AYANEO’s latest Product Sharing Session just wrapped up after almost four hours, and there’s a good bit to unpack. On the hardware side of things, AYANEO announced two new products: the Pocket AIR Mini x Arcade Home Limited Edition and the KONKR Pocket Block.
AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini × Arcade Home Limited Edition
With the new Pocket AIR Mini, this marks the latest collaboration for AYANEO, as this variant is officially licensed by IGS. As such, it includes a variety of retro games out of the box, including those from Knights of Valour, Oriental Legends, Dragon World, Demon Front, and The Killing Blade. You can find the entire list of included games in the graphic provided below.
In order to differentiate the Arcade Home variant from the others, we have a completely new colorway. The handheld itself is maroon, complete with gold accents, buttons, and controls, offering a rather unique look, much like what we’ve seen from the B.Duck edition. Beyond that, the internals remain the same as before, so we still have the Helio G90T paired with either 2GB or 3GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of storage.
Surprisingly enough, you can pre-order the new Pocket AIR Mini × Arcade Home directly from AYANEO starting today. Prices start at $129.99 for the 2GB/32GB model and go up to $139.99 for the 3GB/64GB option.
KONKR Pocket Block
From there, the KONKR Pocket Block was officially revealed, confirming previous leaks and rumors of its existence. However, it doesn’t seem as though there will be a candybar-style model, at least for the time being.
Instead, we’ll have just a standard vertical handheld, potentially looking to take on the likes of the TrimUI Brick/Brick Hammer and Miyoo Mini Plus. The key differentiator here is that the Pocket Block runs Android, something that we haven’t seen in a handheld of this size, unless you count the Anbernic RG Rotate.
There will be two color options to choose from once the KONKR Pocket Block is released, with both a DMG-style and Purple. Both versions feature theme-specific colored buttons, but AYANEO also includes two orange buttons. One on the front at the bottom, presumably for launching AYASpace, and the other on the right side above the volume rocker for the Power button.
Unfortunately, besides comparing the size of the Pocket Block to a variety of other AYANEO handhelds, none of the specs were revealed. In the official blog post, the company says: “More details about Pocket BLOCK will be revealed in the near future.”
REMAKE: Retro Reborn, Pocket Play, and AYANEO AI
Wrapping things up, here are a few more quick bullet points about other things that AYANEO covered during the livestream:
- AYANEO is planning a new release that will fall under its REMAKE: Retro Reborn initiative, following in the footsteps of the Pocket DMG, Micro, and VERT.
- Development continues on the Pocket Play, AYANEO’s first smartphone, but a release date has not yet been shared.
- Development also continues for the AYANEO Next II, despite the company previously stating that sales beyond Kickstarter backers won’t be happening.
- Both the KONKR Pocket Fit G3 Gen 3 and 8 Elite models are still available on the AYANEO store. This is also true of the Pocket VERT, Pocket S Mini, and AM03 Mini PC.
- AYANEO AI is “coming soon.”
And that’s it! We’re really excited for the Pocket Block, but I can’t help but wonder what AYANEO might be cooking up for its “second generation” REMAKE handheld. Is an updated version of the Pocket DMG on the way? Or is AYANEO going to try to create a modernized version of something like the PS Vita?
