With a quite understated press launch, Ayaneo introduced a brand new mannequin PC in its Subsequent sequence of handheld PCs, the Subsequent Lite. Why understated? As a result of Ayaneo determined to not make an excessive amount of of a fuss about its standout characteristic: It is the primary non-Valve handheld product to make use of SteamOS because the working system.
The announcement itself (as noticed over at Videocardz) is just a little skinny on particulars, sadly, however the Subsequent Lite will come outfitted with a 7-inch 800p display screen and a 47Wh battery. Followers of Ayaneo’s merchandise might recognise these figures from one other mannequin and it simply so occurs that the present Subsequent Professional has the identical dimension IPS panel and battery.
That little PC is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U, which is 2 years previous now, so hopefully the Subsequent Lite will include one thing more moderen, such because the Ryzen 7 7840U (as used within the Ayaneo Air 1S) and even the newest Ryzen 7 8840U.
Nevertheless, the Subsequent Professional launched with a $1,215 price ticket and since Ayaneo is promising that the Subsequent Lite might be ‘decreasing the entry barrier whereas additional popularizing quite a few flagship options’, then there is a good probability that one of many slower 7040U chips might get used.
It doesn’t matter what processor it does use, it is nice to see SteamOS lastly be used on one other handheld PC. When our {hardware} bosslord Dave final spoke to Valve, they had been very eager on getting its working system on different machines, with the preliminary focus being handhelds.
That makes good sense, in fact, as SteamOS as of late could be very a lot centered across the Steam Deck. So adapting it for different moveable platforms might be a lot simpler than for a full desktop PC. To be trustworthy, I am just a little shocked that Ayaneo hasn’t made extra fuss about utilizing SteamOS, as a result of it is the most important benefit that Valve’s pocket pooter has over all of the Home windows-based machines.
Prior to now, Ayaneo has been considerably reticent to debate its plans regarding SteamOS and as this new enterprise just isn’t a direct collaboration with Valve, I ought to think about that they need to check the waters first.
As with all of Ayaneo’s merchandise, the Subsequent Lite might be crowdsource funded, so there is no assure that it’s going to even come to market (although I strongly suspect it’s going to). Funding subscriptions are anticipated to start out 11 January, although I’ve but to see any web page particularly for it.
We have contacted Ayaneo to try to get extra particulars in regards to the Subsequent Lite, and we’ll report again if we study extra in regards to the insides. For now, we are able to simply have a look at the photographs and hope that the Subsequent Lite is the primary of many handheld PCs popping out in 2024 that sport SteamOS.