When AYANEO teased its first mobile phone back in early November, it did so without showing off the entire design, but today the company has not only revealed the design in full, it has also confirmed the official name of the device, which is the AYANEO Pocket Play. AYANEO is a brand that is well-versed in the creation of gaming handhelds . It’s probably the brand with the most available models on the market. A gaming phone is new territory for AYANEO , however. Naturally, it was intriguing to see where the company would take the design. Now that we’ve seen it, it’s giving off some heavy Sony Xperia Play vibes.
There are subtle differences in the design. Like touchpads that are further apart, not to mention larger. But you still get the overall same layout. A d-pad on the left, action buttons on the right, a few more buttons for pausing and opening menus, and all of it is wrapped up in a sliding design that consumers have loved. The AYANEO Pocket Play even has physical triggers. By all accounts, this feels like the Xperia Play spiritual successor that we never got. It’s just not made by Sony.
The AYANEO Pocket Play is launching on Kickstarter soon
While AYANEO has fully revealed the design of the Pocket Play, it hasn’t said much about any of the other details. Unfortunately, this includes any information about the specs, its price, and its availability. That being said, AYANEO has confirmed that the phone will be launching on Kickstarter soon, which is how the company launches basically every product it sells.
Once the Kickstarter goes live, it should be around that time that the company sheds light on the specs of the phone. Given it’s designed for gaming, it wouldn’t be a shock if it were powered by Qualcomm’s flagship chipset, which should be the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or its predecessor. There will likely be a couple of different RAM and storage options as well.
The AYANEO Pocket Play will come in White and Black color variations and is expected to launch in 2026.
