Recently, the only announcements that AYANEO has been making are regarding price, availability, and shipping status for its various handhelds. That might not be the case for too much longer, as friend of the site, @RetroDeadFred, found a new AYANEO handheld listed on manuals.plus, named the AYANEO Pocket Block.
Not only that, but he also managed to find a few renders that give us a real-world glimpse at the Pocket Block. Or is it the AYANEO BITWAVE? While the User Manual is for the Pocket Block, the renders shared by Deadfred show “BITWAVE” as the name instead. Whatever it is, the renders match the schematic drawings in the user manual, so we’ll just assume AYANEO is still working on the final name.
Nevertheless, we don’t yet know what will be powering the Pocket Block/BITWAVE in terms of the chipset. But the user manual does confirm that it is running Android, along with the dedicated AYA Button for AYAWindow. This isn’t really that surprising, given that AYANEO hasn’t dipped its toes into the realm of Linux-powered retro handhelds. But we figured it was still worth mentioning.
What is surprising is that we suspect that this might fall closer to the AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini in terms of price, as opposed to the Pocket VERT. Granted, we’re just going based on the renders and user manual, but the Pocket Block sure seems like it’s going to be an Android-powered competitor to the Miyoo Mini Plus and TrimUI Brick.
Between the renders and the manual, AYANEO’s upcoming handheld will feature the usual ABXY/D-pad/Start/Select buttons on the front. These are joined by the aforementioned AYA Button, along with what’s only described as an “=” button, between Start and Select.
On the left, there are two customizable buttons, with the top being “preset to the Xbox button” and the bottom being “preset to the Back button.” On the right side of the Pocket Block are just the Power, Volume Up, and Volume Down buttons. Rounding out the buttons, we have a shelf-styled layout for L1/R1 and L2/R2.
As for the rest of the Pocket Block, there’s a microSD card slot on the left side, below the two Customizable buttons. And on the bottom, you’ll find the USB-C charging port, 3.5mm audio jack, and stereo speakers.
And that’s really about it. At least for the time being, there’s no other information available on the AYANEO Pocket Block. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if AYANEO makes the official announcement in the coming days/weeks. Given the popularity of the Pocket AIR Mini, releasing a more budget-friendly vertical handheld would definitely spark some interest.
