The AYA NEO AIR is a Handheld OLED emulation beast | MVG
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- The AYA NEO Air is a brand new handheld that's lightweight, small and has an OLED display. With a Ryzen 5560U, 16gb RAM and a 512Gb SSD it packs a punch - but does it compare to the Valve Steam Deck ? In this episode we take a closer look at how well it performs and why I think its the best handheld system for emulation you can buy today.
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#AyaNeoAir #OLED #EmulationBeast
My concern with these handheld powerhouse devices is the longevity of them. There are so many things that can go wrong with one of these - especially if you actually use them. I'm not talking about buying one and then keep it in a drawer for months at a time and maybe use it a couple hours. I'd like to hear from someone who uses the steam deck, this device or similar ones as an actual "desktop" on a daily basis, several hours a day gaming or whatever. How long would it last before it starts falling apart from use or just the heat killing it? Then of course we have the battery which eventually will degrade. Will it be easy to replace after a year or two?
The big thing that I expect to fail in the Steam Deck is the battery charging chip. I heard that it can get very hot, the cooling of it is acceptable when the deck is new, but a few years later when the thermal pads age and the heatsink starts getting blocked by dust...
I wonder if similar x86 handhelds pre-steamdeck have already started failing & why. In my experience with laptops, it's the parts subject to physical mechanical wear like screen hinges & fans that wear out first - but the that's just my experience. The Deck's only large mechanical components as far as I'm aware are the controller components like the analog sticks & triggers, and that single internal fan. If repairability of those things isn't more difficult than repairing a regular game controller, I don't see it being worse than a laptop if the heat dispersion is comparable.
i wonder how long before the bumpers and triggers stop working
hasn't Valve been super open with repair parts for the steam deck? seems like at the very least the deck would have no issues in getting replacement parts.
Valve has made statements regarding the replacement of the SSD, saying that if you replace with an unsupported SSD it could affect the device lifespan negatively. So it sounds like they have done their engineering research on the longevity of the Deck as long as it uses the intended components, though of course real world usage and the results of that will trump all.
Finally someone talks about the battery. Was really suspect aya never mentioned this. One hour. I'm out
Ikr.
The Aya Neo Air costs more, runs worse and has half the battery life (if not less) of the Steam Deck.
Why you would get this over a Steam Deck is beyond me.
If it's one hour out of the box, imagine how it'll be after the battery starts weakening after a couple of years.
It's one hour if you max things. Playing an SNES game or an indie title should give you more. You pay the 500$ cause it looks like the most convenient device to carry around and play smaller games.
@@Ali009Ahmed Ok... but there are far cheaper options. Like if u want to just play SNES style games why don't u just get an ARM handheld?
That will have much better battery life to boot.
@@Ali009Ahmed then why not just get a Vita/3DS which actually has exclusive games for a fraction of the cost. Or just use your phone which can play older emulation no problem on something you already have?
From what I have researched on the device, those are Hall Effect Control Sticks. They absolutely will not drift, and will probably outlast the entire device itself before there are any problems. Hall Effect sticks use a permanent magnet to detect X and Y position and have next to no physical wear, given there isn't any mechanical action like with your standard Potentiometer sticks. Hall Effect sticks also have next to no deadzone whatsoever, and are more precise as a result.
The Dreamcast used Hall Effect sticks for its controllers, actually, which is why they felt so nice.
There is the mechanical action of the stick movement and there are springs there that can get damaged. But yeah, I'm nitpicking, if there is no wiper rubbing a carbon resistor strip, it is a million times more reliable.
Wow, they finally did it, a mass market controller with Hall effect sensors which is relatively easy to buy. But why they attached a screen to it?
I also heard a lot of people talking about the Dreamcast having these kinds of sticks, which raises the obvious question of, if these sticks are this old, why haven't companies been using these instead of the ones that drift?
@@bluemidnight5926 because consumer electronics became a race to the bottom. Nothing is worth doing anymore unless the scale is gigantic and the resources are the most readily available or secured via exclusive agreements, because product complexity has only gone up and supply chains are very hard to tame. Also there's the fact that a lot of gaming hardware is subsidized by the platform owners in some way and there are heavy incentives to cut costs there.
@@lpcamargo what? switch’s scale is gigantic
At this point in hardware evolution, isn't pretty much every new release an emulation beast?
Ya pretty much anything with a modern processor. My phone can run a lot of these games to minus the ps3 and 360 stuff but all systems struggle on those.
If it is powerful enough then surely it can run other machines right?
These days being good at emulation doesn’t just include being able to run emulators with good performance, but also the convenience of enjoying it without jumping through a lot of loopholes.
Steam Deck and AYA Neo are both handhelds which is a big benefit to using them as an emulation box, though they trade performance and ease of use for battery life vs the Switch.
My phone from 4 years ago is an emulation beast.
How to say product sucks without saying that it sucks? Say it is Emulation Beast...
$1249 in Australia. I'll give it a miss. Nice to see it available for pre order at major retailers though!
Just imagine how much this device will cost in the UK plus import tax too lol no thanks
Its expensive but we have no other options here ATM plus $1,249 is for the Pro model with the bigger battery and 512 GB/16 GB RAM. Just being able to buy this from an Aussie retailer and not having months of delays is a huge bonus too.
@@HUYI1 i just had a look before watching the video, and it seems to be well over £1000.......
@@UnKnownv5 completely agree
Tbf electronics and games are more expensive in general in Australia.
This is like the old joke about the man with the worlds most powerful wrist watch, but to keep it running he must carry a suitcase full of batteries.
Other channels have highlighted how hot this gets. It’s really significant. That heat and the battery life prevent me wanting it, but it is exciting to see the potential of a smaller form factor with a high-quality screen. The future will surely produce some amazing devices.
One hour of battery life kind of kills it for me. I currently take my Switch on journeys "back home", eight hours of public transport, and could see that being replaced with one of these emulation machines someday. I wonder how long it will take for battery life to start improving on these things?
Whenever battery technology evolves and becomes cheap to mass produce. I think the tech is already here but they don't want to put it out because they want people to keep buying incremental upgrades.
They literally can not improve the battery live on this type of device unless you reverse the physics or something
Not only that the price is ridiculous, you can get a decent laptop for that price with better specs and storage, smdh
I think we need more specialized SoCs for exactly that usecase - Ultra mobile gaming. I hope this soon becomes an even bigger market so AMD and Intel will pour more money into RND for low power hardware, which they have been neglecting a lot recently it feels like.
@@floppa9415 which is exactly what the steam deck APU is. Have you seen the power to performance curve on it? The Phawx did a comparison to the 6800U. The 6800U is phenomenal. But the steamdeck APU knocks it into the dirt in the 9-12W performance bracket. The 6800U destroys in the 15-20w bracket.
If the Steam deck had specced up to a larger battery at launch this would be zero contest. It gets 2.5 hours AAA gaming on its rather small battery. An internal battery upgrade and it would trounce even the new competitors.
These should really have detachable batteries. One battery could be charged while the other was being used. The technology is so cheap these days, we're talking maybe 10-12 dollar worth of components. It would also allow extra large batteries to be used for those that wish to spend hours playing without worrying over battery life.
Detachable batteries are long dead for electronics. It's not a matter of expense, it's a form factor thing. Cell phones, laptops, cameras, all consumer electronics have abandoned this. It's not coming back.
edit: also to all those replying, y'all know you can adjust tdp? You don't have to game at 15w, you can even adjust you're settings so you can run at 8. Or limit frame rates. It's not going to run at that TDP all the time.
@@dumkopf it makes sense in this application, this is niche product.
@@jondonnelly4831 and also a likely boost to impression for sales..
There are lots of practical reasons why that doesn’t exist anymore. Battery banks have filled the void left by removable batteries anyway. I think the fellow above is correct - they’re not coming back.
@@dumkopf that's not accurate. In consumer tech such as high-end vaporisers, there's been a trend of replaceable batteries as they're so quick to run out. If it's appropriate, it's fine.
I'm worried about heating after seeing Dave 2D take a thermal shoot of it... One of the reasons the steam deck is so big is to keep your hands away from the center where the heat is generated
THE SCREEN IS TOO SMALL IT'S MADE FOR ANTS AND THE BATTERY IS WAY TOO SMALL PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE 40 WATT HOUR BATTERY ON THE STEAM DECK WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY'RE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS ONE THIS THING MAY GET AN HOUR IF YOU'RE LUCKY
@@allhandsonsteamdeck1440 Screen might be smaller (slightly better than the vita) but the resolution is higher so it's actually better for streaming games for instance. The battery is a big issue though.
@@jonathaningram8157 for 500 dollars if you're going to stream you're better off with a proper console or desktop PC, but to each their own.
@@allhandsonsteamdeck1440 WHY ARE WE YELLING
@@allhandsonsteamdeck1440 NO NEED FOR YELLING ! Why ?
Battery life kills this for me. I hope to see OLED screens become more and more common though.
crazy that the Vita did this a decade ago and we're only now seeing it in modern devices
@@FS-zt6tm Yeah was about to echo your comment. OLED needs to be made standard immediately, remove everything else. Its taken us 22 years but OLED finally compares to CRT, we now have most of things we lacked back when switching to those awful LCD flatscreens at the start of the century.
@@T0TALLYAWESOMEGUY just skip it and go straight to micro LED
a few more years and OLED will be a thing of the past, burn in, blue fade, low brightness
all will be overcome once micro LED takes off, and it will probably be more efficient to manufacture too , OLED has a high failure rate, for large panel anyways
that being said I did just buy a new 55C1 , I really wanted to wait it out for micro LED but who really knows if it will come in the next 3 years , my old plasma is was cooking me alive and costs too much to run now, plus fans are just starting to get noisy
was on sale for 999, when I saw the price of the C2 with minimal improvement I decided what the hell
@@andreamitchell4758 it does not have a high failure rate. Don't make things up for your convenience. Microled is still too expensive.
@@Xfade81 no not high failure rate and yes it is still too expensive right now of course
one of the main benefits is also the high brightness , OLED is not good in daylight
For me this is not a great deal. 500usd for a device with less power than the cheaper steam deck. Ppl will argue the cheaper steam deck only has 64gb but you can get a 512gb SD card for under 100 easily. So your swapping power for that oled and that's not a good trade IMO.
SD card read speeds are slow though, so unless you're exclusively using the Deck to run emulators or really old PC games from the time before SATA, expect slow asset streaming.
This is especially true if you go for the cheapest 512GB microSD card, which atm is the only kind you can get in the $100 price range. Wouldn't be surprised if a legit good one went for $150. At that point just get a 2230 512GB NVME and swap with the 64gb one inside the Deck... or going by the price they're being sold for just get the more expensive Deck model and be done with it.
@@OfficialDJSoru people put up with load times for decades, it's not that bad.
@@clydefrosch On loading screens yes, NOT ON OPEN WORLD GAMES THAT REQUIRE DATA STREAMING.
Seriously, install GTAV on a USB 2.0 external drive, get into the game, grab a fast car and drive as fast as possible on a long stretch of road. As soon as models start looking blurry you'll see what I mean by this issue.
Cyberpunk's timeskip montage is equally infamous cause with all the data streaming in a short span of time, even if you're using a SATA SSD internally, V's car will show up as the blocky LOD first before the hi-poly model phases in, cause it didn't have time to load. To this day it still does that.
I can give you another example, reading optical media is slower than reading a hard drive. Remember playing San Andreas on the PS2? Sometimes you'd see blurry road textures after driving too fast for a while and a few seconds later the higher quality textures would show up. That's cause the PS2 was still loading the textures off the disc.
The cheapest 512GB MicroSD card I can find under 100 is the Kingston Canvas Select Plus, and the theoretical performance of the read speed caps out at 100MB/s, same as the Samsung and Kioxia ones I found with that capacity. Dunno about the Sandisk ones so you could get lucky there.
That said, even the slowest IDE hard drive dating all the way back in the 90's does the same 100MB/s, but a SATA one can theoretically go up to 6GB/s (SATA III). All these connections pale in comparison to the internal SSD these devices are using, which is NVME and uses PCIe connections, which go up to 16GB/s on PCIe gen 3 and 32GB/s on gen 4
With all this info you gotta make the decision if you really wanna just get a larger capacity SSD or just expand storage by MicroSD, but as I said on the previous reply, leave the SD for lower sized games or games that don't stream the assets and instead load everything at the loading screen. I'd put Beat Hazard 2 and my entire music library on an SD, even if it would take an eternity to load the library, but not an open world game.
Xbox Series S is an unbeatable deal of the year. Plus, you can play that for hours...
@@OfficialDJSoru I have a Steam Deck and have run GTA V and several other (much newer) open world games off both the SSD (256gb version) and a 1tb SD card.. if there is any difference I don’t notice it.
Valve would have done extensive testing on that type of thing and I don’t think they’d be selling a base unit without a SSD if you couldn’t run open world games off an SD card.
Would be interesting to see how much improvement there would be running Linux or Steam OS over Windows 11.
Was thinking the same, though I wouldn't be surprised if its disappointing as most of the optimisation has been to rDNA2 thanks to Steam Deck.
@@alexatkin When Ryzen 6000 series CPUs get their respective handhelds, they too will have RDNA2 APUs, so they should also benefit from the optimizations.
A lot I imagine
It would be a downgrade, both in performance and in terms of what games you can actually play.
@@mjc0961 that's not necessarily true. Proton actually works better for some games and is usually around the same performance for most. There are a lot of incompatible games, but it's surprisingly few.
The right analog stick looks like it will get in the way for some games. It’s positioned directly under the A button.
Exact same positioning as the switch, which never really got in the way for me so far.
Also I wanted to say, Aya has some shady shit on Shipping the devices, some people funded them in kickstarter never got their devices that were promised to them in 2 years! So you might wanna consider whom you wanna buy from.
Interesting device.
However it's kinda just overall feels irrelevant because of the Steam Deck.
Also that 1 hour battery life is a big oof. The Steam Deck has a better battery life even in its worst case scenario.
But in Emulation the Steam Deck lasts 2 to 3 hours compared to the Neo Air's 1 hour.
neo air can also last 2 to 3 hours if you do retro emulation and downclock the TDP to 5W, plus this thing weighs less than a third of the steam deck
@@Crawmeraxew MVG said that the Aya Neo Air only lasts 1h30 on 8W and 1h on 12W.
Also 5W only allows it to run NES and SNES level emulators which at that point just get attachable controllers for your phone as that will give you 2 to 3 times the battery life of the Neo Air.
@@Priception apparently on 5W it can do up to N64, even including games like Dead Cells & Hades, according to Taki Udon if you search his demo video, and bat life was about 3hr 15min
@@Crawmeraxew OK... and your point is?
At a similar level of wattage a Steam Deck could do that while having 4 to 5 hours of battery life.
Also again if you only care about emulation up to dreamcast just use your phone.
This device just feels pointless. If it cost £250 then for but it doesn't. It costs £500+
@@Priception for sure, steam deck is much more powerful with a larger battery, but it's 3x the weight and basically the size of a sheet of paper, the air is smaller than a Switch
Overall I'm not really too impressed with the device performance wise, but being as compact as this makes it definitely cool for some light gaming. If I want Mediocre emulation, I'd do it on my Razer Phone from 3 years ago. I think the Steam Deck is a much better option for most people, but it's nice to see competition in this area of the market.
@@UnKnownv5 The guy literally advised against the mindless consumption of subpar products and you reply with consoome lmao. Way to miss the point
I swear this guy explains complicated stuff so well everyone can get it, huge thanks !
In the end we're going to hit a standstill in terms of features and usage, Valve+AMD having been doing a lot to really push the performance of Proton and the driver stack. There's just a lot of titles that don't run as smoothly under Windows, especially when shader compilation or fill rate is a common bottleneck for a title. While it's impressive to see this sort of hardware, it just doesn't stand up in the end.
It is a double-edged sword though, considering the smaller and smaller list of games that won't run at all under Linux/SteamOS. To me, that's what really makes their "PC openness approaches" stand out, showing that they actually trust their end-users enough to actually make the simple choice of what they would like to run for their own purposes.
SteamDeck 2 is well in development, Rembrandt & then Phoenix APUs will be hitting these devices over the next year or two which will improve the efficiency & power share between CPU & GPU compute. As far as I know Valve isn't intending to keep SteamOS a closed ecosystem at all & has every intention to make it available to 3rd party device manufacturers- as they benefit from people using Steam.
What doesn't it stand up to in your opinion? Laptops? The Nintendo Switch or PS Vita?
lol okay Boomer
@@werethless12 um
@@InnuendoXP The aya doesn't stand up to the steam deck because it lacks the ecosystem, was my point.
Can't wait to get mine. Hopefully in the next month or so. It shall compliment my Deck nicely :)
The thing about the deck is how versatile it is the competition has yet to match it. The ui and controls are miles ahead of the competition. The steam controller mapping software is incredible you can basically map any game no problem even pc mouse and keyboard centric games. There has been very few games that don't run but I mostly use it as a emulation backlog cleaner having ps2 and gamecube on the go has always been my dream. I love my steam deck it's my most played portable system ever. I get that the deck is bulky but this thing is still not tiny imo and the battery life is awful.
It's just too big. I sold mine after a few days.
To me the Steam Deck is like the Sega Game Gear's spiritual successor, both are bulky yet powerful but expensive and hard to buy and their principal competitor Nintendo has a smaller and less powerful version but is cheaper and very easy to get in comparison, the only thing that separates Sega and Steam is the fact that Valve is a giant money making juggernaut and they don't depend on the success of their console for their future as a videogame company.
@Jullia kosic didn't it get drivers a month ago? Also screw anticheat companies that don't want to port it to Linux.
My biggest issue with the deck is that it's butt ugly.
@Jullia kosic i think so because a lot of people dual boot now for online games
The battery life could be much better and SteamOS would really improve it
Interesting! Care to elaborate? (the obvious disadvantage must be that you'd lose all access to windows only emulators)
@@nicoful86 What Windows only emulators?
Pretty much all the emulators are available on Linux. And the ones that aren't run flawlessly using Proton.
@@nicoful86 SteamOS gives you a lot of leeway in terms of background processes, task management, power management .etc that would let you optimise your device either for power or runtime, or both (while shredding a lot of bloat).
I heard a lot of great things about Steam OS if you primarily game exclusively on Steam, but I have a lot of my games on other launchers, like Itch and GOG. Personally, I'd be more inclined to try something like Aya Space being that it's more of an open ended OS, even if it is Windows based. I honestly don't understand all the hate towards windows on these devices. It's very simple to understand and universally recognized as most peoples default PC operating systems.
@@bluemidnight5926 The "hate" is that windows is bloated and slower than most alternatives. Alternative launchers on SteamOS are no big deal, Heroic Launcher helps with that, as I've gotten CP2077 on gog's launcher to work just fine, just as an example. I'll be mighty tempted to switch my main machine over to linux once SteamOS officially drops, as SteamOS has fixed some of the issues the last time I tried making the switch.
This video answered all my questions! Thank you!
I was getting buyers remorse on my Galaxy S22 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 1) once I saw the specs..
But when I saw battery life, I appreciate the balance in my new cell.
Something I wanna see more often from handheld game systems is make them more recorder friendly, as in make it easier for people to record their game footage like for walkthroughs, speedruns, let's plays, etc.
Wonder if risc-v processors will be more power efficient and allow for longer battery life once they take off. Apparently they're already being used for laptops.
Yes they will eat 10x less power and be eventually 10x faster than ARM and X64, just not today. In 5 years Risc-V will be the only choice for speed. The next problem is we need to escape the swamp that is MS Windbloat then X64. PS : I have a Risc-V Nezha Sipeed Linux computer.
@@MarquisDeSang We're already doing some of that by relying on the power of Proton so we can just install something like a SteamOS / Batocera dual boot, maybe not even needing Batocera depending on emulator optimization
@@T0TALLYAWESOMEGUY This is great, Risc-V is not ready for consumer products yet anyway. I prefer my swtich because the experience is easier and more importantly, there are physical version, anything else is game renting.
@@MarquisDeSang Agree!
Even with that price tag considered the 1hr battery life on max settings (how I would run it almost always) is a real killer. It's an impressive compact device but I'd still pick Steam Deck over this any day. Regardless of if there is a Steam Deck 2 or not I will still have all my Steam games. I will say the size of the Air is impressive but with 1 hour battery life when brand new it's a sacrifice far too large for me to seriously consider. I imagine I would have the Air plugged in at all times and it sort of defeats the smaller form factor if the battery is so short and the fan is cranking more often. AYA's other devices seem a lot better imo.
The Steam Decks battery life isn't too much better either though
@@Flyingboots1 the battery life definitely is substantially better on Steam Deck and it seems much more optimized with Valve and the Steam community working on it to make things play the best for it. Of course with both of these devices the battery won't last as long as a Switch bc that power comes at a high energy cost. In some sense thinking of how underpowered the Switch is almost makes me think it was partially done intentionally to get a better battery life from it. The other part of me just thinks Nintendo is cheap and doesn't care about having the best graphics. I actually grew to appreciate the Switch far more after all these devices have come out and shown how many problems come with them. Nintendo made it look easy.
It would've been 10/10 if the battery was atleast 45Wh. I'm still excited to get my hands on this thing though.
Exactly. Really nice looking alternative to the Deck with the smaller form factor and quality design. Just a shame about the battery. Maybe the Pro version improves that a bit.
The pro version does have that larger 42wh battery and can choose between a 5560 or a more powerful 5825 CPU.
@@jamesyu5212 The pro version has a 38wh battery, but yeah it's still way better than the 28wh of the non-pro. That's what I went with personally.
@@jamesyu5212 Is it 42? I thought the standard is 28 while Pro is 38?
EDIT: It's indeed 38. Good thing I went for Pro and cancelled my standard.
the screen looks very bright and vivid, looks really unreal to my eye
Hard to beat that ARM battery life, for sure. Looks like a fun device for that "sweet spot" of games you mentioned. I guess you just gotta carry one of those USB battery banks with you to get the life of a Switch.
Deck isn't ARM cpu and it's better. I thought the oled screen would help a bit.
@@jonathaningram8157 I am aware it's not an ARM chip which is why I said...."Hard to beat that ARM battery life" (aka Switch, iPad, Apple M based chips, iPhone, SamSung)
@@ET_Videos Switch doesn't even have good battery life.
@@bltzcstrnx Define "good"? Not iPad level that's for sure lol.
@@ET_Videos good enough = normal working hours. Switch only reach this when playing 2D games.
1 hour battery life is a deal breaker but I love everything else about this device.
Steam Deck and its clones/competitors are effectively the modern successor to the PSP/PS Vita.
This particular device looks really nice, with some obvious advantages over the Deck being its screen, form factor, and default storage capacity- but the inferior battery life and less powerful specs are definitely something to consider.
I still use my PSP. 😂😂
@@joshuajefferson3504 PSP emulation still has a lot of flaws. Learned that trying to play the Yakuza Black Panther games - none of the emulators can render those games accurately because of the technique used.
@@joshuajefferson3504 Same. I'm willing to bet if the Vita were successful though and Sony had made a successor its specs would be very similar to many of these handheld gaming PC's. It's pretty neat that various Sony/PS games are getting PC ports that can run on them too.
@@chemergency yeah it's ashame sony shot themselves in the foot with vita. Had it used standard SD cards and had a attachment UMD drive or a method to port ones UMD games I would've bought one
Yes and no. I use my Steam Deck for pc games which are only playable there thanks to touchpads. This means that for me there are no other competitors and deck idea is too unique to be just a succesor. Aya have one device planned with trackpads, so i hope it will sell well and that will propagate trackpads love some more
Problem with all gaming handhelds going forward will be TDP. We need to start getting solid state batteries in IOT devices.
There's a good video looking into them if you look for "Solid State EV Battery Tech: Reality vs Hype". But I always remain sceptical whenever something is still in development, there are no guarantees they will meet their goals.
You know Aya stepped up their game if MVG makes a video about one of their newest handhelds.
I wonder how much they are paying him
not really, they sent it him and it's easy views
Aya stepped up shit. Steam deck still wins
I want a comparison between this and a jailbroken Switch oled- if a Jb Switch can emulate ps2/gc/wii/dc well then perhaps it would be a better option as obviously you could play Switch games on it too.
All things considered, this shows how much the Steam deck is cheap considering its components and performance.
Also you get support from Valve. Still this device is very neat but the battery is a deal breaker for me.
Keep an eye out for the Ayn Loki, which will be a Windows version of their Abdroid based Odin handheld. That's a product I'm also excited for.
1 hour of battery life. Ouch was hoping for at least 3-4 hours on average
1 hour is ridiculous
Was just looking at this product last night. Excited to watch this.
Will it still work when it battery dies?
@Esuard Leder Then I wont buy something that comes with a time bomb
I really like the form factor and small size but the battery, apu and 1080p much less, I understand they probably got a good deal on smartphone panels but they should have kept them for beefier models.
Most of these emus are cpu bound which is probably why they run better than the deck
Essentially due to higher IPC of Zen 3 microarchitecture compared to Zen 2.
Pretty neat little device. I've seen other youtubers like ETA Prime put Steam OS 3 on it. Even though thats pure irony, if they ever get the CPU/GPU clock speed adjust settings on that OS to work with it then that could be a seriously good setup for it. Since getting my deck I have found that ability to be extremely important for balancing battery life with performance.
Why irony? It's just arch Linux with a few tweaks
I think the Steam Deck is still a better emulation device simply due to size of the community around it which attracts developers who specifically target the Steam Deck as a platform for optimizations, etc. This something the ayaneo just won't ever have.
It doesn't need to have it, the PC is an open platform so its much more related to the software you are running for it than the hardware. And on the hardware front its close enough for things like holoiso to work.
I agree completely that the deck is the better emulation device because of its better performance and battery life. This one can't compete. But it Aya released better hardware for a similar price it won't be the software holding you back especially once SteamOS 3 is officially out for devices other than the deck.
Steam deck has issues with the ps2 emulation and up and apparently there isn’t much that can be done sooo for now the aya is the better choice
@@mobious01 The aya has a generation older GPU so if its a GPU bottleneck its going to be worse.
@@mobious01 The aya neo air has horrible battery life so how is it a better choice?
Not necessarily, Valve has announced the intention to develop SteamOs 3 with a multi platform approach: that is, other hardware developers will be able to install the same operative system and that will be totally free. So development of Steam Os for the Deck can also help optimize the Aya Neo and other consoles.
regarding the no drift claim.
IIRC they are partnering with gulikit which produce hall effect sensors for their own controllers.
I would love to get the PRO model just for hat OLED screen alone buuut betting 800$ on a indegogo from a Chinese company doesn't fill me with confidence, having to pay that much up front to wait up to a year and then you still get the risks involved with shipping from China plus the import tax sadly makes this a deal breaker for me.
Pretty sure no import duty on imports in usa under 800$
You dont have to wait that much, the airs will be shipped in the next two weeks or so. Chinese airs are already being shipped
@@manuelpimentel7711 Really, I probably was think of a different portable then.
Nice to know thanks but still I think ill stick to waiting for the Deck for the other reasons mentioned import tax alone would be something like 150$-200$ here.
@@Sevent77 haha think you thinking of ayn not AYA
I am still surprise the old Vega APU is still being used to this day for these devices. I guess RDNA2 APU availability is not an option for certain pricing yet, but I sure hope after sometime we see more of them down the line as it really help with performance with games that needed that GPU uplift.
Probably can't have that cou in a small case
This (and the steam deck) is effectively a PC laptop AMD SoC in a different case. My one big concern with that is heat, because neither AMD nor Intel seems to be able to build anything that doesn’t produce more heat than a radiator. Let’s say that heat alone was enough of a reason for Apple to swap to the M-series.
I kinda wish AMD would jump on that bandwagon. ARM CPU plus AMD GPU. Could compete in a lot of spaces with that. Could even drive a future Switch with that.
Isn't the SOC in the Steam deck semi-custom? I was thinking you couldn't get RDNA graphics in an integrated GPU off the shelf, thought they were all still Vega.
@@rpavlik1 I’ll be, never thought about that. It’s like a laptop version of a PS5/XBox. Bet AMD felt good about being able to put that together (smart move). Would probably be a pretty decent laptop in many ways. I wonder if they will ever release it for laptops or if it stays custom for generations.
Kinda makes me wish that Valve had made a Steam Pack laptop version. More memory, run SteamOS, clocked to take advantage of a 1920x1080 screen.
A good Linux laptop that can play games would be really cool, but sadly I question the market:)
Again thanks for pointing it out, the Deck has a pretty good advantage because of this.
@@flekkzo We can expect AMD mobile APUs to move to RDNA graphics in the next couple of generations. One of the reasons why these handhelds show such high performance is BECAUSE the screen can run lower resolutions and still look ok. The steam deck has a 1280x800 display. If you run games at 1920x1080 you have almost 2x the pixels to drive, and you will lose performance.
Personally I can't wait for RDNA to hit the APU space. If it's done right nVidia should be afraid of losing the low/mid tier Gaming laptop space. they just need to optimise power consumption.
This one has Hall sensors on the analogue sticks and triggers right?
They should never have the same problems with drift as the sticks in Switch or PlayStation controllers.
The OnePlus 7t which can be had for $100, can emulate everything this unit can. I have my 7t rooted and keep my CPUs maxed out during emulation. I can run ps2 need for speed hot pursuit 2 full speed at all times with accurate settings (no speed hacks) and it runs beautiful.
Where do you find them for sale so cheap?
You got that right! Yeah but where is the fun it that? Not spending hundreds plus the accessories?? I'm disappointed how crappy these handhelds are. Even a modded Switch is doing a better job.
doubt. I have a Pixel 6 Pro and it can't even handle PS2 emulation at full speed
@@ILoveWomen Probably because your CPU clocks are idle thanks to the crappy cpu governor the factory ships these with (usually schedutil). I rooted my phone and put in a performance governor that keeps my CPU cores at max frequency. I can play need for speed hot pursuit 2 with accurate settings at full speed with no slowdown on aethersx2. The game runs beautiful. Look into rooting your phone and put in a CPU control app that allows you to change the cpu governor.
I have a 7t. Amazing phone. I keep it at 90hz and the battery lasts 2 days. Had it for 3 years I think
When it comes to handhelds, I'm only interested in emulation. *If it cost $300, I would buy it right away, but $500 is a lot to ask for a device which can emulate up to Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube,* especially when you look at the RP3 or some Anbernic devices which might not be perfect, but cost less than half.
the buttons and windows 11 killed it for me. i emulate mostly sprite fighting games from the gcube ps2 generation and earlier.
sprite based fighters, especially from the end of the arcade era, look gorgeous and have an evergreen quality to them that keeps me returning to them time and again. i can tell from looking at the size and layout of the buttons on this thing, and having used Bluetooth controllers with similar proportions, that these buttons would shred my fingertips, cramp my hands, and make me drop alot of DP and H.Circ inputs, especially in hyper fighting games like MvC2. windows 11 is just a trash heap and I'm baffled by its inclusion Since the unit is not up to muster for modern high end PC games.
thank you for reviewing devices like these though. i cant help but shun any emulating
systems that have proprietary operating systems, even if theyre only minorly proprietary at most like steam deck's OS. i was burned many times by apple before i decided to not settle for any operating system that I can't completely control and modify.
I have been eagerly waiting for this video 👍
in other words the battery life is abysmal
They could make it a bit thicker, like maybe 2-3mm making more space for battery and maybe even making shoulder buttons a bit bigger.
I love OLED
You know you can increase the vibrancy of the panel in amd adrenaline app right? Switch oled actually kinda does the same thing. It has vibrancy mode selected automatically in the switch oled settings menu. You can actually increase vibrancy even more on the air.
The battery life is woeful. Reminds me of a Sega Game Gear!
Are there any cheaper devices?
In the x86 space? I doubt it unless you get a 64G SteamDeck.
@@MegaManNeo yeah I think I’ll probably hold off a while yet
When looking at a handheld, I think price point matters. $199-$249 is the range i'm looking at. $500+ is an investment for most people even for all it does. As we have seen in the handheld market these past couple years, there is going to be the next big thing next week or next month. That makes it imperative to be competitive on price. For me the Odin did this right. The Odin will allow me to wait for the next big thing to play OGXbox and some of the other newer gen games on a device with a competitive price later down the line.
$500-$1000? ROLMAO
Oh yeah, that axelay stage 1 track.... uhhh yeah!
I feel like the screen could be way bigger, just looking at the borders around it. But it would've increased the price, especially since it's OLED.
No one makes an oled that would fit. So 5.5 inches was the best they could do without spending millions commissioning a custom display.
@@19CD91 Why is my tablet a 10 inch oled then?
@@flameshana9 I never said there was one size. I said one that would fit. the device isn't even 10 inches long. And Nintendo isn't gonna sell anyone their panels.
@@19CD91 I still don't get it. My dad has a 7 inch tablet and there are 8's too. 7 seems like a good size for a handheld to me.
@@flameshana9 the whole device is only 8.5 inches long. The other issue is 16:9 aspect ratio. You have to understand just because you seen something in a tablet doesn't mean it will be sold or even work. Also understand there is a difference between OLED and AM-OLED. Just try yourself to go out and find these screens. The next size up that fits the criteria is an 8.5 inch display and no way that would fit.
It's an amazing piece of kit for the size and the value. Still out of my price range, but compare this to similar prices for other "X86 Handheld Gaming PCs" from just the past 1-2 years at >$1000.
As these devices get smaller, internal wear and tear due to long-term heat exposure becomes a major issue.
Are you gonna review the Aya neo 2 in the future? The specs outclass any handheld pc including the steam deck.
The price also outclasses even a Mid-High End PC.
@@FR4M3Sharma True
Excited to get mine. Planning on only using it for emulation.
I really hope the market continues picking up Steam (no pun intended). I especially hope that we will get more SoC style chips from Intel and AMD designed for super mobile gaming. Trading some CPU power for more GPU power, as well as very low power CPU cores (like the ARM Cortex A5... series) for light weight applications and older games.
My main hope is to see this new Linux-based Aya operating system, as well as more SteamOS devices. I personally would avoid Windows as much as possible, but I know most people don't mind paying extra for proprietary software.
@@softwarelivre2389 Yes, however I hope over time a cohesive Platform (like Android) forms for all these Mobile Gaming Linux OSes. Where all the OS makers adhere to a certain standard on how Games or Apps are installed, uninstalled, managed, backed up, cloud synced, ... as well as a shared API for interacting with stuff like the Gamepad, Gryosensors, Energy Saving Modes, etc with someone (maybe Valve) overseeing it while still giving enough Room for OEM customization.
@@floppa9415 the first part is more of a responsibility of the game store (Steam, Epic, Origin, and so on), so not any different from what we already see these days. The second part of your comment, though, is really important and I hope everything gets standardized soon
Remember when the GBA was the most impressive handheld you'd seen? We've come a long way.
Honestly I don't know why I'd want something like this in my backpack over an equally priced tablet and nice game controller. Perhaps for people who take the subway every day it's preferable to have the controller built into the device, but other than that just buy last year's Surface tablet.
Or not even a tablet, most mid-range phones these days can emulate GC and PS2 games (haven't checked Xbox). Get a Playstation or Xbox controller with a phone grip, that's it. Emulation is not really a selling point at this stage, when so many options are available.
Steam library may be a big factor for some, but considering battery life, specs and lack of features compared to Steam Deck, this device is simply a bad deal.
If someone doesn't have a vast steam backlog, I'd say that even getting a Switch Lite is preferable to this, less than half the price and the system have a great catalogue of games.
Anyone planning to buy this really need a far lower expectation on the device. For indie games and possibly mid 2010s AAA games at low graphic settings, it would be great.
For me if it could run Skyrim SE and Fallout 4, with heavy modding and medium/high settings at good FPS I'd buy it. Until then I'll keep my Steam deck reservation.
doesnt it cost more than the steam deck
@@internetguy7319 I'm not a fan of Linux/proton so finding a near equivilant device to the Steam deck running on windows 10/11 would do me fine. I'm sure in a year or so something will be out around the same price as a steam deck
If this thing can play ps3 games, then so can the ps5. Enough of this “it’s to complex to emulate” garbage.
The PS5 can do a lot of things but Sony won't let you do it lol
Especially considering sony knows the hardware from the inside out because they made it. They just don't want to throw the money down to make a decent emulator.
As soon as handhelds get to a constant 5-10 battery life in one charge under heavy load, I’m all in.
I want a device like this that is purely meant for streaming from a PC. I have a powerhouse PC and rarely ever play handheld games outside of my house, so I'd like a way to leverage my strong PC while being able to be anywhere in my house
I'm loving my Steam Deck for emulation, but admit that I would gladly swap in an OLED panel if a replacement were available.
does rallisport challenge 2 have audio issues? or now it is fully playable?
great video BTW! Love to see you again every week!
9:57 Border Down on the Dreamcast. That game is truely a hidden gem and it really stinks that G-Rev never made an HD remaster for modern consoles like they did for Under Defeat.
Another big issue beside the insane price and the abysmal battery life is that the device easily overheats while playing demanding stuff and once that happens the performance tanks further.
I'm holding out for the Loki. It has a Ryzen 6800 and other specs that will make it a Steam Deck killer. Granted, it's not out until December, but I'm willing to wait.
Being in Australia, Steam literally don't want my money with no plans for a release here. So I am looking very closely at these kinds of devices to find a competitor to fill the gap. This one needs a better battery. That is literally the only thing about it which is a damn shame.
You know, everyone is so hot and bothered by OLED vs regular LED screens. While they are certainly nicer, I don’t see the jump as some MASSIVE difference. It has nicer blacks for sure but I find the refresh rates on current OLEDs to be inferior to old school LED. But even then, when I use an OLED screen and then go back to a “regular” display, I don’t experience some kind of screen quality whiplash.
That’s just me though.
That's true. I remember being blown away by the Vita at the time though
@@juliantheapostate8295 Oh sure. When you first see an OLED it’s got that “wow” factor for sure. And admittedly, OLEDs have only improved since the Vita came out. But I’ve noticed this kind of snobbery with people on OLED displays, as if anything less is like using an old CRT (though ironically now, retro gamers are all about CRTs… but that’s a whole other matter). Just from day to day use, I think any high quality display looks pretty dope. I use both and I like both.
I don’t know, it just always rubs me the wrong way when people get tribal with anything. “The PS5 is WAY better since it has the best exclusives”. “Android is far superior to iOS because of it’s open architecture”. “I only eat organic bananas because regular ones taste awful”. Seems immature to me.
Idc how much they're sponsoring me, 1hr of battery life on a handheld? Yeah I'd be blasting it.
Awesome design. Love the gradient up top.
Thanks MVG, great video!
The Aya Neo Air Vs the Aya Loki is where the match up is
I wish it uses 2x18650 i know it is not ideal and probably more bulky but swapping batteries would be fast instead of waiting device to charge and finding replacement battery in the future when the battery is bad is easy.
Had I not already got my steam deck this would have interested me.
2:55 shots at Sonys head
I have a 512GB SteamDeck and I absolutely love the thing but I could see this device as being quite compelling too. RetroArch on the SteamDeck is such a great experience that I would be hesitant to switch it up but still, this is compelling.
700K subs. Can't wait 'till you hit one million!
Those THPS2 skills made me weep
Expect to shell out at least 550 Euro/US$ *without* shipping and taxes.
This is for the cheapest base model, but this can go up to > 1000 US$/Euros.
This device is brilliantly engineered for what it is, but it’s butting up against the limits of x86. For on-the-go emulation, ARM is always going to give better performance per watt. But if you want Steam games on the go and don’t want to carry around a laptop, devices like these are the only ones that can pull it off.
Having a full-fledged OS on a handheld device is the kind of thing everybody says they want, but then you have to use it. Hackable things are nice, but I definitely prefer application-specific UIs.
I'm rather surprised you didn't mention why the sticks won't drift: They use hall effect sensors as do the analog triggers. Good video though.
The Ryzen 6000 AYA NEO units are the ones I'm waiting for. RDNA2 is what these things need to truly match the steam deck in terms of modern gaming, and once they have that, it'll be a stomp.
I like how you showed Nintendo Switch emulation, as Nintendo Switch emulation runs pretty good on device like these.
You might have wanted to obscure the product key around 4:20.
PS2, GameCube, Dreamcast = win
My hand is cramping just looking at it. The Switch Lite was awful along those lines and this looks like the same sort of hand positions.
I don’t understand why manufacturers insist on the square? Why not a trapezoid? Like a regular controller? It would give them more space to work with and be far more ergonomic.
Does it have gyro? That’s my main reason for pre-ordering a Steam Deck over all the other handheld PCs as I simply can’t live without gyro aiming now.
PS nice work using your Quake port for the OLED comparison. 👍
From what I can see, It does have a Gyro. The problem with gyro on PC is that PCs expect XBox controllers. There are driver packs that you can install that make the controller show up as a DualShock4, that opens up the gyro to the steam controller API, and other software.
@@VealCalf1 Thanks, that’s useful to know. It’s a pity they don’t ship it with that set up by default! 😅
I like the color design and everything about this handheld
Personally, I’m excited to see the ayn Loki. Ayn is an awesome company and from seeing the success of aya, I hope the Loki can be even better