I keep pinging my contact at Yoniq to cough up as much information on this device as I can, and originally they said to us that a Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming dual-screen handheld could be here as early as "Late October"; well, here we are and still no mention of it on their website or social channels.
So, impatient old me decided to drop them an email, and was swiftly contacted with a short update regarding this device and the state of the Kickstarter, which unfortunately is being delayed: "Our crowdfunding launch, which was originally planned for this month, may be delayed a little. We’ve encountered a few challenges during the actual manufacturing process, and we want to make sure everything is just right before launching," states Yoniq's marketing rep.
So it seems like they've come across some issues with manufacturing, and that kinda matches up with the prototypes we had our hands on at Gamescom this year. This may be due to the rise in RAM and screen demands in China, or as simple as a small error, which could be the case, seeing as they have stated "might be delayed a little", which in my eyes is weeks, not months, but that's just my opinion.
After checking out their Yoniq Duo listing page, it seems like they have added new colour variants to the choice of products too, at first I thought this could be an error because they have updated their website improperly in the past but Yoniq have confirmed new colourways are coming at launch but none are finalised yet: "We haven’t finalized the color images just yet, as our factory is still making the final color adjustments", states Yoniq.
The colour choices are now: Red, Blue, White, Black and Pink. So, there are a fair few to choose from! I'd love to see some transparency versions, but they have not confirmed that as of yet. All we can do is wait for the Kickstarter campaign to launch later in the year.
I am excited about this because the market needs more companies in the handheld space to create more competition, which leads to better handhelds for a better price, and as we've mentioned before, Yoniq's parent company has a history of creating handhelds for other companies over the last 10 years, so these guys know what they are doing, unlike newer brands that pop up and disappear before your order arrives; hence why I am intrigued by this company more than I should be. Yoniq has said they'll supply us with an early review unit, so be sure to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to be the first to see this in action.
