The Ayaneo Air Plus is the next would-be Steam Deck killer

engadget.com:

If you’ve been following the handheld PC craze of late, you’ll know it’s a very kinetic category. And with ASUS throwing its hat in the ring, expect to see even more gaming handhelds trying to steal a bit of the Steam Deck’s lunch. Ayaneo, a relatively unknown player just a couple of years ago, has become one of the more prolific names in this space and its newest handheld - the Air Plus - is its latest effort to tempt folk over to the warm waters of portable PC gaming.

If the Air Plus looks familiar, that’s because it’s the third iteration of Ayaneo’s “Air” series and it comes with a choice of either AMD or Intel chipsets. The model we’re looking at here has the Ryzen 6800U processor meaning it’s technically very similar to the Ayaneo 2 we reviewed in Spring. Why make two handhelds with very similar specs? Because many people want the performance of the Ayaneo 2 in a more portable formfactor. While both are portable in the broadest sense of the word, the Air Plus is a shade smaller than a Nintendo Switch (albeit somewhat thicker), unlike the Ayaneo 2 which has a profile closer to the Steam Deck.

We should clarify right up top that this generation of Windows-based gaming handhelds don’t come cheap. While the base/64GB Steam Deck costs $400, the entry level Ayaneo Air Plus will set you back $790 for early birds before it retails for $979. That’s a lot more money - even if you chose the Steam Deck with the same internal storage (512GB), that would still only cost $649. That said, a lot of people really don’t like the size and weight of Valve’s handheld and appreciate the extra flexibility and power most of these alternatives offer. The success of Ayaneo’s last Indiegogo campaign tells us there’s an appetite for these devices