AyaNeo announces a Steam Deck competitor that finally runs SteamOS

Video Gamer is reader supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. AyaNeo products have been consistently releasing for a while. Recent years have brought us the Air Pro, Geek, and Next, among others. Its next venture is a direct competitor to the : the Next Lite, which runs SteamOS right out of the box.

have long since been hampered by the reliance on Windows as their operating systems. Take the ASUS ROG Ally, or , for example, both held back by a user experience designed for keyboard and mouse – not joystick and trigger. With the AyaNeo Next Lite though, fiddling with awkward drivers and bloatware won’t be an issue.

At the moment, there’s not a great amount of . Despite the open source nature of Linux, it still takes plenty of tinkering to solve the initial speedbumps that come with the kernel. Despite the Steam Deck featuring slightly less powerful hardware than most of its competitors, SteamOS’s clean UX and ecosystem gives the handheld a huge advantage: it’s easy to use.

The Next Lite’s look to compete head on with the Steam Deck poises it as one of AyaNeo’s most exciting upcoming handhelds, and though the market is fast becoming saturated with products from MSI, Lenovo, and ASUS, this might be enough to really set it apart. has labelled it a “value for money option,” which is a relief considering the price of its $1,315 predecessor.

While an exact price for the Next Lite has not been shared just yet, there’s enough reason to believe it’s going to be significantly cheaper and more affordable. Internal specs are yet to be fleshed out fully, though “subscriptions” open at 9:30 PM EST on January 11th, where it’s likely that more information will be shared.

What we do know, as of yet, is that it features an 800p 7 inch LCD screen (likely identical to that found in the ) and the same 47Wh battery. The announcement swans three different colourways: a minty turquoise, jet black, and AyaNeo’s signature orange and white. The design, might I add, is a lot nice than that which we’ve seen from recent handhelds from larger companies.

The AyaNeo Next features an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U in the base model, though it seems likely that an upgrade to a Zen 4 mobile processor is in order now. We’re going to be keeping you updated with the latest on the AyaNeo Next Lite, so make sure to check back in with us shortly for the latest on a possible release date and price..