The AYANEO Pocket DMG: Beautiful, powerful, and stupidly excessive

The AYANEO Pocket DMG might be the most over-engineered Game Boy-inspired device ever made. It's beautiful, it's powerful, and it is way too expensive. Here's why I can't stop using it.

It doesn't take using the AYANEO Pocket DMG for long for two things to become clear:

1. This thing is absolutely beautiful, probably one of the very best designed handhelds currently on the market.
2. It's too way damn powerful.

AYANEO clearly went all-in on the design here. We're talking Apple-level attention to detail, but retro.

The classic beige-and-maroon colorway (of the review unit I got) isn't just cosplaying as a Game Boy (DMG stands for Dot Matrix Grid, Nintendo’s internal codename for the original Game Boy) – it's practically a love letter to Nintendo's classic handheld, except this time everything is premium. The kind of premium where you feel slightly guilty touching it.

The control situation is interesting, to put it diplomatically. The D-pad is right where muscle memory expects it to be and feels great for those marathon Pokémon sessions, though I wish it had a bit more travel.

As for the face buttons, AYANEO decided to go for four, instead of the two you'll find on a Game Boy. Then again, we're in 2024, so I appreciate AYANEO going with the times here.

The analog stick is great, it does its trick, it’s hall-sensing so you don’t need to worry about stick drift, but I’d still have preferred a 3DS-style sliding pad as it would be a bit more shallow and therefore flusher with the device, and in-turn better on the move.

Because AYANEO apparently love a good engineering challenge, they've wrapped a touch-sensitive trackpad around that stick, and it can function as a second stick. Does it work? Yes. Does it feel slightly bizarre on an Android device? Yes. Have I used it much? No.

Finally, four well-placed buttons lurk on the back (that you can swap out with a second set that also come in the box), and the speakers — which fire sideways — actually pump out impressive audio.

The display is... well, it's different. We're looking at a 3.92-inch 1240 x 1080 OLED panel, rocking an 31:27 aspect ratio because... reasons? I have no clue where AYANEO sourced this screen from. But here's the thing: it actually works. Classic 4:3 games look fantastic with minimal letterboxing, and thanks to OLED's perfect blacks, those bars might as well be invisible.

Under the hood, this thing is packing a Snapdragon G3x Gen2, which you'll also find in AYANEO's Pocket S and the upcoming Pocket Evo.

It's a curious choice here, since those other devices are traditional landscape handhelds in which such a powerhouse of a chip makes more obvious sense. In a vertical form factor — that's primarily aimed at Game Boy emulation — this feels like using a 4090 to play Pong.

I’ve reviewed the G3x Gen 2 previously, but to recap: it’s currently the best Android-based gaming chip on the market. Whisper it — but it’ll even run Switch games without breaking a sweat, but again, this is a vertical handheld, you don't need that much power. Don't get me wrong, headroom is nice, but they probably could have used a less beefy chip and made the price tag a bit less eye-watering.

Battery life is what you'd expect from a device this powerful – it's all about how hard you push it. Stick to Game Boy and SNES games on power-saving mode, and you’re good for hours on end.

Start messing around with PS2 or Switch games at full tilt, and you'll be hunting for outlets within a couple of hours. That 6,000mAh battery is doing its best, but there's only so much it can do when you're asking it to pretend it's three different consoles at once.

Speaking of charging – AYANEO decided to pull an Apple here and didn’t include a charger in the box. They'll happily sell you their 35W 'Retro Adapter' separately, but any decent USB-C PD charger will do the job. It's not a deal-breaker (since I expect everyone owns multiple chargers nowadays), but at these prices, it feels stingy.

Running Android 13 means you get access to basically everything, including CEMU for Wii U games (finally). It also comes with AYASpace, AYANEO's hardware control center. I’ve written about it previously, but to recap, it is perfectly competent, offering all the performance tweaks and button mapping options you'd expect.

But honestly? I set it up once and barely touched it again, because like all my Android handhelds, this one went straight into EmulationStation-DE territory (guide coming soon, I promise).

Now, about that price tag – because yikes. AYANEO went full premium here, with build quality and design choices that wouldn't look out of place in an Apple Store.

At $339 for the base model and $669 for the maxed-out version, we're talking Steam Deck OLED money. That's simply going to be too much for most people, and I get it. Especially since, because of that aspect ratio, all you'll technically want to play on this device is older consoles and handhelds up to the Nintendo 3DS.

It's also a lot of money, if you compare it to other premium vertical handhelds, like the Analogue Pocket. Then again, the comparison might be a tad unfair here, since the Analogue Pocket is primarily meant to play your cartridges (though it can also run ROMs thanks to its FPGA chip). The Pocket DMG is much more capable as it can run many more platforms.

But here's the thing: if you're the type who appreciates over-engineered gaming hardware and doesn't mind paying for it, this thing is pretty special.

I have to admit — it's exactly the kind of ridiculous I love. Coming from someone who runs a website called overkill and has a RTX 4090 in his PC, that probably tells you everything you need to know about my relationship with sensible hardware choices.

The AYANEO Pocket DMG is currently my favourite handheld of 2024, despite (or maybe because of) its limitations. I'm a sucker for beautifully designed hardware, and this is probably the prettiest piece of kit I've held in my hands in a long while — and considering my unhealthy obsession with Pokémon ROM hacks, this might just be the most perfect piece of imperfect hardware I could ask for.

Is it excessive? Definitely. Is it expensive? Absolutely. But sometimes, the heart wants what it wants, and my heart apparently wants a Game Boy from an alternate timeline where Nintendo went maximum overkill (do you get why I picked that name?).

AYANEO Pocket DMG: Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 Handheld

Snapdragon®G3x Gen2 Gaming Platform丨OEM OLED Vivid Display丨Left Joystick + Touchpad丨Retro Design | Check out ‘AYANEO Pocket DMG: Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 Handheld’ on Indiegogo.

Indiegogo

For most people though, this is probably a head-scratcher — spending Steam Deck money on what is basically a Game Boy. But for the handful of us who get unreasonably excited about over-engineered handhelds? This might be exactly the kind of beautiful absurdity we've been waiting for.