6 ms·

Review: The AYANEO 2S is my new favourite handheld

39 points by LoveMortuus 3y ago

lapetitejort 3y ago
Companies 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.
- theshrike79 3y ago
  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...
  - rasz 3y ago
    Asus is really good with bioses /s. I think I just saw info about them automagically pushing new Ally bios degrading performance by 25%.
- kwanbix 3y ago
  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!
  - mptest 3y ago
    How on EARTH do you make money with 30 different phone versions? Do apple/google/samsung TOGETHER even put out 30 phones a year? That seems absolutely not profitable but what do I know I guess!
    - stevefan1999 3y ago
      By segmenting the markets to target different audiences. Same goes for GPU markets.
      - mptest 3y ago
        why doesn't apple make more different devices then? I guess they have been trending that way.. But still, how does "compartmentalizing" make up for 30 different production lines and whatever else can't be parallelized? Like the tiny differences the other reply noted, what is the difference in a consumer who picks the 3 mm bigger?? Do these "segments" of the market exist naturally or is it manufactured to some degree? ie If one year they suddenly consolidated down from 30 to 5, what % of customers would they really lose?!
      - kwanbix 3y ago
        Do you really need 30 segments? I don't think so.
    - AlfeG 3y ago
      There were even a time when they release a model, that were few millimeters off (height, width, thick and camera location) on the same named model for different countries. Have fun to buy a proper case for it.
  - theshrike79 3y ago
    Good thing that the EU is planning on mandating the amount of updates phones need to get[0]. It should cut down on the amount of phone model spam - or at least they get updated and not abandoned. The regulators have suggested that phone vendors provide at least five years of security updates and three years of OS updates to their devices. Moreover, the said security and operating system updates should reach users “at the latest two months after the public release.” EDIT: it seems that te initiative has already passed: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12797-Designing-mobile-phones-and-tablets-to-be-sustainable-ecodesign_en https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-sa... [0] https://www.androidauthority.com/eu-smartphone-updates-rules-3205112/ https://www.androidauthority.com/eu-smartphone-updates-rules...
Y_Y 3y ago
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.
- chokolad 3y ago
  Skim again, it's all there. AMD 7840U, $999. 16GB unspecified RAM and 512GB SSD.
Dwedit 3y ago
The easiest thing to screw up in a handheld is the D-Pad. A bad D-Pad means that Sonic doesn't roll, Ryu doesn't shouryuken, and Madeline crouches randomly. At least this reviewer admitted that he wasn't knowledgeable enough to review the D-Pad..
- zamadatix 3y ago
  That is one thing I'm somewhat disappointed with on the ROG ally. It's both mooshy and round enough that a downright vs a down is a very small input difference, which doesn't feel physically different to perform. The Xbox elite controllers have one of my favorite dpads, colicky and you can choose + or rounded + via insert.
steele 3y ago
GPD Win Max 2 on the 7840u might be a better choice for those willing to trade handheld comfort for productivity, IMHO
always2slow 3y ago
I didn't see it in the review, or in the video so forgive me if this was covered.. but the real killer feature of these handhelds is the instant on/instant resume. I can grab my steam deck play for 5 minutes or 2 hours, or 2 hours with interruptions because I can just hit the power button and then resume it right where I left off for any game. It's amazing and it's the real reason I use the steam deck. I also have my dual 4090s 128 core 5ghz game station for Call of Legends 4 gaming, but playing games on the deck is just friction-less so not really sure if the AYANEO has that.
- mastax 3y ago
  As I understand it, none of the windows handhelds have instant or even reliable suspend during gameplay.
  - mustacheemperor 3y ago
    My windows computer has instantly suspended gameplay for me many times, often as a surprise. It’s the resuming that’s challenging.
- gloryjulio 3y ago
  Only steamdeck has this feature. Also steamos is way more energy efficient for mobile as the currently windows is already a clusterf*k. I don't see in foreseeable future where windows could catch up with steamos. M$ can't even fix their own laptops
- yread 3y ago
  Call of Legends 4? Is that some AAA pokemon game that was never released to public?
  - always2slow 3y ago
    It's a new ROM hack.
transfire 3y ago
What games does it play? Is it steam?
- c0balt 3y ago
  It runs Windows and as such supoorts Steam etc. This is on the the (dis)advantages compared to the Steam Deck.
LoveMortuus 3y ago
How 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.
- branon 3y ago
  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.
- zamadatix 3y ago
  I'm glad to see them get more powerful but I think MMO on a handheld is probably the last thing these are targeting. Being a portable device with somewhat limited input and screen space compared to a normal computer offline single player games are a good fit but online games with tons of inputs and things on screen seem a bad match even in ideal concept.
jerojero 3y ago
These 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 possible.
- hhh 3y ago
  I would take a lower battery life for higher refresh rate. 60hz gaming makes me nauseous, but this is probably because I haven't played a game at <360hz in a long time.
  - jerojero 3y ago
    Really? Huh. I mean the ROG Ally can do 120hz. For me personally, 40fps/40Hz seems like the sweetspot for these consoles. Ideally on a decent (1080p) resolution which at that screen size looks phenomenal. But I think ultimately we both want the same thing; more power, more efficiency.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  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 yesterday's best AAA game at 4k There's so much to play in the past 30 years of video game history that the Steam Deck (and this handheld) can do effortlessly for several hours, and as cheap as $350, all the elitists who can't seem to care about gaming unless it's twin 4090s with 128 cores at 5ghz and 128gb of DDR5. I don't think you guys actually care about PLAYING video games
  - Arrath 3y ago
    I'm currently moving and my desktop is all packed up, so it has given my Deck its chance to shine. As a Stardew Valley machine, I'm getting upwards of 6 hours of life out of the battery, can't sneeze at that at all.

39 points by LoveMortuus 3y ago

Companies 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.

theshrike79 3y ago
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...
- rasz 3y ago
  Asus is really good with bioses /s. I think I just saw info about them automagically pushing new Ally bios degrading performance by 25%.
kwanbix 3y ago
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!
- mptest 3y ago
  How on EARTH do you make money with 30 different phone versions? Do apple/google/samsung TOGETHER even put out 30 phones a year? That seems absolutely not profitable but what do I know I guess!
  - stevefan1999 3y ago
    By segmenting the markets to target different audiences. Same goes for GPU markets.
    - mptest 3y ago
      why doesn't apple make more different devices then? I guess they have been trending that way.. But still, how does "compartmentalizing" make up for 30 different production lines and whatever else can't be parallelized? Like the tiny differences the other reply noted, what is the difference in a consumer who picks the 3 mm bigger?? Do these "segments" of the market exist naturally or is it manufactured to some degree? ie If one year they suddenly consolidated down from 30 to 5, what % of customers would they really lose?!
    - kwanbix 3y ago
      Do you really need 30 segments? I don't think so.
  - AlfeG 3y ago
    There were even a time when they release a model, that were few millimeters off (height, width, thick and camera location) on the same named model for different countries. Have fun to buy a proper case for it.
- theshrike79 3y ago
  Good thing that the EU is planning on mandating the amount of updates phones need to get[0]. It should cut down on the amount of phone model spam - or at least they get updated and not abandoned. The regulators have suggested that phone vendors provide at least five years of security updates and three years of OS updates to their devices. Moreover, the said security and operating system updates should reach users “at the latest two months after the public release.” EDIT: it seems that te initiative has already passed: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12797-Designing-mobile-phones-and-tablets-to-be-sustainable-ecodesign_en https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-sa... [0] https://www.androidauthority.com/eu-smartphone-updates-rules-3205112/ https://www.androidauthority.com/eu-smartphone-updates-rules...

Y_Y 3y ago

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.

chokolad 3y ago
Skim again, it's all there. AMD 7840U, $999. 16GB unspecified RAM and 512GB SSD.

Dwedit 3y ago

The 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..

zamadatix 3y ago
That is one thing I'm somewhat disappointed with on the ROG ally. It's both mooshy and round enough that a downright vs a down is a very small input difference, which doesn't feel physically different to perform. The Xbox elite controllers have one of my favorite dpads, colicky and you can choose + or rounded + via insert.

steele 3y ago

GPD Win Max 2 on the 7840u might be a better choice for those willing to trade handheld comfort for productivity, IMHO

always2slow 3y ago

I 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.

mastax 3y ago
As I understand it, none of the windows handhelds have instant or even reliable suspend during gameplay.
- mustacheemperor 3y ago
  My windows computer has instantly suspended gameplay for me many times, often as a surprise. It’s the resuming that’s challenging.
gloryjulio 3y ago
Only steamdeck has this feature. Also steamos is way more energy efficient for mobile as the currently windows is already a clusterf*k. I don't see in foreseeable future where windows could catch up with steamos. M$ can't even fix their own laptops
yread 3y ago
Call of Legends 4? Is that some AAA pokemon game that was never released to public?
- always2slow 3y ago
  It's a new ROM hack.

transfire 3y ago

What games does it play? Is it steam?

c0balt 3y ago
It runs Windows and as such supoorts Steam etc. This is on the the (dis)advantages compared to the Steam Deck.

LoveMortuus 3y ago

How 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.

branon 3y ago
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.
zamadatix 3y ago
I'm glad to see them get more powerful but I think MMO on a handheld is probably the last thing these are targeting. Being a portable device with somewhat limited input and screen space compared to a normal computer offline single player games are a good fit but online games with tons of inputs and things on screen seem a bad match even in ideal concept.

jerojero 3y ago

These 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 possible.

hhh 3y ago
I would take a lower battery life for higher refresh rate. 60hz gaming makes me nauseous, but this is probably because I haven't played a game at <360hz in a long time.
- jerojero 3y ago
  Really? Huh. I mean the ROG Ally can do 120hz. For me personally, 40fps/40Hz seems like the sweetspot for these consoles. Ideally on a decent (1080p) resolution which at that screen size looks phenomenal. But I think ultimately we both want the same thing; more power, more efficiency.
mrguyorama 3y ago
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 yesterday's best AAA game at 4k There's so much to play in the past 30 years of video game history that the Steam Deck (and this handheld) can do effortlessly for several hours, and as cheap as $350, all the elitists who can't seem to care about gaming unless it's twin 4090s with 128 cores at 5ghz and 128gb of DDR5. I don't think you guys actually care about PLAYING video games
- Arrath 3y ago
  I'm currently moving and my desktop is all packed up, so it has given my Deck its chance to shine. As a Stardew Valley machine, I'm getting upwards of 6 hours of life out of the battery, can't sneeze at that at all.