Forward-looking: It seems the Steam Deck is greater than only a hit product for Valve. The complete marketplace for transportable recreation consoles is being rejuvenated and we could quickly see some very attention-grabbing choices pop up. One of those is the AyaNeo Next 2 — extra of an idea than an actual product at this level, however doubtlessly the primary transportable console with a discrete GPU.
Handheld consoles just like the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch are in for some fierce competitors from lesser-known manufacturers. One instance is Chinese startup Aya, which initially got down to create a Switch-killer with gadgets just like the AMD Ryzen-powered AyaNeo however now has even larger ambitions.
Last month, the corporate unveiled the AyaNeo 2, which is a extra refined tackle the unique recipe that’s anticipated to begin delivery someday later this 12 months. The new console is powered by a Ryzen 7 6800U CPU with RDNA 2 built-in graphics and, not less than on paper, it must be considerably extra highly effective than Valve’s Steam Deck whereas additionally being a bit extra compact.
That mentioned, Aya has a minimum of seven new handheld consoles deliberate for launch within the coming months, presumably to cowl a variety of worth factors — from underneath $300 to effectively over $1,000. The most attention-grabbing of those is the AyaNeo Next 2, which was introduced earlier right this moment throughout a livestream. It seems quite a bit just like the Steam Deck, but it surely guarantees to supply greater than Valve’s most coveted system in years.
What makes the AyaNeo Next 2 attention-grabbing is that it might be the primary transportable recreation console to characteristic a discrete GPU. Details are scarce in the mean time, however the firm did reveal it’ll make two variants of the brand new console. One will characteristic an Intel Alder Lake U-series CPU paired with an Arc GPU, and the opposite might be outfitted with an AMD Ryzen 6000U sequence processor and Radeon 6000 cell graphics.
We do not know the precise SKUs that Aya intends to make use of, however AyaNeo Next 2 customers will supposedly be capable of improve the GPU down the road. Still, we’re extra serious about how the corporate intends to maintain this new system cool throughout prolonged use, in addition to how lengthy the battery will final. There’s no phrase on a launch window, but when this idea ever materializes you possibly can count on pricing to hover north of $1,500.
