As we reported earlier this month, AYANEO is coming out with a gaming phone known as the AYANEO Pocket Play, marketed as “A Gaming Phone with a Handheld Soul.” This is AYANEO’s first crack at a gaming smartphone, and one that looks curiously like an Xperia Play, so many people are understandably interested in its development.
AYANEO Pocket Play
While AYANEO has already mentioned that the Pocket Play won’t be coming to users’ hands until 2026, they did provide us with some additional details on the device, along with a link to a Kickstarter landing page.
Additional Details
In the Pocket Play, we’ve got a 6.80″ OLED, 2400 x 1080 resolution screen with a 165hz refresh rate. While nothing groundbreaking, this certainly makes for a very pretty screen to be featured on a gaming smartphone. AYANEO specifically stated that they avoided a “punch-hole design,” or a typical phone screen that features a small hole for the front-facing camera, in order to truly focus on the Pocket Play as a gaming-focused smartphone device.
AYANEO Pocket Play Screen
For comparison, some of the biggest and most powerful competitors on the gaming smartphone market fall in this range:
- ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro: 6.78″ AMOLED, 2440 x 1080 resolution screen at 185hz
- RedMagic 11 Pro: 6.85″ AMOLED, 2688 x 1216 resolution screen at 144hz
However, none of these phones have a slide-out shelf with dedicated gaming controls like the AYANEO Pocket Play, which helps the Pocket Play stand out in the gaming smartphone market. When the screen is arguably the most important part of a phone, it’s good to know that this one will be competent.
AYANEO Pocket Play
Moving Forward
Pricing and availability are still a mystery, as are additional important specs like the processor. AYANEO already mentioned that the Pocket Play will be powered by a “high-performance processor, but we don’t know exactly what they’ll be using at this time (the aforementioned competitors are rocking Snapdragon 8 Elites). Given AYANEO’s penchant for premium, we can likely assume this device is going to steer more towards the expensive side.
The Kickstarter page is still just a campaign preview, with a date of “Launching Soon.” It does include some additional pictures and details, but nothing beyond what was already shown in their teaser trailer. We’ll be sure to keep you updated once we have more details on the device and/or a launch date for the Kickstarter.
AYANEO Pocket Play Kickstarter
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