When AYN began taking pre-orders for its first Windows-powered handheld gaming PC earlier this month customers had a choice of opting for low-cost AYN Loki Mini or Mini Pro models with Intel Celeron or Pentium processors or an AMD Mendocino chip, or higher-priced Loki and Loki Max models with AMD Ryzen 6000U chips.
Now there’s another option for folks who want a budget device with a little more horsepower. When pre-ordering an AYN Loki Mini Pro, you can now pay a little extra for up to an Intel Core i3-1215U processor and a slightly larger battery and/or up to 16GB of RAM.
Like all members of the AYN Loki lineup, the Loki Mini and Mini Pro features a 6 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display surrounded by game controllers. But while models with Ryzen 6000U chips and AMD RDNA 2 graphics sell for $489 to $775, the Loki Mini models are positioned as budget options with prices in the $260 to $389 range.
In related news, it looks like AYN has decided not to offer a $239 model with an Intel Pentium 7305 processor, which was originally expected to be the lowest cost option. Instead the entry-level Loki Mini will now come with an AMD Mendocino processor. But folks who’ve already pre-ordered can contact AYN for a free upgrade to a Loki Mini Pro with an Intel Pentium 8505 chip instead.
That means there are now a total of available with six pricing/configuration options for the Loki Mini series:
- Loki Mini with AMD Mendocino / 8GB RAM / 128GB SSD / 26.5 Wh battery for $260
- Loki Mini Pro with Pentium 8505 / 8GB RAM / 128GB SSD / 40.5 Wh battery for $279
- Loki Mini Pro with Pentium 8505 / 16GB RAM / 128GB SSD / 40.5 Wh battery for $319
- Loki Mini Pro with AMD Mendocino / 8GB RAM / 128GB SSD / 40.5 Wh battery for $299
- Loki Mini Pro with Core i3-1215U / 8GB RAM / 128GB SSD / 46.2 Wh battery for $349 (new)
- Loki Mini Pro with Core i3-1215U / 16GB RAM / 128GB SSD / 46.2 Wh battery for $389 (new)
Here’s the complete run-down of AYN Loki configurations as of June 29, 2022:
Loki Mini | Loki Mini Pro | Loki | Loki Max | |
Display | 6 inches 1920 x 1080 pixels IPS LCD | |||
Processor | AMD Mendocino (Zen 2) | Intel Pentium 8505 (Alder Lake U w/5 cores, 6 threads) or Intel Core i3-1215U (Alder Lake U (6 cores, 8 threads) or AMD Mendocino (Zen 2) | AMD Ryzen 5 6600U Zen 3+ architecture 6 cores / 12 threads | AMD Ryzen 7 6800U Zen 3+ architecture 8 cores / 16 threads |
Graphics | 12th-gen Intel UHD @ 1.1 GHz w/48 eu (7305 / 8505) 12th-gen Intel UHD @ 1.1 GHz w/64eu (1215) or AMD RDNA 2 | AMD Radeon 660M 6 GPU compute cores | AMD Radeon 680M 12 GPU compute cores | |
RAM | 8GB LPDDR4x-4266 (Intel) LPDDR5-6400 (AMD) | 8GB / 16GB LPDDR5-6400 MHz | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 MHz | |
Storage | 128GB M.2 2230 PCIe NVMe SSD microSD card reader | 128GB / 256GB / 512GB M.2 2230 PCIe NVMe microSD card reader | 512GB M.2 2230 PCIe NVMe microSD card reader | |
Wireless | WiFi 6E Bluetooth 5.2 | |||
Battery | 26.5 Wh | 40.5 Wh (Pentium 8505) 46.2 Wh battery (Core i3-1215U) | 46.2 Wh | |
Ports | USB 4.0 (Intel) or USB 3.2 (AMD) 3.5mm audio microSD card reader | USB 4 3.5mm audio microSD card reader | ||
Controllers | Full controller w/Xbox-style layout Hall Sensor Analog Triggers Gyroscope Rumble support | |||
Size & weight | 15mm thick 362 grams | 20mm thick ? | ? ? | ? ? |
Colors | transparent black (AMD), white (Intel) | black, white | black, white | black, white |
Price | $260 | $279 (Intel) $299 (AMD) | $489 (8GB / 128GB) $579 (16GB / 256GB) $649 (16GB / 512GB ) | $775 |
The new option probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. AYN has been duking it out with rival AYA in the budget handheld space. AYA announced the Neo Air Plus the same week that AYN introduced the Loki line of handhelds. Both companies are offering some models with starting prices below $300, and the two companies seemed to adjust their pricing and CPU options in real-time as a response to the other’s announcements.
Overall, the handheld gaming PC space is looking a lot more competitive in 2022 than it did just a year ago.
When will Ayn show some real hardware running things? Including SteamOS (they said they’re working on it instead Ubuntu now) with working perf controls.
I actually emailed them asking when they’ll show something real. “Nicole” replied saying they have “no idea” yet, haha.
I didn’t expect exact dates but the wording they chose doesn’t exactly evoke feelings of confidence.
This i3-1215U seems pretty incredible in terms of performance per dollar. ETA Prime did a review of it using a laptop with the same chip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg9WYqrUxA8
In terms of Emulation, it handled Gamecube, PS2, PS3, Wii, WiiU, and Switch, all at very good speeds. Most of those systems ran at native framerates. Breath of the Wild on WiiU was closer to 30fps, but thats still playable.
I just might be buying one of these i3 models. I’m not super jazzed about using Windows, but its the only way to emulate some of the newer systems.
On an actual Wii U, BotW tends to fluctuate between 20-30fps anyway, so that’s fairly accurate. I played through it on my Win Max at those framerates and it was fine, other than some stutters occasionally when it would compile shaders.
The cost of the Loki Mini Pro w/Pentium 8505/8G RAM/128G NVMe is $279. The i3-1215u with the same specs costs an additional $70 for a total of $349.
If the estimated pricing for the AYA Neo Air Plus holds then that will be a better option at $299 vs $349 assuming that it also has 8GB RAM and 128G NVMe.
Also, the AYA Neo Air Plus w/AMD Mendocino currently has an estimate price of $299 while the Loki Mini has a price of $260. Again assuming these estimates are correct and the specs are the same, it seems Ayn might be a better place to get an AMD Mendocio based handheld.
That being said you can actually pre-order the Ayn products right now whereas AYA does not even have a pre-order page available. Heck they don’t even have any marketing on the AYA site about the Neo Air Plus at all.
There’s talk in Taki’s Discord that the Intel Loki Mini is discontinued and anyone who actually preordered it can refund or get a free upgrade to the Intel 8505 Loki Mini Pro. I didn’t check if it was confirmed by Taki or AYN though.
Interesting. It does look like they’re no longer taking pre-orders for that model.
If that’s true, then those who got the Intel Mini, got a really good deal.
Until we get AMDs Mendocino benchmarks and its iGPU, we can’t really estimate what to buy.
Somehow I don’t expect them to release official specs or benchmarks any time soon. Because they’re terrible, if it’s confirmed that it comes with only 2 CU and halved LPDDR5 memory there’s no other way around it.