Hands on Ayaneo’s Boutique “Affordable” Gaming Handheld | Pocket Micro

After a couple days in hand we are going to take a first look at the Ayaneo Pocket Micro. A boutique love letter to the Nintendo Game Boy Micro. We will visit if this high end Game Boy Advance is worth the high end price tag. 

This is really Ayaneo’s first addition to the “affordable” handheld market as part of its Remix Series of devices. It’s hard to call this “affordable” at $250 (8gb 256gb models I tested Retail Price) unless they can bridge that price to performance gap. With the popular Helio G99 CPU and bezelless 3.5” 960×640 3:2 display the Pocket Micro is well on its way. 

The Pocket Micro offers a lot of things that really have earned my praise in past reviews into one metal wrapped package. The Hall Joysticks are similar to if not the same as those found in the Ayn Odin 2, the finger print sensor works great for online purchases (though more about that later) and 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM helping to push emulation. This Pocket Micro really is a premium handheld with all the premium features including Ayaspace to assist users in pulling their emulation together while offering individual optimization options to assist with the emulation experience. 

Let’s start with the CPU. I have tested many devices with Helio G99 CPU and have been left wanting more every time. We know now after great Comparison testing of the Anbernic Cube and and ZPG A1 Unicorn that the Unisoc T820 vastly out performs the G99. We also know the T820 isn’t overall as performative as a lot of Dimensity CPU’s such as the D1100.  The reason I bring this up is because I think a lot of people looking at this handheld are likely going to be left disappointed if they think this will offer a great PS2 (or Nintendo Switch) emulation experience. We know the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro and the Anbernic RG556 also struggle to emulate resource intense PS2 games and the aforementioned CPU’s previously listed are found in those handhelds. We need to remember overall this handheld with its RAM configuration, aspect ratio, and CPU are really going to be most performative playing Nintendo Game Boy Advanced games. 

So with that in mind the Ayaneo Pocket Micro is a high end high performance Game Boy Advance. As I stated earlier this was designed as a love letter to the Game Boy Micro and in that sense this performs extremely well. With the parts combined you can seamlessly play GBA at 4X resolution and it’s fantastic. If you have followed anything I’ve done in the emulation space you likely know that GBA has been my emulation focus for years with its vast library of innovative games scaled for handheld gaming. Yet I find myself struggling to find the value in this boutique handheld from Ayaneo. This likely may be my inability to understand how the Pocket Micro has been introduced as “affordable”, how they are calling this “micro” when it’s bigger and heavier than most mid sized handhelds on the market today or the continually disappointing performance of the Mediatek Helio G99. 

I struggle to find a reason to scale up a GBA game to 4X resolution on a 3.5” screen. It creates images you truly can’t appreciate while finding no way to make onscreen text more legible. The text is probably the biggest issue when using smaller screens. At $250 depending on promos one could purchase 7-8 Powkiddy V10’s to play GBA at 2X resolution which can often be hard to differentiate from 4X on a 3.5” screen. To be fair you aren’t going to see any PS2 on the V10 but I think Ayaneo was correct in its focus as who wants to play PS2 on a small screen on purpose. 

So do I like this handheld? I absolutely do. It feels and performs premium as long as you keep your expectations in check. The overall fit and finish is positively unlike any handheld I have reviewed before. But that said it’s definitely made for a neesh customer market who isn’t looking for a budget handheld to play their games, but instead a premium handheld that allows you to tweak every aspect of the experience while possibly turning a few heads along the way. I’m glad I have this handheld if for no other reason so understand gaming on the other side. I absolutely believe the quality makes this handheld worth the price. But if I have to choose between the Pocket Micro and the V10, I’ll take 8 V10’s so I can NetPlay with my friends please. 

Oh and that fingerprint scanner I mentioned, it works great for verifying online purchases but next to never to unlock the handheld. I’m not sure where to point the frustration as my handheld seems too secure while my bank account not so much. 

Don’t worry I’ll do a deeper dive into the Ayaneo Pocket Micro in the coming weeks. I’m sure to find more interesting experiences to share.

Have you been following the Ayaneo Pocket Micro? Do you believe the price to performance is justified?

GameOn

CellPhish

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