AYANEO Air 1S announced
The Chinese company unveils its premium lightweight Windows 11 gaming handheld.
AYANEO is updating its 2023 1S design with a new APU version. The 1S is a second-generation product in the AIR series, which was originally powered by Ryzen 5000U APUs (Zen 3). Last year, the device was upgraded to the Ryzen 7 7840U, a high-end, low-power Phoenix processor with 8 Zen 4 cores.
Today, AYANEO is announcing another upgrade, this time to the Ryzen 7 8840U, powered by nearly the same architecture. The CPU Zen4 cores remain unchanged, as do the built-in Radeon 780M RDNA3 graphics. However, there is an update to the AMD XDNA AI accelerator, which is now up to 60% faster than the 7000U series (now up to 16 TOPS). This is not a significant upgrade for a gaming handheld, though.
AIR 1S features, Source: AYANEO
The system weighs just 450 grams, mainly due to the smaller 5.5-inch screen. This makes it heavier than its predecessor (Ryzen 5000U) which weighed only 398 grams. AYANEO put significant marketing effort into highlighting that their device is lighter than the Switch OLED, but in this case, the 1S will be heavier.
AIR 1S features, Source: AYANEO
It is clearly not a competitor to high-end handhelds like the ROG Ally or MSI Claw, which come with 7-inch screens, nor is it trying to be. However, the feature these premium devices lack is the AMOLED screen. AYANEO confirms it is an ultra-clear wide color gamut screen with a 1920×1080 resolution.
The 7840U version from last year was also available in an Ultra Thin design with a smaller battery and thinner chassis. There is no mention of such a variant for the 8840U from what we have learned.
AIR 1S features, Source: AYANEO
AYANEO is introducing a special edition called AYANEO AIR 1S x Eiyuden Chronicle, which will be limited to 100 units.
| Handheld Gaming Consoles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | AYANEO 1S | AYANEO 1S Ultra Thin | ASUS ROG Ally | Valve Steam Deck |
| Picture |  |  |  |  |
| Architecture | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen2 & RDNA2 |
| APU | Ryzen 7 8840U 🆕 Ryzen 7 7840U 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz | Ryzen 7 7840U 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz | Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz Ryzen Z1 6C/12T up to 4.9 GHz | AMD Van Gogh 4C/8T up to 3.5 GHz |
| SoC GPU | Radeon 780M 12 CU up to 2.7 GHz | Radeon 780M 12 CU up to 2.7 GHz | AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz 4CU @ 2.5 GHz | AMD iGPU 8CU @ 1.6 GHz |
| External GPU | – | – | ROG XG Mobile (up to RTX 4090) | Not officially |
| Memory Capacity | 16/32 GB LPDDR5X | 32GB LPDDD5X | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 | 16GB LPDDR5-5500 |
| Storage Capacity | 512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB | 2TB | 512GB/256GB | 256GB/512GB SSD 64GB eMMC |
| Storage Type | M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 3×4 eMMC PCIe Gen2x1 |
| Display | 5.5″ 1920×1080, 60Hz, 350 nits, AMOLED | 5.5″ 1920×1080, 60Hz, 350 nits, AMOLED | 7″ 1920×1080, 120Hz (VRR), 500 nits, 7ms | 7″ 1280×800, 60Hz |
| Connectivity | WiFi 6E, BT 5.2 | WiFi 6E, BT 5.2 | Wi-Fi AX, BT 5.2 | Wi-Fi AC, BT 5 |
| Battery | 38 Wh, 10050 mAh | 28 Wh, 7350 mAh | 40 Whr, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion | 40 Whr |
| Weight | 450 g | 405 g | 608 g | 669 g |
| Dimensions | 22.4 x 8.9 x 21.6 cm | 22.4 x 8.9 x 1.8 cm | 28.0 x 11.3 x 3.9 cm | 29.8 x 11.7 x 4.9 cm |
| OS | Windows 11 | Windows 11 | Windows 11 | Steam OS/Win 11 |
| Retail Price | Ryzen 7 7840U MSRP: $899 (16G+512GB) Ryzen 7 8840U MSRP: TBC | $1,129 | $699/€799 (Z1E+16G+512GB) $599/€699 (Z1+16G+256GB) | $649/€679 (16G+512GB) $529/€549 (16G+256GB) $399/€419 (16G+64GB) |
| Release Date | 7840U: July 2023 8840U: TBC 2024 | July 2023 | Q3 2023 June 13th, 2023 | February 2022 |
AYANEO has only presented the new system today, with no release date or pricing information provided. Given the upgrade to the Ryzen 7 8840U, one should expect it to be pricier than the previous model, which was priced at $899 when it came out in the most basic configuration.
Source: AYANEO PR