AYANEO showcased their latest handheld AYANEO 2S with a brand new AMD APU, which is currently the most powerful APU available for handheld devices. It showed impressive performance and significant generational improvement as well. But when it comes to this and the Steam Deck, which one makes more sense?
Well, in short –“The AYANEO 2S appears to have a more powerful internal specification, a sleek design, and a higher-resolution display with greater brightness compared to the Steam Deck.”
AyaNeo 2S vs Steam Deck
AYANEO 2S has just been unveiled and people are having mix feeling about it. Internally it might be powerful compared to Steam Deck, but does it actually add proper value in terms of user experience? Let’s find out.
| Specification | AyaNeo 2S | Steam Deck |
| Processor | Zen-4 Ryzen 7 7840U APU | Custom-built Zen-2-based APU |
| GPU | RDNA-3 graphics chip | Integrated 8 Core RDNA 2 GPU |
| Maximum Clock Speed | 5.10 GHz | Up to 3.5 GHz |
| Memory | 16GB or 32GB | 16GB or 64GB |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1200 | 1280 x 800 |
| Brightness | 500 nits | 400 nits |
Design
Sleek and aesthetically pleasing, the AYANEO 2S has the same design outline as its predecessor, the AYANEO 2. Compared to Steam Deck, this new model has a much more compact layout. As ETA Prime in his latest video has mentioned, this handheld is super comfortable to hold and according to him, the D-PAD here is truly amazing. It’s perfect for playing games such as platforms and most importantly fighting.
On top of that, the Hall effect joystick sensor seems to have everything that you need at your fingertips. In comparison, Steam Deck is equipped with capacitive touch thumbsticks and Analog triggers. Although these joysticks might not be on the same level as the Hall Effect sensor, it does ensure accurate response and precise control over your games. But what makes the Steam Deck quite unique in terms of button layout is its additional trackpad right underneath the joysticks on both sides, which are perfect for playing RTS games and other top-down view genres.
Specs
Moving on to the internal specification, the AYANEO 2S is equipped with a Zen-4 Ryzen 7 7840U APU, powered by an RDNA-3 graphics chip. With a maximum clock speed of 5.10 Gigahertz, this chip exhibits a substantial generational leap in performance compared to its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 6800U APU in the AYANEO 2. Besides the integrated Radeon 780M graphics chip based on the RDNA-3 technology showing significant improvement and this might be the primary reason to anticipate the AYANEO 2S. According to ETA Prime in his review video of AYANEO 2S, he was getting an average of 75 FPS at 22 watts 1080p higher settings while playing Forza Horizon 5 in game mode. What’s even more impressive, you can run games like Cyberpunk 2077 over 70+ FPS at 800p lower settings. Additionally, the console is available in both 16-gigabyte and 32-gigabyte memory variants.
Steam Deck on the other hand is powered by a custom-built Zen-2-based APU with a boosted frequency of up to 3.5 gigahertz, which has an integrated 8 Core RDNA 2 GPU with a maximum of 1.6 gigahertz of boosted frequency. As we can see, performance-wise, Steam Deck is really far behind when it comes to updated internal hardware. Primarily, because of the generation gaps between these two consoles. But since it is properly optimized, it can pretty much run most modern games with decent FPS settings. For example, games like Doom Eternal run at 60FPS in 800p medium settings, and God Of War with FSR in performance mode can run at an average of 51FPS.
Display
Talking about the display, the latest AYANEO 2S has a beautiful one. Unlike other handheld consoles on the market, this one features a 7-inch bezel-less screen. AYANEO definitely deserves credit for such a bold approach. The screen also features 1920 by 1200 resolution and 500 nits of peak brightness. The color of this screen sure does look amazing due to its higher brightness and bezel-less viewing experience.
Steam Deck, however, includes a 7-inch display featuring 1280 by 800 resolution and lower 400nits of brightness compared to 2s. On top of that, the screen does possess black borders around the edges. So, even though the screen size is equal, it does possess a lower resolution and less brightness. But as we have mentioned before, this is due to different generations. Who knows, if the Steam Deck was a recent release like the AYANEO 2S, maybe it would feature a more attractive display.
