Steam Deck gets a new competitor — Ayaneo Slide RGB keyboard handheld gaming PC launches on IndieGogo from $699

Handheld PC specialist Ayaneo has today launched a sliding full RGB keyboard packing portable to crowdfunding. The new Ayaneo Slide hit IndieGoGo earlier today with a $699 early bird price but has already rocketed past its funding goal by a factor of eight. According to the handheld maker these devices will ship to customers starting from mid-December this year.

We first reported on the upcoming Ayaneo Slide back in September when it was confirmed that this device was in trial production. At the time it was heralded by the firm as the first RGB backlighting slider keyboard handheld PC. It needed to mention the RGB, as GPD has been making sliding keyboard handhelds for years. More recently, we have been told that the Ayaneo Slide will be part of the firm’s new Remake family of devices with retro-computing charm.

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Readers won’t be surprised to hear that the Ayaneo Slide is yet another gaming handheld that is powered by one of AMD’s Phoenix mobile processors. In this instance, the chip is the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U. On the outside, you get a PSP form-factor handheld based on a 6-inch IPS screen. However, the special sauce of the Slide is that this screen can push up and at an angle to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard with RGB backlighting. The screen can slide out and be tilted to between zero and 30° towards the user. Full key specs of the system and screen are provided in the table below.

We got a little more information about the cooling system in an email from Ayaneo. To keep the 28W Ryzen 7 7840U ticking over smoothly in such a confined space the system employs a so-called 3+2 cooling system that combines three 8 mm copper heatpipes, two large-area copper plates, plus a multitude of cooling fins. A single high-pressure turbine fan is used to take in and expel air. The slide above is claimed to show the cooling performance in various gaming situations. We don’t know how much noise this fan makes at full speed.

Last, but not least, remember that crowdfunding campaigns might sound like an attractive way to get new products a little cheaper than MSRP (and earlier), but there are risks to putting up your cash for products that aren’t yet available at retail. Ayaneo makes the entry price for early birds $699 but says that full retail pricing will be $899. That price differential might be a spur to buy early if there were never sales events after the launch, but we are sure there will be. Also buying after full launch and availability usually means there are several third-party reviews to highlight the obvious, and not-so-obvious, flaws in the product design or implementation.