AYANEO Announces AYANEO 2 Handheld with Ryzen 7 6800U APU

[Uskompuf]

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.



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[TheOne]

Given the usual pricing it is probably going to be at least double that of the 512GB Steam Deck and honestly the design looks terrible.

 

[Mussels]

Look at how small they could make a gaming PC if they removed the controllers, screen etc.

They can damn well fit a zen 3 APU in something smaller than my phone if they tried.

 

[elghinnarisa]

Knowing how toasty and loud the deck gets with its up to 4-15w tdp APU, this one being 15-28w is going to get real loud, real hot and might on a good day, manage to boot without running out of battery.

 

[Verpal]

Is it just me or the grey on white color design looks.... super weird?

No issue with the black model though, looks good.

 

[Dammeron]

Is it just me or the grey on white color design looks.... super weird?

No issue with the black model though, looks good.

Weird? You meant "ugly", right?

 

[Spartanjet]

Looks way better than that garbage deck. Runs windows as well so huge bonus in my book.

 

[Nephilim666]

Looks way better than that garbage deck. Runs windows as well so huge bonus in my book.

Remind me never to hire you as an industrial designer.
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.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

My guess is $1k minimum

 

[Bomby569]

I think it looks good, the white one is a better rendering or photo.

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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I like this little system better than the Steam Deck. Seems like a better way of doing things.

 

[TheOne]

The design kind of reminds me of a fisher price toy, especially that last image.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Remind me never to hire you as an industrial designer.
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.

Beauty is subjective, I like the white and Grey, not everything "gamer" has to be black, jeez a few years ago everything gamer was red and black and that was horrible

 

[lexluthermiester]

The design kind of reminds me of a fisher price toy, especially that last image.

Not seeing that myself..

Beauty is subjective, I like the white and Grey, not everything "gamer" has to be black, jeez a few years ago everything gamer was red and black and that was horrible

Right there with you.

 

[Valantar]

I like the white and grey as well, and the overall rounded design. Still, I'd rather take a Steam Deck mainly because of the inputs and the software optimizations. Windows gaming on a touchscreen-only device without serious software work is never going to work well. Need a keyboard for inputting something in a game? Good luck with that. Get a UAC prompt? Hope they've made the touchscreen work with that.

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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I like the white and grey as well, and the overall rounded design.

I like the hand grips too! I imagine they would be very comfortable.

Need a keyboard for inputting something in a game?

There's always Bluetooth.

Get a UAC prompt? Hope they've made the touchscreen work with that.

They likely will. Windows 10/11 is fully touchscreen aware.

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.

I never considered it. Wasn't convinced that Linux compatibility was there. Plus, for me personally, most of my PC gaming library is on GOG. My Steam Library is very limited. So for someone like me, this new gaming tablet from AYANEO is far more appealing.

 

[Chrispy_]

It's really frustrating that we're still waiting for 6800U laptops several months after the paper launch of the 6000-series laptop chips.

We don't need an also-ran sub-par Steam-deck copy. We want the laptop CPU in a laptop please!

 

[Valantar]

I like the hand grips too! I imagine they would be very comfortable.

Yeah, they look good. Streamlining and straightening handgrips for looks vs. prioritizing ergonomics is always the wrong move IMO; these look like a good compromise.

There's always Bluetooth.

Well, yeah, but ... "Handheld gaming PC*





*may require you to always carry a BT keyboard"
isn't the most attractive proposition.

They likely will. Windows 10/11 is fully touchscreen aware.

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 never considered it. Wasn't convinced that Linux compatibility was there. Plus, for me personally, most of my PC gaming library is on GOG. My Steam Library is very limited. So for someone like me, this new gaming tablet from AYANEO is far more appealing.

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.

It's really frustrating that we're still waiting for 6800U laptops several months after the paper launch of the 6000-series laptop chips.

We don't need an also-ran sub-par Steam-deck copy. We want the laptop CPU in a laptop please!

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.

 

[Deleted member 185088]

The problem with these handheld is the price, they offer low performance (understandably so given the constraints of size and battery...etc) maybe if they had bespoke hardware with GDDR6 vram, maybe a 6 core rather than 8 and with more GPU CUs. And an OLED.

 

[BSim500]

Fan noise? I SAID FAN NOISE?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Well, yeah, but ... "Handheld gaming PC*





*may require you to always carry a BT keyboard"
isn't the most attractive proposition.

I could live with it..

but that doesn't mean all touchscreens are recognized as UAC-safe input methods.

I couldn't care less about UAC on a device like that, would likely disabled it anyway.

I can see that, though for me the price is a deal breaker

Yeah, that price is a hum-dinger.

 

[Valantar]

I could live with it..

I couldn't care less about UAC on a device like that, would likely disabled it anyway.

Well, those two answers place you quite firmly outside of any mass market use case - and while these things obviously mainly sell to enthusiasts, there are many types of enthusiast out there, and I'd gather most looking for a device like this would be more into gaming than OS tweaks and the like. The average PC user doesn't even know UAC can be disabled (nor what it is in the first place), which makes it all the more important to ensure everything works from the get-go. Once you limit yourself to the "willing and able to overlook or work around severe UX deficiencies" crowd, you're looking at a pretty small market overall.

Yeah, that price is a hum-dinger.

Yeah. I understand it completely - miniaturization isn't cheap, nor is low volume production - but you're still paying premium laptop-ish prices for a far more limited device (but one that also has unique advantages, obviously).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Well, those two answers place you quite firmly outside of any mass market use case

You'd be surprised. Lots of people can live with an onscreen keyboard and a lot of people disable UAC because of how annoying it really is.

 

[Valantar]

You'd be surprised. Lots of people can live with an onscreen keyboard and a lot of people disable UAC because of how annoying it really is.

I said external BT keyboard, not onscreen. The whole issue is that Windows' onscreen keyboards do not work in full screen applications. Not without some pretty severe (and often very buggy) software workarounds, etc. Most of the time there's not even any way of bringing up the on-screen keyboard in the first place. A UI that isn't built for on-screen keyboards will 9/10 times work very poorly if forced to use one, if you're able to use it at all - covering text input boxes, shifting focus from the fullscreen application, disappearing every time you scroll a list or navigate a menu, etc. Windows does not in any way, shape or form have the software and UI foundations for keyboard-less use in exclusive fullscreen apps like games, and the vast majority of games have no way of triggering Windows' onscreen keyboard. That's the level of jank we're talking here, not "there's an on-screen keyboard but it's kind of impractical to use".

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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I said external BT keyboard, not onscreen. The whole issue is that Windows' onscreen keyboards do not work in full screen applications. Not without some pretty severe (and often very buggy) software workarounds, etc. Most of the time there's not even any way of bringing up the on-screen keyboard in the first place. A UI that isn't built for on-screen keyboards will 9/10 times work very poorly if forced to use one, if you're able to use it at all - covering text input boxes, shifting focus from the fullscreen application, disappearing every time you scroll a list or navigate a menu, etc. Windows does not in any way, shape or form have the software and UI foundations for keyboard-less use in exclusive fullscreen apps like games, and the vast majority of games have no way of triggering Windows' onscreen keyboard. That's the level of jank we're talking here, not "there's an on-screen keyboard but it's kind of impractical to use".

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.

I think you're blowing the keyboard issue WAY out of proportion. And again, disabling UAC is anything but "niche". I'm going to leave it at that.