Steam Deck vs Aya Neo 2’s better hardware. Handheld Gaming has never experienced a dull moment in the recent past. Brands such as Nintendo and Sony have strived to make the experience as close as possible to their full-sized consoles. PC games, however, have always been outside the scope of dialog because of their demanding requirements.
Steam Deck vs Aya Neo 2’s better hardware
Well, that has radically changed with the introduction of cloud gaming services such as NVIDIA GeForce Now and Google Stadia, as well as Windows-powered handheld gaming consoles like the GPD WIN3. Another manufacturer that achieved respect in the segment of handheld gaming gizmos is AYA which would now be launching two new AMD Ryzen-powered handheld gaming PCs capable of facing off the steam Deck. But the question here is can it stand the Steam Deck?
AYA introduced three new devices for their handheld PC gaming – the AYA Neo 2, the AYA Neo Slide, and the AYA Neo Air. While the Neo Air is essentially the equivalent of the Nintendo Switch Lite with much better features, The Neo 2 and the Neo Slide are the superheroes in the house.
AYA NEO 2 Specs
The Neo 2 and the Neo Slide are powered by the Ryzen 7 6800U APU, built on AMD’s Zen 3 Plus architecture. The APU also features an integrated Radeon 680M integrated GPU that supports RDNA 2 graphics.
The Ryzen 6800U has eight cores with a base clock speed of 2.7 GHz and turbo speeds up to about 4.7 GHz. The processor happens to be a part of the new ryzen 6000 series mobile processors announced in January 2022. The Zen 3 plus architecture is built on a 6nm process. To add, the processor also offers support novel features, that include PCle 4.0, USB 4, Wi-fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, LPDDR5-6400 RAM, and Display port 2.
Meanwhile, the Radeon 680M iGPU features the 12 CUs (compute units) clocked at up to 2.4 GHz. It is one of the fastest integrated mobile GPUs available in 2022 and offer great Performance when AAA titles at low settings. With all this up its sleeve, AYA might be positioned well to take on Valve, who happens to be the sellers of the Steam Deck for a similar purpose.
If compared to the AYA NEO 2 and the NEO Slide, the custom AMD Aerith APU on the Steam Deck has four cores to offer and a less powerful GPU with only eight compute unites that are clocked at 1.6 GHz. The more powerful hardware offers AYA Neo 2 and the Slide an undisputed advantage over the Steam Deck.
Steam Deck vs AYA Neo 2
Despite the more powerful hardware of the AYA Neo 2, it would still have a hard time taking down the Steam Deck. And why is that? This is because Valve has created more memorable PC games in recent history, and steam happens to be one of the most massively lucrative marketplaces for games.
Another problem that the AYA Neo would face is when it comes to pricing. While you can purchase the steam deck for as low as $399, AYA’s previous models, such as the AYA Neo, the AYA Neo Pro, and the Neo Next, cost upwards of $1000. The company is yet to announce the price of the new models but we are expected these handheld gaming devices to earn a price in the same ballpark as the steam Deck would be incomprehensible. AYA is yet to announce other details concerning its availability, but the said that the device would be available later in 2022.
The third reason is that, unlike Steam which runs on the custom Steam UI design for easy browsing, downloading, and launching games from steam, The AYA Neo 2 runs windows and a custom games launcher with the name AYA Space. Not knowing how the AYA’s interface works can work as a factor to repel customers.
