The Aya Neo and GPD Win 3 are almost Nintendo Switch-sized gaming PCs

A year ago at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Alienware made waves with a modular gaming PC that worked like a Nintendo Switch, with a pair of gamepads flanking a powerful Windows 10 tablet. Unfortunately, the UFO d ‘Alienware was just a concept, and so was Lenovo’s vision this year – but two companies are now taking the torch with a pair of crowdfunding gadgets you might see in your lifetime. They look seriously legitimate.

The 5.5-inch GPD Win 3 and the 7-inch Aya Neo do not work quite the same; while the Ava attempts to closely match Nintendo’s console in terms of shape, size, and with strictly on-board game controls, the GPD sticks to its handheld roots with a sliding screen that reveals a small backlit keyboard. There’s also a fingerprint sensor, microSD slot, and optional Thunderbolt 4 docking station if you want to use the GPD as a full Windows 10 computer.

Images by GPD

What’s the same: The two are really trying to deliver a powerful tablet surrounded by joysticks and buttons for less than $ 1,000 each. With Intel’s latest Tiger Lake chips and AMD’s Ryzen 4500U respectively, each has some of the newest and best integrated graphics you can buy, and they boast pretty decent performance as a result – Cyberpunk 2077 can reach 30 fps at the Aya Neo’s 1280×800 resolution at low settings, and GPD offers a long list of examples of recent and demanding games that you can coax well beyond the 50 fps mark with its Intel graphics Xe.

As you can see in the specs comparison sheet I whipped up below, each includes 16GB of DDR4 memory, a fast NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, a pair of stereo speakers. , a real headphone jack and several USB ports. the ports. Not bad!

Just know that these systems are going to be chonky compared to the 0.55 inch thick frame and 0.88 pound weight of a Nintendo Switch, and battery life will be a big issue, with the Aya Neo and GPD Win 3 allowing you to ‘adjust the chip’s TDP power to get the most out of their tablet-sized cells. NotebookCheck says you shouldn’t expect to get over an hour and a half of GPD Win 3 while playing a demanding game, although Taki Udon on YouTube claims you can get 2-3 hours with a first Aya Neo.

Speaking of Taki Udon’s video, it looks like a fantastic handheld preview so I recommend you check it out, and this second video that shows just how games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Chopped play on the model of its founder. It’s not enough to convince me to fund a business that I’ve never heard of, but it’s a good start.

You should also know that not all of these handhelds are going to look and play the same: the transparent Aya you see in the videos was a limited edition of 15,000 for early pre-orders in China, with final models released. in black and white instead when they ship in April. Aya will launch her Indiegogo campaign in February with a “super early bird limit price” of $ 699, not knowing how much we could pay the rest.

The GPD Win 3 is already on Indiegogo, where you’ll pay $ 799 for the Core i5-1135G7 version, with the more powerful i7 chip starting at $ 899, or $ 949 for a package with the USB, HDMI and Gigabit Ethernet optional.

Between those portable gaming PCs, the cute upcoming Playdate and the gorgeous Analogue Pocket, some of the crisp and clear mods we’ve seen recently, not to mention the popularity of the Switch itself and the march of ever smaller and smaller chips. more powerful, it looks like we may be entering a portable gaming renaissance. Hoping.