“Budget” Handheld PC [AYANEO Air Plus Intel i3 1215U Review]

The new AYANEO Air Plus i3 1215U edition has finally arrived. This was my choice for budget handheld PC when it was first announced last year -- how does the final product stack up to expectations?

Items mentioned in this video:

This was a review unit sent to me by the manufacturer. All opinions are my own, they did not see this review ahead of time, and no money was exchanged in any way.

Timestamps:
00:00 introduction
01:56 pricing history
07:51 tech specs
09:56 hardware impressions
13:36 software experience
17:03 PC game testing
20:46 emulation testing
27:51 battery life
30:40 summary (likes and dislikes)
32:24 conclusion

Theme song written by Jim Gray of Our Ghosts:

This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

#AYANEO #PCgaming #emulation

[avxcyn]

This man is the only content creator I know who says "let's make this as short as possible" and then drops a 35 minute review, and I love him for it. I really enjoy how he never compromises how thorough his reviews are and doesn't spread things out over multiple videos unless something changes after the first one drops. This channel is just amazing, I've been here since 50K subscribers and still absolutely loving it.

[colegillgrass]

This device is for the 100 people that got it at $270.

[flux_]

Thank you for being upfront about the pricing as that just kills any purpose this device has. I've seen other reviewers dance around mentioning what devices cost or say you can't compare them to the steam deck because it's subsidized.

I absolutely can and will as it's my wallet the money has to come out of, and other than a couple android handhelds in the $150 range, I haven't seen anything come close to the value for price of a steam deck.

[drags]

#1 reviewer! The effort you put in these videos really shows, glad I found this channel earlier this year.

[curlyeyebags]

Another amazing review, Russ. I'll say it again: the huge price increase absolutely kills any reason to buy this device, there are handhelds better at literally everything (size, battery, performance) at much lower prices, and that's not even including the steam deck.

[TheDezmen]

Sadly, retail price makes this product pointless, 269$-299$ good yeah, but 549$-599$ is ridiculus, since you can get Steam Desk or ROG Ally.

[brxm]

Honestly they should’ve just scrapped it if they couldn’t fulfill what they promised.

[risingdawn]

They'd have killed it if they could have kept that initial price

[MrMegaManFan]

Russ, thank you for consistently covering these devices. Big thumbs up!

[Slasher]

"It's budget in everything except price"
So it's not budget, it's a cash grab

[Sneakersb]

I have an aya neo air not plus, yeah I paid 650 plus for it. I have barely been touching anything else since I got it for Christmas. It is an absolutely perfect device for me. I play tons of indie games on it, it’s a device that got me back into indie pc gaming. Then when I do want to emulate higher end games (ones my RP3+ can’t emulate well) I can do that but just plugged in and docked, I rarely do that. When I’m just rocking my indie games though it’s low powered not building heat not racing for the charger, I get great play from it.

[WMARUoriginal]

I’m happy with the win600, especially after making a SSD dedicated to Batocera. Been enjoying it since launch so getting my moneys worth.

[TVsBen]

Mannnn this is brutal. The ROG Ally is going to come along and slaughter this thing before it even officially launches.

[ronaldomanzoli]

So it costs as much as a rog ally whilst delivering worse performance than a steam deck. Ouch.

[ScandalUK]

Not sure I can add AyaNeo to my shopping list until we can reliably buy and receive one within a few weeks.

[MazedulAkash]

Oh man I've wanted something like this for over a decade, and now it's here with a price that doesn't match.

[aymanibrahim]

I was looking forward to this at around 270 $, but now it is just a fancy and insanely overpriced Retroid pocket 3+ that plays a few PS3 games.

[isaacmg]

You're the GOAT man! The dismemberment plan and I saw another video where you had a Rites of spring shirt. Cheers from Spain!

[EncephaloticEcho]

The first 35 seconds encompasses everything I’ve been looking for in a retro handled. Although I think I might need ARM for easy sleep, and wake up gaming

[djmorris]

Got the 16gb model during the halloween sale on the aya store and I am re-watching this now ;) Who else?