Today has been a big day for AYANEO, as they've officially released the KONKR Pocket Block, a new, portable Android vertical handheld that costs just $79 for early birds and has the ability to emulate up to "PSP, no problem". It's available to purchase today with a shipping date set for the "End of October".
It was revealed in AYANEO's product sharing livestream today that I have been watching on YouTube for the past couple of hours, and as I was finally finishing my write-up about their new "Atoms White" Pocket Block, I noticed my translation tool picked up on a comment made in response to a viewer.
Someone asked if they are working on a dual-screen handheld, and Arthur quickly batted it away by saying, "I won't participate in the dual-screen battle," and quickly moving to a discussion about the Pocket Block's processor choice.
Which, for me, is a little disappointing to hear because let's face it, as much as the AYN Thor is owning the market right now, Retroid has slipped up with the Pocket Duo Lite (it isn't performing well; our review is coming soon), ANBERNIC has the RG DS Plus that runs on Linux and is of lower build quality, and Yoniq has the Duo coming out next year that many people don't want to risk backing when it goes live on Kickstarter soon.
AYANEO has this design philosophy that many respect and is competitive at pricing their budget devices on the market respectfully; I'd even go as far as saying some people are waiting for an affordable dual-screen announcement from them, but it looks as if this isn't going to happen now after a small comment from Arthur was seen today on his livestream.
Previously, AYANEO has made a dual-screen device, though it was aimed at the premium price range, starting at $550 and ranging all the way up to $1700+, which is out of a lot of people's price ranges, so it's disappointing to hear that they won't be entering the budget-mid handheld market with a new dual-screen anytime soon. Though I do believe this isn't permanent, I think they'd rather focus on other things right now and perhaps are waiting a year or two to make a different decision regarding a future dual-screen device. We can hope, that is, or Arthur was commenting on something completely different, though it makes sense as to why nothing has been revealed yet; the demand for small screens and memory is through the roof right now, and waiting could make things a little more affordable for us all down the line.
