AYANEO Announces Early Bird Pricing for NEXT 2, Starts at $1,799 as Ryzen AI Max Powers a 9 inch OLED Flagship
AYANEO has locked in Early Bird pricing for its upcoming NEXT 2 Windows gaming handheld, positioning it as the company’s highest performance portable to date and a clear swing at the premium end of the handheld PC market. The device is now live on Indiegogo, where backers can select multiple configurations spanning 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB of LPDDR5X memory alongside 1TB or 2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 storage.
The headline hardware story is the display and platform combo. NEXT 2 ships with a 9.06 inch OLED panel pushing up to 165Hz, paired with an unusual 2400x1504 resolution that aims to deliver sharper image quality than the more common 1080p class handheld targets. That is a strong visual differentiator for players who care about contrast, motion clarity, and overall presentation, especially for cinematic single player titles and UI heavy genres like ARPGs and strategy.
On the silicon side, buyers can choose between Ryzen AI Max 385 and Ryzen AI Max+ 395. AYANEO frames the 32GB tier as the value entry point, pairing Ryzen AI Max 385 with Radeon 8050S. For the high performance tiers, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 steps in with Radeon 8060S RDNA 3.5 graphics and 40 compute units, aiming to make modern AAA gaming more viable on an integrated graphics handheld. The practical performance expectation is still worth calibrating: driving a 1504p class resolution at very high frame rates in demanding games is a tall order for any handheld form factor, so real world play will likely lean on smart settings tuning, upscaling, and targeted frame caps if you want consistent smoothness in heavy titles.
AYANEO is also going big on battery, listing a 116Wh pack which is unusually large even by high end gaming laptop standards. That should expand session length potential, but it also contributes to a substantial device weight of 1426g, putting it closer to a portable console laptop hybrid than the lightweight handheld vibe.
AYANEO’s published Early Bird tiers include the following options.
| Configuration | Memory and Storage | Early Bird Price | Regular Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen AI Max 385 | 32GB + 2TB | $1,799 | $1,999 |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | 64GB + 2TB | $2,299 | $2,699 |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | 128GB + 2TB | $3,499 | $4,299 |
One detail to keep an eye on is configuration naming consistency. The headline states a 32GB and 1TB starting point at $1,799, while the listed pricing tier specifies 32GB plus 2TB at $1,799. If you are writing this up for buyers, the safest framing is that $1,799 is the entry Early Bird tier for the 32GB model, and the exact storage pairing should be confirmed against the active Indiegogo configuration selector.
From a gamer buyer perspective, NEXT 2 is basically a premium spec flex with a clear goal: big OLED, high refresh, high battery capacity, and the strongest APU tier AYANEO can ship in this segment. The trade off is obvious: weight and price. This is not competing with value handhelds, it is competing for enthusiasts who want the closest thing to a portable desktop experience and are willing to pay flagship money to get it.
Would you take the 9.06 inch OLED at 2400x1504 for visual fidelity, or would you rather AYANEO offered a lower resolution mode by default to prioritize higher frame rates and battery life?
