Ayaneo is taking a “play” out of Sony’s failed Xperia um… playbook!
Hot Takes Incoming…
Ayaneo has announced a New mobile phone called the Ayaneo Pocket Play. This will be their first mobile phone, launches via KickStarter and takes design cues from Sony and the PSP style handheld the Xperia Play launched in 2011.
Xperia Play History
The Xperia Play had its own Play store that included titles from the Playstation and worked on Verizon’s network when they were pushing everything Android as ATT had the exclusive on the Apple iPhone. Unfortunately for Sony after some delays Verizon picked up the iPhone in February of 2011 and the Play launched in April.
This was really Sonys only attempt at a Playstation phone that made it to market but it created a cult following. Sony continued the Xperia line of handhelds until they were dropped in 2025 though the new handhelds weren’t rocking slide out controls or Playstation branding.
Anyone who has owned an Xperia Play (myself included) will tell you that it was ok at a lot of things but never good at any of them.
Ayaneo Play
I have a sneaky suspicion that Ayneo is going to run into even more issues than Sony did with their Play Phone. Coming from a boutique manufacturer with less experience and a history of delivery issues leaves me with some hesitation.
Ayaneo does make great Gaming Handhelds if you can get your hands on them [it takes more than placing an order if you actually want their devices]. If I hadn’t taken drastic measures I would still be waiting for 4 Ayaneo devices I ordered this year and am now still waiting for 2. But that is for another article.
Hardware
One of the devices I picked up in 2025 was the Ayaneo Pocket DMG, so this is the closest example of the most current hardware Ayaneo might be using for the touch controls on the Play. If this is the case don’t look forward to the touch joypads working really at all as I did when picking up the Pocket DMG.
My hope is Ayaneo will go with a completely different design for their touch controls but even the Xperia Play had issues especially with the right joystick when playing FPS games or really anything that you have to look around. It is really hard to get 3D movement on a flat surface.
Putting the joypads aside this could be a great device for 2D and platforming games. With physical controls sliding out from behind the handset there is a good chance these will be great if Ayaneo sticks to their current control pholosophy. This is an area Ayaneo excels at with their gaming handhelds.
Due to this slide out controller the device is going to be thicker than maybe people realize. I don’t think it will be as thick but a good example here is the Anbernic Slide. For all purposes here that looked like a thinner device than it is and I along with other reviewers were really surprised as to how thick and heavy it is in the hands due to that “slide mechanism”. We probably will see a second generation version of that mechanism here but it’s going to be thicker than your average phone.
When phones like the iPhone Air released this year the Aayaneo Slide is going to be a beast that will probably be heavy as well. Just think of your phone clipped into a mobile controller for an example of weight [obviously the Ayaneo Play will be smaller than that].
We haven’t seen these specs yet but don’t be surprised.
Software
Ayaneo is very familiar with Android but they really have never done Android right to date. Their launcher is a bit… well sucky to setup and every device seems to have some sort of issues at launch.
That said Ayaneo is really good at supporting their software initially and you will see multiple revisions within the first 6 months of owning a device [probably because they are still filling orders]. But again after all these years they still haven’t been able to get their launcher to work properly and cellphones require more intricate software than a front end.
As someone who worked in the cellphone industry for nearly 15 years I just can’t see how they are going to reliably get this right. On top of what we as consumers see there is also network updates and handoff revisions that will need to be done in the backend.
Network
This is something I think needs to be talked about before anyone gets their hopes up and I probably should have listed it first. Even if Ayaneo knocks the Play out of the park it’s likely not going to work in the “West” markets.
I’m sorry to point out that the US and EU don’t typically allow handhelds out of China to operate on the CellPhone frequencies offered by carriers in their markets. There is a lot of politics to this but long story short there is a next to zero chance these will work outside of Asia.
Now if you are in one of the Asian markets that use the bands they include in the Ayaneo Play then you should be golden and you can just forget what I said about Network.
But Again if you are in a western market you can’t change bands on these devices no matter how good your hacking skills are as it’ll be missing the hardware. You should have the option to use WiFi however.
Final Thoughts
The Ayaneo Play will likely work for most as a handheld that looks like a Sony Xperia Play in Ayaneo packaging. But it probably wont do much great after that.
Ayaneo isn’t known for [though they are trying to change it] budget devices and I wouldn’t expect this to come out on the Konkar line. Unless you want to stick to 2D gaming there is no reason I can think of other than FOMO to pick this up if it’s over $150. We need more information on what hardware Ayaneo will be using to really nail this down.
My guess based on what we know today and past Ayaneo pricing this will be over $600USD. If Ayaneo does happen to get the licensing to run mobile in the US and EU I would expect a price around $999.99.
You can pickup a reliable 3D gaming handheld for under $100 in 2025 and play PS2, GameCube, Dreamcast etc without having the joystick/joypad controller issues you are likely to see with these being touch.
This might be a decent phone but you can easily find a better phone for the money and a gaming handheld you can tailor more to your needs.
I think the Ayaneo Play will be an ok Phone and a Gaming Handheld but don’t think it will do either of these vary well. But FOMO can grab any of us with these handhelds can’t it?!
Are you interested in the Ayaneo Play? How much would you pay for it?
GameOn
CellPhish
This article may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to purchase an item I may earn a commission which comes at no additional cost to you and supports future content.
