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Ayaneo is bringing a new handheld gaming device to the market in an attempt to take on Valve’s Steam Deck, asannouncedat CES 2024. The Next Lite features the same design for which the company is known, but it gets SteamOS, which the company claims will make it more affordable than its other devices (and others on the market). The Linux-based operating system allows the handheld to play many games, though it doesn’t offer the full selection of PC games available on Windows.
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UPDATE: 2025-06-09 10:25 EST BY DAVE LECLAIR
Ayaneo misled in its initial announcement regarding SteamOS
After a couple of days of hype, Ayaneofinally revealedall of the information about its Next Lite Steam Deck competitor. It does run SteamOS, but it’s a forked version called HoloISO that isn’t officially supported by Valve. So, while the company didn’t outright lie by saying it would run SteamOS, it did deceive a little by withholding the fact that it wouldn’t run the officially supported version.
Ayaneo also revealed the remaining specs and price for its Next Lite gaming handheld. The AMD Ryzen 7 4500U or 4800U processor with Vega 8 graphics is underwhelming at best. However, the $299 price tag is appealing, especially compared to the $500+ options from its competitors. Still, the misleading nature of its announcement has certainly soured us on the company’s products overall.
What is the Ayaneo Next Lite?
Valve’sSteam Deckhas ushered in a new era of PC gaming, with several companies now offering their own handheld gaming devices. For example, MSI justannounced the Claw.
“It offers flagship experiences on the device, so we can expect it to be at least powerful enough to run many of the top PC games currently available on SteamOS.”
We do know that the Ayaneo Next Lite features Hall Effect joysticks, a 7-inch 800p display, a 47Wh battery, and X-axis linear motors. That 800p screen is one place this model lacks compared to its other models. For example, the 2S features a 1920X1200 resolution, which will create more vibrant graphics than the lower-res screen on the Next Lite.
The company didn’t reveal the full specs for the device, so we don’t know what kind of GPU and processor will power the handheld gaming machine. In fact, we don’t even know if the company plans to use AMD or Intel with this model (perhaps it’ll offer configurations with both).
Ayaneo also said it offers flagship experiences on the device, so we can expect it to be at least powerful enough to run many of the top PC games currently available on SteamOS.
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Ayaneo Next Lite price and availability
Unfortunately, the company hasn’t announced the price yet, so we can only speculate. The fact that it’s pushing cost-effectiveness as its main selling point means it should be cheaper than Ayaneo’s other offerings. At the time of writing, theAyaneo Air 1Sis the company’s most inexpensive device, costing $900. If this is marketed as affordable, it should come in for lower than that; perhaps we could even see a $500 or $600 price.
The company said that “subscriptions” open at 9:30 PM on Jan. 11. We’re not sure exactly what the company means by subscriptions in this case. Still, it could mean pre-orders or the company could be selling its more affordablehandheld gaming computerwith a subscription.
