AMIGAOS 3.X - AMIGAOS 4.X - AROS - MORPHOS

AMIGAOS 3.X - AMIGAOS4.X - AROS - MORPHOS

Well where to begin? The battle of all battles for the Amiga community. All Amigans seem to have a preference of which operating system to use and for which hardware, such as classic, next generation, Apple hardware, Apollo Standalone V4+ or emulation, the choices are pretty much endless. Over the years I have tried all variants of operating system and pretty much all variants of hardware (not necessarily all types of accelerator that are available). This may disappoint, but I have no favourite as I think they all have pros and cons.

The holy grail for me is and always has been an Amiga/Amiga like laptop which can be achieved, with varying success, using MorphOS, AROS or Amiga Forever (Emulation). I have used MorphOS on Apple Powerbooks and always had a most enjoyable experience, I've tried AROS on Netbooks and laptops which wasn't quite as enjoyable as MorphOS, I found AROS quite the struggle to set up and I have used emulation to create E.M.M.A. running AmigaOS 4.1 with much more success.

AmigaOS 3.5

AmigaOS 4.x

Amiga Forever (Can Be Made to Look Like 4.x)

MorphOS

AROS

The choice you make may depend heavily on what you want to use your Amiga for, such as applications, games, web browsing or a bit of everything, including something that has been the bane of Amigans everywhere, watching YouTube in a browser at full speed. I guess for me at the moment it would be nice to do my blog on an Amiga which means I would need a graphics program, a notepad type of program and be able to get onto the Blogger website.

I believe the main reason there isn't a unified Amiga operating system stems way back to 1994 when a certain company went bankrupt, the buyouts, the lawsuits causing the fracturing of the community, hardware and software. Recently there has been a truce between Hyperion and Amiga Inc. which could lead to potentially good things or, has often been the case, the bickering we have seen so many times due to who owns what intellectual property and who has what licenses. It would be nice if it could lead to good things, even if they just resurrect the Alice laptop, the hardware exists, the software exists, just do it.

I have a Sam440ep and a Sam460... I could list the collection of hardware I own, but let's just say I am able to run AmigaOS (OS1.0 through to OS4.1) natively, I am able to run AROS natively and I am able to run MorphOS natively on a Powerbook.

PROS AND CONS OF HARDWARE

 Sam440ep 
 PowerBook G4 
 Netbooks 
 Release 
 2008
 November 2002
 Various
 OS
 4.1
 MorphOS 
 AROS 
 Cost
 X
 X 
 X
 Availability
 Out of Production 
 Second Hand 
 Second Hand 
 Wi-Fi
 Yes
 Yes
 Some
 Bluetooth
 X
 Yes
 Some
 Memory
 1GB
 1GB
 Varied
 USB
 4 (USB2) & 1 (USB1) 
 2 (USB1.1)
 Varied
 Ethernet
 2 Ports
 1 Port
 Varied
 Sata
 4
 Installed HD
 Installed HD
 Resolution
 Depending on GPU
 1280x854
 Varied
 Sound
 X
 X
 Varied
 GPU
 Various
 ATI Radeon 9000 
 Varied

Which would I recommend?
All options are very good and indeed worth a try but my preference, considering what is available at the moment, would be a laptop emulating an Amiga running AmigaOS 4.1 which I achieved with E.M.M.A. although the PowerBook G4 running MorphOS is a very close second.

Hypothetically what would be my ideal Amiga?
Unfortunately my ideal doesn't exist, not at the moment, I would like AmigaOS 4.1 running natively on X86/ARM architecture with all the bells and whistles of a modern day operating system, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, modern browser including running YouTube at full speed is needed.

Follow and comment below

Michael

TRIMUI BRICK HAMMER

TRIMUI BRICK HAMMER

I
was trolling through Amazon, mainly because they were having a sale,
and I noticed this little thing and thought this looks rather smart,
the TrimUI Brick Hammer has an all metal chassis so I thought I would
treat myself, but which colour? Black, Space Grey, White, no let's
get something a little more colourful shall we, the other two colour
options are Wild Green and Rose Gold, I'm not a big fan of green, so
pink it is and why not, I don't possess a Rose Gold handheld.


The
box consists of the TrimUI Brick Hammer, USB-C cable (a rather short cable)
and for some reason two sets of replacement trigger buttons, no
instructions, no screen wipes, no screen protector but the handheld
does have a plastic film over the screen to take off.

My
thought with the TrimUI Brick Hammer is to do a little research and
see which machines emulate best on it, get some ROMS on to a microSD
card, insert and play. I have no intentions, at present, to tinker
with the OS, I have no intentions to mod, just plug and play and see
what the performance is like. Unlike the majority of my handhelds,
this runs Linux.

I
already have a TrimUI Smart Pro (November 2023) and a TrimUI Brick
(October 2024) but I didn't really spend much time with either of
them but from what I know the Smart Pro, the Brick and the Brick
Hammer are exactly the same machine, only the chassis has changed, I
wonder how long TrimUI can get away with rolling out the same innards
with a different coating. The TrimUI Brick Hammer is not a
particularly powerful handheld but it is a rather smart looking
thing.

I
understand the complexities of finding all the correct components,
there is no point in putting a 5.5” screen on a handheld that is
only powerful enough to emulate Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy
Advance and there is no point in putting a 3.2” screen on something
that is powerful enough to emulate PlayStation 2 and Switch, so the
question is has the TrimUI Brick Hammer got the specification balance
just right?

So,
the first time I switch on I have the TrimUI splash screen followed
by a loading screen which takes me to the games page showing zero
games, so let's do some set up, Wi-Fi first, well that's it, that
took no time at all. I now need a microSD card and some games. So I
now have a few steps to follow, switch off the TrimUI Brick, insert
the microSD card and switch back on, now use the SD card formatter
built into the firmware, once formatted move the microSD card over to my laptop.

The microSD card now has folders for multiple systems so I placed some ROMs onto the microSD card and re-inserted into the
TrimUI Brick and switched it on only for the games section to show,
absolutely nothing, no games, no systems. So what now? Well, there
are some custom firmwares available for the TrimUI series of
handhelds such as SpruceOS, NextUI, MinUI, muOS and KNULLI. I have
tried KNULLI.

I
had promised myself that I was going to use the stock OS and no real
tinkering but... While doing a bit of searching online I found RetroGame Corps set up guide for MinUI an operating system I hadn't looked
into before so thought it would be worth a go, nothing to lose. Apart
from losing a bit of time the end result seems really good,
minimalist, no box art, no game description, just white text on a
black background for the menus.

I
went for some early system that would play best on the 3.2” screen:
Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NeoGeo Pocket, Nintendo
Entertainment System, Sega Game Gear, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master
System, Sony PlayStation, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PC
Engine and Nintendo Virtual Boy. I know these systems don't really
push the boat out with high end gaming but that wasn't the real plan
anyway, some nice gentle 8-bit and 16-bit gaming was the plan all
along.

Would
I recommend the TrimUI Brick Pro?
Yes.
At first glance it is quite diminutive, everything just seems to
blend well together, the quality is top notch with the all metal
chassis it has a very premium feel and the power of the processor
matches well with the screen size which is a good fit for the systems
that I would most want to run on this handheld. I couldn't get the
TrimUI OS to recognise the ROMs on the microSD card but that was
fixed by using MinUI.

Would
I Recommend MinUI?
Yes,
MinUI is a great accompaniment to the TrimUI Brick with its
minimalist look, no colourful box art, no long game descriptions, it
literally does exactly what it says on the tin, the game title in white text on a black background,
nothing more is needed.

Follow and comment below

Michael

ANBERNIC CONSOLES

ANBERNIC CONSOLES

Anbernic was founded in 2017 and they started producing handheld consoles in September of 2020, their first console was the RG351P with a Cortex A35 CPU running at 1.5GHZ, not very powerful when compared to today’s processors when you consider the latest CPUs being used in Android devices is the SnapDragon Elite, but you must take into account the emulators available at the time the 1.5GHZ processor was more than enough.


Anbernic have a very large range of handhelds with varying CPU processing power, varying GPU speeds, varying stick/D-pad layouts (stick above D-pad or stick below D-pad), no sticks, varying triggers (some in-line and some stacked), vertical handhelds and horizontal handhelds, slide open configuration, overall size of handheld, clam shell and now clam shell with dual screens.

Anbernic are probably the worst culprit when it comes to flooding the market, releasing a handheld and then a month or so later releasing their next and then a couple of months down the line releasing another that is just a slight upgrade of the first (a repeating pattern). There are a few shown in the links page “Handheld Consoles”. I would list all their consoles here, however from September 2020 to date they have released a total of 35 different consoles released over a 69 month period which equates to just short of 1 every 2 months. Shall we just say they have been prolific in their releases.

From the selection of Anbernic consoles I own most have been extremely easy to set-up, however the Anbernic Win600 is a little more time consuming when setting up as Windows doesn't lend itself well to handheld consoles. Over the years many modding opportunities have become available, more so with the introduction of 3D printers, such as stick replacements, 3D printed cases, 3D printed grips, official cases and the many official and unofficial pieces of merchandise.

It would be nice to think that every incarnation of an Anbernic console would produce ever more powerful consoles, however this has not been the case and Anbernic keep revisiting the same processors which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Anbernic might not have the most powerful handheld out there but I would say they have some of the most successful. Shall we just say they know their market and how to price their consoles accordingly.

RG557 - One of Anbernics More powerful Consoles

If you were to purchase an Anbernic console there are many things you could do in helping your selection, most would look at the specifications to determine which best suits your needs and the following are things to keep in mind for your purchase: Battery size, Screen refresh rate, CPU, GPU, RAM, Onboard Storage, External Storage, Screen Size, Screen Resolution, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, OS Android/Linux/Windows, also keep in mind that there are also third party GUIs Knulli, GammaOS etc.

Anbernic are in quite a competitive market, which may account for the quantity of consoles they release, and Anbernic compete with many other makers of handhelds, Powkiddy, AYANEO, AYN, GPD and Switch (I know not an emulation handheld but a handheld non the less), etc. all of which seem to aim at different markets that require an Android, Linux, Windows or  the Nintendo Switch own operating system.

At the moment there are no Anbernic handhelds that use SnapDragon processors which seem to have become a necessity to run such emulators as those for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Switch, but Anbernic seems to know its market and the Snapdragon doesn't seem to be part of their roadmap at present. The latest iteration of an Anbernic handheld is the RG Rotate but they have also recently released a dual screen console which seem to be very popular among all handheld producers at the moment and this dual screen handheld is at a price of under £100.

There are emulators for most handheld consoles of the 80s through to present day such as PlayStation 3 and Switch which is where most of Anbernics high end consoles top out.

There is always talk of consoles that can be emulated on modern handheld consoles but there are also many computers that can be emulated: Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, PC (streamed) and many others and these don't seem to get as much coverage as retro consoles do.

Would I recommend an Anbernic device?
Most definitely, the is an Anbernic for everyone, RG DS for dual screen play, RG557 for high end gaming, Win600 for Windows gaming (including Stream) and RG35XX if you want something that looks a little retro (got that Game Boy look going on) and there is a wide variety to cater for all.

Do I like my collection of Anbernic devices?
I certainly do, my most powerful handheld isn't an Anbernic but when it comes to playing it's not all about the power, there is no point in having a powerful handheld with a SnapDragon Elite under the hood with a 3.5” screen that is only able to emulate Game Boy. Sometimes you want a handheld that looks like a Game Boy that can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance only and that is enough for some.

Follow and comment below

Michael

ANBERNIC RG ROTATE

ANBERNIC RG ROTATE

I
have received Anbernics latest offering, the Anbernic RG Rotate which
appears to be quite the unique little console with its rotating
display and controls beneath, available in a couple of colours: Polar
Black and Aurora Silver, whichever you get there is something new in
the box I have never seen before and that is a spare set of trigger
buttons which give the L2 and R2 slightly higher triggers. The
chassis on the Polar Black model is comprised of Aluminium
Alloy + ABS Plastic and the chassis on the Aurora Silver model
is purely Aluminium, there are no other hardware differences between
the two.


So
where does my preference lay when it comes to the chassis
construction? Aluminium Alloy + ABS
Plastic or purely Aluminium, this was really an easy decision to make
and that was all aluminium, of the two of them the Aluminium model is
slightly heavier but not by much and I don't foresee the slightly
heavier weight causing any issues during gaming sessions. My thoughts
are also that the rotation mechanism may last longer in an all metal
construction.

I
have only seen the Unisoc Tiger T618 chipset in one other console I
own, the Anbernic RG505 which is quite the capable device, so I
expect similar from the RG Rotate. For the size of the console the
Unisoc
Tiger T618 is quite the powerful processor.

Before
turning it on I am going to do 1 thing I don't normally do, I know I
should, and that was to install the screen protector, it is not a
clamshell so no protection for the screen and I don't have a case.
Now to insert the included 128GB, turn on and go through the usual
setup an Android device asks for.

Having
a square aspect ratio means it lends itself to quite a few consoles
but only one with a true 1:1 aspect ratio which is the Pico-8, there
are others that are close to 1:1 and they are the Neo Geo Pocket
(160x152), Nintendo Entertainment System (256x240), Game Boy (160x144), Game Gear
(160x144) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (256x224). There are hacks you an do
that make some of the other consoles, even though the ratio isn't
close, seem a little better such as oversale within RetroArch.

To
start with I chose to uninstall all the emulators already
pre-installed in order to be a bit more choosy over the installed
emulators and also to make sure they are the most recent versions,
also which if any front end will I be using? Daijisho has always been
a trusted front end coupled with RetroArch, using RetroArch means not
having to install individual emulators.

I
found the controls cumbersome, but then again I was brought up
playing games with a joystick and a D-pad has always seemed difficult
to come to terms with, if they had been able to include a low profile
thumbstick I would have been happier. That being said the controls
are accurate and reasonably quiet, not clicky.

You
may see the rear firing mono speaker as a flaw during gameplay as it
can easily be covered with your fingers, but in actuality it does
quite a competent job.

I
thought I'd give some of the other functions a go such as music
playback, something I don't normally check on Android devices as I
see them as purely games machines, but this is different, it's more
than a games machine. So I added some music, “Steps” don't judge
me, files to the internal storage and played them with the included
music player and I must admit I'm very impressed at the audio
clarity, it's loud, it's clear.

Now
let's try video playback, so I add the movie “Outrageous Fortune”
which is a .avi file to the internal storage and used the installed
video player to see the quality and as with the music player the
audio quality is impressive, however the video is a little jerky but
watchable, so I tried another file “Torch Song Trilogy” another
.avi file and again a little jerky but watchable so I thought it may
be the file format, I'll give a .mp4 file a go “Move Over Darling”
and the audio was spot on and this time not jerky.

Would
I recommend the RG Rotate?
This
is a difficult one, the chipset is powerful enough to be able to play
up to PSP, PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64, however the screen size and aspect
ratio does not suit the higher end emulators and on the other hand
systems like Game Boy and Game Boy Color which suit the screen size
and aspect ratio don't take full advantage of the chipset. Take note
that while setting up the RG Rotate did get a little warm.

Do
I think it could be better, for me?
Yes,
I believe a larger screen like that of the Anbernic RG Cube which has a 3.95”
display would of made a great deal of a difference. I would have
preferred a low profile thumbstick similar to that of the Anbernic RG Slide
and a front firing speaker, also a larger battery. Maybe these can be implemented in RG Rotate v2.0.

In
conclusion, what it does it does well but may be too much of a
novelty for some but the novelty of it may be a selling point for
others including myself. Third party applications, such as ClassiPod
(an iPod inspired music player) I think might add to the Anbernic RG
Rotate experience.

Follow and comment below

Michael

PICPAK

PICPAK

Well
Kickstarter is the website that just keeps on giving, my PicPak
arrived today, actually 2 of them, 1 blue and 1 red and very nicely
packaged they are too, no bells or whistles but that is because they
are not needed. Simple black packaging with a stylised image of the
PicPak on the top of the packaging, on opening the box it contains
the PicPak, a user manual and a USB-C lead.


The
build quality if very good with a nice textured plastic, giving it a
nice tactile feel, which means it doesn't get finger prints all over
it, a single button in the bottom left to change the image displayed
and also used for pairing to the smartphone app. There are a couple
of brilliant inclusion on the back also, a horizontal magnet across
the top and a vertical magnet down the centre and also a kick stand
(genius idea).


To
start with, I did something which is most unusual, I read the user
manual.

Step 1: The “Introduction” which is a welcome message
followed by a brief description of what the PicPak does.

Step 2: “What's Inside the Box”  are images of the three things in the
box which is the PicPak, the USB-C cable and the user manual.

Step
3: Where it starts to get interesting “Quick Start Guide” and
to start with I need to download the PicPak app on my mobile phone,
once downloaded I register and, as with most new technology, there is
a firmware update so let's start there by downloading and installing. Once the update is done, in a matter of a couple of minutes and no noticeable
difference, but I'm sure there are improvements under the hood.

Just
need to pair the PikPak with the app on my phone, this is also
straightforward, this is going great. This is, so far, the easiest
piece of technology I've ever had to set up. Now over to the app and
adding some images to the gallery and this is as simple as a couple
of button presses, the app also gives some basic functions for
rotating and cropping the image before uploading to the PicPak.

As
colour e-ink is still in its infancy there are a couple of drawbacks,
the transition between images takes a few seconds and it flickers
quite a bit during the transition but once the image is on screen it
is quite clear but the colours aren't very vibrant.

There
are still features to be added that are to be implemented in future
firmware updates such as displaying a news summary or displaying
health data generated by a smart watch all of which would be
transferred via Wi-Fi, keep in mind that these features are not
available out of the box at the moment.

Would
I recommend?
Yes,
the e-ink technology within the PicPak may still be young but it is
still a yes from me if only for the novelty of it, I will keep one at
home and take the other to work, a bit of decoration for my work desk.

Can
it be Improved?
Not
sure that it can be improved but I think variants of the PicPak would
be a good idea.
A
portrait version would be a good addition to the family.
Use
a different aspect ration, more 16:9 than 4:3.
Newer
colour e-ink technology.
Possibly
introduce a mono version at a lower price point.
A PikPak wearable such as a badge or luggage tag.

I know this isn't a long post as it does exactly what it says on the tin. This is new technology that has legs and will flourish.

Follow and comment below

Michael

ANBERNIC WIN600

ANBERNIC WIN600

Well
I got myself a nice piece of kit today, Anbernics only Windows handheld, the Anbernic Win600, well I say nice I haven't opened the box yet. I have
watched quite a few videos, mainly reviews which is probably what swayed me
into the purchase.


I
loved some of the modifications some people had done with their Win600s,
such as upgrading the SSD from 256GB to 1TB and the RAM from 8GB to
16GB but thankfully I don't need to do either of these, I had the
forethought to purchase the 1TB SSD and 16GB version.

As you can see from the below, with the three Windows handhelds I have the Anbernic Win600 is the least powerful, has the least memory, oldest operating system in fact it seems to lose out on all aspects of the hardware. So why purchase it? For many OI would think is because it was once of the first Windows handhelds to come to the market and it's from a reputable company. My first thought, though, was just to add it to my collection.

 Anbernic Win600 
 AYANEO 2 
 AOKZOE A1 Pro 
 CPU
 3050e 
 Ryzen 7 6800U 
 Ryzen 7 7840U 
 GPU
 Radeon RX Vega 3
 Radeon RX 680M 
 Radeon 780M
 Screen
 5.94" LCD
 7.02" IPS
 8" IPS 
 Resolution
 1920x720
 1920x1200
 1920x1200
 Aspect Ratio 
 16:9
 16:10
 16:10
 RAM 
 16GB DDR4
 32GB LPDDR5
 64GB LPDDR5X
 Storage 
 1TB m.2 SSD
 2TB NVMe SSD
 512GB
 Ex Storage
 microSD
 microSD
 microSD
 OS
 Windows 11 Home
 Windows 11
 Windows 11
 Wi-Fi
 5
 6
 6E
 Bluetooth
 4.2
 5.2
 5.2
 Battery 
 4500mAh
 50.25 Wh
 65 Wh
 Connectivity
 USB-C, USB-A
 USB-C
 USB-C

Also a major draw to the Win600 is the various operating systems that are available for it, it can run Windows 10 (upgradable to Windows 11), SteamOS and Linux (Batocera) all of which appeal but I knew where I wanted to start, install and try out the Steam client, possibly a little easier than installing SteamOS.

I unboxed it, turned it on and it starts with something really familiar, the setup of a Windows laptop, having to select my language, select my location, select wi-fi network, use email address to login in, accept this and accept that, set up a login password and much, much more and yes there were updates. From turning it on to getting in to the Windows desktop took 20 minutes only to tell me it couldn't install and lock so I couldn't press the button that says “Continue to desktop” so I just turned it off or so I thought it actually just went to sleep so I pressed the power button again and it came back on and allowed me to press “Continue to desktop”.

I am now into Windows, nope I'm not, it is still doing some set up stuff telling me “This might take a few moments” famous last words. Another 5 minutes and I'm finally into Windows. That took a hell of a lot longer than any Android device I have and on first glance it has the steam client installed so I'm going to start there.

Double tapping on the Steam icon and it opens up, seemed to be a slight delay and of course there is more setting up to do, language, time zone, wi-fi, log in and this is where I hit a problem, I couldn't get in, I got to a place where it asked me to download the Steam Mobile Authenticator app, well that should have been easier. Thank god I had my mobile phone to hand so that I could use the camera to magnify the Win600 screen to see what text was on screen. Finally into Steam and there is my gaming library.

So to play a game, I selected one of my favourite games, as I've mentioned before, “Quantum Break” I clicked on install and waited, and waited and yes waited, it got to 33% and seemed to have stopped so I decided to just put it down and leave it for a while and watch a bit of TV, well 10 minutes later and it's reached 36%, at least I know it hasn't frozen so I'll leave it a little longer. So from turning on the Win600 for the first time to actually being able to play a Steam game it is taking some time, I'm talking hours and it's still not there.

Finally there and ready to play. So how does it play which is the main thing, well it plays rather well, not quite as smooth as the Ayaneo S but then again it isn't quite as powerful so I had already prepared myself for it to be a little sluggish but to be honest it isn't that bad. Just had a quick go with Uncharted 4 and talk about sluggish, I would even go so as to say unplayable so it looks like it will be a mixed bag.

I tried a few other games, Dead Island: Definitive Edition (playable), Outlast (playable), Dead or Alive 5 (playable), Beneath a Steel Sky (playable) and Killer Instinct (not playable) so not too bad it would seem to be some of the big hitters that are the ones to disappoint. One of the bonuses of the Win600 over the Ayaneo S is the weight, the Ayaneo S weighs 659g and the Win600 is only 506g which is quite a significant difference especially over long periods of gameplay.

That brings me to another major question, am I going to get long periods of gameplay? It has been reported that battery time isn't quite what it could be and with a 4500mAh battery the reports are fair, for the type of gaming I was expecting to play with a battery more the size of the Ayn Odin 3 which is 8000mAh especially taking into consideration that Windows handhelds have greater overheads than Android handhelds.

Keep in mind that the above are tests using the Steam client and not SteamOS, so maybe SteamOS could solve some of the speed issues and stuttering, those tests are for another day.

What if I try playing games from my Xbox library and I'll start with a big one “Rise of the Tomb Raider” which I think may take a while to install if the Steam games are anything to go by, so I'll set it going (7:35pm) and sit back and wait until 8:46pm, yes 1 hour and 11 minutes. Patience is key but was the wait worth it? I would say yes it's worth it, there is a bit of stutter in some of the more action packed scenes but still playable.

Would I recommend the Anbernic Win600?
As a collector, for me it was a no brainer but for many other people the first thought, I would think, is probably pricing. Keep in mind that it is greatly underpowered when compared to other Windows handhelds but it is a little cheaper than some other Windows handhelds. It probably is, as that old adage would say, you get what you pay for.

One of the biggest takeaways from this is you must be very patient if you intend installing Steam games or Xbox games. The screen size is a bit small for most high end games.

There is still Batocera to try, and I do have a low profile flash drive so I will probably come back to that at a later date with a separate post.

Follow and comment below

Michael

AYANEO 2

AYANEO 2

Most
of the handheld consoles I have purchased and spoken about here have been Android based but
I knew a whole new world would be opened up to me with a Windows
handheld so after doing a bit of research I decided to back the
Ayaneo 2 on Indiegogo on Sunday 22nd January 2023 and from previous
crowdfunding I knew that the ship/delivery dates shown on the site
can be quite optimistic at best.


I
received an email on Friday 10th March from Ayaneo saying they were
sorry to keep everyone waiting and there had been delays due to the
Chinese New Year, but they did state that by the end of the month
they will have produced enough handhelds to fulfil all outstanding
orders, so hopefully not long now (my thoughts from March 2023).

Once
it finally arrived on my doorstep my first thoughts after unboxing it
were that it was quite a heavy beast compared to equivalent sized
Android devices. I found it cumbersome and heavy to hold which may
get tiresome over time but my thoughts turned quickly to what can it
do that an Android device can't and then proceeded to put it on a
shelf and leave it there.

Now,
a couple of years down the line and I lift it off the shelf thinking
the Ayaneo 2 is a high end device even though it's 3 years old, the version I got has the 6800U
processor, 2TB hard drive and 32GB Ram running Windows 11 Home, so
I'd like to do some high end stuff with it. PlayStation 3
(emulation), PlayStation 4 (streaming), Xbox (streaming via Game
Pass), Steam gaming, GOG and more. Quite the list of things I want to
give a go. At present I have no interest in installing SteamOS but I
will give the Steam client a go.

A
comparison of specifications, trying to match like for like
considering there are variants of the Steam Deck not an easy task, also there is no 2TB model of the Steam Deck.

 
 AYANEO 2 
 STEAM DECK OLED 
 CPU 
 AMD Ryzen 7 6800U 
 Custom AMD Quad-Core Zen 2 
 GPU
 Intrated Radeon 680M 
 RDNA 2
 RAM 
 32GB
 16GB LPDDR5
 OS
 Windows 11 Home
 SteamOS 3.0
 Screen
 7.02" IPS
 7.4" (OLED Model)
 Resolution 
 1920 x 1200
 1280 x 800
 Refresh Rate 
 165Hz
 up to 90Hz & HDR Support
 Aspect Ratio 
 16:10
 
 Int Storage
 2TB NVMe SSD
 1TB NVMe SSD
 Ext Storage
 MicroSD
 MicroSD
 Wi-Fi 
 Standard Wi-Fi
 6E
 Features




 USB-C
 Hall Joysticks
 Hall Triggers
 Dual Gyroscope
 HD Linear Motors 
 Twin Track Pads
 USB
 HDMI 
 Display Port 
 3.5mm Jack
 Battery
 50.25Whr
 50Whr

The
big question is where to start, I have a few Steam games now so I'll
install the Steam client and give that a go. I have one of my
favourite titles available in my Steam library “Quantum Break” so
let's give that a go. Well Quantum Break plays really smoothly and at
a good pace, and overall a very pleasant experience so I'll carry on for a couple more hours.


Eventually trying some of my other Steam games and I get a very similar experience. Thankfully
the controls work perfectly out of the box, no key mapping to worry
about which in itself is a god send. I can honestly say I have
nothing negative to say about Steam on the Ayaneo 2 apart from one
gripe, battery life.

So
let's try Playstation 3 emulation. For the testing I'll use RPCS3 which is an open source Playstation 3 emulator for Windows, Linux, MacOS and FreeBSD,
there is a fork of it for Android called RPCS3-Android. I was thoroughly enjoying this as I played Uncharted and I
played for a good couple of hours, thankfully the controls worked
straight out of the box, there was only the slightest slowdown in
some shooting scenes. The only real issues I found were the same as the issues I found on the Android version so no gripes with this emulation.


Next
is some PlayStation Portable emulation with PPSSPP, I didn't spend as
long on this as I did with PlayStation 3 emulation but the time I did
spend playing it I found it played exactly the same as the Android
version. PPSSPP, whether it is on Android or Windows plays smoothly,
the controls worked perfectly and it felt as though I was playing on
original hardware. I can quite honestly see all PlayStation Portable games working with no problems.


Next
is the Xbox Series X, I first tried playing some of my Xbox library,
using the Xbox app and all my library played and played smoothly. I
started having issues when trying to use Game Pass, the lag was
making the experience unbearable, I would press “A” to jump and
the character would leap after I'd let go of the button, not good. I
went back to doing some gaming using my library.


I can see many hours being lost with this handheld and there is still plenty I didn't get round to trying, but I will at some point.

Would
I Recommend?
Yes,
if you wish to have one handheld and it has to be a Windows handheld
then it is quite capable of fulfilling most needs and some of the
higher end systems fair a little better on Windows than they do on Android. If you try to
compare the Ayaneo 2 to an Android machine, such as some of the more powerful Android machines like the Ayn Odin 3 then no, I have found that Android machines are easier to
set up, have longer battery lives and lighter. There is also a much wider variety of Androif machines.

Would
I Use This Purely as a Steam Machine?
Yes,
if I wanted one handheld that I purely wanted to play Steam games on
then I have found the Ayaneo, I would imagine the Steam Deck would be
the ideal but Ayaneo 2 does a great job. I don't have a Steam Deck to do a true comparison (anyone got a spare?)

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Michael