AYANEO refreshes gaming handheld once again with new special edition model
In recent weeks, plenty of companies have announced new gaming handhelds, some without any prior experience in the market whatsoever. On the one hand, ASUS finally fully unveiled the ROG Ally X, its second gaming handheld after the popular ROG Ally (curr. $399 on Amazon). Additionally, MSI showcased an 8-inch and Intel Lunar Lake-based Claw, among other gaming handhelds it has in the pipeline. On the other hand, newcomers like Adata and ZOTAC have presented their alternatives, which we have covered separately.
Meanwhile, AYANEO has been plugging away by refreshing its existing product stack to AMD's Hawk Point platform. To recap, the company released updated versions of the AYANEO AIR 1S, AYANEO 2S and AYANEO KUN a few weeks ago, all with AMD's Ryzen 7 8840U APU. Now, it has decided to release another new version of the AIR 1S, the initial details of which it shared during its substantial May hardware event.
As expected, the AIR 1S Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes contains the same underlying hardware as the new AIR 1S. Consequently, it features a 5.5-inch OLED display and a 38 Wh battery, as well as AYANEO's usual assortment of gamepad buttons and software tweaks. In short, AYANEO has only distinguished the limited edition model from the regular AIR 1S with a different livery that juxtaposes a beige housing with several orange accents and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes characters.
Nonetheless, the limited edition costs $100 more than its regular counterpart at $799 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. Alternatively, the AIR 1S Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes can be purchased with 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage option for $999. Currently, AYANEO advertises both SKUs as being limited to 50 units worldwide; shipments should begin in August 2024, too.
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