A year after first going up for pre-order, the AYN Loki began shipping to customers last week. Was it worth the wait? According to a 30-minute video review from Retro Games Corps, the answer seems to be… definitely maybe?
While the Loki isn’t the most powerful handheld gaming PC around, at $250 it’s one of the cheapest. But it doesn’t skimp on build quality and has enough horsepower for many older or more casual games, as well as some emulation.
In other recent tech news from around the web, now I finally understand what that mouse sensor on the Lenovo Legion Go handheld gaming PC is for, after announcing in July that it would continue development, sales, and support for the Intel NUC lineup, Asus has officially launched its NUC lineup (which looks a lot like a pared-down version of Intel’s), and Apple is finally bringing USB-C ports to iPhones (even though it really doesn’t want to).
Loki Zero Review: Finally, A Budget Handheld PC! [Retro Games Corps / YouTube]
An in-depth review of the Loki Zero, a handheld gaming PC with a low price tag ($250), decent controllers and build quality, and a not-great processor (AMD 3050e) that took a year to ship, but might have been worth the wait… for some gamers.
Lenovo Legion Go – OMG THIS IS SO COOL [Dave2D / Youtube]
YouTuber Dave2D has a pretty good demo of the Lenovo Legion Go’s mouse functionality. The mouse sensor isn’t meant for use in handheld mode. Instead it turns the right controller into a vertical mouse for FPS gaming, among other things.
Asus NUC desktop kits are official [Asus]
After Intel provided Asus with a non-exclusive license to continue development, support, and sales of NUC systems, Asus has announced official NUC products with Intel chips including mini PCs, kits, and compute elements.
Apple Is Set to Embrace an iPhone Charger Change It Didn’t Want [Bloomberg]
Apple is introducing the iPhone 15 on September 12th, and it could be the company’s first phone with a USB-C port, thanks to European Union regulations. It’s largely a win for users, but could mean upgrading your chargers and accessories.
Weekly GNU-Like Mobile Linux Update [LinMOB]
Sailfish OS for the PinePhone fixes call quality audio, there’s a new Ubuntu Touch port for the PinePhone Pro, and Nemo Mobile is transitioning to Qt6.
Keep up on the latest headlines by following @[email protected] on Mastodon. You can also follow Liliputing on X (the app formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook.
Intel is reportadly working on a 40-core laptop chip that will come out after this next refresh. 16 P cores + 24 E cores. I may just wait until then, especially if it supports DDR-6. It will be a dream for A.I. inference. Now that Meta has released Llama 2 completely free and open (even for commercial purposes), it could be great fun in the near future. It might behoove me to wait until then (like I originally planned to wait until DDR6 systems come out anyway).
So maybe I’m not quite done with x86 yet. Still impatiently waiting for a decent Risc-V system, though. 🙁 Ugh.
Is the FPS mode mouse function exclusive to the right hand controller or will they enable it for left handed people too?
Slightly surprised they went for an optical mouse style FPS mode, rather than Wiimote style because how are you supposed to use FPS mode without a flat surface? You can’t use it standing up without a standing desk…
Well, the FPS/other mode switch, along with the optical sensor and mouse buttons, is on the right controller and not the other one. They’d have to mirror everything to cater to left handed people. I’m fairly sure you could also use the trackpad if you didn’t have a table. However I still have to wonder how well that would work in practice.
And personally I always found trying to aim with the wiimote to be a pain in the rear, like worse than just using a right analog stick.
But putting an optical sensor in the controller that you have to carry a clip on pad thingy to use seems silly to me, unless people tried it and it works super well.
Maybe the most precise pointing device for portable FPS would be a garaged stylus, like the ones Lenovo already has for 2-in-1 thinkpads. I mean, if they’re going to try and cram in every HID under the sun they might as well, surely someone might look at this and think “but what if I want to doodle on it”.
To address the issue of the Gameboy dongles being included with a product when some customers may not want them, you can propose the following solution:
Customizable Purchases
Bundled and Unbundled Versions
Pricing Transparency
Discount for Unbundled Option
Educate Customers
Feedback Mechanism
Returns and Exchanges
Marketing and Communication
I admit, I’m intrigued by the Legion Go. I’d love to have it as a mini-pic. I’d replace the SSD, keeping the original intact, and put linux on it or something, and have a little pc that has, funny enough, a more powerful processor than my older gaming laptop.
I mean, if Risc-V laptops would hurry up and come out, I’d much rather get one of those, but this little pc has me intrigued. I wouldn’t have any use for the joysticks though, I’d probably just keep them in the box myself. I wonder if they have to be paired to the Go before they can be used?
I’m interested in seeing the repairability of this, wasn’t it claimed that you can replace the SSD?
p.s. I’d sure like a model with 32GB RAM, please. That would future-proof it a little more. kthxbye.
I was kind of disappointed it came with the Gameboy dongles too. It would be better if you could buy it without them at a reduced cost.
No that’s incorrect thinking.
They should come with the controllers, that’s the device use-case, and the target audience.
If this device isn’t for you, look for one that is a better fit. For the majority, they appreciate having those controllers included in the box.
Heck, I even say that phone manufacturers that keep harping on about “Gaming Phones” are full of it. They need to include a gamepad in the box then. And if it is low-quality it will affect the device perception, so there is a strong incentive to do a good job.