The gates are wide open. For a long time, it seemed like a pipe dream to imagine playing PC games in a classic handheld size factor.
But over the past couple of years, businesses like AyaNeo, Onexplayer, and GPD have pushed the limits of what is feasible while traveling. The appeal of mobile play was solidified by the Nintendo Switch, and then, BOOM, chip manufacturers like AMD and Intel pushed the integrated graphics of their chipsets to new heights. When the Steam Deck appeared, portable PC gaming got its mascot, and the race began.
In this emerging market, AyaNeo is a relative veteran, and its most recent PC gaming handheld, the AyaNeo 2, is about as good as it gets right now. It’s a cut above anything else on the market aside from the Steam Deck itself, which it at the very least matches, and in some critical ways surpasses, software aside, the first AyaNeo, the AyaNeo Air, and the AyaNeo Next.
Design
A very appealing gaming handheld is the AyaNeo 2. While we’ve been testing the all-black model, other options include Sky White, a Retro Power edition that mimics the NES, and a little odd B.Duck version with a rubber duck-inspired color scheme.
It is roughly pill-shaped, more closely resembling a regular handheld than the Steam Deck’s trackpad, and it weighs 680g. Its dimensions are 26.45 x 10.55 x 3.61cm. The easiest way to use it is with it resting on your lap because it isn’t really small enough to be considered a “handheld” gadget. Wherever you position it, you’ll be able to gawp at its 1920 x 1200 LCD touchscreen, which is rich in color, contrast and brightness, and considerably superior to the Steam Deck’s lower-resolution, less punchy display. This is covered with a glass surface that spans the whole front of the device and is glossy (but not unduly shiny), with the exception of the areas where the buttons and sticks are located. It has a really nice appearance and seems sturdy.
Because of its recognizable analog stick and button arrangement, it is also more comfortable in the hand than the Steam Deck. A D-pad is located below the left stick, while Start and Select buttons are placed side by side beneath that D-pad. X, Y, A, and B buttons and asymmetrical joysticks are also included on either side of the screen. Two shortcut buttons are located beneath the right stick; one launches the Aya Space game overlay, while the other immediately returns the user to the Windows desktop.
The analog sticks are excellent; they are rubber-tipped, ergonomically sized, and feature magnetic Hall sensor components to minimize any potential dead zone or stick-drift difficulties that have troubled the Nintendo Switch. They are also simple to fine-tune for maximum headshot potential because to the included Aya Space program, which has full control over their sensitivity.
Your shoulder buttons and triggers are located on the top edge. The latter are satisfyingly deep and once more utilise Hall sensors for precise analog control. At the top edge, there are also two programmable shortcut buttons, a volume rocker, a power button with an awkwardly placed fingerprint reader, two USB-C ports, and a sizable air outlet vent for cooling. The USB-C charging port, protected microSD card slot, speaker output ports (smartly positioned so you can’t block them), headphone jack, and speaker output ports are all located on the bottom edge.
Despite the size of the handheld, everything is cozy to handle. When your hands grip the device, the AyaNeo 2 includes curved parts that create natural bumps where your palms can rest.
Also worth mentioning are a few other techniques. If using built-in gyroscope controls appeals to you, you can do so. There’s also a clever trick for introducing rumble to vintage games that don’t officially support it, with the motors activating when specific deep frequencies are detected by the software. This was a pleasant surprise when playing some vintage emulated games.
A charging brick, USB-C cable, a variety of international power adapters, and two USB-C to USB-A dongles, useful for extra storage and accessories, are all included in the attractively packaged package.
Performance
The AyaNeo 2’s casing is packed with several remarkable parts.
Its processor, an AMD Ryzen 7 6800U with RDNA 2 680M graphics capabilities, has eight cores and a maximum clock speed of 4.7 GHz. For the most demanding games, its Thermal Design Power (TDP) can be adjusted to up to 33W. Depending on your setup, RAM (LPDDR5) grows from 16GB to 32GB, and quick M.2 SSDs range from 512GB to 2TB (with the handheld supporting up to 8TB of storage, which you can replace yourself). Onboard connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless peripherals and super-fast Wi-Fi 6. In terms of pure power, this is the pinnacle of the handheld PC.
Hence, even a game as ambitious as Cyberpunk 2077 is highly playable on the AyaNeo 2; with the Low graphics preset at a native resolution of 1200p and the power drain set to 28W, you’ll easily pass 30 frames per second and average around 45. If you reduce the resolution to 800p, you’ll average over 60 frames per second; at 66, it’s fluid and a lot of fun. Although you won’t get the top-notch textures or fancy ray tracing effects, this is still a better experience than playing on a PS4, for example. You hold it in your hands!
You’ll witness comparable unexpected performances from games like God of War and Doom Eternal. At Medium settings, Doom Eternal will easily achieve 60 frames per second, and at higher TDP settings, you may be able to raise those settings even further. In ‘Original’ (i.e., Low) settings, with FSR upscaling enabled to lighten the load on native resolution rendering, God of War necessitates turning up the TDP to a high of 33W, which is terrible for battery life. Nonetheless, that will keep your frame rate between 30 and 45, making it highly playable.
A battery’s life
The AyaNeo 2, like many of its portable PC competitors, begins to falter at this point. High-end PC gaming demands a lot of power, and there isn’t a battery out now that is big and portable enough to run expensive games for extended periods of time.
As a result, you must estimate your ability to go without a charger for a reasonable amount of time. I managed to get about 56 minutes out of God of War with the TDP set at 33W and native resolution on the default settings. That is far less than what we obtained from the Steam Deck, but the game was also playing at a lower resolution on Valve’s device at the time. Grand Theft Auto 5 performed better at two hours and three minutes (TDP 15W, 1200p, default settings), and generally speaking, battery life will increase in accordance with those tests as the TDP is decreased. As a result, you may play independent video games for approximately five hours while using battery-saving settings and a TDP restriction of less than 8W. Given the effectiveness of something like the Nintendo Switch OLED, that’s a little disappointing. Yet, the amount of strain the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U can withstand is a logical response to its relatively short battery run-times.
Conclusion
The type of games you play, together with your expectations for graphic fidelity settings and proper TDP settings to power those games, will determine how well these settings work for you. Still, you’ll need to keep a charger close at hand.
