Valve stated it wasn’t going to make a brand new Steam Deck till there was a “important” technical evolution, a step ahead by way of what capabilities the gadget would have. Different handheld distributors, significantly Ayaneo, aren’t so shy. The corporate is well-known for its tendency to introduce new handheld fashions as usually as the remainder of us change underwear, but it surely’s truly solely on the third iteration of its mainline handheld.
We already wrote in regards to the Ayaneo 3 when it was initially teased by the corporate final month, however now we now have some recent particulars on the machine because of a publish on the corporate’s Xwitter account revealing the face of the system in addition to a few key specs. It seems that the Ayaneo 3 is taken into account an ‘Annual Flagship’ for the corporate, and that it will likely be significantly configurable, with a variety of choices.
We are saying that as a result of there’ll apparently be not less than two choices every for display and SoC. The display could have the choice of LCD or OLED show panels, and whereas we love the moment response instances and saturated colours of OLEDs, the LCD is perhaps the smarter alternative on condition that this machine is supposed for gaming. Not solely do you keep away from potential display harm from static HUD components, however you may additionally take pleasure in higher battery life.
The opposite large choice might be your collection of SoC. Ayaneo names two sorts of chips as being out there choices, each from AMD: the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and the Ryzen 7 8840U. The latter is acquainted; a Hawk Level processor essentially based mostly on the identical Phoenix silicon as in mainly each handheld now, together with the ASUS ROG Ally and Ally X, the Lenovo Legion Go, Ayaneo’s personal Kun, and plenty of extra.
The previous is a “Strix Level” half, AMD’s newest Zen 5-based cellular SoC that brings a full twelve CPU cores and eight RDNA 3.5 WGPs (versus six RDNA 3 on Hawk Level) to bear in opposition to gaming content material. In concept, it ought to be a substantial step up in efficiency over the 8840U, however in observe, it might rely fairly a bit on how a lot energy Ayaneo can feed the factor in a handheld kind issue—and the way a lot warmth the Ayaneo 3’s chassis can dissipate.
It is probably not a shock to see that the machine can take both of these SoCs; it was identified even earlier than the Strix Level chips hit the market that they might use the identical FP8 bundle as Hawk Level. It is doubtless that reminiscence configuration choices would be the similar between the SoCs, too.
The hand held maker nonetheless hasn’t revealed different essential particulars in regards to the Ayaneo 3, just like the display dimension, the battery capability, the reminiscence sort or capability, the storage capability, and so forth, however we count on these particulars will are available in time. The actual essential quantity for the Ayaneo 3 will most likely be the value.
Competitor OneXPlayer launched its personal Strix Level-powered handheld simply yesterday, and the value on these items is downright eye-watering, beginning at 4 figures for early fowl pricing. Rumors stated that Strix Level is dearer for laptop computer distributors to purchase from AMD, and it seems to be like these smaller handheld corporations are having to go alongside that distinction to end-users. Will avid gamers proceed to purchase handhelds in the event that they’re priced like gaming laptops? We suppose we’ll see.
