Tuesday, May 17th 2022
AYANEO Announces AYANEO 2 Handheld with Ryzen 7 6800U APU
AYANEO has recently announced the AYANEO 2 featuring AMD's latest "Rembrandt" Ryzen 7 6800U APU with Zen 3+ & RDNA2 architectures. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800U is a mobile processor with a configurable TDP of 15 - 28 W featuring 8 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 2.7 GHz and a boost of 4.7 GHz. The processor also includes integrated Radeon 680M graphics with 12 RDNA2 cores running at 2.2 GHz which should offer performance almost twice of that as the Steam Deck. This APU is paired with an unspecified amount of LPDDR5 6400 MHz memory and a 7" 1280×800 IPS frameless display. The console is also set to feature an integrated fingerprint sensor and has been showcased running numerous games such as Metro Exodus, Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3, and Elden Ring. The AYANEO 2 is set to launch sometime later this year however an exact date or pricing was not shared.
Source:
AYANEO (via VideoCardz)
29 Comments on AYANEO Announces AYANEO 2 Handheld with Ryzen 7 6800U APU
They can damn well fit a zen 3 APU in something smaller than my phone if they tried.
No issue with the black model though, looks good.
This is a huge step backwards in practicality from Aya, they had a great balance of ergonomics, portability and aesthetics in the latest Neos. Such a shame. I'm sure it will be quick but I'm going to wait and see if they introduce a better design with similar internals.
I guess this is a thing now, i actually prefer my pc and for in the go a switch. i don't see much value in a portable pc. But that's me.
It looks like they're copying the SD's sidebar interface, which is nice, but it remains to be seen how well it works over exclusive fullscreen Windows games (and whether they do nothing, pause, minimize, or just crash). Hope they've got some sort of workable split keyboard (or twin-stick keyboard, ideally) that can overlay on top of fullscreen apps as well.
The performance of a 6800U in this package will be really interesting to see though. I've decided to cancel my SD preorder in lieu of a second gen effort, and this might be an interesting preview of that.
We don't need an also-ran sub-par Steam-deck copy. We want the laptop CPU in a laptop please!
*may require you to always carry a BT keyboard"
isn't the most attractive proposition. They are, but that doesn't mean all touchscreens are recognized as UAC-safe input methods. Most OEMs ensure this easily, but I've seen a lot of DIY/USB-based touchscreens just plain stop working when an UAC prompt appears. And you never know, really. I can see that, though for me the price is a deal breaker - I just don't have that kind of money to throw around on a .... tertiary device? Desktop, laptop, (HTPC, NAS) handheld gaming PC. That's pretty far down the list of priorities, and >$1000 is just a no-go. That's a huge part of the appeal of the Steam Deck. I would like a 2nd gen SD with an SSD large enough to dual boot - I've also got a lot of GOG games, plus Game Pass, but that would require either Valve to step up their Windows driver/software game (not going to happen) or users to step in and make their own alternatives (more likely, but won't have the same low-level access) to overcome all the current issues of Windows on the SD.
Most likely I'll just end up with a 2-in-1 with some kind of semi-powerful APU and carry a controller when I want to game on the go - I'm not likely to use it for much outside of longer distance travelling or couch gaming anyway. To me it seems like AMD's CES APU launches are just terribly timed compared to the laptop industry's yearly launch cadence, which seems to be mostly centered around the May-October timeframe (ensuring stock for back to school season and the holidays). There might obviously be other factors in play as well, but it still seems weirdly out of sync with their customers.
And sure, there's a number of people who disable UAC. But we're talking overlapping niches here - things start getting limited quite quickly at the point when you're talking
- willing and able to buy a dedicated handheld gaming pc
- disables UAC
- willing to work around moderate to severe UX issues
- comfortable configuring the system and tweaking various settings to make things work better
- won't just go pick up their switch instead when something doesn't work
Is that niche a few thousand people globally? No doubt. But that's not much of a market.