The AYANEO Next Lite is the cheapest handheld gaming PC with an x86 processor from AYANEO to date… and one of the least powerful. It has the same processor options as the company’s 2021 handhelds rather than the newer chips that power most modern handheld PCs designed for gaming.
But AYANEO is banking that the $299 starting price will still turn some heads. The AYANEO Next Lite is now available for purchase from the AYANEO website.
At the moment the only model available for purchase features an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. It’s on sale for $299 for the first 100 customers as part of an Early Bird promotion.
After that, the price for this model is expected to rise to $349.
Eventually AYANEO also plans to offer a Ryzen 5 4500U/16GB/128GB model for the $299 base price and a $399 Ryzen 7 4800U/16GB/512GB model for folks who want a little more performance. But neither of those configurations are available for purchase yet.
All versions of the little computer have a 7 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel IPS LCD display, 16GB of LPDDR4x-4266 memory, an M.2 2280 slot for a PCIe 3.0 SSD, a 47 Wh battery, Intel AX200 wireless card with support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, and a set of ports that includes:
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (power, video, and data)
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (data only)
- 1 x 3.5mm audio
The system has dual copper heat pipes and a fan for cooling, hall sensor joysticks and shoulder triggers, a 6-axis gyroscope and dual X-axis linear motors.
While AYANEO had initially planned to ship the AYANEO Next Lite with a third-party SteamOS build called HoloISO as a way to keep costs low, the company quickly reversed course and announced that the computer would ship with Windows 11 Home instead.
But I still can’t help but think that even the $299 starting price isn’t low enough to tempt folks looking for a budget option away from the Steam Deck, which currently starts at $349 and features better graphics and software support. I suppose some customers might prefer the AYANEO Next Lite due to its hall sensors or Windows software, and it is nice to see another relatively inexpensive option in this space. It’d just be even nicer if it had a newer processor with better graphics.
I can see this being used as a cloud or streaming your gaming PC to it. Windows is easier to work with then Android sometimes.
This can play old games.. since its a 32bit machine
Are they just trying to get rid of their old Next units that’s been sitting in storage? Is there anything different between the old Next and this Next “Lite“?
The only people I see buying this are places where the Steam Deck isn’t officially sold so acquiring a Steam Deck would be very expensive + has fairly low end gaming requirements. I guess that could be a sizable number of people for a small company like Ayaneo.
I guess there are the Asus and Lenovo handhelds too that are more available world wide.
$349 as a regular price seems like very poor value, considering the Z1 version of the Asus ROG Ally has been on sale for $399 for quite a while now.
Is SteamDeck actually starts now for $349? For me lowest price on steamdeck.com is shown $399 for 256GB model (and this is actual 100USD-difference).
Scroll down on the purchase page and you’ll find that they’ve still got 64GB models in stock for $349 while supplies last.