Ayaneo 2S reveal shows off killer specs to rival the Asus ROG Ally

Sayem Ahmed
The ayaneo 2s on a blue background

Ayaneo, one of the leading PC handheld manufacturers has officially revealed the Ayaneo 2S, which is outfitted with the powerful Ryzen 7 7840U, which could rival the might of the Asus ROG Ally.

The battle for dominance in the handheld PC market is growing fiercer. The Steam Deck blew the doors wide open, but well before that, companies like GPD and Ayaneo were making powerful handheld PCs. With the official reveal of the Asus ROG Ally, even bigger brands are getting into the space, with Microsoft exploring the idea of optimizing their OS for handheld devices.

The Asus ROG Ally might be one of the most interesting handhelds out there, with some of the most powerful and impressive specifications around. However, Ayaneo has now clapped back with a revised version of the Ayaneo 2, named the Ayaneo 2S, as announced on a live stream.

The Ayaneo 2S will be equipped with the latest Zen 4-based mobile APU, the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, fully equipped with RDNA3-based Radeon 780M graphics. It is thought that the 7840U is very similar to the Z1 chip found on the Asus ROG Ally.

However, Ayaneo has some tricks up its sleeve that even Asus cannot muster.

Ayaneo 2S specifications

Ayaneo 2s in black and white
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840U
  • GPU: AMD Radeon 780M
  • RAM: 16GB LPDDR5
  • Screen size: 7-inch IPS
  • Screen resolution: 1920 x 1200
  • Weight: 600g

The APU that Ayaneo has chosen to use in the Ayaneo 2S is pretty powerful, to the point where we would say that it might run games even better than the Asus ROG Ally, this is due to the wattage at 15-28W. Should you be able to push the wattage further than 28W using the newly-revamped Ayaspace 2.0 software, you might be able to push the incredibly speedy chip even further, resulting in faster framerates all around.

The Ayaneo 2S with a splash screen and chinese text

Additionally, the company has also beefed up the cooling capabilities of the handheld device. With a new thermal design in tow, the Ayaneo 2S managed to drop temperatures by up to 11 degrees when compared to the older thermal solution. Boasting three copper tubes, the Ayaneo 2S might not have a dual fan setup, but it is incredibly heartening to see smaller brands continue to do well and iterate on interesting

Leaked benchmarks of the Ryzen 7 7840U also showcase that the chip manages to rival the Intel Core i9-12900 and Ryzen 5900 in single-core and multithreaded workloads. Additionally, we’ve seen some early benchmarks of the Radeon 780M chip, which can reportedly run the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 at an average of 71 FPS at 1080p with early drivers.

Ayaneo 2S launch

The Ayaneo 2S is likely to land in May 2023, with the devices shipping several months after, in true Ayaneo fashion. However, we still do not have any indication of how much the Ayaneo 2S might cost, though it is offering an upgrade service for users who have already purchased an Ayaneo 2 and want to upgrade the 6800U up to a 7840U.

However, one thing to note is that the Ayaneo 2S will likely be more expensive than the ROG Ally, the Ayaneo 2 can be purchased for around $1099, and we expect that Ayaneo 2S will be priced in a similar range.

About The Author

Dexerto's Hardware Editor. Sayem is an expert in all things Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and PC components. He has 10 years of experience, having written for the likes of Eurogamer, IGN, Trusted Reviews, Kotaku, and many more. Get in touch via email at sayem.ahmed@dexerto.com.