Ayaneo wants you to be excited about its upcoming handheld and declares 'The Future has Arrived'

There's a fine art to writing a florid press release. If a PR missive for a game doesn't promise an 'unforgettable adventure' or call their turn-based role-playing game 'adrenaline filled,' I wonder if they really believe in it. A little bit of confidence can't be a bad thing. This press release teasing the Ayaneo 3 has a lot of beauty.

Ayaneo starts off as they intend to continue, saying that their third generation Windows handheld console will not only be a "revolution," it will also redefine the "gamer's fantasy" and "foreshadows future possibilities of handheld devices."

Ayaneo, unlike Valve, is primarily a handheld company, so iterative releases, like this "annual flagship hand-held", make more sense to them as a business. Will the Ayaneo 3 be a "revolution" despite Valve's top brass saying that a generational jump is still some way off?

The cherry on top of this overwritten release is the fact that there are few details about the upcoming product.

The Ayaneo 3's choice of processor will be the main highlight, even though it has not been announced yet. The company has historically used AMD for its handheld APUs. So a Ryzen 9 AI 300 Series CPU, formerly codenamed Strix Point could be a sure thing, especially since the AMD Ryzen AI 9HX 370 has already impressed. It's still not a huge leap ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U from Ayaneo Kun.

But AMD isn't your only option. Ayaneo appears to have a less established relationship with Intel. They offer Intel chips for a limited number their handhelds such as the Air Plus. A Lunar Lake CPU could be the Ayaneo 3’s biggest selling point.

Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, as we have previously discussed, offers a lot of power and portability in a form factor that doesn't drain your battery. Intel is looking for new partners and Ayaneo, a smaller company, could be a powerful alliance.

Qualcomm is the wildcard option. The Snapdragon X-Elite CPUs have been a surprise, as they can handle demanding games like Metro Exodus and Baldur's Gate 3 with panache on a portable device, but struggle to run titles optimized for x86. Qualcomm has also been hampered by Arm's decision to revoke Qualcomm's license to produce chips using their technology. The wildcard is more likely to be a mess than a wildcard.

While Snapdragon X Elite may not be the best choice of hardware for a gaming machine, there have been stranger choices made. Now, an Ayaneo 3 with Windows 95? I think it's just a matter time.