Ayaneo is one of the biggest players in the booming retro gaming handheld scene, but if you prefer to keep your hobbies under a certain budget, you probably wouldn’t know it. While the company makes some of the finest gaming-focused hardware on the market, it doesn’t come cheap — most of the brand’s devices start around the $400 or $500 mark, and only go up from there. But with the Pocket AIR Mini, Ayaneo is finally expanding into the budget gaming space, and depending on what you prefer to play, it could be the handheld to beat.
The Ayaneo Pocket AIR Mini isn’t up for pre-order yet, but it does have an official product page and a video unveiling on YouTube. So far, it’s sounding like the company’s first budget-minded device could be a homerun, specifically if you’re looking for something to primarily play games from the 90’s. That’s in large part due to the star of the show here: Ayaneo’s new 4.2-inch display features a 4:3 aspect ratio with a 1280×960 resolution and a perfectly respectable 500 nits of brightness. Compared to similar handhelds with 16:9 5-inch displays, it should result in a bigger picture thanks to the lack of any sort of letterboxing.
Under the hood, Ayaneo’s employing MediaTek’s Helio G90T. That’s far from a new chip, but compared to similar offerings from Rockchip and Allwinner typically found in this price range, it should perform perfectly adequately up through fifth-gen consoles like the PS1 and N64. Surprisingly, Ayaneo is actually pretty confident in the Pocket AIR Mini’s performance, even calling out limited support for GameCube, Wii, and PS2. I’d be curious to see how those platforms perform here before slapping my credit card down, but if what the company is promising is remotely accurate, that’s a lot of power for its targeted price point.
The rest of the device is pretty compelling too. The overall design is reminiscent of other Ayaneo handhelds, with retro-inspired colors alongside an all-black model. I’m particularly surprised to see the brand’s love of RGB lighting at this budget level, with the hall-effect joysticks (another surprise) surrounded by light rings. A rear-mounted fan and a 4,500mAh battery round out the rest of the specs, save for storage and RAM allotments.
For that, we turn to pricing. Ayaneo always kicks off a new product launch by turning to Indiegogo campaigns — several of which are ongoing right now — and while pre-orders aren’t live for the Pocket AIR Mini just yet, we do know what to expect in terms of early-bird pricing. The entry-level model with 32GB of expandable storage and 2GB of RAM will start at $70, but if you can swing it, the 64GB variant with 3GB of RAM will cost just $10 more. At retail, those prices will rise to $90 and $100, respectively. Still excellent prices for what’s on display here, but not quite as impulse buy-worthy.
Ayaneo also teased the Pocket S Mini at the end of its announcement, a more premium take on the same kind of 4:3 handheld experience revised from the original Pocket S released in 2024.
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