AYANEO isn’t just pushing the boundaries of handheld gaming—they’re vaporizing them. The AYANEO NEXT II is the company’s most ambitious device to date. This portable machine reads more like a miniature desktop rig than something meant to leave the house. Anchoring the entire system is the new AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, an 85W monster pairing Zen 5 CPU cores with an RDNA 3.5 Radeon 8060S GPU. On paper, it eclipses the horsepower inside the ROG Ally X and even challenges ultra-portable gaming laptops.

Front and center is a sprawling 9.06-inch OLED display, one of the largest ever fitted to a handheld. With a sharp 2400×1504 resolution and refresh-rate modes up to 165Hz, the NEXT II promises shockingly fluid gameplay on a screen that borders on tablet territory. Variable Refresh Rate support keeps things crisp, even as frame rates swing.

Powering all of this is a 115Wh tri-cell battery, eclipsing every major competitor and raising big questions about actual runtime—but also massive potential. AYANEO layers on enthusiast-grade controls: Hall-effect joysticks and triggers, dual-mode switches, an 8-way D-pad, four back buttons, and a dual-fan cooling system for relentless heat management.

Details like pricing, storage, and ports remain under wraps. Still, expectations already place the NEXT II near (or above) the $2,000 mark—unmistakably aimed at “true gamers” who demand desktop-class power in handheld form.

If AYANEO delivers on the promise, the NEXT II may become the new gold standard for portable performance—more of a weapon than a handheld.

In other news, check out the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X handheld consoles.