AYANEO hasn’t missed with the many Windows handhelds its released over the last 12-18 months, but it’s now turned its eye to the retro side of the handheld market, going for the high-end, more premium end of the scale, and with the AYANEO Pocket Micro, it absolutely delivers.
Design-wise, this is one of the most beautiful handhelds that I’ve ever used. It weighs just 233 grams and is roughly the same size as the original NES controller. It has a high-end all-metal frame that oozes quality and feels light to hold, yet still feels really hefty in the hands. The edges are rounded so even though it has quite a sleek and harsh look, it feels good in the hands.
It has a totally bezel-less display with a 3.5-inch 950×640 IPS screen that is super vibrant and has incredible colour reproduction. This is a a 3:2 display meaning that it’s perfect for playing GBA games with a perfect 4x scale without any stretching or distortion. Equally, the speakers for such a small handheld are absolutely fantastic.
As far as buttons go, if you’ve used an AYANEO handheld, it’s what you expect with a solid d-pad, four face buttons, two analogue sticks, four shoulder buttons, star/select, two buttons for quickly pulling up AYASPACE or getting to the home screen, and two customisable buttons on the right hand side.
When it comes to inputs, you’ve got Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.2, a USB-C port for charging, and a MicroSD card slot which is super helpful for getting files on and off the device. There is no 3.5mm jack, which I know will annoy a lot of gamers, but you can connect Bluetooth for audio. You also get a power button that has a fingerprint sensor, which might be overkill given the device’s intention, but given you are likely using your Google Account to login, it’s appreciated.
This is an Android device with a Helio G99 processor. Just like AYANEO’s Windows PC handhelds, as this runs Android, anything that you can do or install on an Android phone, you can get installed on the Pocket Micro.
Pretty much any Android game that I tested ran well, with the ability to map touch-screen controls to buttons for games that don’t have controller support, but I suspect most people will be picking one of these up for emulation. This means that games such as Stardew Valley and Zenless Zone Zero will run flawlessly.
It’s fairly easy to get going given it’s an Android device, and the performance is fairly remarkable for anything up to the PS2/GameCube. Obviously because of the smaller screen size, you won’t want to play anything too graphically intensive, with it being perfect for GameBoy Advance games with its screen size, and also PSP Games too.
As I mentioned earlier, it perfectly scales GBA games at 4x, and makes them look absolutely gorgeous. It’s hard to explain but playing games from my childhood such as Legacy Of Goku, it felt like they were made for a handheld in 2024, with the graphics being so crisp, yet still having that retro, nostalgic vibe. It’s hard to put into words, but it really felt lke the best of both worlds.
If you’re really wanting to push the handheld, it can play PS2 and GameCube games at 1x, which is fine given the screen size. There will be some minor frame skips playing these consoles, but considering the size, it’s more than acceptable, and anything lower than those consoles will play like a dream.
Because you’ve got two analogue sticks, as well as a fairly great feeling D-Pad, you can really play anything on this and expect a fairly great experience. Obviously the screen size means you might end up with black bars for some platforms, but given the screen has no bezels, and the top is black, it really blends into the console as well.
The AYAHOME app can launch all of your games and plugs into other frontends such as Emulation-Station. It’s probably not as good as that in terms of sorting and management, but it has hugely improved and is a good basic way to access all of your games.
Once again, it’s AYASPACE that really elevates this whole experience, with a fantastic overlay that you can pull up with one touch of the button. It lets you control the likes of brightness, which performance mode you’re using, show you the current framerate and more.
When it comes to battery life, you can expect to get about 2-3 hours on max performance mode whilst playing PS2 games and roughly 4-6 hours playing a GBA game whilst in battery saver mode and again for the size and battery, this feels like more than enough.
All-in-all, this is another big win for AYANEO in terms of blending accessibility with high-end design, and it’s a stunning piece of hardware that those wanting to go back in time won’t regret grabbing.