Renowned creator of handheld consoles, Ayaneo, has just unveiled their newest flagship marvel—the Ayaneo 3. Building on the groundwork laid by its predecessor, this new model maintains a familiar shape and button arrangement but with some nifty hardware enhancements that have plenty of people talking.
In a recent update on the Ayaneo blog, it’s been revealed that the Ayaneo 3 will be available equipped with either an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U processor or the mightier AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. This gem also boasts a responsive seven-inch high-refresh LCD or OLED HDR display, designed to deliver stunning immersive experiences. They’ve also added a pair of buttons to the back of the console, offering users even more control.
Despite this exciting announcement, Ayaneo is yet to share further specifics about the Ayaneo 3. This means we’re still in the dark about details like RAM, storage options, and pricing. If we take a leaf from the Ayaneo 2’s book—offered with 16GB or 32GB RAM and storage choices ranging from 512GB up to a massive 2TB, with prices starting at $1,099—it wouldn’t be surprising to see similar configurations for the Ayaneo 3, albeit at a slightly higher price tag, considering current market trends.
What’s noteworthy is that the Ayaneo 3 delves into uncharted territory by being among the first handheld consoles to integrate the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. Although today’s games don’t yet exploit the NPU within the HX 370, the processor’s four extra cores, paired with the Zen 5 architecture and an AMD Radeon 890M integrated GPU, provide it with a significant boost over the Ryzen 7 8840U. This enhancement could make it a formidable contender, outshining even some of the finest PC gaming handhelds, many of which lean on the Ryzen Z1 Extreme.
The competitive landscape for handheld consoles is bustling, given the abundance of stellar options out there. As the Ayaneo 3 prepares to make its grand entrance, all eyes will be on how it fares against anticipated releases like the ROG Ally 2, MSI Claw 8 AI+, and the Lenovo Legion Go Gen Two, which are expected to hit the shelves by late this year or early 2025. It’ll be intriguing to see how the Ayaneo 3 plans to stand out in this crowded field and the kind of gaming experience it promises to deliver to enthusiastic handheld console gamers.