AYANEO Air Review - The Steam Deck killer
The Inu Air: A Compact and Capable Handheld Gaming PC
The Inu Air is a handheld gaming PC that has left a lasting impression on this reviewer. With its compact design, reliable performance, and gorgeous OLED display, it's easy to see why this device has become my favorite handheld PC. The eye Air's design is one of its standout features, with a sleek and lightweight build that makes it comfortable to hold for extended periods. The device also boasts a single fan system at the back, which takes in cool air through ventilation drills and releases hot air through the top vent, keeping the console's temperature under control.
The Inu Air's performance is another area where it shines. With its AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor and Vega graphics engine, it's capable of handling demanding games like Tekken 7 and Rocket League with ease. The device also runs on Windows 11, which allows for a wide range of gaming possibilities. However, navigating through Windows was a hassle due to the device's compact form factor. Additionally, there were some UI and UX issues encountered during testing, such as the cursor disappearing abruptly and the display getting stuck in portrait orientation.
Despite these minor issues, the Inu Air is an excellent choice for gamers who want a capable handheld gaming machine that's both compact and has a brilliant OLED display. The device also comes with a 28 watt hour battery, which lasted around an hour when playing AAA games at 12 watt TDP with brightness set to 50-60 percent. While this may not be ideal for heavy users, it's still a respectable battery life considering the device's power requirements.
One area where the Inu Air falls short is in its fan noise. The single fan system at the back can get loud, especially when gaming at max speed or in a quiet room. However, this issue can be mitigated by using headphones or keeping the console at lower temperatures. A 65 watt PD charger comes bundled with the device, which takes around an hour to charge from zero to 100.
The Inu Air's software is not without its quirks, as navigating through Windows was a challenge due to the device's compact form factor. However, it's clear that the company is working on improving this aspect, as they've announced a new Linux-based operating system called Inu OS. This new OS will likely address many of the software-related issues faced by the device.
The control hub, which is available for iOS devices, has also received some significant updates since our last review. There are now tons of customization features available, from adjusting the RGB pattern around the joysticks to setting power profiles and fan limits. The new 3D interface looks amazing, making it easy to tweak game settings without having to delve into complex menus.
However, there is one major drawback to the Inu Air: its battery life. With a tiny 28 watt hour battery, it lasted only around an hour when playing AAA games at 12 watt TDP with brightness set to 50-60 percent. This is likely due to the device's power-hungry components, such as the AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor and Vega graphics engine. If you're a heavy user or plan to play demanding games, you may find yourself reaching for the charger more often.
In conclusion, the Inu Air is an excellent choice for gamers who want a capable handheld gaming machine that's both compact and has a brilliant OLED display. While it may not be perfect, with its reliable performance and gorgeous display, it's hard to resist its charms. With the announcement of AMD's Ryzen 6000 series processor and Vega graphics engine coming soon, we can expect significant improvements in performance and power efficiency. Until then, the Inu Air remains a top contender in the handheld gaming PC market.
Recommendation:
If you're looking for a capable Windows handheld gaming machine that's both compact and has a brilliant OLED display, the Inu Air is an excellent choice. However, if you want to taste the full potential of the rdna2 graphics engine, you may want to wait for upcoming devices from the company, which are expected to feature AMD's Ryzen 6000 series processor.
Target Audience:
Gamers who want a compact and capable handheld gaming machine with a brilliant OLED display.
Device Users Who Want to Play AAA Games on the Go
Handheld Gaming PC Enthusiasts
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the eye new ear if you are someone who's into handheld gaming you will probably agree when I say that this is one of the coolest gadgets to launch this year for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about this is a handheld gaming device that runs on full slash Windows 11 and has the powerful ryzen 5560u processor but wait there are other handheld devices that come with similar configuration so what's special about the Inu app well this one has the ryzen 5560u in this super compact body comes with a 1080p OLED screen for just 600 which is way more affordable than other options with similar specs if you want something even more affordable you can even get the Inu air light which comes with the same standards except it has less memory and storage a few months ago I had also used this more expensive iron new Pro and as much as I wanted to like it it was bulky it was heavy and did not have an OLED screen and I don't know if I've stressed enough but it was really expensive the iron new air fixes a bunch of my worries with the original Ionia Pro starting with its compact design to put things into perspective the Inu air is a lot smaller than the steam deck and even smaller than the Nintendo switch for that matter I as a handheld gaming Enthusiast cannot emphasize enough on how this smaller form factor makes longer gaming sessions more comfortable previously with the Inu Pro I could go like 1.5 hours tops but with this one I can just go on and on and it does not strain my hands and this thing is incredibly slim too it might even fit in your pant pocket if you wear cargo pants or something for me I always needed a small bag to carry it because the only thing that fits in my pockets are Airtex the other thing I love about its design are these uh Hall sensing joysticks and triggers they use magnets instead of potential meter based physical connection which eliminates the problem of stick drift and dead zones which is a serious issue with handheld gaming devices as for my experience I think these are some of the best joysticks that I've ever used on a handheld device but there's a bit of a learning curve as they are quite sensitive and require precise movements the triggers here are a blast to use though at 7.5 millimeter they have a pretty deep travel distance which is not a big deal when playing racing games like Forza Horizon 5 or fighting games like Tekken 7 but on tactical Shooters like CS go where you need really quick responses and really quick clicks this can be a bit of a nuisance they do activate even when pressing like halfway or so but that feels a bit weird and it took me a lot of time to get used to just above the triggers are the shoulder buttons and two hotkeys that can be programmed to launch a bunch of shortcuts via the isps app I found them to be especially useful because the Inu Air does not have a dedicated button for an on-screen keyboard task manager and other shortcuts like the imeo pro so you can assign them to those functions to make your everyday navigation process easier the d-pad and the abxy buttons on the other hand use a rubber main brain connection and have a decent amount of travel but I've got to say that the abx5 buttons were a bit small for my liking over on to the bottom left you will find the window and the menu button while the right side houses a dedicated isps button and one that takes you to the desktop then there is the power button with a super responsive fingerprint sensor on top right next to the volume rockers as for ports the ideal air brings a couple of USB 3.2 Gen 2 type c connections apart from PD charging both of them also support it DisplayPort 1.4 that means that you can connect up to a 4k 60hz monitor or a TV here for a bigger gaming experience I also like how the 3.5 mm headphone jack is now at the bottom and right beside it is the micro SD card slot in case you're running out of storage or you can swap the onboard SSD for a new one up to 2tv then we have the down firing stereo speakers which well don't sound very good there is no definition in the audio and the sound quality is just too muffled and teeny to be enjoyable but what's really nice here is the display it's simply stunning it flaunts a 5.5 inch 60hz OLED touchscreen with a full HD resolution if you ask me I would have been fine even with a 720p or 800p resolution screen so this is all the more impressive for me and it's OLED nature means games look especially delicious with Rich colors dark contrast and Ultra fast pixel response time even color coverage wise iron your claims an incredibly wide color gamut with 100 RGB 109 ntse 96 Adobe RGB and 99 DC ip3 and our tests confirm all these numbers to be true except for ntsc which came out to be just 94 in our unit but that's absolutely nothing to worry about because everything looks really vibrant and Punchy here this display is adequately bright too so I didn't face any on-screen visibility issues but playing games in well-lit indoor scenarios or even Outdoors under the chain and good news for all the night owls out there the ironyo air also gets dim enough not to strain your eyes during under blanket gaming sessions talking of gaming sessions let's talk about how this guy actually performs but before that let me get a few things clear for you guys like all gaming laptops you get various performance mode here four to be exact with TDP ranging from 5 watt to 15 watt I found the game modes 12 watt limit to be the sweet spot for this guy as it delivers respectable gaming performance while keeping The Thermals in check as well I also tried overclocking it to 15 watt just to see if it's worth it but the marginally higher FPS at the expense of excess heat comfort and battery life is an outright worst trade-off maybe it'll make sense in the chilly winter season when the ambient temperature goes weighed up let's see for the best results I also kept the fan speed at excellent which is the highest setting available for the Inu air with these tweaks plus the resolution set to 720p the ryzen 55560u Apu was able to push impressive results sandbox style games like shadow of the Tomb Raider manage a smooth 30 FPS at high settings or about 20 more when dialing it down to low the x-axis linear motor also offers nice haptic feedback to further immerse you into the game I also enjoyed playing GTA 5 here at an impressive 72 FPS average at low settings other AAA titles like Forza Horizon 5 and control are also decently playable at low Graphics quality apart from decent average FPS the one percent and even 0.1 percent lows I'm seeing here are outstanding that means the IMU air can rip through most games with little to no sudden frame drops or stutters except for CS go I am not really sure what's going on but I noticed frame drops on multiple occasions when playing CS go at different settings likewise cyberpunk 2077 turned out to be a bit too tough for this little guy to handle but that is to be expected but since it also supports FSR 1.0 which is amd's version of dlss on sampling technology for boosting FPS I tried it out in hopes for better gameplay but under this the game looks pretty bad with jarring textures and shadows for some reason besides the eye Neo air can handle fighting games like Tekken 7 or Indie titles like rocket League stray and Fall Guys perfectly fine and of course it can also emute basically every Retro Game you'd want um if you are a FIFA Player you'll be happy to know that it can handle FIFA 22 pretty easily with around 110 FPS on average at low settings as for thermos there's a single fan system at the back which takes in cool air through these ventilation drills and the hot air is let out through the vent on the top for the most part this thermal setup is competent enough to keep the heat away from your hands while you grip the console I had never found it to be really totally uncomfortable even after a couple of hours of continuous gaming sessions you can definitely feel it getting warm though that's for sure as for fan noise I would say that it's manageable unless you're in a really quiet room the fan noise sort of dissolves when mixed with the game audio even at Max Speed or you can always use a headphone for the best undisturbed gaming experience okay on the software side of things as I've said before the Inu air runs on Windows 11. here because of its compact form factor I found navigating through Windows to be a big hassle not just that the software here is not the most polished because during my test I ran into a couple of UI and ux issues where the cursor would just abruptly disappear on its own sometime and there was this one time when the display got stuck at Portrait orientation and would not revert to landscape mode until I restarted the device but please don't be alarmed because of that because we can expect to see a major change on this front quite soon since the company is currently working on their own Linux based operating system called Inu OS anyway I use a control Hub the iOS space also has come a long way since the last time we looked at it there are tons of customization features available here from adjusting the RGB pattern of the thing that surrounds the joysticks to setting power profiles and fan limits and the new 3D interface to tweak the GamePad also looks amazing now everything about the iron your air sounds spectacular right from its design to display to Performance and thermals everything but if I have to call out one thing that's miserable here is its battery life it comes with a tiny 28 watt hour 7350 milliamp hour battery which lasted me just a little over an hour when playing AAA games at 12 watt TDP with brightness set to 50 to 60 percent however I believe battery life is something that depends on the user itself if you don't play a lot of demanding games and if you choose to keep the console at a lower TDP you can extend the battery to last a little longer for me I found myself reaching out for the charger time and often and this is one of those areas where the upcoming Linux based Inu OS could have a massive impact but were yet to experience that so I will reserve my judgment for later anyway the idea air juices up wire a 65 wattp PD charger that comes inside the box which takes a little over an hour to take it from zero to 100 okay so that was the all new iron UA and it's easily my favorite handheld PC audio has hit the nail on the head with so many things here you want a comfortable lightweight design check a reliable gaming performance check what about a gorgeous OLED display double check and all that on a fairly reasonable price so what more could you want right but I can't help but wonder how more awesome it would have been if it had amd's ryzen 6000 series processor instead of the ryzen 5000 series you know the one with rdna 2 graphics engine instead of Vega that's a level of performance on such a compact handle PC would have been truly exceptional Inu has already announced a bunch of handhelds scheduled to launch later in the fourth quarter 2022 and most of them are configured with the ryzen 6000 series Ebu so if you want to taste the power of the rdna2 you will definitely want to wait for that but you should know that all of the upcoming launches from the company are pretty chunky far bulkier than this guy so if you're looking for a capable Windows handheld gaming machine that's both Compact and has a brilliant OLED display then I can't see how you could go wrong with the eye in your air so guys with this we've come to the end of this video do let me know in the comments below what you think about this device and if you would want to own one and if you like this video don't forget to subscribe to our Channel and hit that notifications icon to learn prathim adhikari and thank you so much for watchingthis is the eye new ear if you are someone who's into handheld gaming you will probably agree when I say that this is one of the coolest gadgets to launch this year for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about this is a handheld gaming device that runs on full slash Windows 11 and has the powerful ryzen 5560u processor but wait there are other handheld devices that come with similar configuration so what's special about the Inu app well this one has the ryzen 5560u in this super compact body comes with a 1080p OLED screen for just 600 which is way more affordable than other options with similar specs if you want something even more affordable you can even get the Inu air light which comes with the same standards except it has less memory and storage a few months ago I had also used this more expensive iron new Pro and as much as I wanted to like it it was bulky it was heavy and did not have an OLED screen and I don't know if I've stressed enough but it was really expensive the iron new air fixes a bunch of my worries with the original Ionia Pro starting with its compact design to put things into perspective the Inu air is a lot smaller than the steam deck and even smaller than the Nintendo switch for that matter I as a handheld gaming Enthusiast cannot emphasize enough on how this smaller form factor makes longer gaming sessions more comfortable previously with the Inu Pro I could go like 1.5 hours tops but with this one I can just go on and on and it does not strain my hands and this thing is incredibly slim too it might even fit in your pant pocket if you wear cargo pants or something for me I always needed a small bag to carry it because the only thing that fits in my pockets are Airtex the other thing I love about its design are these uh Hall sensing joysticks and triggers they use magnets instead of potential meter based physical connection which eliminates the problem of stick drift and dead zones which is a serious issue with handheld gaming devices as for my experience I think these are some of the best joysticks that I've ever used on a handheld device but there's a bit of a learning curve as they are quite sensitive and require precise movements the triggers here are a blast to use though at 7.5 millimeter they have a pretty deep travel distance which is not a big deal when playing racing games like Forza Horizon 5 or fighting games like Tekken 7 but on tactical Shooters like CS go where you need really quick responses and really quick clicks this can be a bit of a nuisance they do activate even when pressing like halfway or so but that feels a bit weird and it took me a lot of time to get used to just above the triggers are the shoulder buttons and two hotkeys that can be programmed to launch a bunch of shortcuts via the isps app I found them to be especially useful because the Inu Air does not have a dedicated button for an on-screen keyboard task manager and other shortcuts like the imeo pro so you can assign them to those functions to make your everyday navigation process easier the d-pad and the abxy buttons on the other hand use a rubber main brain connection and have a decent amount of travel but I've got to say that the abx5 buttons were a bit small for my liking over on to the bottom left you will find the window and the menu button while the right side houses a dedicated isps button and one that takes you to the desktop then there is the power button with a super responsive fingerprint sensor on top right next to the volume rockers as for ports the ideal air brings a couple of USB 3.2 Gen 2 type c connections apart from PD charging both of them also support it DisplayPort 1.4 that means that you can connect up to a 4k 60hz monitor or a TV here for a bigger gaming experience I also like how the 3.5 mm headphone jack is now at the bottom and right beside it is the micro SD card slot in case you're running out of storage or you can swap the onboard SSD for a new one up to 2tv then we have the down firing stereo speakers which well don't sound very good there is no definition in the audio and the sound quality is just too muffled and teeny to be enjoyable but what's really nice here is the display it's simply stunning it flaunts a 5.5 inch 60hz OLED touchscreen with a full HD resolution if you ask me I would have been fine even with a 720p or 800p resolution screen so this is all the more impressive for me and it's OLED nature means games look especially delicious with Rich colors dark contrast and Ultra fast pixel response time even color coverage wise iron your claims an incredibly wide color gamut with 100 RGB 109 ntse 96 Adobe RGB and 99 DC ip3 and our tests confirm all these numbers to be true except for ntsc which came out to be just 94 in our unit but that's absolutely nothing to worry about because everything looks really vibrant and Punchy here this display is adequately bright too so I didn't face any on-screen visibility issues but playing games in well-lit indoor scenarios or even Outdoors under the chain and good news for all the night owls out there the ironyo air also gets dim enough not to strain your eyes during under blanket gaming sessions talking of gaming sessions let's talk about how this guy actually performs but before that let me get a few things clear for you guys like all gaming laptops you get various performance mode here four to be exact with TDP ranging from 5 watt to 15 watt I found the game modes 12 watt limit to be the sweet spot for this guy as it delivers respectable gaming performance while keeping The Thermals in check as well I also tried overclocking it to 15 watt just to see if it's worth it but the marginally higher FPS at the expense of excess heat comfort and battery life is an outright worst trade-off maybe it'll make sense in the chilly winter season when the ambient temperature goes weighed up let's see for the best results I also kept the fan speed at excellent which is the highest setting available for the Inu air with these tweaks plus the resolution set to 720p the ryzen 55560u Apu was able to push impressive results sandbox style games like shadow of the Tomb Raider manage a smooth 30 FPS at high settings or about 20 more when dialing it down to low the x-axis linear motor also offers nice haptic feedback to further immerse you into the game I also enjoyed playing GTA 5 here at an impressive 72 FPS average at low settings other AAA titles like Forza Horizon 5 and control are also decently playable at low Graphics quality apart from decent average FPS the one percent and even 0.1 percent lows I'm seeing here are outstanding that means the IMU air can rip through most games with little to no sudden frame drops or stutters except for CS go I am not really sure what's going on but I noticed frame drops on multiple occasions when playing CS go at different settings likewise cyberpunk 2077 turned out to be a bit too tough for this little guy to handle but that is to be expected but since it also supports FSR 1.0 which is amd's version of dlss on sampling technology for boosting FPS I tried it out in hopes for better gameplay but under this the game looks pretty bad with jarring textures and shadows for some reason besides the eye Neo air can handle fighting games like Tekken 7 or Indie titles like rocket League stray and Fall Guys perfectly fine and of course it can also emute basically every Retro Game you'd want um if you are a FIFA Player you'll be happy to know that it can handle FIFA 22 pretty easily with around 110 FPS on average at low settings as for thermos there's a single fan system at the back which takes in cool air through these ventilation drills and the hot air is let out through the vent on the top for the most part this thermal setup is competent enough to keep the heat away from your hands while you grip the console I had never found it to be really totally uncomfortable even after a couple of hours of continuous gaming sessions you can definitely feel it getting warm though that's for sure as for fan noise I would say that it's manageable unless you're in a really quiet room the fan noise sort of dissolves when mixed with the game audio even at Max Speed or you can always use a headphone for the best undisturbed gaming experience okay on the software side of things as I've said before the Inu air runs on Windows 11. here because of its compact form factor I found navigating through Windows to be a big hassle not just that the software here is not the most polished because during my test I ran into a couple of UI and ux issues where the cursor would just abruptly disappear on its own sometime and there was this one time when the display got stuck at Portrait orientation and would not revert to landscape mode until I restarted the device but please don't be alarmed because of that because we can expect to see a major change on this front quite soon since the company is currently working on their own Linux based operating system called Inu OS anyway I use a control Hub the iOS space also has come a long way since the last time we looked at it there are tons of customization features available here from adjusting the RGB pattern of the thing that surrounds the joysticks to setting power profiles and fan limits and the new 3D interface to tweak the GamePad also looks amazing now everything about the iron your air sounds spectacular right from its design to display to Performance and thermals everything but if I have to call out one thing that's miserable here is its battery life it comes with a tiny 28 watt hour 7350 milliamp hour battery which lasted me just a little over an hour when playing AAA games at 12 watt TDP with brightness set to 50 to 60 percent however I believe battery life is something that depends on the user itself if you don't play a lot of demanding games and if you choose to keep the console at a lower TDP you can extend the battery to last a little longer for me I found myself reaching out for the charger time and often and this is one of those areas where the upcoming Linux based Inu OS could have a massive impact but were yet to experience that so I will reserve my judgment for later anyway the idea air juices up wire a 65 wattp PD charger that comes inside the box which takes a little over an hour to take it from zero to 100 okay so that was the all new iron UA and it's easily my favorite handheld PC audio has hit the nail on the head with so many things here you want a comfortable lightweight design check a reliable gaming performance check what about a gorgeous OLED display double check and all that on a fairly reasonable price so what more could you want right but I can't help but wonder how more awesome it would have been if it had amd's ryzen 6000 series processor instead of the ryzen 5000 series you know the one with rdna 2 graphics engine instead of Vega that's a level of performance on such a compact handle PC would have been truly exceptional Inu has already announced a bunch of handhelds scheduled to launch later in the fourth quarter 2022 and most of them are configured with the ryzen 6000 series Ebu so if you want to taste the power of the rdna2 you will definitely want to wait for that but you should know that all of the upcoming launches from the company are pretty chunky far bulkier than this guy so if you're looking for a capable Windows handheld gaming machine that's both Compact and has a brilliant OLED display then I can't see how you could go wrong with the eye in your air so guys with this we've come to the end of this video do let me know in the comments below what you think about this device and if you would want to own one and if you like this video don't forget to subscribe to our Channel and hit that notifications icon to learn prathim adhikari and thank you so much for watching\n"