AYANEO has released a new budget handheld called the Pocket AIR Mini and yes, it is a budget handheld. This might come as a surprise given the company’s trademark pricing structure (it’s always too damn high IMO) but with this one it has an early bird price of $70 for the 32 GB storage/2 GB RAM unit ($80 for the 64 GB/3 GB version), $5 and $4 more for the campaign (respectively), and $20 more for both when they hit retail.
I’m posting TechDweeb’s review (above) since it’s the first one I saw and it covers all the basics of what we can expect from the Pocket AIR Mini. It has a quality build, plays up to PS2/GameCube with caveats, and will slot nicely in that sub-$100 price bracket because of that extra juice it has for the early 00s systems.
Tech Specs (via official product page)
| Display | 4.2-inch 1280 x 960 60Hz LCD |
| Processor | 2x Cortex-A76 | 6x Cortex-A55 | Mali-G76 MP4 |
| Cooling | Active cooling with fan |
| Memory & Storage | 2GB + 32GB / 3GB + 64GB |
| Colors | Retro White / Aurora Black / Retro Power |
| Gamepad | Master all-in-one controller |
| Joysticks | Hall-effect joysticks |
| Triggers | Hall-effect triggers |
| Vibration | Rotor motor |
| Sensors | Accelerometer |
| I/O Ports | 1 x USB Type-C | 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack | 1 x Micro SD card slot |
| Special Features | Audio vibration | Xinput vibration | Button vibration | Global monitoring & custom performance modes | Custom fan curve | Key mapping |
| Dedicated Buttons | AYA Button | Menu button | Navigation button | Custom shoulder buttons |
| Battery Capacity | 4500mAh |
| Charging Power | 18W |
| Dimensions | 165.9mm x 82.5mm x 18.7mm (27.6mm at grip’s thickest point) |
| Weight | 269g |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 5G / BT 5.0 |
| Software | Retro game frontend | Custom desktop | Handheld settings | Quick control overlay |
| Operating System | Android 11 |