Using the $289 AYN Odin Pro handheld game console as a Windows PC

The AYN Odin is a handheld game console with a 6 inch full HD display, built-in game controllers. It went up for pre-order last summer through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and the first units began shipping to backers last month.

It’s still available for pre-order with prices starting at $199 for an Odin Lite with a Mediatek Dimensity 900 processor or $240 or an AYN Odin with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip. And while the little device ships with Google Android software, YouTuber Taki Udon managed to install Windows 11 on a Snapdragon model, turning an AYN Odin Pro into a low-cost handheld Windows gaming PC.

The version shown in Taki Udon’s video has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, a 6,000 mAh battery, 8GB of LPDDR4x memory, and 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage, which is actually twice as much storage as a standard Odin Pro — he’s using a pre-release prototype that was sent to him before crowdfunding began. But folks who pre-order through Indiegogo InDemand can pay $41 for an add-on to upgrade the built-in storage from 128GB to 256GB.

Still, the 128GB of built-in storage should be enough to hold some games and if you need more storage space you can always use a microSD card. After all, the entry-level Valve Steam Deck comes with just 64GB of eMMC storage.

The reason it’s possible to install Windows on the AYN Odin Pro is that not only does Microsoft offer a version of Windows for devices with ARM chips, but some of the first Windows on ARM devices used a Snapdragon 850 processor which was a close relative of the Snapdragon 845 used in the Odin Pro.

That’s allowed independent developers like the folks at the Renegade Project to find ways to install the full Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems on smartphones with Snapdragon 845 chips, like the OnePlus 6T and Xiaomi Mi 8. In parallel news, developers have also made good progress in bringing support for the processor into the mainline Linux kernel, which makes it possible to run mobile Linux distributions like postmarketOS on those phones as well.

Anyway, the point is that it’s now possible to replace Android with Windows 11 on the AYN Odin Pro and you may also be able to run a GNU/Linux distribution.

So how well does it run Windows 11? Surprisingly well… although there are a few key bugs.

The CPU, GPU, sound, video, touchscreen, USB-C port, SD card, and wireless features of the device are all working. But HDMI output and fan control are not, and Taki Udon says the gamepad is only partially supported.

The lack of full game controller support seems like it will probably be a dealbreaker for most users: what’s the point in using a handheld gaming PC if you need to plug in an external controller? But it’s possible that developers will find fixes for what’s broken in the future.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that there’s also a bit of a performance hit that comes with running Windows on ARM: the Odin Pro gets lower single-core and multi-core results in the GeekBench performance test when running Windows than it does using Android.

So why would you want to run Windows on the handheld? Because it opens the door to playing PC games that wouldn’t otherwise be available on an Android-only device. Taki Udon was able to install the Steam Game Client and play many (but not all) PC games.

Games that run well include older titles like Counter-Strike, Devil May Cry, Portal, World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, Skyrim, Bioshock, and Borderlands as well as some newer, but less-graphically intense titles like Old Man’s Journey, The Stanley Parable, and Blackhole. All of these games are shown to run at 30 to 60 frames per second in Taki Udon’s video.

Some games like CS:Go, Torchlight II, Spiral Knights however, struggle to hit even 20 fps, making them virtually unplayable. And unfortunately some games won’t run at all – Taki Udon says there’s no good way to know which games will run until you’ve installed them and tried, but some titles won’t recognize the device’s Adreno graphics, while others may struggle to offer decent performance using Windows 11’s x86 emulation (which allows you to run x86 apps on an ARM processor).

6/10/2022 Update: When users first started installing Windows on AYN Odin handhelds, the process involved replacing the Android operating system that comes pre-installed. Now it’s possible to dual boot Android and Windows (and possibly other operating systems in the future). 

The AYN Odin is available for pre-order for $199 and up through an Indiegogo InDemand campaign. Here’s a run-down of the features for the three different models available: