The AYANEO Pocket ACE is a tiny powerhouse with retro charm

AYANEO has been on a roll latest, with new devices sporting the latest Snapdragon gaming processors announced just a few weeks ago. Today another challenger joins the arena, and it’s looking to be the most powerful retro gaming handheld of its size.

The AYANEO Pocket ACE was first teased earlier this month, but a blog post this morning gave us our first real look at the device. It’s a horizontal handheld with a 4.5-inch 3:2 LCD display and a compact design. With a resolution of 1620 x 1080, the display is great for upscaling a wide variety of systems, even with integer scaling.

Powering that display is the Snapdragon Gx3 Gen 2 chipset. This is the same chipset used in the company’s top-end Android handhelds like the AYANEO Pocket DMG and Pocket EVO, but it’s not the latest iteration. The Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 was announced earlier this month, and it will power the next-generation of AYANEO handhelds like the Pocket S2. Still, the Pocket ACE will be more than powerful to run anything you throw at it.

As for the design, it has a compact horizontal form factor with two Hall-effect joysticks on the bottom of the device, and four buttons along the bottom bezel. Overall, the button layout is similar to the AYANEO Pocket MICRO, although the start and select buttons have returned to their location at the top of the device after popular demand.

The AYANEO Pocket ACE will also feature a large 6,000mAh battery and 40W fast charging, which should help alleviate any battery concerns. The device also touts a new linear motor for immersive haptics, and three colorways can be seen in the press photos: white, black, and a limited Retro Power edition.

We still don’t have pricing or a release date for this device, but it looks like a welcome addition to the AYANEO family. It’s smaller than the AYN Odin 2 Mini but larger than the Retroid Pocket Mini, and more powerful than both. Neither of those devices managed to get the formula quite right (although the Pocket Mini’s issues didn’t become apparent until recently), so hopefully the Pocket ACE delivers where it counts.