by The AYA Neo line of handheld gaming PCs gets… complicated. It’s only been two years since the Chinese startup unveiled its first AMD-powered Windows handheld, and since then the company has shipped a few updated models with newer, faster processors.
But this summer things got pretty wild with the launch of an AYA Neo 2, AYA Neo Slide, AYA Neo AIR and AYA Neo Air Plus (which ironically has less impressive specs but a much lower price point). And then there’s the AYA Neo Geekwhich positions the company as an affordable model with premium specifications. It’s expected to sell for around $635 and up in China, although it’ll likely cost around $100 more when it hits global markets. To update: The AYA Neo Geek will ship worldwide in December with prices starting at $799 crowdfunded or $949 retail.
The new model, due out in November, looks very similar to the AYA Neo 2, with a similar display and body. But it’s said to be a cheaper option with slightly less impressive specs.
The AYA Neo Air 2, for example, supports WiFi 6E, has dual gyro sensors, comes standard with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor, and will be available in configurations with up to 2TB of storage. However, the Geek Edition model comes with WiFi 6, 1TB of storage and a choice of two different processors.
Both the AYA Neo 2 and the AYA Neo Geek have 7-inch displays, 16GB RAM, three USB 4 Type-C ports, fingerprint reader and integrated joysticks. And both support either Windows 11 or the Linux-based AYA Neo OS.
AYA will offer at least a few different pricing/configuration options of the AYA Neo Geek:
- Black with a 1280 x 800 pixel display and 512 GB of storage
- Purple with a 1920 x 1200 pixel display and 1 TB or 2 TB of storage
AYA plans to offer a choice of AMD Ryzen 5 6600U/Radeon 660M and Ryzen 7 6800U/Radeon 680M processor options, but all models will have the same Hall Effect joysticks as the pricier AYA Neo 2.
In recent posts on Chinese social media, AYA has indicated that pricing in China will start at around 4,399 CNY ($635), with early birds also receiving a special “gift”. I would expect this to be a tote bag or something of similar value.
International pricing has not yet been announced, but AYA plans to launch an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for the AYA Neo Geek later this month.
via AYA Neo (YouTube) and AYA Neo
This article was first published on June 1, 2022 and last updated on September 12, 2022.
