Ayaneo 3 review – powerful performance and great design let down by Windows

The Ayaneo 3 is powerful, stylish, and most importantly, innovative. From the modular controls and the OLED screen to the adjustable system memory and improved Ayaspace software, almost everything about the Ayaneo 3 makes a handheld like the Steam Deck feel entry-level. Unfortunately, it’s also a frustrating device to use at times, but I would still recommend it to anyone who is interested in entering the world of handheld gaming PCs or is looking for a major power upgrade from the Steam Deck.

The Ayaneo 3 is easily one of the best handheld gaming PCs compared to its rivals, that being other Windows-based devices. The level of freedom I have on this handheld is refreshing, and if lessons are learned from the few shortfalls the Ayaneo 3 possesses, future devices have a chance of truly dethroning Valve, the Steam Deck, and possibly even SteamOS in the handheld market.

Specs

Design

The Ayaeno 3’s design is quite basic at first look, but it’s upon closer inspection, and more importantly, upon holding it in my hands that the importance of subtle design choices shines through. One such instance is the molding of the rear grips. Rather than using the bulging design used by most handhelds to create a sometimes clunky grip for your palms and fingers to latch onto the console, the Ayaneo 3 instead has two pronounced humps, allowing the handheld to sit much more naturally in hand like a standard Xbox controller.

My index finger sits naturally in the curvature of the left and right triggers, with the left and right mouse click inputs easily within reach. Down the rear of the handheld, it’s simple enough to adjust your grip to have either your middle or ring finger sit upon the rear buttons. The 690g weight also doesn’t feel too heavy and there is no weight imbalance or bias to either side of the handheld.

On the front of the Ayaneo 3, the big talking point is the modular controls. On each side of the Ayaneo 3, the controls are contained in small units that can be popped out of the device, switched around, and even replaced with alternate control units. This is the first Windows handheld to offer such a feature, and it works very well.

In the Ayaspace quick menu, there is a dedicated tab to the controls, and at the touch of a button you can pop up one, or both of the control modules. New modules are installed by gently pressing them into the open slots, with an audible click letting you know when they’re connected. While this all screamed ‘gimmick’ to me initially, in practice, it’s a great feature to have.

I have found that while I generally prefer asymmetrical controls for most games, I prefer to have symmetrical thumbsticks for driving games, and it’s nice to be able to make this switch on the Ayaneo 3. It’s certainly handy to have this feature, even if it wouldn’t necessarily be the main reason you’d buy the Ayaneo 3.

My one complaint is that the magic modules are sold separately in most cases. This means it costs more, on top of an already large initial outlay, to gain full access to a feature used heavily to advertise the handheld.

The thumbsticks are Hall Effect, meaning stick drift is heavily reduced, while the triggers also use what is listed as “limited Hall Effect.” but no further clarity if offered on what exactly is limited about it. There is also a switch to transform each trigger into a micro-action one-click switch, reducing the total travel distance of the triggers for quicker activation. A magnetic suspension motor is used to power vibration, and while it isn’t overwhelmingly powerful, it still provides a decent kick when activated, and its power can be adjusted in the Ayaspace menu.

Elsewhere on the Ayaeno 3, the top and rear fans do some serious heavy lifting to keep the console cool under heavy loads, but they’re extremely loud when operating at 100%. The smart fan feature will ensure that they only kick in when needed though, so if you prefer gaming at a lower TDP this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

As for inputs, there are two USB-C ports, one on the top and one on the bottom of the console. The power button has a built-in fingerprint sensor and sits alongside the volume controls on top of the console, with an OCuLink input rounding off the top I/O. On the bottom, in addition to the USB-C port, there is a 3.5mm jack and a covered microSD card slot. There is also a button for switching between control profiles. This button has a handy LED to indicate which profile is selected.

I am reviewing the Starry Black model of the Ayaneo 3, and it’s a bit of a nightmare to keep clean of fingerprints and smudges. The front of the device is mostly gloss, while the rear is matte. On both sides, it’s very easy to leave a mark with your hands, and cleaning the device feels futile given that you’re likely to make it again the moment you pick it up. Ayaneo has also made Sky White and Retro Power colors available, both of which seem to deal much better with this issue from what I have seen so far.

Operating system

This is the only section of my Ayaeno 3 testing that is largely negative, and it’s mostly because Windows still isn’t a handheld-friendly operating system. While I understand it is most likely the easiest and cheapest operating system for developers to use, and it provides the widest range of compatible games, it also opens the door to too many problems and quirks that, while minor, are frustrating.

In the case of the Ayaneo 3, often a game wouldn’t allow for fullscreen to stretch the chosen resolution to the entire native 1080p display, for example. This means when trying to benchmark at 720p, it would look like a smaller 720p box within the 1080p display. The way around this is simple, just lower the default resolution of the handheld, but why should I have to do this for something as simple as a resolution change?

Windows also doesn’t take kindly to overlays or additional software systems that need to be regularly accessed on handhelds, so loading the Ayaspace quick menu is often a sluggish process. This is the way for Armoury Crate on the ROG Ally and MSI Center on the Claw too, meaning the common denominator is Windows. The fact that Microsoft hasn’t yet, to my knowledge, begun working on a streamlined handheld-friendly version of its flagship OS is baffling.

One specific concern I have with the Ayaneo 3 is the inability to put the device to sleep via Windows. The option simply doesn’t exist when you first boot the console, and upon looking into this further, it became clear that this isn’t the first time an Ayaneo handheld has had this problem. However, the fix is simple, you just need to head into the power and sleep settings in Windows and change them so the option for “When power button is pressed” is switched from Hibernate to Sleep. It is quite annoying to have to do this, and I wonder how many will overlook this fix and just assume that a sleep function is missing.

Display and sound

The Ayaeno 3 comes with a 7-inch, 144Hz OLED display with 800nits global brightness, and HDR true color. I’ve previously stated in my ROG Ally X review that cramming more detail into a 1080p display over the Steam Deck OLED’s 800p screen more than offsets the color accuracy and clarity of the display.

With the Ayaneo 3, however, the 1080p OLED screen is a big addition, and the quality of this display when gaming is fantastic thanks to the true blacks, more vibrant colors, and high contrast ratios. The 7-inch display is a limitation when it comes to the display quality, as while it has a native 1080p resolution, it can still sometimes feel compact, and games that are typically darker can require a bit of brightness and gamma tuning to get the best out of them.

The system is set to scale Windows by 175% as a default, but I found the sweet spot to be 125%, either way, you’re not stuck with Windows zoomed in by default and this can be adjusted in the resolution settings menu.

Meanwhile, two front-facing HyperSound 2.0 panoramic speakers are all the Ayaeno 3 has to offer on the audio front, but they pack an incredible punch. This is a remarkably loud handheld, competing even with my gaming monitors’ built-in speakers, but most notable is the retention of quality, even at high volumes.

This is most notable in a game such as The Crew Motorsport. There’s something intensely satisfying about revving the engine of a 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429, and the sensory overload of the Ayaneo 3 kicks in with its crystal clear audio and haptic feedback from the triggers and vibration motor.

At a 30cm distance, the Ayaneo 3 hit a peak of 86.5dB with the average sitting at around 81.1dB when playing The Crew Motorsport. In a general media test, movie playback hit similar numbers with an 85.1dB peak and a 79.9dB average. This is compared to a 76.1dB max and 74.9dB average from the MSI Claw 8 AI+ when playing the same game.
Storage

The Ayaneo 3 comes with anywhere from 512GB to 4TB of SSD storage. Regardless of which storage option you purchase, you’re getting a PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 SSD, which is simple enough to expand, but the process is long-winded. It will require a full Windows reinstall which means having a copy of Windows on a flash drive ready to go.

I didn’t hit any bottlenecks with downloading games and in-game loading times are on par with that of my gaming PC which houses a similar style SSD. You can also expand your storage using a microSD card. Any 4.0 microSD card, or older, will work with download speeds of up to 300MB/s.

Performance

The average frame rates across the tested games don’t quite tell the whole story, which I’ll touch on in a second, but overall these performance figures are very impressive considering there is the potential for more power that could be squeezed out of the Ayaeno 3, if you’re willing to spend the time optimizing clock speeds and adjusting CPU core usage. I instead used a profile and settings that gave the best immediate performance across multiple TDP levels.

Where the Ayaeno 3 shines in its performance is frame rate stability. While testing the MSI Claw 8 AI+ alongside this handheld, I noticed that often the maximum and minimum frame rate would always be much further apart on the Claw than the Ayaneo 3. As an example, in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the 900p, high settings benchmark returned an average frame rate of 63fps on the Ayaneo 3, and 55fps on the Claw. However, the Claw has a maximum frame rate of 80fps and a minimum of just 5 while the Ayaneo has a maximum of 91 and a minimum of 15fps.

It’s this stability that is crucial in graphically demanding games such as Cyberpunk 2077, where the Claw managed to outperform the Ayaeno in many average frame rate tests, but visually, there was far more stuttering and ghosting when playing on the Claw vs the much smoother performance on the Ayaeno.

The display of the Ayaneo 3 lends itself well to enabling AMD FSR on the Quality setting because this means you’re only dropping the native resolution down to 720p, before it’s upscaled back to 1080p. This results in very little image distortion when using it, which in most cases means you’re better off sticking to 1080p with upscaling rather than lowering your resolution. This is where the Steam Deck sometimes struggles as its default 1,280 x 800 display with upscaling enabled means you’re dropping the rendered resolution to around 1,040 x 650.

I used a custom power profile to test these games on the Ayaneo 3. I left the CPU and GPU clock speeds on their default settings, kept the CPU boost option turned off, and left the fans on auto to see how they managed heat dispersion under a heavy load. I also divided up the system memory to allow for 16GB of dedicated graphics memory. I would have selected 12GB, but the AMD Adrenalin Edition software only allowed for 8GB or 16GB.

Outside of benchmarking, the core gaming performance of the Ayaneo 3 will see you reaching a solid 50-60fps in plenty of triple-A games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarok, and many more.

Optimizing settings for the Ayaneo 3 is so simple because in most cases the medium graphics profile is perfect for the console at 25W and above. I rarely found myself having to tweak individual settings to get the best performance, and in older games like Skyrim and Fallout 4, you can easily push into higher graphical settings if you wish, just be wary that the battery won’t last too long.

Pushing for higher graphical fidelity will naturally bring performance down, but as seen in the above benchmarks, it’s entirely playable, with Cyberpunk 2077 running at 30fps using the Ultra settings and AMD FSR 3.0 set to Quality. Again, something that has to be seen live to be appreciated is the ability of this performance, with next to no stutter or frame tearing even when pushing the Ayaneo 3 beyond its comfort level.

Where I find myself constantly compromising to get big games running on the Steam Deck OLED, or tweaking minor settings on the MSI Claw 8 AI+ to maximize performance, this isn’t the case on the Ayaneo 3. There’s room to push performance further if you’re willing to drop the resolution, push FSR into Performance modes, or tinker with a custom hardware profile, but regardless of whether I’m prioritizing graphics or performance, the Ayaneo 3 is capable of meeting my needs.

Meanwhile, on the cooling front, the automatic fan setting works well but sets the fans to full power a little preemptively at higher TPD settings. This does prevent the Ayaneo 3 from getting too hot, too quickly though.

In summary, the Ayaeno 3’s performance is great from an average frame rate standpoint, standing tall against the likes of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Asus ROG Ally X, but it’s the performance stability that is its crowning achievement.

Battery life

The battery life of the Ayaneo 3 is middling at best. This is mostly down to the fact that it’s too powerful for its modest 49Wh battery, especially compared to the 80Wh battery in the ROG Ally X and MSI Claw 8 AI+.

When benchmarking Cyberpunk 2077 at 30W, the highest TDP without being plugged in, the battery lasted around 40 minutes. In more realistic gaming scenarios, say one where I was playing Two Point Campus at the 18W TDP on its highest settings, the battery lasted for closer to three hours. It will always come down to the TDP setting and the power demands of the game you have loaded.

A battery bypass option is available, which will allow the Ayaneo 3 to be powered exclusively by the included 65W charger, without also trying to use up the battery. If you don’t enable battery bypass, the battery will still deplete even when plugged in if you’re using the Ayaneo 3 at around 25W or higher, and this could damage the long-term health of the battery.

While there are no performance benefits, I always used the battery bypass option when docking the Ayaneo 3, or using the device at 35W, to prevent harming the battery. Finding and activating the option is also super easy given how the Ayaspace quick menu works.

Price

The Ayaneo 3 configuration that I tested costs $1,499 / £1,185. Models range from $699 with no additional modular controls to $2,099 with controls included. The costs also depend on the chosen screen, system memory, storage, and APU. Every model is available via Indiegogo for an early access funding campaign, and $200-$300 can be saved per model.

There’s no avoiding that this cost is intimidating, especially when a handheld I’ve identified as being close to the Ayaneo 3, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ only costs $899 / £899. However, the difference in power, display and sound quality, storage options, and even the modular controls do add up in terms of value (although it’s still quite ridiculous that they are not included with most models.)

Alternatives

MSI Claw 8 AI+

A mammoth device, the MSI Claw is a close second to the Ayaneo 3 when it comes to Windows handhelds. It’s Intel-powered, which in some cases limits the ability to fully manage power and memory the same way you can with an AMD device, but it’s well-tuned from the beginning and its AI Engine is a big win for first-time handheld owners. Performance-wise, the Claw 8 AI+ sometimes outperforms the Ayaneo 3, but often with a more unstable frame rate, although its huge 80Wh battery and AI Engine performance management are huge wins for the handheld.

Steam Deck

If there is one thing the Ayaneo 3 has reinforced for me, it’s that the Steam Deck is a great way to get started with gaming handhelds, but its limitations are becoming very clear, especially on the power front. If you’re looking for a simple, handholding introduction to handhelds, the Steam Deck is ideal, and it comes at a heavily reduced cost in comparison, but you won’t be playing the latest triple-A games on decent settings at 1080p on it.

Verdict

No other handheld I have used has either impressed me or frustrated me as much as the Ayaneo 3. Stepping back, I recognize that these moments of frustration are solely down to the Windows operating system. Despite this, when the Ayaneo 3 is on form, there is no handheld that comes close to it for stable performance from a frame rate and graphical perspective.

The OLED display is stunning, the speakers are incredibly loud but, more importantly, very clear, and the general feel is perfect with it not being too heavy or sitting awkwardly in hand.

Its innovations are also more than a gimmick. Control modularity isn’t something I had considered would be important in a handheld gaming PC until Ayaneo presented it so well in the 3, it’s just a shame it comes at an added cost which can come close to an eye-watering $2,000 for the highest spec models.

It’s not the perfect gaming handheld, but the Ayaneo 3 is a huge statement in a market that is becoming oversaturated. Many of the fixes I would want from the Ayaneo 3 are software or OS-related, meaning future updates could well place this handheld into a class of its own.

There is no denying that the Ayaneo 3 surpasses the Steam Deck in performance and with its display. However, the core usability and compatibility of the operating system is a reality check that just shows how good SteamOS truly is, and how Windows limits the Ayaneo 3 from ever hitting its full potential.