Update: there is a software bug that prevented full emulation performance in this review video for systems like GameCube and PS2. I’ve gone through and re-tested each of the problematic games in this video, with much improved performance: kzread.info/dash/bejne/hqyCtJevpL3Tk7Q.html

That thumbstick color makes me feel like they were originally white, and then got REALLY dirty, lol

@Boogie_the_cat

10 ай бұрын

They look pretty bad. I'm not a fan of the case color either, which looks like a "before" picture in a retrobright video. But yeah, those thumbsticks are ugly as hell. If they didn't wanna go with white (due to them getting dirty?) why not black? Or at least grey? Brown red and cream color scheme makes me think of hospitals.

@jwill7998

10 ай бұрын

They were stored in a house of smokers.

@CragScrambler

10 ай бұрын

The whole machine reminds me of that tbh.

@CragScrambler

10 ай бұрын

​@jwill7998 or an normal 80s household where all the adults smoked.

@ProducedbyPDot

10 ай бұрын

its pointless to have a flat white sticks anyways , they will look like shit in the matter of hours of use

I love that you test the diagonals of the d-pad on the contra game, please keep doing it in your reviews, it's sooooo useful

@dm.3145

9 ай бұрын

Yess I love it too

I just came to YT looking to something to play while working on a specially boring 3D commission, and a new 43 minutes video from Russ about a handheld I'm not even considering buying is EXACTLY the kind of feel good content I needed. Just took a moment to write this, and back to Blender.

I love the screen size comparison! I think the best size for these handhelds are between 6" and 7" and that's the reason why i decided to wait for the Odin2. I wish it had a 7" screen tho, but i can live with it having only 6"

The battery life is one of the biggest selling points, honestly. This is very nearly something I'd want, but I want to wait since yeah, it's not quite there, especially on the PS2 front.

@Madblaster6

10 ай бұрын

Odin 2 will outperform this. Hopefully they ship on time

@derp195

10 ай бұрын

Yep. After getting a steam deck and original miyoo mini, I've been holding off on getting another device until they come out with an energy efficient device, about the size of a switch lite that can comfortably do ps2.

@otroflores91

10 ай бұрын

​@@Madblaster6 just in time for the holidays.... next year.

Just in time! Posted mine today as well, this was a hard one to review =]

@36:00 Busted. U got me. Was eating ice-cream while watching ahaha keep up the good work brotha, God bless. 😊🙏 Peace & respect from Malaysia

I've been waiting for your review 🙏🙏🙏

Thank you Russ for your revieuw. I was very interessed in this device as my very first Android handheld. I apprecite you tested the diagonals. The design looks great and the battery is good, but once you start looking chip wise and those other issuies you have mentioned, well I guess I still have to stick with my Samsung Galaxy S20 SD 865 for a little while longer. Hopefully the Odin 2 will be the device I'm looking for. o7

Hey, After I copied the games roms to destination, I am stuck with Pegasus and emulation station,, I can't get to the menu of the games, can you please help?

Totally agree that the Odin 2 will make this obsolete in just a couple of months. I can't see any reason to buy this when you can get a better Android device in essentially every single attribute by waiting just a little bit. Heck, the Odin 1 Pro essentially does everything this device does with a slightly bigger screen and for cheaper. I'll never understand Ayaneo...

@Mosestylez

10 ай бұрын

AYA Neo already have a new upcoming Android Handheld, called "Pocket-S" that will use a better chip than Odin 2 (Snapdragon G3X Gen 2). But yeah I also don't understand how AYA Neo thinks😅

@Boogie_the_cat

10 ай бұрын

That's the problem with crowdfunding: you basically are announcing your plans to your competitors, and basically guaranteeing that they'll get to market before you do, and on top of that, you can't ethically just ditch the project once you see the competition about to release a device that'll kill your planned device. Crowdfunding works too slowly for bleeding edge technology, and by the time you get your product, there'll be something better on the market. It's a fool's game.

@Mosestylez

10 ай бұрын

@@Boogie_the_cat Yeah I agree, and by the time Odin 2 releases we might get something better. But I still ordered Odin 2 since Snapdragon 8 gen 2 is already powerful enough to handle everything. And it will also work good on the upcoming Windows Emulator, Cassia😁🙏

@diodora2381

10 ай бұрын

@@Mosestylez The Pocket-S looks like shit. Hopefully they use a better shell.

@Mosestylez

10 ай бұрын

@@diodora2381 Their old D-Pad on the Pocket-S sucked, but they changed it so it have been improved apparently. I still ordered Odin2 though😅

43 mins! Yes! Already preordered and wanted to see more videos on it

Russ, one sailor to another, keep up the good work! This video, in particular, compelled me to comment because the physical size comparisons A+++! Also, please be careful recording outside your house. I'm an EN2(VET) from Oahu, and I'm pretty sure I've been to your building, not shouting it out though, for your privacy.

Cheers Russ, great watch as usual. Can't argue with conclusions, good but definitely a bit short of great. Still, lots to like, I'm sure people who buy it understanding the slight limitations will love it. Those joysticks look odd, but hey, they'll be covered some of the time right? 🙂

I subscribe to nearly 300 KZread channels, and I think you may actually be my favorite content creator out of all of them.

Not a big deal but when you showed Zelda: Wind Waker, the txt said it was Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Really great review tho, as always! I always watch ur reviews to see what handheld I wanna buy next lol

watched a few videos and the ayaneo pocket air abilities w cloud gaming is really impressive. if it was a snapdragon chip id be dipping into my savings right now (still might) its a niche device but of the niche devices ive seen i really enjoy the form factor, the battery life, support for ds and 3ds emulation, and cloud gaming capability

I have an Odin and LOVE it. My biggest use case is streaming in or out of home. Perfect size to take on travel. Great battery life. Awesome for emulation.

Excited for this video!

Excellent video sir. Nice work.

Hey man. Can you help to build a comparison table for different console handhelds? how well they can simulate consoles like the PS, Dreamcast, PSP, PS2, and others in playable, full speed, upscaling and their prices. Much like the fantastic work you've done with PC mini devices.

I always have the D-Pad pass the Tetris test. Essentially, in most modern Tetris games if you hit up, it will slam the piece down instantly, and bad D-pad's like this will cause that to happen.

Conclusion: Get an Odin 2

Bro I cant wait for mine. True it will be even more dated in a short while, but I dont mind, i really like the look of this. Thanks for yet another indepth unboxing🔥

I was very excited for this device since most of my screens are OLED at this point (can't go back), but the smaller buttons and PS2 being iffy cooled my jets.

Can't wait for the Odin 2. The Odin 1 is what got me really into emulation but the GPD XD+ (not XP) is what got me into it overall. It was overpriced and bad but still did it. I never see anyone talk about the GPD XD+.

@NeroVingian40

10 ай бұрын

Hope it's not a super long wait to even get one though. That's the only problem with AYN, they have crazy manufacturing issues (I mean, it's the same story with almost everyone else tbh, but, yeah, it's making me mindful of these new devices coming out, only to get to your doorstep 6 months to a year later).

@kevinmitchell766

10 ай бұрын

I'll probably wait until the Odin 2 is readily available on Ayn's website.

Can you use usb-c headphones with it while playing games? I'm asking because I saw a mention in another video, that to transfer files from PC, you have to disable built-in controls, so I'm wondering wether it has effectively disabled usb-c port during actual use for everything else than charging and display port output.

This video leaves with more questions than usual: is there any kind of overclocking on this with the huge x86 cooling on it? I didn’t see the typical synthetic benchmarks, any reason to think they weren’t what we’d expect? GC seems to run worse than the GPD XP+ with the same chip.

Hey Russ, could you please check what is decoding latency in moonlight? It depends on chip and internals and is crucial for streaming

Great video, fair assessment I think.

I really like the look of this handheld, but will be waiting for the Odin 2.

I’ve been trying to get the super Mario bros 3 rom in my x55 but can’t seem understand which folder in the SD card it goes in :(

Hey Russ, great video as always. One thing I am a bit confused about is why you were using 3x as the default max upscaling for the GameCube/Wii/PS2 games when they natively had a max resolution of 480p (any higher via digital out mostly only being possible through Swiss), so in those cases 3x would actually end up being 1440p, which is a lot higher than the 1080p screen on the Pocket Air. Wouldn’t it have been better to start with 2x for 960p(which also isn’t a perfect 1080p but is still significantly closer to it than 1440p) and going down in .5 increments to test at 1.5x(720p) for the moderately demanding games and the default 1x for the really demanding games, with the added mention of being able to mess with Dolphin’s Settings.ini to manually set it to 2.25x for a perfect 1080p upscaled resolution in GameCube and Wii? (PS2 wouldn’t need a manual adjustment since AetherSX2 already has the ability to upscale in .25 increments to adjust it to 2.25x properly in the app).

@RetroGameCorps

10 ай бұрын

3x will indeed result in superscaling for most Gen6 games, although the output resolutions vary by game for PS2/GC so it may often result in something less than 1440p (but generally always at least 1080p). This is the testing standard I use for all devices (Windows, Android, etc), because it’s the simplest for inexperienced end users - who are often who I envision in my reviews so that I don’t overwhelm them when getting into this hobby (I always speak to the pre-RGC version of Russ when imagining my target audience). Using partial-integer scaling is an excellent option for users who want to take the time to try it out! But this is contrary to my point in the video, in that if I was paying this much, I’d expect to play through those catalogs without having to dive into the settings or create custom ini files for each game. Rather than extend the already crazy long runtime of the video to walk people through that configuration process and it’s implications, that’s something I’d rather include in a Dolphin settings video (which I’ve had on my list for a long time but never really get to!). Hope that makes sense! There are quite a few things I have to simplify or leave on the table in my reviews, I wish I could address everything in every video but already this one took me 60+ hours to create and the runtime was 10 minutes longer than my goal 😎

@rickyrns1059

10 ай бұрын

@@RetroGameCorps Understood, and definitely get that “wanting to judge from a new user standpoint” mentality, so it definitely makes sense for the video review. If you’re also doing a more thorough written guide on your website for using the Pocket Air, I’d then probably suggest putting those details on more optimal resolution upscaling in that for people just looking for a guide on everything they can do with the device, alongside anything else like suggested emulators (possibly including ones that do have optimizations for Dimensity chips).

@jasondonnelly150

10 ай бұрын

Wow what a great question and response. I almost missed it in the comments we should pin this!

@jasondonnelly150

10 ай бұрын

I guess one great question would be: “if u simply run GC/ Wii at 2x (960p) how performant is it? How so at 720p?” Many of us are comparing the pocket air to the Odin Pro/ light which usually went for 720p emulation. How do they stack up head to head?

@rickyrns1059

10 ай бұрын

@@jasondonnelly150 Russ did already respond with his reasoning for that (he’s looking at it from a new user standpoint on what they’d likely go for, since they likely wouldn’t go for something as small as a .75 difference, much less go into the settings.ini to mess with the resolution upscaling manually), but I do agree that it would probably be best to see how well the Pocket Air runs when the game is at the proper resolution for its screen. Personally I definitely think it absolutely will run better than the Odin Lite since the Lite uses a D800 and this uses the D1200 so even with neither being a Snapdragon that the Emulators are optimized for, the Pocket Air should still do better than the Lite via its pure chip performance alone being better (although that depends on whether or not the architecture of the chips themselves are similar enough that the D800 being around long enough for emulators to be optimized for it doesn’t actually give the D800 an advantage via optimization, so this probably isn’t the type of question that can be answered thoroughly in a KZread comment and I’ll personally suggest to look up what’s different in D1200 from the D800, which is what I personally plan on doing as well).

Have you tried to clear the data of that aya neo app? Sometimes apps bugs out because of broken data files.

Love the content but would prefer if you did direct capture. The waves on the screen are very distracting. I know you mentioned it was a result of the camera on an Oled but it was hard to focus on the performance issues you mentioned over the waves.

You think we can get the ayaspace app for any divice? Or if you could sideload it onto a different handheld… 🤔

For those sensitive to Oled pwm flickering screens, look elsewhere. I can clearly see on the video the black bars moving across the handheld’s screen.

Thanks for pushing this out just in time for the backing of the Odin2 to close down. I’ll enjoy my recently bought Odin untill Ayn starts shipping out the Odin2. The OLED is great but if it doesn’t perform as well in the ps2/GC department as I hoped, there is no reason to go for the Ayaneo pocket air.

Does the right stick block your thumb sometimes from hitting the face buttons?

Oh, that thing's gonna fit in my pocket, is it?

@gumiho.c

7 ай бұрын

If there's a lot of air in your pocket, maybe

Love to see a good amount of gamepad tester

Is this the only device that receives a sim card? Any others coming out soon? I'm looking for something that I can use for Xbox game pass and for some retro games

can you test PSP Hot shot golf? I had lagging issue with this game when running on my D9000 cpu tablet.

I'd love a noise comparison between all of the handhelds with fan cooling. It's probably a bit too expensive, because you'd have to measure the absolute decibels but also how annoying the frequencies of the individual devices are. At least for me, noise is an important factor for these decides as I play a lot during commuting on a train. Great review by the way, really love your attention to detail.

@retrogamecorps Russ, what do you think i better betwern this One and rp4 pro?

I would love the off-white/red color scheme if it wasn't for the analog sticks. I wish they were the same color as the body or red like the buttons

@Mister_Phafanapolis

10 ай бұрын

Color scheme is a factor for me. I like that they went with something different but I don't particularly care for _this_ combination of different. Maybe at retail they will have more colorways.

What's the charging speed on the Pocket Air and how long does it take to charge from 0-100%?

Soooo...is this better than the odin pro? i would get the odin 2 but i dont want to wait for another year :D

Hey russ, I'm starting my own gaming channel from Australia. Got any tips?

My friend I want to play Cod mobile so what is the best option for playing Android games, Ayaneo or RP4 Pro?

Very skeptical of the December release date for the Odin 2. Still waiting for the Loki Mini Pro...

The sim slot support calling? or only data.

The design of the pocket air looks great. It’s a bummer that they had to use a dimensity chipset. If they had used the snapdragon 865 I think people would go and purchase this device. Lastly, the lack of updates for PS2 emulation is to be considered as well as for the switch. At the price point there’s lots to consider. Android with some emulation support limitations on the high end consoles but great on handling resources , there’s windows based devices with good emulation support but challenges with managing resources.

@gogereaver349

10 ай бұрын

guess people shouldent act like a fool to the emulator dev. thats why he quit working on it.

@lucykaede5863

10 ай бұрын

@@gogereaver349 why what happened?

@MithosDagon

10 ай бұрын

@@lucykaede5863 Heard both sides of it some time ago, but the gist was that people were harrassing the AetherSX2 creator/main dev (can’t remember his name) asking for more features, critiquing, etc. Then the creator snapped and decided to stop supporting it and threw in some ads in the last build he posted to the Google play store. Some say that he intentionally made the last build worse but not sure of his motivations on that

@lucykaede5863

10 ай бұрын

@@MithosDagon Damn. People have to understand that the developers of these free emulations do it in their free time and out of their own pocket. Funny to hear that he was petty with that ads update 😂

Hi Russ, I really wanted to play games like Need for Speed U2, MW, Carbon, etc. Im looking forward for the best android based device that can carry smooth gameplay. What do you recommend the most under 300$ budget? Thanks!

I'm looking forward to something that can handle 3ds well. 3ds library is awesome, but the 3ds is pretty limiting as to what other systems it can handle.

What keyboard is that you have for your computer?

Silly me, when Russ testing out the fan noise, i move my ear to the side of my phone (because i watch this video full screen) and didn't hear anything. Took me a while to realize my speaker is at the bottom of my phone and facepalm'd myself 😅

05:25 😆 Dpad is rly important! I'm sure you have tested many Dpads, what are your favorites or all time? I remember you mentioned the 8bitdo controller in the podcast.

@chimrichalds81

10 ай бұрын

His favorite is the psVita style I believe. Dome switches like the GPD Win 4

What Phone do you use and what is the controller you attach?

The cost just kills it for me. That's steam deck level of pricing. Id rather have that for gaming and a rg405/ for my pocket

@ninjason57

10 ай бұрын

Exactly. These mid tier handhelds just don’t make sense when the steam deck exists.

@juniorelizondo4144

10 ай бұрын

Yup I have an rg405m and a rog ally. Perfect combo.

This one or Logitech G Cloud? Only for streaming. Bigger screen on Logitech vs OLED here, cannot decide 🤔

Off topic, but does anyone have experience with an RG300X just up and dying on them from sitting too long? I tried to resurrect mine this morning after it sitting for about a year but it won't power on, even when plugged in for a few hours or with a new image on a new SD.

i'd say its a bump up from the logitech g cloud and with a better screen! interestingly with the g cloud i was actually able to play a few gc and ps2 games that here the pocket air is having issues with (mario kart, zelda WW, dq8)

Love the titles says (for now) ... that is so true next week another one 😂

Getting close to 400k!!!

Would NetherSX2 offer any improvement over the old version of AetherSX2?

After seeing this I am SO glad pre-ordered the Odin 2 instead..

@bobandreidolloso

9 ай бұрын

What chipset does Odin 2 use?

i have old phone with 865 snapdragon 6-128gb ,which software i need to use to turn him in to console ? and which controller

@RetroGameCorps

10 ай бұрын

Here’s my guide on getting set up with a phone for gaming, best of luck! retrogamecorps.com/2022/03/13/android-emulation-starter-guide/

The perfect the handheld for me, love your videos, always

@subzero-ku2wx

10 ай бұрын

Maybe. That D-pad issue is pretty bad.

@doisnerds5363

10 ай бұрын

@@subzero-ku2wx not for me, i don't like contra and don't play a lot o fighting games...

Considering how well the Odin Lite performs when compared to the Odin Pro, I'm surprised you didn't mention the Lite! It's a fair amount cheaper and appears to emulate GameCube and PS2 just as well.

@benc.5558

10 ай бұрын

It really seems to depend on the game. For example, I posted a fix that got Dragon Quest 8 running very well on my Odin Pro, and apparently it just plain doesn't work on Dimensity chipsets.

I've been playing and loving my RG405m but I messed up and played my Switch OLED in handheld mode. It was like I was looking at an iMax screen. Now I am on the hunt for a RG405m but bigger screen.

Unrelated, but id be thankful if anyone can answer. Whats the drawback to gaming on a cellphone? I imagine battery life and actual playing time reduced due to overheating? I was interested in the phone used in the video due to its sound system, and seeing it perform better on gc/ps2 was a nice suprise that makes me more convinced to get a discontinued phone.

@pistolao_vr

10 ай бұрын

Well, there is a bunch of things i can mention as being my issues with gaming phones: 1. Screen ratio and size (Smartphones tends to have a very wide screen when in landscape) 2. Battery life (Due to it's necessity to be portable, phones tends to pack a smaller battery) 3. Heat. (Again, due to it's size, you can't have active cooling systems wich makes the phones runs hotter) 4. Background process (Phones usually runs waaay to many apps on the background that sucks power from the CPU like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter..) 5. Gamepad (Yeah you could get a usb/bluetooth gamepad but it will cost you more, and you're gonna have to deal with it every time you want to install or remove it) 6. Ergonomics (You can improve that with a gamepad but phones are just chunky bricks lol) This is just my vision on android handhelds vs gaming smartphones, but you may see it differently. If you already have a good android device tho, i don't think it really makes sense to get an android handheld.

@angelsaucedo2231

10 ай бұрын

@@pistolao_vr i thought gaming phones have active cooling? Anyways, do you have experience using non specialized phones? I’m curious what would be a good play time limit without pushing the phones limits of say gc emulation. I had no idea about the background apps. I’ll look into that.

“I think it would have been really impressive if they included a 6 inch … but 5 and a half inches is still really great” #thatswhatshesaid But seriously, awesome review as always. Informative, entertaining, tempting me to buy stuff I don’t need 😂

Getting the AYN Odin2 max🎉

Whats the best cheapish handheld that can run things like GTA 5, Fifa 23 on low-medium settings with a bigger focus on battery life? I saw the ayn loki zero can just about run gta 5, was hoping to find something a touch more powerful. Steam deck and rog ally battery life sux

@RetroGameCorps

9 ай бұрын

Battery life will be bad on all of these devices, as a result of the x86 architecture. If you are looking for something a little more powerful than the Loki Zero, I would recommend checking out the Loki Mini Pro.

@stevemac94

9 ай бұрын

@@RetroGameCorps wow I never expected a reply from you 😂 your channel is ace by the way. Yeah I've seen the mini pro I was a backer of the OG Odin but delays meant I backed out. Does the mini pro handle GTA V at an acceptable level? I'm not looking for 100fps here, just to a decent standard. Price of the steam deck is very tempting just the battery life is very offputting

Odin 2 base or ayaneo pocket air? PS2 emulation, Xbox game streaming and watching movies?

@RGB-Gamer

6 ай бұрын

Odin 2 for PS2 emulation and gamestreaming and the pocket air with the beautiful Oled Screen for movies😊

Wait so it's more powerful than a mid Chromebook like a Acer Spin713 that when with Linux installed, can play some steam games (Hollow Knight, Portal, Wizard of Legend etc.) And that can barely fully play Pokemon Ultra Moon which, the RP3+ can play just fine emulated. So what are the chances we get a Windows port or a SteamOS? Or get a Linux Debian 11 Terminal....?

24:28 *Citra still doesn't have a shader cache for Vulkan yet, so you'll still see stutters every time you play a game

Wait, no snacks or drink alert for this long one?! (Alfred, you trusted me and I failed you .gif)

Don’t think I could ever brave walking towards ledge 20 stories up while loosely holding my device in one hand lol.

After watching this, I actually went ahead and canceled my order... Maybe I'll put down my $$$ on an Odin 2.... or just wait and see what the future holds! Either way, thanks for the awesome video!

Fresh cut man❤

Do you recommend it for streaming? Or it has a small screen for playing in streaming/remote play Thanks

@MithosDagon

10 ай бұрын

That would be my main use case for this. I would like to use this for PSPlay…and the AMOLED screen looks great for that.

@gerard5742

10 ай бұрын

​@@MithosDagon Yeah, the amoled screen is awesome, but do you think 5.5" screen is enough?

@MithosDagon

10 ай бұрын

@@gerard5742 It should be for PSPlay for me. I was able to do great streaming PS5 on my iPhone with the backbone controller…this will only be better. As for moonlight, I think it might be small for that since the ROG Ally is on that edge of being too small for me…but I’ll give it a shot. This is just my opinion of course

@gerard5742

10 ай бұрын

@@MithosDagon Thanks for the info I think I will give a chance too

Really did a good job at making me cancel my pre-order, despite knowing the specs internally and not caring much about PS2/Switch/Wii emulation hearing that it doesn't perform well for either of these platforms makes me think of this device as a cheap cereal that has a better brand out there!

how does it compare to odin lite?

Now I appreciate more my RP3+ and I'll wait for the Odin 2

26:40 Thank you! That is the expectation for me as well if I am paying 300 dollars. If I don't get the full library for that price it's not worth it. That is a ton of money to spend for games that old now.

can u please enable CC. thx

The specs are huge step up from my pocket 3+. They stepped up the price too lol

Joystick placement is great I wish people would extend the bottoms of their devices so you wouldnt have to get third party grips That being said i still believe the retroid pocket flip is the consensus best overall device (value+performance)

Considering all these hand helds using Android and smartphone chips, I'm waiting for Nokia to make a new version of the Ngage or Sony to make a new Xperia Play or something. When we have stuff like this Aya device all that's really missing is cellular capability lmao.

I own a Logitech gcloud, which doesn't have video display port out. I also own a pair of xreal glasses. It seams to me that I should replace my gcloud with this and use it with the glasses

Where tf did you get your controllers on your thumbnail?

It needs a nice purple and blue or blue and green trim and colors. The dpad needs work. This does seem like it could be a good Android development, testing, emulation and affordable computing education device. Steam Deck still hard to beat.

Since this console fails in switch emulation (and partially also ps2 and gamecube) we can at least expect odin 2 will handle ps2 and gamecube/wii games with no hesitation and have a decent switch emulation? The 8 gb ram model will be enough?

A direct comparison against the G Cloud would be good since that's also $299 now.

@kennethd4958

10 ай бұрын

He mentions the G Cloud. It’s much less powerful and still over priced.

@TheOtherClips

10 ай бұрын

@@kennethd4958 ahh yeah found it. Unfortunately he showed the listing from best buy but its$299 at amazon and logitech directly. I just got a used one for $225

I've been wanting a dedicated emulation device. I know my smartphone(SD870) can emulate most of it. I just can't decide whether to just buy a controller for smartphone or maybe something like an anbernic. 😅

I had to pause this video so I could cancel my pre-order. I think i will just Pre-order another Odin2.

Kinda doa since Odin 2 preorders