Thirteen. That’s how many different portable gaming PCs Ayaneo is showing on its homepage at the time of writing. Fourteen if we count the previous one by one in the carousel. Each device comes in a variety of colors with different storage and RAM configurations. Ayaneo has many SKUs. I only reviewed the Air Plus five months ago and they’ve already marked it down to make way for the next version. The current model of all these portable devices is the Ayane Kun and is currently the only one of its kind.
The Kun is the highest spec machine the company has ever made and after using it for a couple of weeks I can say it’s a fantastic gaming handheld and (if you want) a general purpose laptop PC decent. But despite being the latest and greatest, it didn’t take long for one thing to become very clear: the Kun is just a replacement for the Kun 2, or the Kun 1S, Kun Pro or… whatever they call the more robust version and updated. That’s waiting for the next generation of processors. We’ll see why in a moment, but for now, it’s the most impressive console the company has ever made.
With an 8.4-inch display, the latest AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor, and up to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of storage, Kun kicks the digital sand in the face of the anemic Steam Deck by comparison. Physically, he is a little taller and, at two pounds (900 g), a (double) handful. But with Valve’s laptop approaching its second birthday, it’s starting to make less sense to compare the current wave of gaming laptops to it. That said, just take one look at the Kun, with its familiar-looking trackpads and rear buttons, and it’s clear how it’s been influenced by the market-leading device.
Before we talk about the performance of all the hardware or the software experience, we should talk about the price. The fully loaded Kun I’ve been testing costs a whopping $1,700. That’s enough money for a good desktop gaming PC, including the monitor. It is also enough to buy two Top-of-the-line Steam Decks with change (or two high-end ROG Allys). A better comparison is the lower-spec Kun, as it matches the RAM and storage (16GB / 512GB) of the top-end Deck ($649), and that model costs $999 a little more reasonable. You can add another $200 or so to those Kun prices if you buy outside of the IGG campaign, but Ayaneo tends to leave them long enough for anyone who wants one to get the best price.
While Kun is new, we’ve seen a lot before. The Ayaneo 2S shares the same 7840U processor and graphics chip. But in terms of performance, it’s reasonable to expect the Kun to be a little worse, since that 8.4-inch screen allows for 1600p gaming, which is more intensive than the Ayaneo 2 or 2S’s maximum 1200p. The reality, however, is that while you can If you play games at higher resolutions, it’s usually not worth the performance hit. That’s where the Kun’s other major hardware difference comes in: the massive 75Wh battery.
When you play at 1080p or 1200p, everything looks fantastic. That screen is bright, has excellent dynamic range, and really brings games to life. The combination of optimized graphics settings and a larger battery means much longer gaming sessions. The exact time will depend on a few variables along with the maximum power consumption/TDP that you specify in the Ayaspace software. But as a general guide, for lighter games and things like retro emulation, you should be able to play five hours. For many AAA games, you can expect more than three hours of gameplay at 1080p (assuming a TDP between 15 and 20). If you want to increase the resolution to 1200 or 1600 and increase the TDP closer to 30, it may take two hours if you’re lucky.
Those times are pretty good for this current generation of Windows portable devices, but there are other factors to consider. The Kun is a foot wide and a little portly. Sure, you can take this anywhere, but you won’t be pulling it out of your pocket while waiting at the DMV. Kun lives to be played, ironically, at home, or in someone else’s house, or perhaps on a flight or a long train ride. Size and weight aren’t problematic in these controlled indoor environments, but you’ll want to be somewhere relatively comfortable or ergonomic. There’s a kickstand, which really helps with certain types of games, but it positions the Kun upright like a laptop screen. I wish the stand was adjustable to allow for a variety of angles, but it’s better than nothing.
Personally, I found myself playing with it while on the couch, taking in about an hour to play between work and dinner. For long sessions, I would dock it and play it on the TV. This hybrid use case seems to be where the Kun excels. You don’t have to take up the main screen in the living room, but you can still be with friends or family. And then when you really want to game, playing through the TV is where the Kun’s higher power consumption/maximum TDP of 54W can come in handy.
This is a good time to return to something I alluded to above. That 54W maximum TDP is really high compared to the Steam Deck’s highest 15W power setting. It’s also much higher than the 30W limit of the Ayaneo 2S. But right now that doesn’t translate into much extra in-game performance. The GPU on this device will be the bottleneck, and will typically hit 100 percent long before reaching anything close to 54W of power. Unfortunately, increasing the power to 54W once the GPU is already running at maximum won’t change anything. But what can help is twofold.
First, it enables more CPU-intensive tasks, such as general computing. Do you want to run music creation software on this thing? You definitely could. Do you need to edit video sequences while traveling? The Kun will eat it. With keyboard and mouse, the Kun is, in a comical way, a good all-purpose computer. Heck, it even has an infrared webcam for Windows Hello (and Zoom calls), something many laptops don’t even have. The Kun screen is more Netbook than Macbook in terms of size, but it is large enough. You can always plug it into a monitor anyway. Of course, don’t buy it for this reason, it’s just a testament to how great and powerful this is.
Secondly, and most importantly for gamers, this 54W TDP is a pretty clear indicator that the Kun form factor will go through the same ongoing reviews as the other Ayaneo models. Basically, the Kun is ready for a chipset that can use 54W TDP for gaming once AMD and others start making APUs with more powerful GPUs. We’re a long way from any potential AMD upgrade, but you never know as they’re not the only name in the game. Not even in the portable gaming set.
The result is, as expected, a device with a lot to offer but also quite limited appeal. In fact, there’s a good chance that if you were interested in one of these, you’ve already placed an order. For those people, Kun fulfills his promises. For that small group that didn’t know they were looking at a $1,000+ gaming laptop, the Kun currently has no real competition in this size and spec. For everyone else, it’s probably too much exercise, but at least it’s fun.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ayaneos-kun-gaming-handheld-review-164050984.html?src=rss
