Without burying the lede, the AYN Thor is probably one of my favorite retro handhelds so far. No joke.

I believe it properly encapsulates the spirit, goals, and values of the community. Doing so by providing a pocketable, performant, nostalgic, and versatile device that satiates almost every niche brought by the vintage consoles we grew to love. Almost…

If you read my article on my thoughts regarding the AYN Thor and saw my skepticism over its ergonomics…yeah, it’s basically that. And after a week of daily driving our favorite affordable-ish clam, it’s clear there’s a lot more nuance than initial impressions that range from a console that is super convenient/comfortable to one that is a baffling pain in my rear. AYN made a lot of interesting decisions here, so let’s get into it!

The Thor’s Ergonomics are Weird

Ergonomics, to me (and most people, I think), is just about every superficial aspect of the device that you experience with the human body. Along with hand-feel, this includes non-obvious things like screen angle, screen size (arguably), button locations, port locations, button quality, texture, analog stick location, and the device’s intent overall in perspective.

Simply, what our monkey brains determine as “Game feel good”. As a community, we obsess over these aspects, and it seems to have come to a head in the Thor. What’s a console release in 2025 that doesn’t have a monkey’s paw-esque problem?

To put the Thor’s ergonomics into perspective: Its strengths lie in its form factor over relative comfort because it prioritizes portability, so you should expect a more squared off shape overall and compact controls. Weight distribution is also a major factor since we have a top screen, so the most important controls have to be top-oriented in order to balance the top and bottom with your hand position.

AYN Thor Ergonomics: What’s Good 

Part of what’s great with the Thor is what makes it a better Nintendo 3DS. It overwhelmingly improves the 3DS’s ergonomics with a full top analog stick, top face buttons, and easily accessible L&R buttons. This feels balanced and authentic, and while the body is square, it has curves in the plastic where it counts and still remains compact and portable. For most games that only require a minimal button setup, this is a good experience. However, once you start to factor in the triggers and the right analog stick, things get a little bleak.

AYN Thor Ergonomics: What’s Bad

So, in order to explain this properly and bloat my word count, let’s detour back to our favorite clam of all time: The Nintendo 3DS, particularly the New 3DS. Amongst other hardware improvements, the New 3DS added two new infamous components: an additional ZL and ZR button and a touch-sensitive C-nub as a pseudo right stick.

On release, this C-nub was hated because it did not offer the full analog support that an additional slider would (cue the fabled circle pad pro). People pointed to the extra space underneath the face buttons as prime real estate for a proper C-stick.

This sounds great in theory, but Nintendo, which has mastered the art of compact ergonomics, elected for the C-nub because an analog slider would interfere with the cartridge slot. And the C-nub makes it so you don’t have to move your thumb dramatically to access it for quick movements. It wasn’t great, but it functioned.

Nintendo also elected to keep to linear shoulder buttons to maintain a similar grip feel as the original and remain pocketable. Ergonomically, this setup, while compromised, wads very thoughtful in regards to basic ergonomics, and a generous use of rounded edges made what is essentially two hinged rectangles surprisingly comfortable. 

The Thor gets most of this right with having generous curves on the bottom half where your palms sit, but juxtaposed to that, your index finger and thumb might have a bad time with the right stick and triggers. The right stick is simply set too low to maintain thumb comfort for reasonable use with camera-heavy games (or first-person reaction-based ones).

There really isn’t that much for AYN to do here other than recommend their own grip, but for most games, this stick will end up redundant unless you don’t mind this. I think this is a reasonable compromise, given that you will most likely play in the library, and many vintage 3D titles have an auto-camera system. Now to the greatest sin…

The triggers on this handheld are terrible. After an entire week of use and multiple different games, this is by far the needlessly most uncomfortable compromise I’ve seen on a flip handheld other than the Retroid Pocket Flip 2. For a natural hand feel, the meat of your fingers will generally rest along the sharpish edge of the trigger, leaving no real comfortable place to rest and actuate it.

Over time, I have resolved to holding my Thor slightly differently by reaching for the outermost edge of the trigger and even going as far as switching the mapping to the L&R buttons. The easy answer is that this is a compromise made to retain the square shape of the Thor.

I don’t buy this since there is definitely enough room here to adjust the plastic to follow the contours of your finger without the use of a grip and maintain the full analog pivot and device contours. Nintendo solved this issue as well, giving the Switch consoles enough plastic on their triggers to prioritize comfort over form, and I think their designs there did very well.

AYN Thor Ergonomics: What’s Weird

These are more annoyances than real fatal flaws in design that are worth mentioning. It’s strange to have the power button located on the bottom of the Thor because of accidental presses. I don’t know what logistics went into deciding that location, but I can’t tell you how many times I have accidentally pressed it, thinking it’s a volume button.

My other ergonomic grip is the top screen angle. The preferred open angle is 150 degrees, whereas the original 3DS series used a more obtuse 165 degrees, which I feel is more comfortable. Otherwise, I don’t have any other ergonomic concerns.

How to Improve the Thor’s Ergonomics

The Thor in its default state is a fine handheld. There are compromises, but it isn’t stopping me from daily driving this. That being said…Yeah, I bought the official grip for this (AYN didn’t actually send it to me yet, so I have no idea how that feels). I also bought the JCFSY grip on Etsy because it offers a grip that flares out the sides more, which will help the reaching for the triggers.

Grips are great, but I believe this handheld is best experienced in its raw, untethered state. I think having a slightly angled trigger would be a reasonable compromise to the overall square design, but time will tell if there will ever be a solution for that. Otherwise, I think the Thor is a fantastic device at its price point. I’m just un-secretly hoping someone takes a stab at better shoulder buttons in the future.

AYN Thor

What did you think of this article? Does the Thor hurt your hands, or are you perfectly happy with how it feels? Let us know in the comments below, and chat with us in our Discord!

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