Madd respect for putting out this despite almost certainly backlisting yourself from future review units. Unbiased reviews like this are critical. Thank you.
FR, MVG deleted my Comment under his ayaneo handheld review after it got 200+ like and over two dozen replies then when I accused him on Twitter he said "yt might have deleted it because I either put a curse word or a link to a third party site". Which I clearly didn't because I was replying to the replies on my comment.
the fact that you ignored their please to not share the issues and reported on it honestly despite being given a free sample shows a lot of integrity. i like your channel and its always nice to see this!
For reference, a first degree burn is usually caused by exposure to temperatures between 110°F (43.3°C) and 115°F (46.1°C) for a *short* duration. Not only is there a chance you could get first degree burns on that thing; but that chance is actually quite high
@@ThePhilosogamer Thats what they said after the fact A Media unit should be the same as the release device when provided only slightly earlier - and either way it should be been advised its a media unit etc as you cant expect someone to review a device for the general public when its a different device.
@@ThePhilosogamerSure... And why should i trust that? Why couldnt that statement be public rather than private? do they need to hide that statement because when the shipped products will also have the same issue people will catch on? If the actual products had that problem fixed then they wouldnt need to hide it.
@@ThePhilosogamer 1) What would be the point of a media-specific device if the whole point of reviews is for the retail? That to be sounds suspicious enough. 2) They should have informed him before the incident as he already explained in the video. It's not really a "whoops we forgot that we sent media devices rather than retail versions"-hindsight. The device they send is the device that gets reviews, regardless whether it's intended for media or retail. Can there be flaws in the devices they send? Yes! And that's why he contacted them about it but didn't get a satisfying response. Now. I am not saying that they have malicious intent here. It could very well be lack of internal communication for handling cases like this. That can be fixed. But it's also clear that they didn't spend more than a few minutes on the response, so we have to take it at face value. It's not like this is uncommon practice within technology companies.
Thank you, seriously, thank you. Honestly is something that doesn't exist in this space. I bought the AN2 that had wonky thumbsticks, a hot screen, loud fans and eventually, a dead ssd. In their Discord, tonnes of people had the same issues, I left a comment on a TH-camrs video (that I trusted) about my issues and he replied, letting me know that his second unit had suffered some of the same issues (The IPS bleed) but the third was fine. (the third being the one he made the highly positive review about) AYANEO telling media to "not talk about it, don't worry, we'll send better devices to paying customers" is nonsense and frankly scammy. In the end Aya ghosted me and I never received my replacement. 👎
Sorry to hear that. I wanted to like this device so bad but between AYANEO as a company and the blatant QC issues... I had to share my experience with it all. Nobody should deal with all that after spending $1500
Not to sound threatening to the TH-camr, but who exactly is it? I just want to know if i follow them or not so that i can evaluate for myself if i can even still trust them on these devices or not...
@@MarkGibbons Taki has connections all over the industry in China, I could definitely see him being less-than-truthful to defend his own people or his bottom line.
@@g.h.decker6126 From what I've seen, Taki Udon usually points out when a device is heavily flawed, and make said flaws transparent in his reviews. For example, in his review of the ROG Ally, he points out that the software within the device was very buggy, but still recommends it because of mostly everything else on the system being solid, and he was confident that said software issues would get fixed in the future (though whether or not said fixes happened is something I'm not sure about since I don't own an ROG Ally). Another example is when he made a video saying that he refused to review the Retroid Pocket 3 because of the years of manufacturing issues that the device went through, and Retroid themselves basically refusing to fix most of these issues and chose to sell the device anyway.
It really shows how good valve did with the Deck. So many companies have come out of the woodwork to try and make a better handheld but always miss, they always have some major flaw. The biggest flaw with the deck is just the screen, which valve has updated with an OLED.
People rag on Valve, but when they commit to doing something, they do it right. All of their games are either good or masterpieces. Steam is the biggest game retailer to ever exist and basically created modern pc gaming. Their VR headsets, although pricey, are the best quality available and were very experimental at first. And I've only heard good things about the steam deck.
@@spaghettimkay5795 I've heard Steam was a POS when it launched, but instead of giving up or doubling down (like a certain Epic Games), they took the time and work to fix it.
There's never going to be a Steam Deck killer because you're going to have to pay at least double what you would for a Deck to get a device that's probably not even any better. For something noticeably better you're probably going to have to pay triple, and at that point, that device isn't killing anything. I understand that this is because Valve is such a big company and has so much money but that doesn't change the facts. The only thing that's ever going to compete with the Deck is the next Deck, should they choose to make that (and they most likely will).
@@REDACTED__007 Nah not really. Like, for instance, I hate linux. Its atrocious. But, despite that, I understand *why* they did that, because windows would absolutely kill battery life. The steam deck is absolutely the best experience I have had with a mobile gaming platform, period. Even more than my dedicated gaming laptop, even while using the deck as a computer.
Thank you for your brutally honest review! For now ill be keeping my Steamdeck. What I fear the most with these devices... these companies pump out 2-3 new handhelds a year. I feel that they will abandon this handheld as soon as the 3s comes out leaving the users with the 2s stuck with no more updates and bug fixes. I have watched the steam deck grow into a very usable device and there is a huge community behind it.
I agree. I commend the effort that handheld companies have put into these devices to get them made at all, but it feels like the Wild West era of them is coming to an end and only the best are going to stick around
Kinda why I'm waiting on getting any of these portables. I want something that's got a better screen and performance than the steam deck, but Valve is the only company making these that can turn their device into a legitimate gaming platform, and not just a niche device getting replaced constantly. I'll likely be waiting until the Deck gets a hardware revision or successor.
@@brandon_nope NOBODY likes to buy something that will only be returned to seller. Either they like to peacefully own a device without issue, or they like to not touch that device at all. Good return policy does help users to trust a company, but it won't help with their expectation of the company's product itself.
50C is more than enough to damage most LCDs, laptop screens don’t really allow operating above that limit per specs because it can damage them. Some of the ROG laptops with ergolift blow hot air at the LCDs and it ends up damaging them. The system running that hot is almost guaranteed to damage or kill the LCD over time
Oh shit, the screen on my ROG just went out and that was probably why... (Worst of all, windows doesn't even recognize that the laptop screen even exists anymore)
@@zugzwang8761 The Zephyrus G14. I think there might be multiple models of that type, but I'm using one I picked up mid-2022, so it is probably a 2021 model. Either way, an easy way to prevent that is to make sure it's well ventilated (Got a laptop stand in the hopes of mitigating the heat problems), and hooking it up to an external monitor should in theory help, as it doesn't have to backlight its own screen
Cheers to you for being a real one and not bowing to a company going "Pwease don't wive us bad pwess" This is another nail in the already well-sealed coffin. What both people and corporations don't get is that the Deck succeeded because it's tailor-made for it's task, raw power means jack if the software is bad. And that's where they fail the most, nothing yet is a real "Deck competitor" until the whole package measures up. Also, the open source nature of the software making things work allows for faster improvement
@@creauspssrb627 Never meant for it. But yeah, it only holds devices back But stuff like the Ally and this? It's like tying anchors to someone's ankles and expecting them to swim
tailor made and Valve is totally selling them at a loss because they have Steam money. Other companies can't afford to do that and have to put out multiple models because they don't have their own digital storefronts.
@@falloutbunker They're not selling them at a loss. Valve said the thin margins were hard to reach yes, but that still means each 64gb Deck sells with a profit attached even if that profit is 5 bucks to them. not to mention the 256gb and 512gb variants are basically overpriced at this point because a 256gb SSD costs us less than 15 bucks retail, and Valve is charging 100 bucks more for theirs (not even counting contracts they got which makes the SSD even cheaper for them because they are bought in bulk) Also Valve may be big, but these companies like Aya neo have been around for ages now too, they should have a proper strategy by now that doesn't have to resort to begging reviewers not to thrash their underdeveloped handheld, it's just a laptop with extra buttons how hard can it be?
It would be nice to have more power and a better screen. But as of right now I'm happy with the competition and evolution but also have no motivation to replace my Deck, especially since I just built a PC. In a year or two when more money needs to be spent hopefully the real 2.0 Steam Deck is here and not the next model which will be a mid-generation upgrade without the screen or power being improved.
i used to have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime, that phone could get so stupidly hot, the screen above the CPU would just stop working altogether from all the heat and you'd have to wait for it to cool down a bit
Oh good, The handheld can play the games all by itself _after_ it burned your fingers off! Honestly that's just brilliant! Why aren't more manufactures doing it?
To be fair most smartphones released in the past 3 years have essentially gotten rid of most thermal issues. The downside is that it's only the expensive high end ones.
@@cyjanek7818 yeah and those channels already have enough money and/or another high paying job to supplement with. Can't blame people for trying to make a living.
Props to you Bringus, the world needs more honest tech reviews like this👍 To this guy, try digging deeper into tech reviews than just the top 3 Google results(not including the chrome ai thingy).
As we all know, the best x86-64 handheld is the SteamDeck, and the best SteamDeck variant is the slightly damaged Value Village Lenovo G450. So if any x86-64 handheld costs more than $7.99, I'll call the cops to report their robbery.
It terms of price to performance steamdeck destroys everything. But everything else is more powerful nowadays. Either way I can't use a windows handheld device anymore after the 1st Aya neo. That shit has the same issues as the 2s.
I am grateful of your honest review. When a company like AYANEO puts out devices every two months, these quality control, customer support, and communication blunders are going to take low priority. Your burned a bridge but gained my trust, amongst many others.
For future reference, Ctrl + 1 and Ctrl + 2 open the steam and three dot menu thing respectively. Similarly Guide + A on a Xbox controller opens up the Steam menu too. Not that it helps you too much without having to plug in an external keyboard on this thing
Hah! Wow! It even works on baseline Steam Deck with an external keyboard Now what do I do in desktop mode if I can’t exit a window? The Steam button seemingly does nothing, but holding down the power button works well
The bleed from the right side could also be because the device uses an inverted panel. As you saw when loading an OS on it, it defaulted to portrait. There's a good odds it's edge lit from the bottom side as well.
The conclusion is perfect. Valve hit it out of the park with their hardware even if it doesn't excel at everything. Perfect cost to performance ratio and they actually care about supporting Linux.
@@battman505 How do I say this nicely… It is, has always been. They're just planning to release it along with version 3.5 I take it you didn't know it existed since the Steam Machine days, it was just Debian-based back then
The Steam deck has been doing me good service but, I just brought the Asus Ally it's going to replace my Steam Deck but, I know the next Steam Deck is going to be insane. Hopefully, they can get with Nintendo and, get that got damn oled screen at 120hz oh baby I think I creamed a little.
So happy to see a person who actually critique these hand-helds instead of blindly singing their praises (ahem certain big tech review guy who shills these guys A LOT). Good on you bro, earned a new sub!
I had an original Windows Surface that would get hot on the touch screen and ended up with same kind of screen damage. It started subtle like in the video, got brighter, got orange and eventually just looked like a burn mark on the side of the screen. I really doubt they are going to do anything about it before shipping to actual customers.
Subscribed. I like that you went out of your way, likely pissing off Ayaneo and possibly burning that source, to explain in detail the issue you found. Ya held nothing back, despite them asking. I'm not an Ayaneo owner, but I have pondered buying one, a Steam Deck, or GPD Win in the past. This is interesting... I wonder how they'll respond. The *SMART* thing to do would be to overnight a "fixed" retail unit, if such a thing exists. And even then, the fact that they didn't admit it to be a known issue is deeply concerning. If they *DID* know and didn't want to admit it, that's also deeply concerning. In short, everything here is a deeply concerning and you're a boss for not holding back punches.
Like many others have said, you might have burned a pretty significant bridge here (in fact, you might have burned a few if other companies watch this and think you'll pack their products), but what you did gain....... was my respect, and the respect of many others clearly. In fact, i've probably been watching your content for a while, but this is the video that made me subscribe. Seeing someone on TH-cam being this honest at the expense of free hardware and potential sponsorships is rarer than a conservative black woman in San Francisco.
Fun fact, the Xbox button IS the same as the Steam button, but in order for that to work you have to completely remove all Xbox applications from Windows (i.e. game bar)
Now that i think about it, isn't gamebar an option you can disable within the windows settings themselves? Yes. It literally is, Windows settings > Gaming > Xbox Game bar > Off Unless that's what you meant with your comment
OMG I ALMOST BOUGHT THIS UNIT. Thank you for this honest review. After sales is very important in my opinion, and their response to your concerns (trying to give bs excuses) to me, shows how they would respond to actual customer complaints. Well i guess it’s just Ally vs Steamdeck for me. Or maybe i’ll watch a few more of your videos.
Wow. At first I was like, “Time for ya boy to eat, ballin’ with that premium handheld action.” But as this video wore on, I was like, “Yikes.” Thanks for taking us along on your wacky computer adventures. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but you delivered an insightful, diligent, uniquely bringus level perspective on this device, one that is necessary for those considering the eye-watering purchase. Been a long time filthy casual, but clicking that subscribe button now. Bravo, brother. Yep, just went Hulk Hogan on you.
Disappointing. to be fair if it's a pre production device then maybe this is fixed in production ones but the resolve for that is definitely *not* telling you not to mention it in the video and should be more like "feel free to mention it but we'll send you a production one when they're ready and you can provide an update". Always rubs me the wrong way when companies try to strongarm creators into leaving out info like this and I can't help but feel like they wouldn't have the balls to tell a larger channel like LTT to leave something like this out. I respect your willingness to keep it in and probably torch your relationship with them as a reviewer who can get media devices in future though! EDIT: I didn't think it'd get worse when I left this comment but I watched more and.... those temperatures are insanely not good! what on earth.... I really hope they fix stuff in production models but this is pretty concerning.
Great review, thank you for not hiding the issues and being honest, and the reason i click on your videos is that not only your editing and humor clicks with me, it's extremely satisfying to see you mess around with hardware and do goofy stuff with them, your content is pretty unique and you post quite often for the amount of effort you put for your videos so yeah man, i'm glad you're not experiencing burnout because man you put a lot of time and your sanity to make things happen with the hardware and software you work with, thanks a lot!
Thanks for the words man! It helps that I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I feel like everything needs to be just right when I'm editing. As far as burnout goes, I can feel it sometimes but it really helps to see comments like yours. Makes it all worth it
Having bought a Ryzen 6800H laptop that is too thin for it's own good, I can confirm, these chips are awesome and truly powerful but you can't beat physics of heat dissipation and will hit thermal throttling FAST. The 7000 series (depending on the model because few are 6000 rebadged) are a bit better but man, they are still 6 or 8 cores with 30W+ TDP SoCs. The Steamdeck is beefier with a much less powerful SoC of 15W, no wonder why it's still the king despite having 4 Zen2 cores and 8 RDNA2 CU.
The Steam Deck really is the sweet spot of price to performance. Good QA and thoughtful design methodology from hardware to software/UX is all top-notch... And while I think there is still room for improvement, the bar is set high: I don't really understand why anyone would buy from a company called AYANEO and expect anything good. Valve continues to hurt it's own bottom line by refusing to rollout official sale and support for Steam Decks in many places internationally: Just one of the many reasons why companies like AYANEO can continue to exist, even if they make half-baked products.
Absolutely Fantastic Review. I bought Ayaneo 1S Geek because I was superhyped, after watching many "reviews" from famous youTubers (who review handhelds). What literally NOBODY mentioned was: - "steam" / "xbox" button does NOT work properly, it is simply some kind of WIN+G shortcut or something like that. As a reason you cannot 100 % mimmick Steam OS behaviour (sidebar open when navigating being outside of the game AND showing some options / sidebar when being in game - this literally means - if game does not have "QUIT GAME" button / option, you cannot quit game, unless you explicitly map one of other buttons to do ALT+F4). The only way you can make it probably work is to install additional software that "turns off" original controller and replaces it with virtual one / mappable. But this is rather serious hmm adjustment, that most probably will have downside especially when using ie. emulators. - drivers thing on windows. To be fair this is probably AMD issue. None of these windows handhelds have official drivers. Each manufacturer has some kind of preview / adjusted Ryzn 7840U drivers. You cannot install official drivers. As a result, I for example, don't have adrenaline software at all. Drivers updated but Adrenaline can't be opened ;p I'm not bothered to be fair - it's just a not that some future updates may be an issue. On Steam Deck it just updates :) - windows is also quite heavily configured, adjusted. Yea, it's okay as windows has tons of services, but at the same time, sometimes it's just too big, and prevents some things to be done. Judging by Reddit threads, some weird issues were only solves after doing full reinstall windows, settings up everything on your own etc. Again, no a big issue, but on Steam Deck I don't need to think about such things. - my device had issues when turned off. You literally ... couldn't turn it on (even if you do "long press"). As a result, when I turn it off, I probably just go somewhere, wait, I don't know 30 mins, 1 hour. Yea, probably I could ship it back, but i decided that ... ok, I can live with that. Probably my unit is hmm a bit tricky. - buttons that can be mapped are hmm working in a different way than Steam Deck buttons on Steam OS. Perfect example is streaming locally via ie. Moonlight / Sunshine. If I map one button in Windows, in Ayaneo to do ALT+F4 (quit program), it will literally close the whole Moonlight client , which results in a big mess on a host computer :) On Steam Deck buttons are bettter integrated - the buttons are ... a controller. This means that they operate WITHIN a program. So, If I map "quit" / "ALT+f4" button there, it does NOT close whole moonlight - it closes that app / game that is ran within. This gives so much more consistent behaviour in terms of UI / UX. It's just Steam Deck buttons are "real controller" buttons, while all these windows handhelds buttons are just keyboard shortcuts. - weight. STeam Deck is so much lighter. Not a big deal ? Well, play a game for an hour or two and you'll see a difference :) At first, I was very angry. Literally none of the TH-camrs mentioned honestly how much better, smooth, consistent Steam OS / Deck is compared to all these windows handhelds. I felt like I wasted 800 $. Luckily, after a week or something, I managed to configure things to some kind of an "accepted" level. Sure, windows system gives some benefits: - you can play mmorpg / online / launcher games much more easily - you can play "non-working" on Steam Deck games. - you can mod games much more easily - this is very important if you like to ie. mod Fallout 4, Fallout New Vegas, GTA V etc. - i can configure AyaNeo easily via Chrome Remote Desktop very easily and nicely. Two clicks and I see AyaNeo screen / desktop on my desktop computer. This is REALLY good. BUT unfortunately you are the minority. Nobody talks about the issues that many windows handhelds have. Sure, the CPU is better. Actually this difference makes reallu quite a lot of bigger games more playable BUT overall, I would say that spending 700-800 $ for a Steam Deck replacement is not worth. It's just after many youTube reviews, I expected silky smooth experience while the reality is more like battle from many years ago between IOS and Android. Steam Deck = iPhone, Windows handhelds = Android 3.0 ;p (and I'm saying this as android fan :) ).
I think a lot of people and other reviewers get swept up in the raw compute power battle when it comes to things like this, and completely forget that if it's a pain in the ass to use,then none of that matters. Valve's software and hardware integration is so tight compared to the rest right now, everything else just feels like pulling teeth to use. And ESPECIALLY for the prices
I owned a Blackberry Priv so that size comparison was useful, thank you. I miss that phone and wish either that it was useful today (ancient android version) or that another manufacturer would give that form factor a go.
Came for the thumbnail. Stayed for the tunes. Great overview. While not a device I'm after, I love keeping up the space for my future Ally/Steamdeck replacements
Thank you for the honest review. I have an Ayaneo Air 5560u and it has the exact same heating problems. The screen and the area around it gets dangerously hot with light use. Mine is a retail unit so this is clearly a design problem. It is crazy to see the big youtubers keep praising Ayaneo devices and none of them mention the heat issues. It is specially crazy when now we know it isn't limited to just one model. It is the main issue with their consoles and the fact they tried to prevent you from making this public is just wrong.
'Don't say this in your video' triggers in my mind Portal facility meltdown warning sirens in my head. Valve don't even need to advertise the Steam Deck. All these guys are doing it for them.
I have a GPD Win 4 and nearly the entire back is a giant grille and fan, so I’m not surprised there’s heat issues with that thing, there’s barely any venting comparatively.
I mentioned the light bleed issue and got the same response. I have many handehelds without this issue. Shouldn't have to turn down the brightness to avoid bleed.
I watched another review of a recent handheld that the factory "overclocked" before they sent to the reviewer in order to position the device as a better performer and then the retail unit did not perform as well but did not get as hot. I wonder if this is the case with your unit.
I've been intrigued by Ayaneo and all of these other manufacturers that have been putting out an ungodly amount of handhelds over the last 2 years, and every time I look into one of them a little more in depth...I'm reminded why I'm glad I just got a Steam Deck OLED
Your honesty is what I love about you, not only are you the funny meme tech guy, but you have us in mind when something like this comes into your hands.
Excellent video. Love the format too! Informative and entertaining. Potential owners of these Chinese handhelds should know what they’re getting into when they buy these devices. GPD as well. Their devices look nice and offer a tremendous amount of performance for a handheld but good luck getting any type of coherent support for it if ever needed. And expect a hefty shipping label if you need to RMA it across the world. Valve and iFixit support for the Steam Deck is a godsend for that device.
Ah yes, 56 degrees Celsius... The safe temperature for a solid thermally conductive surface (think metal, glass, etc.) is dead on 50, according to an ISO standard. And as you pointed out, its better if it's under 48.That device could give you first degree burns if you were to ignore the heat. And it sure as hell is not comfortable for any period of time. Thank you for this review Bringus, if I ever end up buying a mobile gaming console, I'd go for the Steam Deck, 100% deadass.
Never bought an AYANEO product before, and after this review, I'm definitely not buying one now. On an unrelated note, I REALLY want to add "Something, Something, SSD" to my Spotify playlist.
Really appreciate your honesty man. I knew I chose a good favorite tech channel. Even without the heat issues that lightbleed was pretty agregious. For now ill stick to my Yuma as my one and only gaming choice. It's Yuma or Nothin'.
Was talking to an electrical engineer friend about this vid, and he suggested there might be a short circuit near where the heat is. That could explain why it got so hot even at low TDPs
Also an eIectronic engineer - if you treat silicon like a short, which I guess it mostly is, then this is true. Or, actually, the chips inside the 2S use too much power to cool. They're dumping the extra heat into the screen glass like a mobile phone, ignoring that phones use hugely efficient Arm chips and this is a laptop CPU and mobile GPU. It's constantly an issue with these "Steam Deck Killers" - any company can fit more power into the Deck's form factor, but it's so impractical to cool and use that it genuinely hurts usability.
The end of the response implies one of two things: 1. The sample they sent is not in any way representative of the device being sent to customers, rendering the review inaccurate 2. The sample they sent is essentially identical to what they are giving to customers, meaning it has all the same issues
We need more folks like you sharing the information that isn't sponsored or watered down! I learned the hard way listening to big influencers on TH-cam regarding the ROG Ally and told myself I would only listen to reviews from smaller channels. My device came yesterday and haven't opened it yet and not sure what I want to do with it either now. But thank you for this honest review!!
EDIT: I saw you press B in the video and it didn't' enable the gamepad.. I'll look into this. The gamepad has a sleep mode, press B to turn on the gamepad, don't constantly reboot the system. I didn't even know you could do that.
Love your honesty man. Wish more TH-camrs were like this. There's a lot of TH-camrs that promote a product to keep a good relationship with the manufacturer and don't give an honest review. Happy I bought the ROG Ally over all these other brands. I'll probably get a Steam Deck too!
I love the portal and portal 2 soundtracks used in your videos so much! They're always a bop to hear just outta nowhere when you finally realize that's what you're hearing.
What's funny about that is that Valve wasn't exactly known for great support, but they really ramped it up for the Steam Deck. It shows how vital its success is for them.
@@hueypautonoman But when was that? In my experience their support has been excellent at least since the Valve Index ~2019 I'm just saying that because saying a companies support isn't great when that experience was 10 or so years ago isn't the fairest even though it can be justified depending on the product
@@CarbonPanther We probably have very different ideas about what makes something "great." Some people think everything has to have a 10/10 for even basic service. I see a perfect score as going well above and beyond the bare minimum. "Great" to me is all their support for open source software, the excellent repairability, opening up repair centers for faster turnaround on issues, etc. They might have been good before, but they've clearly kicked it up a notch, something most companies don't do.
8:15 I've seen this before when playing around with some Japanese fonts. The character that gets printed with the apostrophe key on English keyboards will inexplicably have a load of extra space following it. Edit: bro threw away his Chromium for another Chromium
Holy hell this is incredibly important, thank you for posting this! Shows your care for the viewer rather than the PR of the company and your own potential profits in the future.
This is a category of item I like to refer to as fake fancy Chinese tech. All the budget goes into the look, feel, packaging without consideration for making it a good product.
I really respect your attention to detail and everything you tried to do and everything you broke down about the conversation transparency between you and the company I think this is a very extensive detailed perfectly done hopefully the retail unit will be better but this has been a definite help to the consumer thank you keep up the good work I know that it's a lot of work
Thats the problem with these chinese companies that pop out 2 or 3 handhelds a year, the qc isnt 100% and the support stops as soon as the next itteration comes out. One reason i have bought 3 steamdecks for myself and family is because the software and aftermarket support is so good, and only getting better... Im gonna hold out till valve releases a gen 2 deck, hopefully sometime soon.
I'm sooooo wishing for Nintendo to give up their console business right now because the Switch's ecosystem is so garbage that it's a burden on their games rather than a healthy companion. If somehow Valve gets Nintendo on board, I'll pick up a deck in a heartbeat.
Again with this racist, provably incorrect bullshit. QC isn't 100% with any company anywhere in the world, but if you had to narrow down your best options they'd be either German or Chinese - any country whose economy is primarily based on manufacturing. The Steam Deck's parts ARE MADE IN TAIWAN AND CHINA. With respect to Aya, they've been at this for 3 years, and they have made 4 distinct SKUs - their flagship device, an upgrade to the flagship, another upgrade to the flagship, and a smaller device. They are following standard laptop manufacturer protocol on a smaller scale. They have also continued to support their devices both on the hardware and software fronts years after release, and are even giving away free upgrade kits right now to purchasers of their earlier devices. These companies definitely have their issues (read: software development), but after market support sure as shit is not one of them.
Good on you for saying what you actually think about this device even if it means you'll be blacklisted from free review samples for good and maybe even face some sort of drama from them. You're the kind of reviewer we need more of, the kind who speaks the truth and doesn't just hype up random pieces of garbage because a company paid them big bucks to do so. This review saved at least few people from wasting their money I bet.
The problem with not being able to bring the steam menu when you mapped the button as "xbox button" was because the Ayaneo software mapped it as "wind+G" instead of the input of the xbox "guide" button from the controller. Wasn't because of windows, was because the way the Ayaneo software works.
THANK YOU, now this is a real and honest review. Saved me from even considering this device and likely any AN produces bc they themselves dont want to be honest and sweep things under the rug. This shows how unreliable they’ll be for after purchase support for a regular customers
Downloading game is actually pretty demanding on the CPU, especially so if you have a fast internet connection. Therefore the machine would boost to higher frequencies during downloads, which produces more heat. I guess what they were trying to say is that turbo boost itself is a Windows mechanism (though that's still not entirely true), and Linux supports such mechanism as well. Despite that, it's certainly true they need to do better on temperature/power usage control. Probably at a firmware level so Linux users could benefit from that as well.
if bringus sticker pack 0 is so good why isn't there a bringus sticker pack 0 2. checkmate liberals
xd!!!111!1! gottem
@@Felipe77646 lollooololol true!!!111!!
Damn. Guess I'll start being homophobic now.
@@Schnort Don't just stop there. Add racism and misogynism to the mix too.
@@Gatorade69 And don't forget. Defending your stupid behaviour with Jesus
Madd respect for putting out this despite almost certainly backlisting yourself from future review units. Unbiased reviews like this are critical. Thank you.
if a company blacklists someone for a fair review then they aren't worth buying from.
@@polocatfan that's all companys my dude
FR, MVG deleted my Comment under his ayaneo handheld review after it got 200+ like and over two dozen replies then when I accused him on Twitter he said "yt might have deleted it because I either put a curse word or a link to a third party site". Which I clearly didn't because I was replying to the replies on my comment.
@@FR4M3Sharma It's a shame MVG is the only guy who covers console modding and the scene like he does... I'd not watch him anymore then.
For sure, see too many content creators in this space dick riding Ayaneo
It's all overpriced garbage
the fact that you ignored their please to not share the issues and reported on it honestly despite being given a free sample shows a lot of integrity. i like your channel and its always nice to see this!
For reference, a first degree burn is usually caused by exposure to temperatures between 110°F (43.3°C) and 115°F (46.1°C) for a *short* duration. Not only is there a chance you could get first degree burns on that thing; but that chance is actually quite high
Thank you sprite of Makoto Yuki from the hit game shin megami tensei revelations persona 3 Reload
The temperature in my country is 50c+ 💀
Depends on the material (and mass) of the object you're touching; if it's plastic, you're likely good for short durations, but if it's metal, ouchie.
Ah explaines why my fingerprints stayed on my 70+°C 3d printer plate
@@Faalout Become Unidentifiable, put your finger and toeprints on it.
Ayaneo: "Do not mention this mail in the video"
Me: "Aaaaaaaaaand thats another untrustworthy company to add to the list''
They said not to mention it because it isn't a retail unit. Regular users are unlikely to have this problem.
@@ThePhilosogamer Thats what they said after the fact A Media unit should be the same as the release device when provided only slightly earlier - and either way it should be been advised its a media unit etc as you cant expect someone to review a device for the general public when its a different device.
@@francistaylor1822this is something that shouldnt pass QA
@@ThePhilosogamerSure... And why should i trust that? Why couldnt that statement be public rather than private? do they need to hide that statement because when the shipped products will also have the same issue people will catch on? If the actual products had that problem fixed then they wouldnt need to hide it.
@@ThePhilosogamer 1) What would be the point of a media-specific device if the whole point of reviews is for the retail? That to be sounds suspicious enough. 2) They should have informed him before the incident as he already explained in the video. It's not really a "whoops we forgot that we sent media devices rather than retail versions"-hindsight.
The device they send is the device that gets reviews, regardless whether it's intended for media or retail. Can there be flaws in the devices they send? Yes! And that's why he contacted them about it but didn't get a satisfying response.
Now. I am not saying that they have malicious intent here. It could very well be lack of internal communication for handling cases like this. That can be fixed. But it's also clear that they didn't spend more than a few minutes on the response, so we have to take it at face value. It's not like this is uncommon practice within technology companies.
Thank you, seriously, thank you.
Honestly is something that doesn't exist in this space. I bought the AN2 that had wonky thumbsticks, a hot screen, loud fans and eventually, a dead ssd. In their Discord, tonnes of people had the same issues, I left a comment on a TH-camrs video (that I trusted) about my issues and he replied, letting me know that his second unit had suffered some of the same issues (The IPS bleed) but the third was fine. (the third being the one he made the highly positive review about)
AYANEO telling media to "not talk about it, don't worry, we'll send better devices to paying customers" is nonsense and frankly scammy.
In the end Aya ghosted me and I never received my replacement. 👎
Sorry to hear that. I wanted to like this device so bad but between AYANEO as a company and the blatant QC issues... I had to share my experience with it all. Nobody should deal with all that after spending $1500
Not to sound threatening to the TH-camr, but who exactly is it?
I just want to know if i follow them or not so that i can evaluate for myself if i can even still trust them on these devices or not...
@@MarkGibbons Taki has connections all over the industry in China, I could definitely see him being less-than-truthful to defend his own people or his bottom line.
@@g.h.decker6126defend his own people? 🤨 He's lit up companies that he's worked with multiple times
@@g.h.decker6126 From what I've seen, Taki Udon usually points out when a device is heavily flawed, and make said flaws transparent in his reviews. For example, in his review of the ROG Ally, he points out that the software within the device was very buggy, but still recommends it because of mostly everything else on the system being solid, and he was confident that said software issues would get fixed in the future (though whether or not said fixes happened is something I'm not sure about since I don't own an ROG Ally).
Another example is when he made a video saying that he refused to review the Retroid Pocket 3 because of the years of manufacturing issues that the device went through, and Retroid themselves basically refusing to fix most of these issues and chose to sell the device anyway.
It really shows how good valve did with the Deck. So many companies have come out of the woodwork to try and make a better handheld but always miss, they always have some major flaw. The biggest flaw with the deck is just the screen, which valve has updated with an OLED.
People rag on Valve, but when they commit to doing something, they do it right.
All of their games are either good or masterpieces.
Steam is the biggest game retailer to ever exist and basically created modern pc gaming.
Their VR headsets, although pricey, are the best quality available and were very experimental at first.
And I've only heard good things about the steam deck.
@@spaghettimkay5795 I've heard Steam was a POS when it launched, but instead of giving up or doubling down (like a certain Epic Games), they took the time and work to fix it.
There are other things wrong with the steam deck but you're too biased to see that
There's never going to be a Steam Deck killer because you're going to have to pay at least double what you would for a Deck to get a device that's probably not even any better. For something noticeably better you're probably going to have to pay triple, and at that point, that device isn't killing anything. I understand that this is because Valve is such a big company and has so much money but that doesn't change the facts. The only thing that's ever going to compete with the Deck is the next Deck, should they choose to make that (and they most likely will).
@@REDACTED__007 Nah not really.
Like, for instance, I hate linux. Its atrocious. But, despite that, I understand *why* they did that, because windows would absolutely kill battery life. The steam deck is absolutely the best experience I have had with a mobile gaming platform, period. Even more than my dedicated gaming laptop, even while using the deck as a computer.
Thank you for your brutally honest review! For now ill be keeping my Steamdeck. What I fear the most with these devices... these companies pump out 2-3 new handhelds a year. I feel that they will abandon this handheld as soon as the 3s comes out leaving the users with the 2s stuck with no more updates and bug fixes. I have watched the steam deck grow into a very usable device and there is a huge community behind it.
I agree. I commend the effort that handheld companies have put into these devices to get them made at all, but it feels like the Wild West era of them is coming to an end and only the best are going to stick around
This isn't a review though
It's a sponsored video
Kinda why I'm waiting on getting any of these portables. I want something that's got a better screen and performance than the steam deck, but Valve is the only company making these that can turn their device into a legitimate gaming platform, and not just a niche device getting replaced constantly. I'll likely be waiting until the Deck gets a hardware revision or successor.
@@BorkHammer40k why not buy one and return if you don't like it?
@@brandon_nope NOBODY likes to buy something that will only be returned to seller. Either they like to peacefully own a device without issue, or they like to not touch that device at all. Good return policy does help users to trust a company, but it won't help with their expectation of the company's product itself.
50C is more than enough to damage most LCDs, laptop screens don’t really allow operating above that limit per specs because it can damage them. Some of the ROG laptops with ergolift blow hot air at the LCDs and it ends up damaging them. The system running that hot is almost guaranteed to damage or kill the LCD over time
How is asus rog ally screen?
Oh shit, the screen on my ROG just went out and that was probably why... (Worst of all, windows doesn't even recognize that the laptop screen even exists anymore)
@@TheKnewGregwhich model are you using bro? im getting kinda worried here 😂
@@zugzwang8761 The Zephyrus G14. I think there might be multiple models of that type, but I'm using one I picked up mid-2022, so it is probably a 2021 model. Either way, an easy way to prevent that is to make sure it's well ventilated (Got a laptop stand in the hopes of mitigating the heat problems), and hooking it up to an external monitor should in theory help, as it doesn't have to backlight its own screen
No the Ayaneo uses industrial a-Si TFT-LCD displays, these panels are rated for operation up to 80c.
Cheers to you for being a real one and not bowing to a company going "Pwease don't wive us bad pwess"
This is another nail in the already well-sealed coffin. What both people and corporations don't get
is that the Deck succeeded because it's tailor-made for it's task, raw power means jack if the software
is bad. And that's where they fail the most, nothing yet is a real "Deck competitor" until the whole package
measures up. Also, the open source nature of the software making things work allows for faster improvement
Because its windows and windows is very clunky on handheld devices
@@creauspssrb627 Never meant for it. But yeah, it only holds devices back
But stuff like the Ally and this? It's like tying anchors to someone's ankles and expecting them to swim
tailor made and Valve is totally selling them at a loss because they have Steam money. Other companies can't afford to do that and have to put out multiple models because they don't have their own digital storefronts.
@@falloutbunker They're not selling them at a loss.
Valve said the thin margins were hard to reach yes, but that still means each 64gb Deck sells with a profit attached even if that profit is 5 bucks to them.
not to mention the 256gb and 512gb variants are basically overpriced at this point because a 256gb SSD costs us less than 15 bucks retail, and Valve is charging 100 bucks more for theirs (not even counting contracts they got which makes the SSD even cheaper for them because they are bought in bulk)
Also Valve may be big, but these companies like Aya neo have been around for ages now too, they should have a proper strategy by now that doesn't have to resort to begging reviewers not to thrash their underdeveloped handheld, it's just a laptop with extra buttons how hard can it be?
It would be nice to have more power and a better screen. But as of right now I'm happy with the competition and evolution but also have no motivation to replace my Deck, especially since I just built a PC. In a year or two when more money needs to be spent hopefully the real 2.0 Steam Deck is here and not the next model which will be a mid-generation upgrade without the screen or power being improved.
One of the worst things with the touch screen that hot is that you will likely get ghost inputs. Phones often get those while under heavy load.
yeah that's really the last thing you'd want with a touch screen device. if the retail 2s is no different than this one, then it's probably doomed
i used to have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime, that phone could get so stupidly hot, the screen above the CPU would just stop working altogether from all the heat and you'd have to wait for it to cool down a bit
Oh good, The handheld can play the games all by itself _after_ it burned your fingers off!
Honestly that's just brilliant! Why aren't more manufactures doing it?
Oh, so that's what I've experienced sometimes...
To be fair most smartphones released in the past 3 years have essentially gotten rid of most thermal issues. The downside is that it's only the expensive high end ones.
Steam Deck "killers" that burn through your wallet are a dime a dozen, but ones that also burn through your hands ?
Now that's new.
if no hands, then you can't play any of the competitors
If you see a bunch of X killers. Just get X
@@satormus8263 I'm trying so hard to come up with a "scorched earth" pun, but I've got nothing.
ah yes. another case of Steam's 'competitors' shooting themselves in the foot
@@ziqqerladhey now, gog is pretty good...
First time I’ve seen a TH-cam actually criticize something they got for free. Props on you 👍
Then you didn't watch many good reviewers
@@nunyabidnes6010 there are like 2-3 channels that actually are not afraid of losing sponsorship because they need money
@@cyjanek7818 yeah and those channels already have enough money and/or another high paying job to supplement with. Can't blame people for trying to make a living.
Caddicarus did in his mini ps1 video
Props to you Bringus, the world needs more honest tech reviews like this👍
To this guy, try digging deeper into tech reviews than just the top 3 Google results(not including the chrome ai thingy).
As we all know, the best x86-64 handheld is the SteamDeck, and the best SteamDeck variant is the slightly damaged Value Village Lenovo G450. So if any x86-64 handheld costs more than $7.99, I'll call the cops to report their robbery.
Man that sucks that the steamdeck is still the best one
I got one i kinda hate it
@@ZalYagunRyaiIt's not, bunch of Valve simps. I have one and an Ally as well as the 6800u Geek. Both the Ally and the 6800u outperform the SD.
@@mediaman9719performance isn't everything in a handheld. if that was the case the vita would've murdered the 3ds
@@lolcatwhen it comes to a pc handheld that ends up trying to play the same games across both devices, performance matters. ally beats deck
It terms of price to performance steamdeck destroys everything.
But everything else is more powerful nowadays.
Either way I can't use a windows handheld device anymore after the 1st Aya neo. That shit has the same issues as the 2s.
The trimble yuma is still better though, the yuma is peak gaming
Leapfrog is peak gaming!!
Well it must be better. The Trimble doesn't overheat when downloading games.
I am grateful of your honest review. When a company like AYANEO puts out devices every two months, these quality control, customer support, and communication blunders are going to take low priority. Your burned a bridge but gained my trust, amongst many others.
Exactly overpriced junk
He burned a bridge that was impossible for him to use anyways. He lost nothing.
I'm buying one because of this review. I love in Aus, so our options aren't great.
They're the McLaren of handhelds lol
For future reference, Ctrl + 1 and Ctrl + 2 open the steam and three dot menu thing respectively. Similarly Guide + A on a Xbox controller opens up the Steam menu too. Not that it helps you too much without having to plug in an external keyboard on this thing
or PS + X
Hah! Wow! It even works on baseline Steam Deck with an external keyboard
Now what do I do in desktop mode if I can’t exit a window? The Steam button seemingly does nothing, but holding down the power button works well
The bleed from the right side could also be because the device uses an inverted panel. As you saw when loading an OS on it, it defaulted to portrait. There's a good odds it's edge lit from the bottom side as well.
I believe this has an OLED panel, so there's no backlight. OLED does turn white when heat damaged though.
@@shanez1215it's not an OLED, he clearly mentions that it has an LCD screen
@@shanez1215it's lcd
The conclusion is perfect. Valve hit it out of the park with their hardware even if it doesn't excel at everything. Perfect cost to performance ratio and they actually care about supporting Linux.
They know better than anyone, depending on something you can't control means you'll be fucked eventually
If they cared so much they'd make steamos open source and easily accessible on other devices
@@battman505 How do I say this nicely… It is, has always been. They're just planning to release it along with version 3.5
I take it you didn't know it existed since the Steam Machine days, it was just Debian-based back then
The Steam deck has been doing me good service but, I just brought the Asus Ally it's going to replace my Steam Deck but, I know the next Steam Deck is going to be insane. Hopefully, they can get with Nintendo and, get that got damn oled screen at 120hz oh baby I think I creamed a little.
So happy to see a person who actually critique these hand-helds instead of blindly singing their praises (ahem certain big tech review guy who shills these guys A LOT). Good on you bro, earned a new sub!
I had an original Windows Surface that would get hot on the touch screen and ended up with same kind of screen damage. It started subtle like in the video, got brighter, got orange and eventually just looked like a burn mark on the side of the screen. I really doubt they are going to do anything about it before shipping to actual customers.
Subscribed. I like that you went out of your way, likely pissing off Ayaneo and possibly burning that source, to explain in detail the issue you found. Ya held nothing back, despite them asking.
I'm not an Ayaneo owner, but I have pondered buying one, a Steam Deck, or GPD Win in the past. This is interesting... I wonder how they'll respond. The *SMART* thing to do would be to overnight a "fixed" retail unit, if such a thing exists. And even then, the fact that they didn't admit it to be a known issue is deeply concerning. If they *DID* know and didn't want to admit it, that's also deeply concerning.
In short, everything here is a deeply concerning and you're a boss for not holding back punches.
It's easy, just water cool it. It's not hard. Linus does it all the time.
Just put it in the freezer before playing.
@@CIARUNSITEyeah, or better yet just play it in the freezer. This thing will keep you nice and cozy.
Yup just buy CNC machine and other workshop essentials and u are good to go 😛
More money then
He dunks his graphic cards in his coffee before he plays Among Us.
Like many others have said, you might have burned a pretty significant bridge here (in fact, you might have burned a few if other companies watch this and think you'll pack their products), but what you did gain....... was my respect, and the respect of many others clearly.
In fact, i've probably been watching your content for a while, but this is the video that made me subscribe. Seeing someone on TH-cam being this honest at the expense of free hardware and potential sponsorships is rarer than a conservative black woman in San Francisco.
I had a zune on my desk, so thank you for using it as a standard frame of reference
"something something SSD" BRINGUS STUDIOS DOESNT EVEN NEED AUTOTUNE🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
We making it out of the bios with this one 🔥
@@IDAWKYI 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Fun fact, the Xbox button IS the same as the Steam button, but in order for that to work you have to completely remove all Xbox applications from Windows (i.e. game bar)
Now that i think about it, isn't gamebar an option you can disable within the windows settings themselves?
Yes. It literally is, Windows settings > Gaming > Xbox Game bar > Off
Unless that's what you meant with your comment
@@CarbonPantherI did not know that! I removed all of them completely with a debloater as soon as I installed windows lol
@@CarbonPantheryou don't have to turn it off you can just turn off the shortcut
to completely remove game bar you need to use a powershell command to uninstall it. and some games don't like it when you do that.
OMG I ALMOST BOUGHT THIS UNIT. Thank you for this honest review.
After sales is very important in my opinion, and their response to your concerns (trying to give bs excuses) to me, shows how they would respond to actual customer complaints.
Well i guess it’s just Ally vs Steamdeck for me. Or maybe i’ll watch a few more of your videos.
Wow. At first I was like, “Time for ya boy to eat, ballin’ with that premium handheld action.” But as this video wore on, I was like, “Yikes.” Thanks for taking us along on your wacky computer adventures. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but you delivered an insightful, diligent, uniquely bringus level perspective on this device, one that is necessary for those considering the eye-watering purchase. Been a long time filthy casual, but clicking that subscribe button now. Bravo, brother. Yep, just went Hulk Hogan on you.
According to what I found, the Steam Deck charger does 45W, and the Ayaneo 2S charger might do 65W for itself and the other 35W is for the other ports
Disappointing. to be fair if it's a pre production device then maybe this is fixed in production ones but the resolve for that is definitely *not* telling you not to mention it in the video and should be more like "feel free to mention it but we'll send you a production one when they're ready and you can provide an update".
Always rubs me the wrong way when companies try to strongarm creators into leaving out info like this and I can't help but feel like they wouldn't have the balls to tell a larger channel like LTT to leave something like this out.
I respect your willingness to keep it in and probably torch your relationship with them as a reviewer who can get media devices in future though!
EDIT: I didn't think it'd get worse when I left this comment but I watched more and.... those temperatures are insanely not good! what on earth.... I really hope they fix stuff in production models but this is pretty concerning.
"I've been primarily using Linux distros"
"This is a windows mechanism"
big fan of the mini mixed beat near the beginning. felt like an anime intro, you can't just skip it. very welcomed
Great review, thank you for not hiding the issues and being honest, and the reason i click on your videos is that not only your editing and humor clicks with me, it's extremely satisfying to see you mess around with hardware and do goofy stuff with them, your content is pretty unique and you post quite often for the amount of effort you put for your videos so yeah man, i'm glad you're not experiencing burnout because man you put a lot of time and your sanity to make things happen with the hardware and software you work with, thanks a lot!
Thanks for the words man! It helps that I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I feel like everything needs to be just right when I'm editing. As far as burnout goes, I can feel it sometimes but it really helps to see comments like yours. Makes it all worth it
Having bought a Ryzen 6800H laptop that is too thin for it's own good, I can confirm, these chips are awesome and truly powerful but you can't beat physics of heat dissipation and will hit thermal throttling FAST. The 7000 series (depending on the model because few are 6000 rebadged) are a bit better but man, they are still 6 or 8 cores with 30W+ TDP SoCs. The Steamdeck is beefier with a much less powerful SoC of 15W, no wonder why it's still the king despite having 4 Zen2 cores and 8 RDNA2 CU.
The accordion sound effect was a great addition. You should put on every video for anything that would make any kind of sound.
I second this
@@RadikAlice i third this
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"
The Steam Deck really is the sweet spot of price to performance. Good QA and thoughtful design methodology from hardware to software/UX is all top-notch... And while I think there is still room for improvement, the bar is set high: I don't really understand why anyone would buy from a company called AYANEO and expect anything good.
Valve continues to hurt it's own bottom line by refusing to rollout official sale and support for Steam Decks in many places internationally: Just one of the many reasons why companies like AYANEO can continue to exist, even if they make half-baked products.
Absolutely Fantastic Review.
I bought Ayaneo 1S Geek because I was superhyped, after watching many "reviews" from famous youTubers (who review handhelds). What literally NOBODY mentioned was:
- "steam" / "xbox" button does NOT work properly, it is simply some kind of WIN+G shortcut or something like that. As a reason you cannot 100 % mimmick Steam OS behaviour (sidebar open when navigating being outside of the game AND showing some options / sidebar when being in game - this literally means - if game does not have "QUIT GAME" button / option, you cannot quit game, unless you explicitly map one of other buttons to do ALT+F4). The only way you can make it probably work is to install additional software that "turns off" original controller and replaces it with virtual one / mappable. But this is rather serious hmm adjustment, that most probably will have downside especially when using ie. emulators.
- drivers thing on windows. To be fair this is probably AMD issue. None of these windows handhelds have official drivers. Each manufacturer has some kind of preview / adjusted Ryzn 7840U drivers. You cannot install official drivers. As a result, I for example, don't have adrenaline software at all. Drivers updated but Adrenaline can't be opened ;p I'm not bothered to be fair - it's just a not that some future updates may be an issue. On Steam Deck it just updates :)
- windows is also quite heavily configured, adjusted. Yea, it's okay as windows has tons of services, but at the same time, sometimes it's just too big, and prevents some things to be done. Judging by Reddit threads, some weird issues were only solves after doing full reinstall windows, settings up everything on your own etc. Again, no a big issue, but on Steam Deck I don't need to think about such things.
- my device had issues when turned off. You literally ... couldn't turn it on (even if you do "long press"). As a result, when I turn it off, I probably just go somewhere, wait, I don't know 30 mins, 1 hour. Yea, probably I could ship it back, but i decided that ... ok, I can live with that. Probably my unit is hmm a bit tricky.
- buttons that can be mapped are hmm working in a different way than Steam Deck buttons on Steam OS. Perfect example is streaming locally via ie. Moonlight / Sunshine. If I map one button in Windows, in Ayaneo to do ALT+F4 (quit program), it will literally close the whole Moonlight client , which results in a big mess on a host computer :) On Steam Deck buttons are bettter integrated - the buttons are ... a controller. This means that they operate WITHIN a program. So, If I map "quit" / "ALT+f4" button there, it does NOT close whole moonlight - it closes that app / game that is ran within. This gives so much more consistent behaviour in terms of UI / UX. It's just Steam Deck buttons are "real controller" buttons, while all these windows handhelds buttons are just keyboard shortcuts.
- weight. STeam Deck is so much lighter. Not a big deal ? Well, play a game for an hour or two and you'll see a difference :)
At first, I was very angry. Literally none of the TH-camrs mentioned honestly how much better, smooth, consistent Steam OS / Deck is compared to all these windows handhelds. I felt like I wasted 800 $. Luckily, after a week or something, I managed to configure things to some kind of an "accepted" level. Sure, windows system gives some benefits:
- you can play mmorpg / online / launcher games much more easily
- you can play "non-working" on Steam Deck games.
- you can mod games much more easily - this is very important if you like to ie. mod Fallout 4, Fallout New Vegas, GTA V etc.
- i can configure AyaNeo easily via Chrome Remote Desktop very easily and nicely. Two clicks and I see AyaNeo screen / desktop on my desktop computer. This is REALLY good.
BUT unfortunately you are the minority. Nobody talks about the issues that many windows handhelds have. Sure, the CPU is better. Actually this difference makes reallu quite a lot of bigger games more playable BUT overall, I would say that spending 700-800 $ for a Steam Deck replacement is not worth.
It's just after many youTube reviews, I expected silky smooth experience while the reality is more like battle from many years ago between IOS and Android. Steam Deck = iPhone, Windows handhelds = Android 3.0 ;p (and I'm saying this as android fan :) ).
I think a lot of people and other reviewers get swept up in the raw compute power battle when it comes to things like this, and completely forget that if it's a pain in the ass to use,then none of that matters. Valve's software and hardware integration is so tight compared to the rest right now, everything else just feels like pulling teeth to use. And ESPECIALLY for the prices
I owned a Blackberry Priv so that size comparison was useful, thank you. I miss that phone and wish either that it was useful today (ancient android version) or that another manufacturer would give that form factor a go.
My Steam Deck runs all my favorite retro games and modded Minecraft. I can't ask for more
Based
Minecraft? How?!
@@azaleawinchesterprism launcher is probably the easiest way for steam deck
@@azaleawinchester minecraft actually runs natively on Linux
most big product review channels always lie about sponsored products! God bless you for being honest to audiences
"Dislikes edge"
"Uses Chrome instead"
What
Came for the thumbnail. Stayed for the tunes.
Great overview. While not a device I'm after, I love keeping up the space for my future Ally/Steamdeck replacements
You give me Dankpod style vibes and i like that. The moment i saw the Zune I knew Id enjoy your content. Got a new sub~
Thank you for the honest review. I have an Ayaneo Air 5560u and it has the exact same heating problems. The screen and the area around it gets dangerously hot with light use. Mine is a retail unit so this is clearly a design problem. It is crazy to see the big youtubers keep praising Ayaneo devices and none of them mention the heat issues. It is specially crazy when now we know it isn't limited to just one model. It is the main issue with their consoles and the fact they tried to prevent you from making this public is just wrong.
'Don't say this in your video' triggers in my mind Portal facility meltdown warning sirens in my head. Valve don't even need to advertise the Steam Deck. All these guys are doing it for them.
I have a GPD Win 4 and nearly the entire back is a giant grille and fan, so I’m not surprised there’s heat issues with that thing, there’s barely any venting comparatively.
I mentioned the light bleed issue and got the same response. I have many handehelds without this issue. Shouldn't have to turn down the brightness to avoid bleed.
the size reference with the priv was actually really helpful. Those were boss phones!
Bringus, the "Xbox Button" was probably running Win + G which is the bind to open the game bar, and the game bar can be disabled from the settings.
quick life hack, since you dont have feeling in your nails, you can use them on a burning hot touch screen, results may vary
I watched another review of a recent handheld that the factory "overclocked" before they sent to the reviewer in order to position the device as a better performer and then the retail unit did not perform as well but did not get as hot.
I wonder if this is the case with your unit.
if so its misleading and they deserve what they get
Yeah in the video they said media device or retail mass produced that’s what I thought might have happened
I've been intrigued by Ayaneo and all of these other manufacturers that have been putting out an ungodly amount of handhelds over the last 2 years, and every time I look into one of them a little more in depth...I'm reminded why I'm glad I just got a Steam Deck OLED
Recently discovered this channel, and I absolutely love it 😂 I know nothing about technology but I enjoy this regardless
Your honesty is what I love about you, not only are you the funny meme tech guy, but you have us in mind when something like this comes into your hands.
FYI: Under WIndows 11's GAMING setting you can set game bar to not be mapped to XBOX Button
Excellent video. Love the format too! Informative and entertaining. Potential owners of these Chinese handhelds should know what they’re getting into when they buy these devices. GPD as well. Their devices look nice and offer a tremendous amount of performance for a handheld but good luck getting any type of coherent support for it if ever needed. And expect a hefty shipping label if you need to RMA it across the world.
Valve and iFixit support for the Steam Deck is a godsend for that device.
The song breakdown killed me, that was *glorious*
wow the size comparisons really worked well, im so glad my first-gen Zune came in handy for more than a paperweight this time :)
Ah yes, 56 degrees Celsius... The safe temperature for a solid thermally conductive surface (think metal, glass, etc.) is dead on 50, according to an ISO standard. And as you pointed out, its better if it's under 48.That device could give you first degree burns if you were to ignore the heat. And it sure as hell is not comfortable for any period of time.
Thank you for this review Bringus, if I ever end up buying a mobile gaming console, I'd go for the Steam Deck, 100% deadass.
Big respect for your honest review man, it's rare nowadays to see that
Never bought an AYANEO product before, and after this review, I'm definitely not buying one now. On an unrelated note, I REALLY want to add "Something, Something, SSD" to my Spotify playlist.
4:18 BRO. Work of a true musician. That jaunt had me movin.
Really appreciate your honesty man. I knew I chose a good favorite tech channel. Even without the heat issues that lightbleed was pretty agregious. For now ill stick to my Yuma as my one and only gaming choice. It's Yuma or Nothin'.
$1500 to remove my fingerprints? Damn my stove can do that for free.
Was talking to an electrical engineer friend about this vid, and he suggested there might be a short circuit near where the heat is.
That could explain why it got so hot even at low TDPs
Also an eIectronic engineer - if you treat silicon like a short, which I guess it mostly is, then this is true.
Or, actually, the chips inside the 2S use too much power to cool. They're dumping the extra heat into the screen glass like a mobile phone, ignoring that phones use hugely efficient Arm chips and this is a laptop CPU and mobile GPU. It's constantly an issue with these "Steam Deck Killers" - any company can fit more power into the Deck's form factor, but it's so impractical to cool and use that it genuinely hurts usability.
The end of the response implies one of two things:
1. The sample they sent is not in any way representative of the device being sent to customers, rendering the review inaccurate
2. The sample they sent is essentially identical to what they are giving to customers, meaning it has all the same issues
4:44 love the sudden remix lol
God the 🍃 hit so hard there
this is too fancy for what we do at this youtube channel
Everybody gangsta until OUYA makes handheld
We need more folks like you sharing the information that isn't sponsored or watered down! I learned the hard way listening to big influencers on TH-cam regarding the ROG Ally and told myself I would only listen to reviews from smaller channels. My device came yesterday and haven't opened it yet and not sure what I want to do with it either now. But thank you for this honest review!!
EDIT: I saw you press B in the video and it didn't' enable the gamepad.. I'll look into this.
The gamepad has a sleep mode, press B to turn on the gamepad, don't constantly reboot the system. I didn't even know you could do that.
Bro that remix slapped! I did not expect that whatsoever. 😂
Love your honesty man. Wish more TH-camrs were like this. There's a lot of TH-camrs that promote a product to keep a good relationship with the manufacturer and don't give an honest review. Happy I bought the ROG Ally over all these other brands. I'll probably get a Steam Deck too!
I love the portal and portal 2 soundtracks used in your videos so much! They're always a bop to hear just outta nowhere when you finally realize that's what you're hearing.
this is the thing why the steam deck will be and remain to solid choice, cost, quality and support
What's funny about that is that Valve wasn't exactly known for great support, but they really ramped it up for the Steam Deck. It shows how vital its success is for them.
@@hueypautonomanI guess they also don't want a tech experiment of theirs to blow up in their face for once.
@@hueypautonoman But when was that? In my experience their support has been excellent at least since the Valve Index ~2019
I'm just saying that because saying a companies support isn't great when that experience was 10 or so years ago isn't the fairest even though it can be justified depending on the product
@@CarbonPanther We probably have very different ideas about what makes something "great." Some people think everything has to have a 10/10 for even basic service. I see a perfect score as going well above and beyond the bare minimum. "Great" to me is all their support for open source software, the excellent repairability, opening up repair centers for faster turnaround on issues, etc. They might have been good before, but they've clearly kicked it up a notch, something most companies don't do.
Their support is awesome.
Bro dropped the song of the summer and thought we wouldn't notice
8:15 I've seen this before when playing around with some Japanese fonts. The character that gets printed with the apostrophe key on English keyboards will inexplicably have a load of extra space following it.
Edit: bro threw away his Chromium for another Chromium
If you didn't send this back, is love to see you try to fix the overheating issues in the jankyest way possible
13:40 I'm getting a company-issued laptop on Monday for my first job. Thinking about coming to work on Tuesday morning with that sticker on it lol
My God that's some good malicious compliance right there
1:33 bye dancing yellow triangle
Not gonna lie the pressed hamburger joke got me rollin.
Holy hell this is incredibly important, thank you for posting this! Shows your care for the viewer rather than the PR of the company and your own potential profits in the future.
This is a category of item I like to refer to as fake fancy Chinese tech. All the budget goes into the look, feel, packaging without consideration for making it a good product.
I really respect your attention to detail and everything you tried to do and everything you broke down about the conversation transparency between you and the company I think this is a very extensive detailed perfectly done hopefully the retail unit will be better but this has been a definite help to the consumer thank you keep up the good work I know that it's a lot of work
Thats the problem with these chinese companies that pop out 2 or 3 handhelds a year, the qc isnt 100% and the support stops as soon as the next itteration comes out. One reason i have bought 3 steamdecks for myself and family is because the software and aftermarket support is so good, and only getting better... Im gonna hold out till valve releases a gen 2 deck, hopefully sometime soon.
I'm sooooo wishing for Nintendo to give up their console business right now because the Switch's ecosystem is so garbage that it's a burden on their games rather than a healthy companion. If somehow Valve gets Nintendo on board, I'll pick up a deck in a heartbeat.
Again with this racist, provably incorrect bullshit. QC isn't 100% with any company anywhere in the world, but if you had to narrow down your best options they'd be either German or Chinese - any country whose economy is primarily based on manufacturing. The Steam Deck's parts ARE MADE IN TAIWAN AND CHINA.
With respect to Aya, they've been at this for 3 years, and they have made 4 distinct SKUs - their flagship device, an upgrade to the flagship, another upgrade to the flagship, and a smaller device. They are following standard laptop manufacturer protocol on a smaller scale. They have also continued to support their devices both on the hardware and software fronts years after release, and are even giving away free upgrade kits right now to purchasers of their earlier devices. These companies definitely have their issues (read: software development), but after market support sure as shit is not one of them.
34:17 the moment I knew I was gonna subscribe
I knew most of the response was gonna be BS the MOMENT they started the email thread with
"Hi Dear"
THIS IS A BRAND!!!...not Grandma!!
You are really entertaining my dude, Thank you, keep doing what you’re doing.
They sent you one, expecting some advertising from you. Instead, they got their product torn to shreds.
He used it in Linux. It is clearly for windows
@@ligametis But in windows still get worse on temperature
Good on you for saying what you actually think about this device even if it means you'll be blacklisted from free review samples for good and maybe even face some sort of drama from them. You're the kind of reviewer we need more of, the kind who speaks the truth and doesn't just hype up random pieces of garbage because a company paid them big bucks to do so. This review saved at least few people from wasting their money I bet.
finishing a review of a pc handheld by saying "just buy their main competitor" is a power move
The problem with not being able to bring the steam menu when you mapped the button as "xbox button" was because the Ayaneo software mapped it as "wind+G" instead of the input of the xbox "guide" button from the controller. Wasn't because of windows, was because the way the Ayaneo software works.
I wonder if your unit specifically is defective, though? They should've brought it up on their email at least
That's genuinely what I expected to be told, that mine just has a defect. Speaks volumes when they told me how to cope with it instead.
THANK YOU, now this is a real and honest review. Saved me from even considering this device and likely any AN produces bc they themselves dont want to be honest and sweep things under the rug. This shows how unreliable they’ll be for after purchase support for a regular customers
Microsoft needs to make a handheld specific version of windows
Geee i wonder, what is Windows CE?
@@gustiwidyanta5492 gaming handheld
There's a reason win 10 had a tablet mode
Downloading game is actually pretty demanding on the CPU, especially so if you have a fast internet connection. Therefore the machine would boost to higher frequencies during downloads, which produces more heat. I guess what they were trying to say is that turbo boost itself is a Windows mechanism (though that's still not entirely true), and Linux supports such mechanism as well.
Despite that, it's certainly true they need to do better on temperature/power usage control. Probably at a firmware level so Linux users could benefit from that as well.
this is like slightly higher budget dankpods
now that i think about it, thats quite true.
You are amazing for honesty on this review.