While you’re chomping at the bit to hopefully (maybe?) one day get your hands on the Steam Deck, know that in the depths of Nerdland, a Switch-looking PC capable of not only running all your games Steam, but also your EPIC, GOG catalogs, etc. already exists: the AYA Neo.
Sold for a few thousand pieces, this console PC is part of a movement of small Chinese brands, often from Hong Kong, which, like GPD, are trying new formats on a PC component basis.
The format in question here is furiously reminiscent of the Switch – and therefore the Steam Deck. But, here, you will not find an operating system or in-house components.
At AYA, as with all these Chinese brands, it is indeed a PC running Windows 11. Understand that, in an “in-house” case, brands driven by passionate engineers have slipped components “off the shelf” , straight from the classic manufacturing circuits.
A Chinese crowdfunding adventure
At CES 2020, Dell showed off a prototype of a similar concept. A fantasy of PC gamers, the UFO presented by the American’s Alienware division was already taking the side of cloning the Switch (“detachable joycon”), but with PC components. Alas, it was a simple prototype that never came to fruition.
Read also: We tried Concept UFO from Alienware, the gaming PC inspired by the Switch
However, this concept has given some people ideas, as Benjamin Lesueur tells us, communication manager during the day, (compulsive) enthusiast of these mini-consoles at night.
“ It is a Chinese entrepreneur named Zheng Song who founded AYA “, explains Benjamin. ” Mr. Song worked hard on the project throughout 2020 to introduce it to the community in early 2021. He ended up launching an IndieGogo in March 2021…before selling the business in May of the same year. A priori, he was overwhelmed by the industrial scale of the project “.
It must be said that component quality problems quickly surface. Rather than “plant” the initiative – and walk away with the money, Mr. Song does something rare in the “jungle” of crowdfunding: he sells the company.
” Mr. Song sold AYA to the current CEO, Arthur Zhang (pronounced “Tchang”) with whom I am in contact “.
This contact is the key to the company’s current success.
” Great transparency and very direct communication with the community saved the project “says Benjamin.
Explaining that very quickly, the problems were identified and resolved. And the first “backers” of the AYA Neo received an update kit which corrected most of the faults.
” Apart from the motherboard and the storage, everything has changed between the IndieGogo version and the current version. The upgrade kit indeed contained a new plastic casing, a new screen, a new cooling system, new buttons and controllers, etc. We went from a ”proto++” to a real commercial machine “.
An important success for a brand that comes from nowhere – all the same two million dollars raised for the first financing. Which is somewhat understandable when you have the machine in hand: it’s a beautiful object, and a technological gem.
More powerful than the Steam Deck (but two to three times more expensive)
The level of performance varies a lot depending on the game and the settings, but you only need to read the tests of ultraportables in Ryzen 7 4800U to get an idea of the performance. On mobile, all games easily run at 720p with many titles running at +40 fps. In desktop mode, connected to a screen, it’s exactly on the level of recent ultraportables, with a very fluid 1080p mode in minimum quality level on games like doom (2016).
But we have to put the dots directly on the i’s: if you were planning to use your 500 euros from the Steam Deck to buy an AYA Neo, we will immediately dampen your hopes.
The NEXT version, equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U, currently in crowdfunding is recovered, at best, around 1,200 euros. Which is logical: the machine only has high-end components (read further), and it is only produced in very small volumes.
“ We do not have the figures for the mainly Asian stores that sell the machines once production has started through crowdfunding. », Says Benjamin Lesueur, « but we at least know that the first campaign concerns just over 2,000 machines “.
A more visible brand, like GPD, sold its Max model to just over 6,000 backers before selling the rest on AliExpress and other Gearbest.
Volumes therefore around 10,000 pieces at best, which remains low in the IT world. This does not detract from their “cutting edge” character.
“ To my knowledge, the AYA Neo has the only hall effect joysticks and triggers in the industry enthuses Benjamin.
Who knows the technology well, since it’s him who develops, in his spare time, and for AYA, software which allows Windows to support the gyroscope and accelerometer of the machine.
” AYA is the only brand of PC to integrate with a six-axis gyroscope! Windows recognizes it, but its function is limited to a switch to portrait/landscape mode, because no game or platform can natively take advantage of the gyro in Windows. »
This is where the level of geekery goes up a notch.
” My software Handheld Companion takes data from this gyro and feeds it into a virtual controller. I take advantage of Steam’s support for the Dual Shock 4 to pass my virtual controller for this controller and voila. You can use the touch screen as the touch part of the Sony controller and move the console in space to aim, move, etc. »
It’s good, you have understood that the fans of these consoles/PCs are nerd ?
Nerdier than the Steam Deck… and just as tough
With a nascent catalog of “guaranteed compatible” games, its Linux system and its very PC approach (yes, you can install Windows on it!), the Steam Deck is at a much higher level of “nerdiness” than the Nintendo Switch.
Read also: GPD Win Max review, half PC, half console, 0% Steam Deck
The AYA Neo is still a (good) level above in potential nerd, since it is a Windows 11 computer with which you can do everything. Connect the screens/peripherals you want, install the OS you want. You can even influence the hardware since, in addition to the evolution of storage (SSD in M.2 format), you can especially influence the performance of the machine by acting directly on the power supply of the processor.
” Thanks to a graphical interface that can be called up with a dedicated button, you can vary the TDP of the machine “explains Benjamin.
Far from being anecdotal, the control of the TDP is an important part of the machine. There are basic steps at 11W, 15W, 20W and 25W, but you can also create new, custom ones.
Depending on power needs, you can settle for 11 Wh or go for 25 Wh for the most demanding 3D games.
” Excluding processor, the platform consumes 5-6Wh. The AYA Neo’s battery is 47 Wh, so the math is quick. If we push the chip to 25 W to have maximum performance, we are at 1h30 of autonomy. If we are satisfied with 11 Wh, we can reach three hours “, explains Benjamin.
AMD at the controls… of its future
Originally equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor, the AYA Neo console is a real high-end ultraportable PC. With its 16 GB welded and its 1 TB NVMe SSD, it presents the most high-end configuration of current machines!
It is again an AMD chip that equips the update at the end of 2021, a Ryzen 7 4800U which gave us full satisfaction on the gaming side when we tested it in 2020.
It is again an AMD chip, the very recent Ryzen 7 5825U, which powers the new version still in crowdfunding, the AYA Neo Next. Leader of “APUs”, these processors integrating a GPU, AMD benefits here from a long-standing know-how, and from drivers much better supported by the community of video game studios than those of Intel.
“ Intel chips now have a very good graphics part, as powerful as the Vega 8 of Ryzen 4000 and 5000, but the drivers are less universal confirms Benjamin.
Read also: With Ryzen 6000 Mobile; AMD plays its RDNA2 graphics asset to dominate Intel in laptops
A nerd who confides that the future of AYA passes through a chip.
” The arrival of the RDNA 2 architecture in the Ryzen Mobile 6000 will change everything, especially the 6800U. The gain in perfs for the same energy consumption will increase from 70% to 100% enthuses Benjamin.
Before recalling that AMD’s announcement of this future has, casually, put the current financing of AYA Next in trouble. Because if the Ryzen 7 5825U is more powerful on the CPU side than the previous generation, it does not make enough of a difference on the GPU side, where the players’ needs are. Everyone is waiting for a Ryzen 7 6800U version “, he details.
For Benjamin, the AMD chip will be a real turning point for the format and for AYA, the performance at 15 W should be sufficient to play comfortably for almost three hours.
Finally, if the small business takes the shock. Because the chip should only arrive in the second quarter for the “big guys” in the sector – Lenovo, Dell, Asus, etc. The small brands that order in dribs and drabs will have to wait until the second half of the year at best, at worst… the end of the year, or even the beginning of 2023.
” It is to be hoped that AYA will have the kidneys strong enough to wait and integrate the Ryzen 7 6800U “, worries Benjamin.
Also see video:
Also see video:
Ultimately, at 1200 euros per machine, the Aya will remain the representative of a niche market that has developed around an ecosystem – investors, engineers and buyers – passionate about technology.
For the mass market, only a format at 400-500 euros like Steam Deck can represent large volumes. But at the moment when an industrialist can take advantage of platforms that are both more economical and very efficient, it will be necessary to remember that it was not Dell or even Steam who invented the format, but an ecosystem crazy about technology.
Until then, we are still waiting for our Steam Deck…