What you need to know
- AYANEO announced the Pocket DS during a "Strategy Sharing Session" livestream.
- This is the world's first dual-screen Android handheld, largely resembling the Nintendo 3DS XL.
- More details will be revealed in another livestream that is taking place tomorrow.
We can probably go ahead and say that it's definitely the year of the clamshell form factor. During a livestream, the AYANEO Pocket DS was officially announced, making it the world's first dual-screen Android gaming handheld.
This comes after we saw the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 released earlier this year, along with Game Boy Advance SP clones such as the Anbernic RG34XXSP, Miyoo Flip, and Powkiddy V90S. AYANEO itself is no stranger to clamshells, as the company's Flip DS and KB were released last year, and the 1S DS recently began shipping to backers.
As for the Pocket DS, it's essentially a Nintendo 3DS XXL, featuring huge screens on both the top and bottom. But in lieu of cartridges, we presume there will be a microSD card slot; otherwise, all of your games will be housed on the internal storage.
AYANEO CEO, Arthur Zhang, didn't reveal much in the way of specs, but did confirm a dedicated livestream is taking place tomorrow in order to do so. What we know so far is that the Pocket DS has been in the works for almost a year, and more importantly, it's already in production. Hopefully, this means we'll be able to get one in our hands soon.
Currently, ChinaJoy is taking place in Shanghai, and the Pocket DS is being shown off at the Qualcomm booth. We can only assume that AYANEO will lean on the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, which was announced back in March with the Pocket S2 and S2 Pro.
Rest assured, we'll be watching tomorrow's livestream to learn more about what the AYANEO Pocket DS has to offer. Here's to hoping that it'll be both powerful and affordable.
AYANEO's Pocket S2 is the company's most powerful Android gaming handheld released to date. It's powered by the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, equipped with up to 16GB of RAM, and the Pocket S2 Pro even has a massive 10,000mAh battery. Plus, there's still time to save a few bucks by ordering one via Indiegogo before the price jumps up.
