Remember the PlayStation Portable (PSP)? Yeah, that was a major success for Sony, selling over 80 million units worldwide. It had a great game library, various multimedia features, and powerful hardware. It’s precisely because of the PSP success that Sony launched the Xperia Play in 2011.
This one combined smartphone functionality with a slide-out game controller, aiming to bring PlayStation-style gaming to mobile. While innovative for its time, it saw limited commercial success and was quietly phased out.
Now, a company called Ayaneo will probably try to resurrect this form factor with the upcoming Ayaneo Phone.
If Ayaneo sounds a bit familiar to you, it’s because we reported about the Ayaneo Pocket DS, a dual-screen handheld device aimed at gamers and running Android. The Ayaneo Pocket DS features a 6.7-inch 16:9 top display and a smaller, more square-shaped bottom screen with physical controls:
Image credit – Ayaneo
That, however, is just a gaming platform.
Now, Ayaneo apparently enters the smartphone market with plans to launch the Ayaneo Phone, its first gaming-focused smartphone. Designed with gamers in mind, the device is expected to include a sliding mechanism with built-in physical controls, echoing the layout of the classic Xperia Play. While detailed specs remain under wraps, Ayaneo positions the phone as a full-featured smartphone, unlike competing devices such as the Anbernic RG Slide, which lacks mobile connectivity.
Alongside the Ayaneo Phone, the company introduced Konkr, a new sub-brand aimed at delivering affordable handheld gaming hardware. The first Android-based model, the Konkr Pocket Fit, features a 6-inch 1080p display with a 144Hz refresh rate and is powered by a flagship Qualcomm chipset, with a focus on portability and comfort. A Windows-based version, the Konkr Fit, will include a 7-inch display and a large 80Wh battery, promising high performance in a compact form.
It seems that it’s great to be a (mobile) gamer in 2025.
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