Ayaneo 2S Review | Trusted Reviews

Verdict

The Ayaneo 2S is a superb gaming handheld with sufficient energy to play most video games on the go and extra beneficiant spec choices than most of its rivals. However it’s tough to advocate when the software program has so many points and the ROG Ally delivers an analogous expertise at a lower cost level.

Introduction

The Ayaneo 2S is yet one more handheld gaming PC that’s trying to make the most of an rising pattern kickstarted by the Steam Deck again in 2022. 

Whereas this new market has to this point been dominated by established heavy hitters akin to Asus, Lenovo and Valve, Ayaneo stands proud from the gang as a Chinese language start-up firm that was solely based in 2020. 

Can the Ayaneo 2S outmuscle the heavyweights? Listed below are my ideas. 

Design

• Stylish glass coating provides a little bit of heft
• Snug to carry for prolonged classes
• Built-in fingerprint reader

The Ayaneo 2S has the identical primary design ideas as different gaming handhelds, with a 7-inch display screen sandwiched between two controller pads. 

Nevertheless, whereas most handheld gaming PCs sometimes go for a plastic coating, Ayeaneo has as an alternative slapped a glass sheet to the entrance of the machine. This not solely makes the Ayaneo 2S feel and look an aesthetic moveable, but additionally provides additional safety to the display screen. I’ve beforehand criticised the plasticky ROG Ally for feeling slightly low cost, and that is a sublime resolution. 

The draw back to that is that it will increase the load of the moveable. At 667g, the Ayaneo 2S is noticeably heavier than the ROG Ally (608g) regardless of being shorter and thinner. I personally don’t suppose the added heft is sufficient to be problematic, as I nonetheless performed on it for hours with out noticing any aches or strains on my arms. 

The rear of the Ayaneo 2S is draped in a clean plastic, with the grips comfy to carry, with nothing digging into my palms as I play. There’s a enormous vent on the rear designed to expel warmth, when you’ll discover one other exhaust on the prime. 

Ayaneo has added glow-up rings across the analogue stick, which helpfully flash pink when battery life is low. In any other case, I can’t assist however really feel that the Ayaneo 2S appears slightly primary, missing the additional touches to provide it extra character. The Ayaneo 2S at the very least has a number of color choices, together with Black, White and some particular editions akin to Retro Energy that’s impressed by the Nintendo Leisure System (NES) console.

The ability button may be discovered on the highest, and it additionally has a fingerprint sensor embedded with assist for Home windows Hey. A quantity switcher is positioned proper subsequent to it, which is slightly too shut for my liking as I’ve by accident put the moveable into standby a number of occasions. 

There’s a wide selection of ports, with 3x USB-C, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a TF card slot for expanded storage that helps speeds as much as 300MB/s. Ayaneo generously bundles in two USB-C to USB-A  adapters too, simply in case you need to hook up an previous keyboard or mouse.

The Ayaneo 2S helps all the newest wi-fi requirements, together with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. 

Controls

• Similar format as an Xbox controller
• Lacks trackpads just like the Steam Deck
• Tweakable joystick and set off sensitivity

On the floor, the controls for the Ayaneo 2S look unremarkable. On the entrance it has the very same button format and positioning because the ROG Ally, though this makes good sense, as each are attempting to imitate the controls of an Xbox controller for comfort. 

This contains an analogue stick on both aspect, a D-Pad and 4-front going through buttons. Ayaneo has determined towards together with trackpads just like the Steam Deck, which I personally discover disappointing because it makes you reliant on the touchscreen for Home windows and is tougher to navigate video games akin to Soccer Supervisor. 

Up prime you’ve got shoulder buttons and triggers, as properly further LC and RC buttons that act as Macro keys which you’ll be able to assign secondary instructions to. Nevertheless, these buttons are extraordinarily small and slightly awkward to achieve.

One side I actually like in regards to the Ayaneo 2S is the usage of corridor sensing joysticks and corridor triggers. This implies they use magnets to set off inputs reasonably than a bodily mechanism, eradicating the annoying joy-stick drift phenomenon and lowering the delay between enter and on-screen motion. You’ll be able to even modify the sensitivity of the joysticks and triggers. 

You’re additionally in a position to tweak the extent of vibration. I appreciated this characteristic, particularly in video games akin to Horizon Zero Daybreak the place you may really feel the pull of a bowstring and earth-shuddering stomps of a dinosaur. That stated, the vibrations aren’t as exact as what you’ll discover on a PlayStation DualSense or Nintendo Pleasure-Con. 

Show 

• 7-inch display screen with 1200p decision
• Excessive brightness ends in vivid image
• Poor audio system

The Ayaneo 2S sports activities a 7-inch IPS display screen, with no bezel outlining the panel. This creates the phantasm that it’s larger than the display screen on the ROG Ally panel, regardless of sharing the identical dimensions. 

I’m slightly dismayed that there’s no OLED display screen right here contemplating the excessive value, however the excessive 540-nit brightness that I recorded however ensures a vivid panel, leading to among the finest photos I’ve seen from a gaming handheld.

The excessive decision helps, coming in at 1920×1200, which is barely extra pixel-packed than the ROG Ally though is outmatched by the Lenovo Legion Go. I personally don’t suppose you want the next decision than this on a handheld gaming machine. 

The color protection is great coming in at 97% for the sRGB profile. This ends in naturally lifelike colors whether or not you’re gawking on the autumnal leaves in Horizon Zero Daybreak or the brilliant pink fits of Spider-Man. 

The refresh fee is disappointingly restricted to 60Hz, which is a superb disgrace in comparison with the 120Hz panel of the ROG Ally. You might argue that the efficiency isn’t fairly ok to utilize such speeds, but it surely’s nonetheless however a bonus for the extra inexpensive Asus system. 

The audio system are a giant disappointment, as they’re actually quiet and simply drowned out by loud background noise. Element is actually missing right here, with the crackling of a hearth sounding muffled and the increase of a grenade hole. It’s virtually important that you just use a gaming headset as an alternative.

Efficiency

• Related efficiency to ROG Ally
• As much as 64GB RAM and 4TB SSD
• Turns into scorching in Recreation Mode

The Ayaneo 2S is all about energy, boasting a fair higher efficiency than each the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, though the benefit over the latter isn’t fairly sufficient to justify the value distinction. 

The AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor powers the moveable. This chip is generally discovered inside laptops, such because the Acer Swift Edge 16, as an alternative of handhelds which is reasonably odd. The Asus ROG Ally makes use of a Ryzen Z1 Excessive chip as an alternative, which gives the identical specs, however has improved energy optimisations.

The Ayaneo 2S sees a slight efficiency benefit over the ROG Ally in each single benchmark I used, with each techniques set to the best efficiency setting. 

Nevertheless, that additional energy isn’t substantial sufficient to make a giant distinction to the gaming efficiency. Utilizing the in-game benchmark check of a number of video games, there was solely normally as much as a 3fps benefit to the Ayaneo 2S at a 1080p decision. 

Similar to the ROG Ally, the Ayaneo 2S usually gives a 10fps to 15fps efficiency benefit over the Steam Deck so is undoubtedly extra highly effective. However it’s essential to recollect the bottom Steam Deck prices simply $399 in comparison with the $1139 official retail value of the Ayaneo 2S.

The Ayaneo 2S bests its rivals with regards to configuration choices although, with a extra beneficiant providing of reminiscence and storage: as much as 64GB RAM and as much as 4TB SSD.

The additional storage certain gained’t come low cost although. A 2TB Ayaneo 2S prices a whopping $1499 and 4TB is a staggering $1999. Ouch. I can’t criticise the SSD speeds although, with a 4832MB/s learn and 4375MB/s write pace making certain snapping loading occasions. 

On the Balanced efficiency mode, I didn’t encounter any actual thermal points. That modified as soon as I cranked up the efficiency to Recreation Mode to eke out each drop of energy. This causes the rear of the Ayaneo 2S to grow to be noticeably heat, even on the grip areas I used to be holding. It’s the identical story with the followers, which solely kick up a fuss on the best efficiency mode, however nonetheless aren’t loud sufficient to show too distracting. 

Software program

• Run on Home windows 11
• Software program is fiddly to make use of
• Lacks options in comparison with rivals

The Ayaneo 2S runs on Home windows 11, which suggests you may entry any PC library that your desktop laptop or laptop computer can. It’s an absolute ache navigating Home windows with the 7-inch touchscreen although, with typing passwords on the digital keyboard proving significantly irksome. 

The usage of Home windows does give the Ayaneo 2S a slight benefit over the Steam Deck by way of accessing third-party software program. For instance, it’s loads simpler to stream Recreation Move and GeForce Now, however I definitely wouldn’t advocate the Ayaneo 2S for shopping the online or watching movies – navigation is just too clunky. 

Ayaneo has pre-installed its personal app known as AYASpace, which routinely hundreds up once you energy on the moveable. This software program makes an attempt to streamline the method of booting up video games and tweaking settings. Nevertheless, it doesn’t actually work as meant, as choosing a recreation will normally simply kick me onto the Home windows desktop anyway to signal into my Steam account. 

The software program’s Assistant doesn’t have as many tweakable options as I hoped. You’ll be able to alter the sensitivity of the joy-stick and triggers, choose a efficiency mode and map buttons, however not a lot else.

After an automated replace, the AYASpace reverted to the Chinese language language setting, and so I wanted to make use of a web-based information to revert it again to English. It’s points like this that make the software program on the Ayaneo 2S really feel like a piece in progress, and positively nowhere close to the usual of accessible, polished working techniques on the Steam Deck and Nintendo Swap. 

Battery life

• Lasts round 100 minutes for AAA video games
• As much as 4-hour battery life with much less demanding video games

Battery life is the most important situation for each PC gaming handheld I’ve reviewed to this point. I used to be optimistic that the Ayaneo 2S would beat that pattern, with a big 50.25Wh cell seeing a larger capability than the 40Wh ROG Ally and Steam Deck. 

Sadly it wasn’t to be, with the Ayaneo 2S lasting simply 100 minutes on Horizon Zero Daybreak with the efficiency set to Balanced Mode, and 70 minutes on Recreation Mode. That’s barely higher than the ROG Ally’s stamina, however solely by a further 10 minutes.

Battery life will differ relying on which recreation you play. When operating Stardew Valley on Balanced Mode for an hour, the battery solely depleted by 24%, indicating a stamina of as much as 4 hours. However don’t count on to increase battery life even additional than this, irrespective of which recreation you decide.

Regardless of having a bigger battery capability than the ROG Ally, I assume the chip contained in the Ayaneo 2S is much less energy environment friendly. That’s the trade-off for utilizing a processor particularly designed for a laptop computer as an alternative of gaming handheld. 

Total, battery life is poor on the Ayaneo 2S. With the Nintendo Swap OLED lasting 5 hours with Metroid Dread and as much as 9 hours for much less demanding video games, it’s the far safer choice for aircraft and practice journeys. 

Newest offers

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USA RRP

CPU

Display Dimension

Storage Capability

Battery

Dimension (Dimensions)

Weight

Working System

Launch Date

Decision

Refresh Price

Ports

RAM

Connectivity

Colors

Show Expertise

Contact Display

Convertible?

Ayaneo 2S

$1139

AMD Ryzen 7 7840U

7 inches

512GB, 2TB, 4TB

50.25 Whr

265 x 106 x 21.5 MM

667 G

Home windows 11

2022

1920 x 1200

60 Hz

3x USB-C, 3.5mm headphone jack and TF card slot

16GB, 32GB, 64GB

Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2

Starry Black and Sky White

IPS

Sure

No

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