Ayaneo Air Professional evaluation: Handheld PC gaming goes OLED

The Ayaneo Air Professional may be the very best handheld for emulation, interval, however the worth is probably going too steep for most individuals.

In regards to the Ayaneo Air Professional

Listed below are the specs of the hand-held we examined:

• Worth: $1,099 (as configured)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5825U (8-core, 16-threads), 2.0GHz base clock, 4.5Ghz enhance
• Graphics: AMD Radeon built-in graphics
• Reminiscence: 16GB LPDDR4x at 4266Mhz
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD
• Battery: 38Whr
• Show: 1920 x 1080, 5.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 350 nits (rated), 60Hz
• Dimensions: 8.81 x 3.52 x 0.85 inches (at thinnest level)
• Weight: 440 grams (15.52 ounces)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, 2 x USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode assist, 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 3.0 class TF card reader
• Colours: Aurora White, Polar Black, Brilliant Silver
• Further options: Corridor impact joysticks and triggers, A-B X-Y key swap, fingerprint reader, one further left and proper shoulder button, LED-illuminated thumbsticks

There are three completely different fashions of the Ayaneo Air: the Ayaneo Air Lite, common Air, and Air Professional. The Ayaneo Air and Air Lite are functionally similar to the Professional mannequin, however are available in at 0.7 inches (18mm) thick as a substitute of 0.85 inches (21.6 mm). All three could be configured with a base AMD Ryzen 5 5560U CPU, however the Air Professional tops out at a Ryzen 7 5825U CPU, which has extra two extra cores and 4 extra threads. The non-Professional fashions characteristic a smaller 28Whr battery, whereas the Professional model makes use of a 38Whr capability battery.

All fashions come preinstalled with Home windows 11, use the identical AMOLED display, and use full-sized 2280 M.2 NVME drives. The bottom Ayaneo Air Lite begins at $549 however solely consists of 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The bottom Air Professional begins at $699 for 16GB of 4266Mhz DDR4 RAM and 512GB of storage, however could be configured with as much as 32GB of RAM and 2TB of inside storage.

What we like

It’s skinny and light-weight

It’s unimaginable to carry the Ayaneo Air Professional and never assume “high quality.” All the meeting, all the way down to the metallic triggers and shoulder buttons, and ring of programmable LEDs below the thumbsticks, feels nicely put collectively. Ayaneo has created a handheld gaming PC that actually feels sufficiently small to slip right into a jacket pocket–it’s about the identical dimension because the Nintendo Swap Lite.

Though the Ayaneo Air Professional is similar thickness because the Steam Deck, it feels extra compact due to the three inches Ayaneo has shaved from that gadget’s size and the inch in peak. The discount in dimension doesn’t preclude additional options, together with a second USB-C port on the Air Professional’s backside, a fingerprint sensor within the energy button, and 4 further contextual face buttons just like the Steam Deck. The fan is far quieter than the Steam Deck’s, even at full pace.

The Ayaneo Air Professional doesn’t embrace further buttons on the again just like the Deck, however I discover these finicky to make use of. What will probably be a deal-breaker to some folks is that the grips on the again of the Air and Air Professional are a lot much less pronounced than the Steam Deck and use a slippier, untextured plastic.

In observe, this doesn’t matter an excessive amount of (although our take a look at unit did slide out of my hand as soon as). After enjoying 35 hours of Enter the Gungeon on the Ayaneo Air Professional, I did have some complaints concerning the ergonomics total, however consolation wasn’t one among them. I used to be persistently in a position to play for two- or three-hour blocks with solely minimal hand pressure.

The Home windows expertise

Ayaneo’s handhelds all run Home windows, and the Air Professional isn’t any completely different. Our unit got here preinstalled with Home windows 11 and AYASpace, a program that maps the Ayaneo Air’s buttons to Home windows features, permitting you to make use of the thumbsticks and face buttons to navigate. Having the keyboard premapped to a brief press of the left prime button, and CTRL+ALT+DEL to a protracted press of that very same button, makes navigating on the 5.5-inch display a lot simpler.

Just like the Steam Deck, a devoted Ayaneo button opens a menu that permits you to change the brightness, quantity, whole energy draw (TDP) cap from 5 watts as much as 12 watts, fan profiles, and different very important features from one handy place.

There aren’t many handhelds that may compete with the Steam Deck on efficiency due to Valve’s customized APU and DDR5 reminiscence configuration, and not one of the Ayaneo Air fashions are highly effective sufficient to match it. However they’ll nonetheless run demanding video games, and even emulate the Nintendo Swap.

At 12 watts, I used to be in a position to pull a continuing 35 frames per second in Borderlands 3 at 720p with all settings on low. Elden Ring and Management have been comparable, each providing over 30 fps at comparable settings. Baldur’s Gate 3 solely ran at 20 fps at 12 watts, and I couldn’t get the sport to acknowledge any of my controller inputs.

You’ll be able to enhance the facility consumption all the best way as much as 18 watts via AYASpace and acquire a further 10 fps in heavier video games, however I don’t suggest doing this except the Ayaneo Air is charging, as it would severely scale back the battery life.

You shouldn’t have any bother pushing indie video games like Hades, Enter the Gungeon, Sable, and Hole Knight to 60 fps at 1080p. The extra pixel density actually helps them shine, and cargo instances will probably be noticeably quicker than the Nintendo Swap ports.

As a result of the Ayaneo Air runs Home windows 11 and might output a DisplayPort 1.4 sign over USB-C, it could additionally pull double responsibility as a full-fledged desktop. I had no downside connecting to my monitor through USB-C, pairing a gaming mouse, and connecting a keyboard over Bluetooth whereas charging on the similar time.

Not like the Steam Deck, you’re not natively restricted to Steam video games, and I used to be in a position to make full use of the free video games I’ve been claiming from the Epic Retailer. Emulators have been equally simple to arrange and configure.

The beautiful display

The opposite predominant promoting level of the Ayaneo Air is the 5.5-inch, 1080p OLED display all fashions come geared up with. Distinction, shade accuracy, uniformity, pixel response instances, and viewing angles are all improbable.

Each sport I examined, even at low settings or 720p decision, appeared beautiful. As a result of OLED screens can produce excellent black ranges, shadows in Management are deep and lifelike, and the colours in Elden Ring pop greater than sufficient to compensate for the lowered background high quality.

The Ayaneo Air’s display suffers not one of the backlight bloom that’s frequent on the Steam Deck. When enjoying on the Deck, I additionally observed a yellow pall in Enter the Gungeon that wasn’t prevalent on the Ayaneo handheld. The display isn’t excellent, however my points with it are minor. Ayaneo opted for a brilliant shiny coating that each enhances the distinction however left me looking at my very own face in darker video games.

It’s additionally a fingerprint magnet, which is a matter when navigating through the touchscreen is the best approach to do issues. The bezels are noticeably giant, however much less distracting on the white fashions the place it blends into the plastic shell extra.

Lastly, 5.5 inches may be make-or-break for some folks. I discovered it too small to comfortably play Borderlands 3 (I couldn’t make out distant enemies), and also you might need bother in text-heavy video games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Disco Elysium. Divinity: Unique Sin 2, a sport with loads of textual content and small UI components, was playable, however I wouldn’t full it this fashion. That stated, it nonetheless seems to be significantly better than the Nintendo Swap port.

What we don’t like

The battery life

The Ayaneo Air Professional has a tiny battery. Should you’re enjoying a AAA sport and pushing the Air to its max energy draw, it’s best to solely count on about an hour and a half of battery life. Taking part in indie video games at a 12-watt cap will see about two to a few hours earlier than you’ll have to recharge.

That capability will drop after a yr of use, too. Whereas Valve and iFixit supply alternative Steam Deck batteries, Ayaneo at the moment doesn’t.

Even worse, the non-Professional mannequin has a 28Whr battery. Regardless of being thinner and lighter, I’d suggest staying away from that tier for that purpose alone.

The ergonomics

Regardless of having the identical footprint because the Nintendo Swap Lite, the Ayaneo Air Professional is much less snug due to the added thickness. I’ve smaller fingers, and steadily needed to stretch to hit each the appropriate set off and thumbstick on the similar time, inflicting me to overlook some photographs whereas gaming. I additionally typically discovered my fingers flexed right into a claw grip.

As a result of it’s shorter than the Steam Deck, Ayaneo opted for downward-firing audio system as a substitute of inserting them on the entrance of the gadget. And, just like the Retroid Pocket 3+, I discovered my pinkies had nowhere to go however curl upwards to cowl them.

Not that it issues a lot; the audio system on the Ayaneo Air Professional aren’t nice. So as to add insult to damage, Ayaneo shipped some Air and Air Professional models (together with ours) with one of many audio system wired backwards, ensuing within the sound being out of section and intensely muffled. It’s simply fixable utilizing a program known as Equalizer APO, however an annoying oversight nonetheless.

The attention-watering worth

The Ayaneo Air begins at $549. The bottom Ayaneo Air Professional begins at $699 and comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 5560U CPU, which is about 20% slower than the mannequin we examined, and 16GB of RAM and 512GB of inside storage. That’s solely $50 greater than the 512GB Steam Deck, however Ayaneo has run gross sales up to now that introduced the costs in line.

If you wish to improve to a mannequin with a Ryzen 5825U CPU you’ll pay $999, minimal. As configured, our unit, that includes a 1TB NVME storage drive, prices $1,099. If you wish to go all the best way as much as the 2TB mannequin with 32GB of RAM, count on to pay $1,399.

Sadly, whereas the Ayaneo Air Professional is packaged properly, it additionally doesn’t include a carrying case just like the Deck does, a evident omission for the value. There’s additionally the very fact you possibly can simply purchase the bottom Steam Deck for $399 and improve the interior 2230 NVME drive your self and save $200.

These sorts of numbers may be laborious to swallow, however realistically, nobody within the handheld gaming PC area can compete with Valve on worth.

Must you purchase the Ayaneo Air Professional?

Perhaps, if you happen to don’t thoughts frequent journeys to the charger

The Ayaneo Air Professional is every part I want the Steam Deck was. It’s a really moveable handheld PC, can run big-name video games nicely sufficient, and makes use of high-quality components like an OLED display and magnetic Corridor Impact thumbsticks and triggers that received’t ever drift or stick. It could be the very best gadget on the market for operating indie video games and emulators, fingers down.

On the similar time, the bottom mannequin of the Air Professional begins on the similar worth as the best tier of Steam Deck. It doesn’t include a carrying case, and though Ayaneo is energetic on Reddit and Discord, it could’t compete with the extent of buyer assist or high quality assurance {that a} large firm like Valve provides. All of that stated, the Ayaneo Air and Air Professional are glorious gadgets that fill a distinct segment Valve hasn’t reached but—the mediocre battery life is the one factor holding them again from reservation-free suggestions.

Should you like the shape issue, the corporate will quickly begin taking preorders for the Ayaneo Air Plus, a $300 model of the Air with a 6-inch, 1080p IPS display that’s powered by a weaker Intel Core i3 1215u processor. You received’t be capable of hit 30 fps in newer video games like Elden Ring, but it surely’s a less expensive various that ought to blast via older video games and emulate WiiU, PlayStation 3, and a few Swap video games with out subject.

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Costs have been correct on the time this text was revealed however might change over time.

Meet the tester

Jonathan Hilburg

Electronics Editor

@jhilburg

Jonathan is an Electronics Editor for Reviewed specializing in gaming gear and has expertise with every part from controllers to benchmarking the newest GPUs. He was beforehand the Net Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper.

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