AYANEO’s powerful tiny handheld could be the last gaming handheld you’ll ever buy

AYANEO held its first product sharing session of the year this morning, and it finally gave us a look at one of the most anticipated small gaming handhelds this year. The Pocket S Mini, which was first teased in September 2025, brings the ultra-premium all-metal design of the Pocket S series down to a size that actually fits in your pocket.

The Pocket S Mini has a retro-friendly 4:3 display, although the exact specifications and size have yet to be announced. On stream, AYANEO CEO Arthur Zhang held the device next to a standard smartphone, and it roughly matched in size. The screen itself is around the same size as the budget Pocket AIR Mini’s 4.2-inch LCD display, although this handheld is much, much more powerful.

Powered by a Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 SoC, it should be capable of powering through just about any and all Android games and emulation tasks. It’s set to be the most powerful small gaming handheld, although more demanding systems like the Nintendo Switch will suffer from letterboxing on the 4:3 display. Still, AYANEO calls this an “endgame handheld,” meaning the last gaming handheld you will need to buy.

In addition to the black and white renders shown previously, Zhang showed off a new beige “Retro Power” prototype, with unmarked buttons like the company’s premium Pocket VERT handheld. It also moves the start, select, and menu buttons back to the bottom of the device, with small RGB Hall-effect sticks and Hall-effect triggers.

AYANEO has yet to announce pricing or availability for the Pocket S Mini, although it did mention a March 2026 release in the initial teaser last year. That was before the company came under fire for announcing more handhelds than it can ship, so it may be pushed back until existing orders for the Pocket DS, KONKR Pocket FIT, and Pocket AIR Mini have been fulfilled.

When it does come out, it should be a worthy successor to the Retroid Pocket Mini V2 and AYN Odin 2 Mini. The Odin 2 Mini was discontinued in November, and the Retroid Pocket Mini V2 is currently sold out. That could indicate that new pocketable handhelds from both companies will be released later this year.

In addition to the Pocket S Mini, AYANEO also revealed a new Windows handheld, the KONKR FIT, powered by a Ryzen AI 470 chipset. However, the company’s upcoming sliding smartphone, the Pocket PLAY, was notably absent.