AYANEO Pocket Micro Classic Pre-Orders Go Live

After being shown off a few weeks ago, the AYANEO Pocket Micro Classic is now available for preorder.

Despite the original announcement suggesting the brand would be dropping “Pocket Micro” from this device’s title, it looks like the full name is officially the AYANEO Pocket Micro Classic.

The original Pocket Micro boasted two analog sticks and a Helios G99 processor, but this new Pocket Micro Classic has the same internals as the original, yet lacks the thumbsticks altogether. The inclusion of thumbsticks in the original made some sense when factoring in the processor inside the device, but did not compute when looking at the target market for the handheld.

The Pocket Micro has a design that resembles the Game Boy Micro from 2005 but manages to reach a 960 x 640 resolution on a 3.5-inch screen, giving a perfect 4x integer scale on GBA games.

The Helios G99 is usually found in stronger handhelds like the KT-R1 and ZPG A1 Unicorn. Those devices manage to reach GameCube emulation, but when inside a device the size of the Pocket Micro, it makes little sense to attempt playing those titles on the handheld.

The New Classic

The Pocket Micro Classic is a small off-shoot from the original Pocket Micro. The lack of thumbsticks could be a potential grab for some gamers who view them as entirely unnecessary but are otherwise interested in the device. However, if you were looking to save money, the difference in price is only $10 USD.

AYANEO has a reputation for cramming the strongest chips they can get their hands on into devices that are seemingly better suited for low-end chipsets. For example, the AYANEO Pocket DMG runs Android and features a Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 despite having a screen and build that would suggest it is meant to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games exclusively.

With a new entry in the AYANEO line of devices, there is a premium element attached to the device. It has an aluminum alloy frame, a pixel density of 330 pixels per inch, and a design that is clearly more inspired than using a simple color palette.

For those interested, the AYANEO Pocket Micro Classic is available for preorder now on its official site with an expected ship date of sometime in the middle of April.

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