The Ayaneo 2S looks to take on both the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally
This new handheld could end up being a major player
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Ayaneo isn’t new to the handheld market, but its latest product is looking to make major waves and hopefully overtake two key competitors in the process.
The Vergereports that the company recently announced its upcoming Ayaneo 2S portable system will be housing the sameAMDRyzen 7000 U-series chip, which is already in use for theAsus ROG Ally’s Z1 Extreme CPU. This not only puts it directly up against said ROG Ally but in competition with Valve’sSteam Deckas well.
Considering that theAsus ROG Allyis already stacked in terms of specs and performance, this is a huge deal. Especially if the Ayaneo 2S gets its pricing right, something thatcould hinder the ROG Alleyif thelatest price leakturns out to be false.
And it seems that the company has taken criticisms to heart in terms of its Ayaneo 2 according toEngadget, as the new 7000 series processor features “substantial performance gains in the low TDP 8-15W gold range” compared to the current model’s 6800, as well as slightly reduced temperatures. That last one is important, as one of our criticisms of the ROG Ally was its noticeable overheating.
And even though there are plenty of other Ayaneos out in the wild, including thesecond versionthat was released in 2021 and theAyaneo Air Plus, the company won’t be abandoning those models. According to The Verge, it will “offer a free speaker upgrade for every Ayaneo Air and a free cooling module for every Ayaneo 2 and Ayaneo Geek,” which will lower its temperature by up to 12 degrees Celsius.
This could be a huge game changer for the handheld market
TheSteamDeck and Asus ROG Ally aren’t the only two handhelds that need to watch out either. The Nintendo Switch 2 will befacing some steep competitionin a market that the current Nintendo Switch has been single-handedly dominating.
It seemed like Nintendo had everything in control, withSonyno longer interested in the portable gaming system market after its PlayStation Vita was thoroughly trounced by the Nintendo 3DS. But with the Steam Deck making some significant waves this generation, and the Asus ROG Ally looking to turn those waves into a tsunami along with the Ayaneo 2S, we could be looking at a serious shakeup.
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If these systems end up landing in a big way, it could force Nintendo to go all out on the Switch 2’s hardware, as well as motivate Valve to make some much-needed improvements to its Steam Deck 2 (and get the company more serious about it in general).
More competition is always better, and I look forward to the best-case scenario that turns these three powerhouses into something that really pushes Nintendo and Valve and their hardware to their limits. Then, we the consumers will all win.
Named by the CTA as a CES 2023 Media Trailblazer, Allisa is a Computing Staff Writer who covers breaking news and rumors in the computing industry, as well as reviews, hands-on previews, featured articles, and the latest deals and trends. In her spare time you can find her chatting it up on her two podcasts, Megaten Marathon and Combo Chain, as well as playing any JRPGs she can get her hands on.
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