pocket Block.
AYANEO has stated that more inforamtion will be shared soon, so the best way to keep informed, without sitting through Arthur's incredibly dull livestreams is by joining our free newsletter, there we keep over 7,000 retro gamers informed every single week. I'm excited to see more of this handheld, likely over the next few weeks.
