Ayaneo has given a closer look at the Pocket Air Mini’s software, highlighting how much customization and console-style control it packs into a budget-friendly Android handheld.
Out of the box, the Pocket Air Mini runs Android 11 with a custom AYAHome launcher designed for handheld gaming. The interface is highly configurable: you can resize icons on both the home screen and in the app drawer—even turning them into card-like tiles—create folders for apps and games, and quickly toggle performance modes. There’s also a handy option to switch the controller button layout between Xbox and Nintendo styles, making it easier to match in-game prompts to your preference.
A Quick Settings panel puts the essentials one tap away. Players can adjust brightness and volume, toggle Wi‑Fi or Airplane Mode, and personalize RGB lighting for the thumbsticks. For a more console-like experience, the device also includes AYASpace, a dedicated interface that layers on deep gaming features. AYASpace lets you map on‑screen touch controls to the Pocket Air Mini’s physical buttons for Android games that don’t natively support controllers, and it offers more granular tuning for performance and RGB effects.
To set expectations around performance, Ayaneo shared an AnTuTu comparison chart for the device’s Helio G90T chipset, focusing on its Mali‑G76 MP4 GPU. The results were shown alongside scores from other popular handheld chips, including the Snapdragon 662 and Snapdragon G1 Gen 2, to illustrate how the Pocket Air Mini stacks up in real-world gaming scenarios.
Preorders for the Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini start in October. Super early bird pricing begins at $69.99 for the 2 GB RAM/32 GB storage model and $79.99 for the 3 GB/64 GB version. Final retail pricing is set at $89.99 and $99.99 respectively, keeping this Android handheld well under the $100 mark while offering customizable software, controller-friendly features, and a gamer-first interface. If you’re looking for an affordable, portable console for on-the-go gaming, this one’s worth watching.
