As I write this, I deeply regret buying the AYN Odin 2 just a few weeks ago! AYN has officially teased their new upcoming Android based handheld across their socials with a little bit of information for us to speculate on.
It’s not evident what “version” this will be, but many handheld enthusiasts are agreeing that it could be a smaller version of their Odin range with a potential price range that competes with the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro and the ANBERNIC RG556.
This would be exciting if they did move into this territory of handhelds, because it’s already very competitive and this would just force these manufacturers to create better handhelds for a more affordable price.
So maybe this will be the new AYN Odin Lite? What has been confirmed is that it will feature a Mini LED display with 1100 nits of brightness and 155% sRGB which basically means it features a far more accurate colour range allowing the display to over-saturate and over-bloat colours to make it visually more appealing.
It will only weighs 320 grams too, cementing the communities thoughts about it potentially competing with the sub $200 retro handheld industry, because the RP4 Pro weights around 250grams and the RG556 weighs approximately 331grams.
It would be AYN’s first venture into this price range, but one I can imagine they will have success in, if done right.
In terms of design the team have gone for a very PS Vita-like design with what looks like a 5″ screen. The analogue sticks are above the DPAD which may annoy some of you, and the DPAD itself certainly looks like the PS Vita’s, even the shoulder buttons look the same too!
However, there are some areas that I don’t like the look of, for example the bezels are… pretty big, far bigger than the AYN Odin 2’s, and the speaker grills at the bottom look really cheap, like something from a Powkiddy handheld.
I know this is just me being picky right now but AYN has always created premium products so it does surprise me that they went this route, however I am aware these images are likely just renders and won’t be the finished product.
There is no information regarding pricing, release date or specifications as of yet, but for this to succeed it has to pack enough power to emulate PSP, Gamecube and even Playstation 2 games should it want to compete in the sub $200 market.
It could be that it is infact more expensive than $200 but I believe that would make itself compete with the AYN Odin 2 at $299 which is a superb handheld which has little to no competition right now. Only time will well, but we’ll be sure to inform you once we hear more.
