Ayaneo has been building crazy devices for quite a while now, with gaming handhelds and mini PCs taking all kinds of shapes and sizes. The Ayaneo Flip DS is one of the most interesting to be released by the company so far, though, and that's on account of its dual-screen nature. It obviously takes a ton of visual cues (not to mention naming cues) from the existing system of the same name from Nintendo, but there's a lot more to this device than you may expect.

Overall, I'm a big fan of the Ayaneo Flip DS, and it takes a certain kind of gamer to truly utilize the dual-screen aspect of this handheld. You can watch videos on one screen or browse the internet while playing on the other, or you can play 3DS and Wii U games split across both displays. Alternatively, you can just use the top screen to game and the bottom screen for Ayaneo system information, like TDP or fan speed.

There's just one major downside to this handheld though, and weirdly, it's the battery life. Ayaneo has generally been consistently good when it comes to battery life, but for some reason, the Flip DS fares poorly in this regard. It's the biggest downside of the entire package, but there's still a lot to love here, too.

Pricing and availability

The Ayaneo Flip DS is available globally from the company's Indiegogo campaign and starts at $699 for the base model of the Flip DS with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Design and build quality

Hinges scare me, but this one is good

The Ayaneo Flip DS is a pretty thick handheld all things considered, but it manages to pull off some pretty impressive engineering feats. For starters, because of how the screen works, the buttons, joysticks, and D-pad are all a lot smaller than on typical handhelds. In the case of the joysticks, they're actually sunk into the housing of the device so as to not compromise on their height.

With this, I was afraid that Ayaneo's excellent-feeling buttons would be downgraded, but to be honest, they still feel as good as ever. It's a comfortable handheld to play for long stretches of time, and the buttons take some getting used to but are still very high quality. Even the joysticks are completely usable, which I wasn't necessarily sure they would be when I first saw how they were placed in the console.

As for the hinge, well, hinges tend to scare me in any device, and that might be caused by not-so-fond memories of my first DS breaking thanks to its hinge back when I was about seven years old. This one feels sturdy though, and locks in three positions: closed, about 120 degrees, about 135 degrees, and then flat at 180 degrees. It holds completely firm when locked in position, which is great.

Other buttons on the front of the Ayaneo Flip DS include the power button with a fingerprint sensor, start and select buttons, a desktop button, an AyaSpace button, an Xbox Game Bar button, and a button that will enable or disable the AyaSpace on the bottom screen. Finally, there's even a trackpad nub like you get on Lenovo ThinkPads, which is pretty cool. It's not super practical, but it works in a pinch if you need to move stuff around between the screens.

The speakers get nice and loud but are downward-firing, and there's an OCuLink port that you can use to hook up an external GPU to the Flip DS if you'd like. Plus, there are two USB-C ports, one for power and data, and one for just data. Ayaneo also included USB-C to USB-A adapters in the box, along with adapters to connect the charger to a wide range of wall plugs across the globe. It's a great attention to detail that I love from Ayaneo.

The screens both get quite bright, and the top screen is a full 1080p 120Hz IPS display, whereas the bottom display comes in at a resolution of 960 x 480.

One of my favorite features that I'm glad is here is that closing the handheld immediately puts it into sleep mode. I expected this would be the case, but I was afraid it might not work perfectly or may have some weird teething issues. I'm happy to report that isn't the case, and it goes to sleep fine and wakes up without problems either. Great work, Ayaneo.

Software

Ayaspace, as usual, can be a bit buggy

The Ayaneo Flip DS comes with Windows 11, and that has its own problems. It's fine for the job, but essentially the bottom screen is treated as a secondary monitor. Ayaspace can display over that second screen to give you information, nest applications inside of it, and more, but most of the time you'll want to get rid of Ayaspace on the bottom screen. For a while, I had an application stuck on the bottom screen that I couldn't move up to the top screen, and I had to connect a Bluetooth mouse to move it.

Aside from that, though, it does more or less work. With 3DS and Wii U emulation, you can split the games into two windows, and those two windows can then be moved around the screens. In this case, I took the top screen of 3DS games and full-screened it on the top display, and took the bottom screen and did the same on the bottom screen. It's not possible to do this in any DS emulators available currently, but you can just drag the window around until it lines up correctly.

The Ayaspace implementation on the bottom screen is pretty cool though, and shows you fan speed, TDP, and more. You can control basic functions down here, including Windows functions like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Ayaspace has improved a lot, but there have been a couple of times where it's locked up and crashed. I assume this will improve over time, but even setting up the Flip DS for the first time was a bit of a chore and required manually updating Ayaspace to get it working properly.

Performance and battery life

The same AMD Ryzen 7 7840U that you expect

The Ayaneo Flip DS has fantastic performance, just like you would expect from an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U. I've been playing games like Cyberpunk: 2077, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Helldivers 2 on this without any issues. If you've ever used a Ryzen 7 7840U handheld before, then you know what kind of performance profile you're getting. This is on par with the Asus ROG Ally as well, making for a great alternative to that particular handheld.

The only problem is the battery life, and I suspect it's because of the significantly smaller battery this time around. Disabling the second screen didn't help at all, but even running the Cyberpunk: 2077 benchmark drained the battery by just under 5%, though that is with max TDP and max brightness. It's still not great, and it's something I've seen mirrored by other reviewers. The performance is great, but to get that great performance you'll have to play for less time.

Something I appreciate from Ayaneo is that they release their own device testing, and for the most part, it appears to line up with what people experience, too. Their own metrics show how poor the battery life can be at maximum TDP, and I am seeing similar numbers here. It's a shame, but if you're aiming to play AAA titles on this device then you can probably forget about it unless you don't mind needing to be close to a charger at all times.

The best thing that you can do is decrease the TDP and the screen brightness to make the most of the battery life, but you'll still struggle overall. If you're someone who likes to play on the go a lot, then this probably isn't the handheld for you. It will struggle to keep a charge.

Should you buy the Ayaneo Flip DS?

You should buy the Ayaneo Flip DS if:

• You want to emulate 3DS and Wii U games
• You want a unique gaming handheld to play with
• You don't mind being close to a charger all the time

You shouldn't buy the Ayaneo Flip DS if:

• You need it to last a long time
• You don't care about a dual-screen handheld
• You care about international warranty

The Ayaneo Flip DS is yet another spin on the gaming handheld format to do something weird and different, and I absolutely love it because of that. The company has been trying weird and wonderful things with a few of its handhelds, and it's just as "out there" as the Slide is, in my opinion. If you want to get a gaming handheld that's reasonably compact and stands out from the crowd, then this is absolutely it.

However, there's a significant consideration to bear in mind when considering this handheld. Despite it being unique, it's important to give the same caveat as I always do with Ayaneo's products. I'm concerned about the after-sales service and potential hardware issues. I had issues with the original Ayaneo 2S, and I've seen other people online having issues too. It's important to be fair though, and the gaming community has witnessed instances of companies using social media to undermine rivals, implying that obtaining necessary assistance isn't guaranteed. Moreover, the prospect of returning products to China may pose challenges for some customers encountering issues.

Additionally, Ayaneo has been rapidly iterating and releasing product after product, to the point that it puts some people off who just want to purchase a handheld and not feel left behind. While the company commendably offered up an upgrade kit for Ayaneo 2 owners to enhance cooling and audio features at no extra cost when the Ayaneo 2S launched, those who desire the most current technology might find Ayaneo's offerings less appealing. Thankfully, on a performance level, they're all more or less comparable, with all of the devices so far with a 7840U performing at about the same level.

If you want a great gaming handheld that's unique and perfect for emulating some consoles, then the Ayaneo Flip DS is undoubtedly it. It's a new take on a form factor and that alone should be commended, but just because it's something new doesn't mean that it's something great. It's worth having a look at and seeing if it suits you, but if it doesn't, that's completely fine!