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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They still can’t keep or maintain ship dates that they quoted to their backers for the Konkr pocket fit. The Konkr pocket indiegogo community page has over 5,000 comments — mostly from people asking when are you going to ship the device I paid for months ago or else requesting a cancellation and refund.
Anyone supporting Ayaneo on Indiegogo is a sucker at this point, I’m sorry to say. At what point will gaming journalists actually call them out on this? They have launched and sold enough products, for years, that it’s questionable why they are even using a platform like indiegogo to begin with. They can easily sell devices (that have actually been manufactured) through their own website.
also isnt this product a little iffy anyway? i mean its not a handheld or a phone. i get the idea but i dont seeanyone useing it on a day to day basis. also becuse of the slideout controls for a phone its going to be pretty chunky
Exactly this – many of the gaming journalists and YouTubers get a review copy, say it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, hype it up and a lot of people commit on Indiegogo to them await months of delays whilst out of pocket.
YouTubers and Journalists need to be more responsible themselves!
I also agree completely. It is a huge blind spot that only gets worse over time. @RetroGameCorps does make mention of this phenomenon, but he doesn’t really get into the weeds of the situation (for what should be obvious reasons). At least he mentions it though. I’m glad you and hopefully others agree with me. If gaming journalism is to be taken seriously, it should be reporting on these business practices.
I had preordered a white Konkr Pocket Fit via Indiegogo, only to learn several weeks later that they were so far behind manufacturing and that there was almost no rhyme and reason to which models were being built and shipping first.
I wish a larger company could swoop in and provide manfacturing, marketing and general logistics to get these truly incredibly devices into peoples hands. Because they are incredible devices (for the most part, at least, haha).
After I canceled my order I later read on the community forum (since I still read through it periodically, out of morbid curiosity, that they hadn’t even started buidling the white models since they sold so poorly! That, lo and behold, they were going to manufacture the devices in a sequential order based on which colors were the best sellers. That would have been helpful to know back in October (when I ordered) that my white device was never even close to meeting its shipping deadline.
All the while, all these news sites boast and brag how Ayaneo has launched not one but TWO new devices up with landing/holding pages on Indiegogo in the past day or two. Bad, duplicitous business. Lastly, as I think I mentioned before, if this was a couple guys making gadgets in their garage and shipping them out as they finished them, while not quoting ship deadlines — things would be wayyyy different and I wouldn’t be writing this message to begin with.
Sad simple truth: they are gonna miss the core audience.
Who is that 20:9 supposed to cater for? Mass audience? While the gaming controls are a nice gimmick, the mass audience won’t buy this because of the added thickness. They’re just gonna keep their current phones, and MAYBE get a separate dedicated gaming handheld (i.e. not this one).
Instead, Ayaneo should focus on the people who are actually considering buying this as their daily driver: retro-gamers who want something on the go. And those people want a 3:2 or 4:3 screen, or at least 16:9.
I might still buy this because there are no other options for actual phones with gaming controls. Though skipping the pre-order and waiting for reviews.
Moqi I7s but discontinued. I have one myself
Actually, I have the original Moqi i7 (non-S). But the sheer size and the protruding analog pads make it non-pocketable. Always had to carry it separately in a backbag, and then at some point one of the analog pad rubber domes got lost in transit. The camera was also abysmally bad. Never gained the daily driver position for me.
Later got the KTPocket KT-R1 (which also had an option for SIM card) as a replacement. But that was a little too chunky, it didn’t have a camera at all, and the actual calling function only allowed loudspeaker output. In other words, not really usable as a phone. Again, never gained the daily driver position for me. They are now releasing KT-R2, but I don’t think they’ve made any improvements on those aspects.
Miss me with the KT-R2, there were enough issues with the first one that I don’t find the second iteration viable. I *loved* that screen for GBA, but the QC issues and build quality left a lot to be desired.
This will never be “mainstream”, so I’m not sure why other commenters are trying to make arguments for mainstream customers.
The thickness doesn’t bother me. In fact, I see it as a possible plus. Bigger battery is better from many perspectives. I only ever charge my ROG 7 to 80%, and it’s fine because even 80% is more battery capacity than most phones at 100%. This extends the battery lifetime forever.
When I fly internationally, I charge it to 100% and it lasts the whole 15 hour flight. Where Pixels and Samsungs, I had to watch battery life or bring a separate brick.
Similarly, having that thickness on the slider makes room for things like headphone jack, proper audio hardware, sd card, and other nice things that all the normie phones have given up on. Hopefully a 2nd USB jack on the side, like the ROG 7… I love having that.
I’m excited to see how they take advantage of all that space. While everyone else is cutting features on flagships and still selling for $1000. I’d rather have a thicc phone packed with a massive battery and all the good stuff they’ve taken away from us.
yeah but think about it this way, knowing ayenoo they will be charging a lot. their os is alright but again meant for gaming not for a phone if you were going to either buy this or the newest android or iphone you would probobly get the iphon or android. it dosnt make sence to have more then one phone and if this is going to be that phone it has to work as one. thier marketing it all wrong and thats why it will fail.as you said its not for main stream but its not realy for any stream, if your going to buy a retro gameing device just buy something like the retroid pocket and if you are going to buy a phone just buy say the iphone there is no reason to pay more to get them both combined and worse at each job; not as good at gaming as the handheld not as good at being a phone as an iphone.
yeah no. it wouldnt be as good at gaming as a console and wouldnt be as good at being a phone as an iphone
I don’t know about others, but IMO they SHOULDN’T cater only to the mainstream audience. Instead, they should focus on the CORE audience.
But the daily driver aspect is a crucial point even for non-mainstream-audience. Like bob said above: “it dosnt make sence to have more then one phone and if this is going to be that phone it has to work as one”.
Because indeed, if this isn’t going to become the replacement for the potential customer’s daily driver, then why would they buy this, instead of a proper gaming handheld?
Although, contrary to bob, I do see a potential market for this. But they can’t afford to play too much into the mainstream audience’s preferences, as those people are not gonna buy into it, anyway. Instead, they should weigh in the preferences of people like you and me, who are at least considering buying it.
(I mean, you ARE considering buying it, right…?)
In your case, the battery life seems to be a major factor. I certainly wouldn’t mind that either, but I would appreciate the pocketability aspect much more. I’m OK with the current thickness, but the simultaneous excess length is a downside. For reference, here’s how much more pocketable they could make it with just 3:2 ratio:
https://displaywars.com/6,8-inch-d%7B20x9%7D-vs-5-inch-3×2
And in my case, if they e.g. mess up with the camera, then that’s also a definite downside for me. And I don’t know if I’m willing to make a compromise on both fronts. So it’s a fine line they have to walk along to get the best balance.
If they don’t get it right for me this time, then I’m hoping this will at least inspire the competitors to make a more retro-gamer-focused alternative.
I just got a tablet with Snapdragon. Never gaming on phone again lol so much better.
I will personally continue to struggle to understand why people want to game on their phones. Aside from the “everything-in-one” aspect that comes from just being able to play games on the device already in your pocket, a dedicated emulation handheld with dedicated controls just looks and feels so much more appealing.