Handheld gaming devices have seen a resurgence recently thanks to the likes of the ASUS ROG Ally and Ally X, the MSI Claw series, and the Lenovo Legion Go. Unlike older handheld gaming devices like the Nintendo DS, Gameboy, or even the PSP, these new ones now run on Windows.
With that in mind, these devices are more like handheld gaming PCs if you think about it. Because they run on Windows, they can effectively do pretty much anything a Windows PC can do, provided you install the apps and games. It’s also why they cost quite a bit of money.
But rewind the clock a few years, and some affordable handheld gaming consoles did hit the market allowing you to play retro games via emulation. These included devices from Miyoo, Anbernic, AYN, Retroid, and so forth. The only problem is that these devices are dedicated to playing retro games, and can’t play any newer titles.
What if you could have both? Well, that’s where the Ayaneo Pocket S comes in. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 chipset, runs on Android, and has a built-in emulator out of the box. This allows you to play all your favorite retro games and even some newer titles from other consoles. At the same time, you can also play the latest titles as long as it’s available on the Google Play store.
But is it worth it for the price tag of almost PHP 25,000? Well, let’s find out.
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
First, we have to talk about the design of the Ayaneo Pocket S. From the get-go, it has a form factor similar to that of the Nintendo Switch Lite mixed with some design cues of the PSP. The frame is made out of metal, which gives it a premium feel. However, the back panel is made out of plastic, which does seem sturdy.
As mentioned earlier, the layout does resemble the Nintendo Switch Lite. You have an analog and D-Pad on the left side and two buttons that function as Start and Select when in-game. Meanwhile, the small button above the left analog is for accessing the Xbox menu although you can change this in the button mapping.
On the right side of the screen, you have the ABXY buttons, the right analog, and a shortcut button for the Ayaneo Sidebar together with a home button. At the top, you’ll find the four trigger buttons, the volume rocket, the power button (with a fingerprint scanner), and the RC and LC buttons.
At the bottom, you’ll find another vent to help cool the device, a Gen 3.2 USB-C port, and dual speakers. On the right side of the frame, there’s a switch that allows you to switch performance modes. While on the left, there is a microSD card slot with a design cue similar to the PSP since you have to open a flap first.
Overall, the Pocket S feels very solid and is ergonomic to hold. Most of the buttons and triggers are placed nicely within reach except for the LC and RC buttons. Maybe it would have been better if they were placed at the back panel since it is blank. The analog stick feels solid too although we will have to keep using it to see whether it develops stick drift.
Since it isn’t that heavy, weighing only 350g, your hands won’t feel tired even after playing for some time. It’s not that big either, measuring only 213.9 x 85 x 14mm. This allows it to fit in most bags without taking up too much space. There’s no IP rating so better not get this device wet or dusty.
Display and Multimedia
The Ayaneo Pocket S features a 6-inch IPS touchscreen with no borders. Since our review unit is the base model, it only has a maximum 1080P resolution. Interestingly, Ayaneo did not disclose the refresh rate of the screen. Although after using it, the screen is smooth so it should be at least 120Hz.
When I found out that the Pocket S only has an IPS screen, I didn’t expect too much when it comes to the viewing experience. Surprisingly, the colors are decent out of the box. When playing games, the colors are vivid and the blacks can be deep. It’s still not OLED levels especially when you compare it to your phone, but for a handheld gaming console, it’s more than adequate.
The only issue I did find is the screen brightness. It’s not the brightness display out there with only 400 nits peak brightness. As a result, it was quite hard to play games under the sun since I had difficulty seeing some of the things happening on the screen. With that, it’s best used when under shade or indoors.
As for the speakers, they are loud and the mids and treble are decent. However, it lacks bass, which might disappoint some audiophiles who will be using this device to listen to music in addition to playing games.
OS, Apps, and UI
The Ayaneo Pocket S runs on Android 13 out of the box skinned with its own OS, but unfortunately, there is no update to Android 14 at the time of this review.
Since the OS is based on Android, opening it up is similar to starting up any Android phone. You even have Google Play store available. So if you want to download your favorite apps on Android you can. Google Drive, Instagram, and more.
Download Chrome, and you can browse the net. Download YouTube or Netflix and you can even use the device to watch videos or catch up on your series. We were even able to run our usual benchmarking apps, which we’ll discuss later on.
The main difference is that once you get to the menu, you have several Ayaneo apps pre-installed such as AyaSpace, AyaSettings, and other apps that help run the device properly. You do have to update these apps separately from the device itself.
While Ayaneo markets this as a device to play retro games, there is one big issue I faced – getting the retro games to run properly. I had a hard time setting up the games using the AyaSpace app itself. Simply put, you need to have some basic knowledge of setting up emulators to get things working. In our case, YouTube was our best friend.
For starters, you need to find the proper game BIOS to be able to run the games you will be playing, which is already quite a hassle. Then there’s the task of downloading the game files themselves. Even more interestingly, AyaSpace requires you to download the necessary apps to run games.
To give you an example, I had a game file for Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3, but the AyaSpace app required me to download the Duckstation app to play. After that, I needed to find a proper BIOS (which I couldn’t) and ended up not being able to play the game.
I also had game files for some PSP games like Need For Speed Most Wanted and Def Jam, but I encountered the same issue when using AyaSpace. In fact, I had to use an entirely different app just to get them to run smoothly on the Pocket S.
What is great though is that the controls are mapped immediately. I didn’t need to change anything, and everything worked smoothly. The analog didn’t respond as fast as I wanted it to be, but that was my fault for not changing them in the settings.
It’s the same case when playing games downloaded from the Play Store. The buttons are mapped immediately, making it easy to play games like Zenless Zone Zero out of the box. Just remember to adjust the analog settings to your liking beforehand.
All-in-all, if you’re someone who’s never used emulation apps before and this might be your first dip into it, do expect a learning curve in setting this device up.
Performance and Benchmarks
Under the hood, the Ayaneo Pocket S packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 chipset which features an 8-core Kryo processor that can run at up to 3.36GHz clock speeds, and an Adreno A32 GPU clocked at 1 GHz. The brand says it can offer 15W of sustained performance, which is important for gaming on the go.
Our unit is configured with 12GB of LPDDR5x memory paired with 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The higher storage configs of either 512GB or 1TB utilize faster UFS 4.0 technology. While 128GB is lacking especially if you will be installing a lot of games, you do have a microSD slot which expandable by up to 1TB.
In terms of performance, the Ayaneo Pocket S did not have a hard time emulating the games we were able to run ( the PSP versions of Def Jam and NFS Most Wanted). The gameplay was smooth and there were no framerate drops, and we did have a nostalgic time playing these games.
The Pocket S didn’t have any issues running newer modern titles either. I played the new Zenless Zone Zero, and I was able to set the graphic settings to 60FPS and some of the graphic options to high. There was no frame rate drop or stutter, and I was able to enjoy smooth game play in ZZZ.
Mind you that when I was playing the older games and ZZZ, the performance mode of the Pocket S was set to Max, giving me the best performance possible. As a result, the fans were quite loud. The device did become warm to the touch but upon checking the temps, they didn’t go any higher than 55 degrees Celsius
Since the Pocket S runs on Android, we were able to run our usual benchmark apps, and you can check out the scores below.
Antutu – 1587639
3DMark Wild Life – Maxed Out
PCMark Work 3.0 – 12874
Geekbench 6
CPU Single Core – 1061
CPU Multi Core – 5205
Geekbench 6 GPU – 8858
Battery and Connectivity
For the battery, the Ayaneo Pocket S comes with a 6000 mAh battery pack. It’s only slightly bigger than what you would find in a typical smartphone. But as with all handheld gaming devices, battery life isn’t the best so I suggest you bring a power bank.
I tried running PC Mark’s Battery Test, but kept running into some issues. Instead, I timed my use of the Pocket S while playing ZZZ with the volume at 50 percent and in Max performance mode. Starting at 100 percent battery, after 1 hour of gameplay, I only had 53 percent battery left.
With that, you should already have an idea of how fast battery life drains when you’re playing games at Max performance. When you’re playing a less graphic-intensive title and either on Balance or Game Mode, the battery should last a lot longer. Ayaneo does say it can do up to around 6 to 7 hours of battery life, which is decent.
In terms of connectivity, you do have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. No sim card slot to run on data so you will need to either hotspot or connect to Wi-Fi to play online games.
Conclusion
The Ayaneo Pocket S offers a lot for users who want to play retro games and modern titles at the same time in a compact handheld device. It may take a while to tinker with the emulator, but once you get it up and running it should run smoothly. It won’t have any issues playing modern titles like Genshin Impact and ZZZ either thanks to its powerful processor.
However, there is one setback users will face with the Pocket S – the price. At PHP 24,950 for the 12+128GB variant (based on Datablitz pricing) it isn’t exactly the most affordable handheld device out there. Some of the other emulators are easier to setup and they cost a fraction of the Pocket S. However, those aren’t capable of running newer titles so you’re stuck with older games.
The question you have to ask yourself before considering the Ayaneo Pocket S is this – what do I want to play? If your answer is exclusively newer titles then maybe stick to your smartphone. If you want to strictly play retro games on an emulator, then get one of those.
But if you want to do both and have the comfort of analog sticks, d-pad, and trigger buttons, then the Ayaneo Pocket S is a handheld device that you should definitely consider. What do you think though? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
What we liked:
Nice display
Great Performance
Looks and feels great
What we didn’t like
Hard to setup emulation
Battery life could be better
Small storage
AYANEO Pocket S specs:
6-inch IPS LCD touch display (1920 x 1080)
60Hz refresh rate
400 nits peak brightness
Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2
Adreno A32 GPU
16 GB LPDDR5x RAM
512 GB UFS 3.1 (expandable via microSD card slot)
A B X Y buttons, D-pad, L & R analog triggers, L & R bumpers, View & Menu buttons, 2 x full-size analog sticks
Fingerprint sensor (power button)
6-Axis gyroscope
Ports: USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode support; up to 8K @60Hz or 4K @120Hz, USB 3.2 Gen 2
WiFi 7
Bluetooth 5.3
Android 13
Stereo speakers, Dual microphone
Battery: 6,000mAh (up to 6 hours of gameplay)
Dimensions: 213.9 x 85 x 14mm
Weight: 350 grams
