AYANEO NEXT Lite: Full details and pricing of new gaming handheld revealed shortly before launch

AYANEO has now shared more details about the NEXT Lite, a gaming handheld that it unveiled earlier this week. Contrary to earlier suggestions, the NEXT Lite will not rely upon SteamOS, the OS that ships with all Valve Steam Deck variants. Instead, AYANEO has opted for HoloISO, a community-managed project that 'attempts to bring...SteamOS Holo redistribution into a generic, installable format'. While the team behind the OS claims that HoloISO is '99% of the way there', multiple differences exist between it and official SteamOS 3.

Supposedly, AYANEO has 'officially optimized' HoloISO for the NEXT Lite. The exact changes that AYANEO has made remain unclear for now though, as does the level of ongoing support once the device is released. At any rate, the company will provide Windows drivers should you wish to switch away from HoloISO at any point. The NEXT Lite features comparatively weaker AMD APUs too, presumably to reduce manufacturing costs. According to the device's product page, AYANEO has chosen the Ryzen 5 4500U and Ryzen 7 4800U, a pair of Renoir-U APUs that AMD launched over four years ago with Zen 2 CPU cores and Radeon RX iGPUs.

Additionally, the NEXT Lite will be available with 16 GB of LPDD4x-4266 RAM, 128 GB or 512 GB of PCIe 3.0 storage (M.2 2280) and a 47 Wh battery. AYANEO adds that the gaming handheld also has hall triggers, hall joysticks, a six-axis gyroscope and an x-axis linear motor, all within a 720 g and 267 x 112 x 22 mm housing. The NEXT Lite will retail for $299 with a Ryzen 5 4500U APU, 16 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. However, AYANEO will charge $399 for the device's sole Ryzen 7 4800U SKU before shipping and taxes. Reportedly, orders for the NEXT Lite will open later today; please see AYANEO's website for more details.

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