I skimmed the review and didn't see the price or what components it's using. That's the first thing I want to know.
Skim again, it's all there. AMD 7840U, $999. 16GB unspecified RAM and 512GB SSD.
Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
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Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#12These handhelds are great, but the battery life is just not there. They need to be able to sustain ~4 hours of continued gameplay. As they are, they can do maybe 1-1.5 hours. It's simply not enough. Still great machines and I believe they only need a little more power to be able to play 1080p at 60fps; or personally I think we should focus on 40fps (40hz screens) at 1080p and then just focus on efficiency as much as…
I envy people who can get 4 hour gaming sessions at all =)
It's not a huge deal to carry along an external powerbank for the Deck if you really need to get over two hours of gameplay while you're mobile. You can use the same one to charge everything else you need.
If you're at home, a 3+ meter USB-C cord isn't that expensive and you can charge while you play.
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#13Companies iterating so quickly on their products might be their biggest weakness. Since its release, the Steam Deck hasn't been improved by releasing the Steam Upper Decker, but by a constant stream of software improvements, both to the OS, and also Proton. I know my device won't be handicapped by a replacement in six months.
Valve has been really good at providing parts for fixing or even upgrading the deck from the very beginning. They even replaced the bad first edition fans for everyone who wanted - or you could order a new one and swap it yourself with picture by picture instructions.
Swapping the sticks to hall effect is like a two beer job. The battery is replaceable - and maybe upgradable in the future etc.
The Asus ROG Ally is more powerful than the Deck, but Asus isn't known for their after market support...
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#14The easiest thing to screw up in a handheld is the D-Pad. A bad D-Pad means that Sonic doesn't roll, Ryu doesn't shouryuken, and Madeline crouches randomly. At least this reviewer admitted that he wasn't knowledgeable enough to review the D-Pad..
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meanwhile, you can play 900p xbox 360 era games on the Steam Deck for at least 4ish hours if you don't run them full bore, or 8+ hours if you do something like emulation or very specific games. The game output the past five years hasn't been good enough to justify needing better than that for me. Millions of units sold seem to suggest that's closer to the real value people see in them as well, rather than playing yes…
I have a Steam Deck. The battery life is good on old games, that's true. But you can comfortably play a lot of modern games at 40hz/40fps mode; but just not for a very long while. It feels bad knowing you can run them decently but not really unless you're plugged. Like, I wouldn't call people who want to play modern games on a handheld elitist? It seems to me that you're the one that has an elitist attitude as you're…
> Like, I wouldn't call people who want to play modern games on a handheld elitist?
Not elitist, but somewhat unreasonable. One of the big difference between PC gaming business and console gaming is that the PC crowd (which i am a part of) has have an unreasonable fixation on performance and hardware specs instead of focusing on the experience, and that is bleeding on the reception of those windows handheld.
Back in the day of the PSP, gameboy etc... It was rarely the case that someone would buy a handheld and expect to have "qualitatively" the same experience as s living console. We all understand that you get the same enjoyment, just in a delivered at a difference price/graphic/performance point.
As people mentioned, there is so much amazing experience to be have at reasonable battery life around the 1.5 TFLOPS that the same deck can provide... From emulator, to old games, to nice 2D/indie games on steam or for very well optimized game (like diablo 4 or doom).
Buying a PC handled and wanting the same experience as a desktop for me is just missing the point of an handheld PC (as opposed to a gaming PC for example). But to be honest, i can't really blame people for wanting that because the marketing is strongly implying that's what you get when you buy those.
I have a steam deck (and will probably get the Ally), i play very different type of game on my deck vs my pc.
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#16GPD Win Max 2 on the 7840u might be a better choice for those willing to trade handheld comfort for productivity, IMHO
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#17I didn't see it in the review, or in the video so forgive me if this was covered.. but the real killer feature of these handhelds is the instant on/instant resume. I can grab my steam deck play for 5 minutes or 2 hours, or 2 hours with interruptions because I can just hit the power button and then resume it right where I left off for any game. It's amazing and it's the real reason I use the steam deck. I also have my dual 4090s 128 core 5ghz game station for Call of Legends 4 gaming, but playing games on the deck is just friction-less so not really sure if the AYANEO has that.
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#18These handhelds are great, but the battery life is just not there. They need to be able to sustain ~4 hours of continued gameplay. As they are, they can do maybe 1-1.5 hours. It's simply not enough. Still great machines and I believe they only need a little more power to be able to play 1080p at 60fps; or personally I think we should focus on 40fps (40hz screens) at 1080p and then just focus on efficiency as much as…
I have a Steam Deck and a Switch and barely use my Steam Deck. You basically have to be tethered to an outlet which defeats the point if you already have a gaming laptop or console.
It also takes up too much space if I travel. This also compounds with the fact that you can even get a Switch OLED for $90 used fairly easy.
It's a great device, but just too big and power hunger for me to use regularly. These will improve and I'm looking forward to smaller form factors that seamlessly integrate streaming from a local device as well.
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#19How are you feeling about the increase in popularity of handheld computers in the last few years? I personally find the idea of playing an MMO on a handheld very interesting, but it seems like the hardware just isn't there yet, as they're either too weak, too hot or have too short of a battery life.
Aren't MMOs usually on the lower end of graphical fidelity? A lot of them are quite old at this point. RuneScape runs great for example.
Re: Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld
#20Companies iterating so quickly on their products might be their biggest weakness. Since its release, the Steam Deck hasn't been improved by releasing the Steam Upper Decker, but by a constant stream of software improvements, both to the OS, and also Proton. I know my device won't be handicapped by a replacement in six months.
Totally agree.
Love Xiaomi products, for example, but they realease so many phones per year that it feels like they never have time to polish them.
They might release like 30 different phones in a year!