Handheld and mini PC specialist Ayaneo has begun to roll forward with its Retro Mini PC AM02 IndieGogo crowdfunding campaign. It announced the campaign page had gone live on its Discord channel, on Saturday. The IndieGogo page shares a tantalizing taste of important retro-styled Mini PC device specs. Most importantly, the AM02 is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS and it includes a built-in 4-inch touchscreen.
Ayaneo first showcased the Retro Mini PC AM02 design when it announced the whole family of devices last November. It shared some slick photo shoot images of the AM02 alongside devices like the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01, Ayaneo Slide, Ayaneo Air, Ayaneo Flip KB, and Ayaneo Flip DS. It also had a retro-styled styled power bank in the family.
The Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 launched pretty quickly and was subject to many reviews across the tech media in late 2023. It was a surprisingly affordable machine, styled like an old Mac Classic computer. However, it had some obvious spec choices to make it available starting from a $149 early bird price. Notably, the APU choices were from previous generations, and the device’s ‘screen’ was just a black plastic panel. These choices may be acceptable for many retro gamers and tinkerers. However, we knew the Retro Mini PC AM02 was going to be more ambitious despite its specs being a mystery.
Now we have more key specifications of the Retro Mini PC AM02 to share. One of the most important spec upgrades vs the AM01 is going to be the APU. The AM02 features AMD’s Ryzen 7 7840HS, which is a very powerful chip mixing a Zen 4 architecture 8C / 16T CPU, at up to 5.0 GHz, with a Radeon 780M iGPU (RDNA 3) packing 12 CUs and running at up to 2.7 GHz.
In addition to the processor information, the other interesting aspect of the AM02 is its built-in 4-inch touchscreen. At launch we saw this screen was used as a clock, so we didn’t know that it could be used for anything else. Nearer to year end Ayaneo teased the screen could be used for various retro-graphics. However, now we have learned it is “multifunctional,” touch-sensitive, and capable of much more detailed graphics than a blocky pixel logo or clock display.
At this stage, we don’t have a lot of further official information. Ayaneo asserts the new Mini PC has an “Efficient Cooling System,” and will use its AYASpace software. Also, some official images show the front flap raised to show USB Type-A and Type–C ports, and a rear shot shows dual-Ethernet, DP, HDMI, twin USB 3 Type-A ports, and a Type-C power input.
More technical details are surely on the precipice of release now that this IndieGogo pre-campaign page has gone live. So we shouldn’t have to wait long until we know the full specs, what the touch screen can be used for, pricing, and availability.
