When it comes to PC gaming handhelds, Ayaneo has been ahead of the pack. The Ayaneo Kun is the best overall PC gaming handheld that you can get, though it comes at a premium. The company is now taking that expertise to mini PCs, with the company's first being the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01. It packs up to an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a very... inspired look.

To be clear, Ayaneo isn't exactly shying away from the design that it's trying to imitate. The company is very clear that it's a "retro" look based on past hardware, and it maintains all of the hallmark design elements of the classic Macintosh from Apple. That's right down to the rainbow on the left side, though Ayaneo didn't seem to want to go so far as imitate the Apple logo, too. Funny, that. This is the first device in the company's remake line and we can already expect to see more devices similar to this in the future. It's already teased the upcoming AM02 which looks like an NES.

The Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 is a genuinely great mini PC at a killer price. While it has older hardware, what it's capable of is great for the price. There are a lot of uses for a mini PC with a decent laptop CPU like this, and you can even buy "bare" systems that don't have any RAM or storage, so that you can configure it exactly how you want it. It's a great PC for just about everyone and it's capable of the basics, but some of the software weirdness may put you off at first.

About this review: I received the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 from Ayaneo on December 7th, 2023. The company had no input into the contents of this review.

Pricing & availability

The Ayaneo Retro Mini PC comes in multiple SKUs, primarily differentiated by the Ryzen 3 3200U in the base model and the Ryzen 7 5700U in the more powerful model. It starts at $200 for the base model with a Ryzen 3 3200U, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, going up to $421 for the Ryzen 7 5700U model with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, which is the model we're reviewing here. It's available internationally through IndieGoGo, though you may need to pay import taxes.

Design and build quality

Surprisingly versatile

The Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 is undeniably a lookalike of the original Macintosh, right down to the "Hello" wallpaper that's enabled out of the box. If you can get past that though, this mini PC manages to get a lot right. It has three USB-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB-C port, an Ethernet port, one HDMI 2.0 port, and a DisplayPort 1.4 connector. That's a lot of versatility.

The PC itself is made of hard plastic, weighing quite little for a PC. It's small too, so that you can put it basically anywhere without taking up too much space, and the fans are quiet as well. I noticed that they tend to idle quite frequently, which makes sense as this CPU was originally made for laptops from a few years ago. The Ryzen 3 3200U version of the Mini PC packs an even older CPU, and to be honest, we don't really recommend picking up that unit if you can afford to upgrade.

The TDP of the Ryzen 5 5700U goes up to 25W, and with Ayaspace the entire system can be enabled to draw up to 35W. Given that this is a laptop chip, it's a pretty low-power device that you could use as a NAS or even just an electrically-efficient computer. It's quiet with a good fan, and you get a HDMI cable, multiple adapters for the plug, stickers, and more in the box too to customize it.

Finally, in the box you also get a 2.5-inch bracket, tools to take the device apart, and a SATA connector so that you can connect an extra SSD to the device if you'd like for additional storage. Ayaneo always does a great job packing their products with everything you need, and this mini PC is no exception.

Software

Windows 11 with some... handheld(?) software on top

Ayaneo makes handheld PCs; in fact, Ayaneo makes excellent ones. Its Ayaspace program has improved leaps and bounds in recent months as it's received updates, and the Ayaneo Kun and the Ayaneo 2S are two entirely different devices separated largely in part by the software that came preloaded on them. Like with those handhelds, Ayaneo includes Ayaspace on its Retro Mini PC too, and to be honest, it's a little bit confused.

Booting up the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC for the first time reveals that this device comes with Ayaspace pre-installed as well, which makes sense given that there is a use for it on a computer, too. However, it asks me for console-like inputs on starting it. Thankfully you can click the buttons instead of pressing associated keys, and an update swiftly came in to update Ayaspace to be more desktop friendly.

Finally, I then had to manually update the AMD drivers included. The included performance monitor didn't work properly and couldn't read the GPU, and some programs that leveraged the GPU (like 3DMark) wouldn't work. Ayaspace didn't pick up any more updates, but thankfully when I downloaded AMD Adrenalin from AMD (despite it being pre-installed), this fixed it. Once set up, there's nothing really else to be done.

The Ayaneo Retro Mini PC, aside from the arduous steps of setting the thing up, is pretty simple once you have set it up. I've been using it with a SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL and a Logitech G Pro Wireless, and it's perfect for any kind of lighter use. Anything non-intensive, like web browsing, is a breeze, but you'll run into hitches if you're trying to do anything super intensive on it. It's not meant for that though, and you'll figure out those limitations quite quickly.

If you buy the barebones version of this computer, then you won't have any kind of pre-installed operating system and can choose what you want. In that case, you won't need to deal with anything like Ayaspace, and it might be perfect for someone looking to build a cheap but decently powerful NAS. The Ryzen 7 5700U has good encoder capabilities if you want to turn this into a Plex NAS, for example, only really lacking AV1 in terms of modern codecs.

Performance

Exactly what you expect from a three-year-old laptop CPU

The Ayaneo Retro Mini PC that we're reviewing packs the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, a laptop CPU from just shy of three years ago. It's not a bad CPU, though it is absolutely dated at this point. What we found in our testing is that it definitely seems to punch above its weight a bit in this PC, as it scores higher in benchmarks than other devices that this CPU launched in at the time.

As well, this device scored a total of 1445 in 3DMark's Time Spy, with a GPU score of 1268 and a CPU score of 6932.

As you can see from the above, the Ryzen 7 5700U in this device punches well above its own weight, and seems to achieve better than many would expect of an older laptop CPU. Part of that is likely due to the powerful cooling in this mini PC, but there's also probably an element of AMD being able to polish its own drivers over time and improve the performance over the last few years.

Either way, this is a good result and gives you an idea of what to expect depending on what you want to use this PC for. Ayaneo has been positioning this device as being used as a retro console capable of emulating older devices while also being capable of being used as a NAS, and this performance profile makes it perfect for both of those uses.

Should you buy the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC?

You should buy the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC if:

• You want a super compact PC
• You're on a budget
• You want a cool-looking PC

You should not buy the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC if:

• You're worried about international warranty
• You want to play intensive games

The Ayaneo Retro Mini PC is an excellent mini PC for someone who wants to build something out of it. It works as a desktop replacement if you just do basic web browsing, but the way I see it, this is the start of a project rather than a mini PC. You can turn it into a retro console if you'd like (and seems to be something that Ayaneo themselves are pushing), or you could turn it into a NAS if you'd like instead. It's a bit bigger than a Raspberry Pi, and you can absolutely use it as a supercharged one if you wish.

However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to Ayaneo, and the company still has a long way to go with sidelining perceptions of the company's aftersales support. There are stories on Reddit of people saying that they had trouble swapping out units of gaming handhelds when they had problems, and they may not fill you with confidence. We've seen companies stir up social media to attack competitors on platforms like these all the time, so it's not a guarantee that you won't get the appropriate help that you need, but it's something to consider as even shipping it all the way back to China could prove difficult for some people if you run into problems.

With that said, this is so cheap that it might be worth taking the plunge for. It's a well-priced product from a company that's trying to break out into the mini PC market, and as a first entry, it's a fantastic one. Taking aging hardware and plugging it into new things is great from a sustainability point of view as well, and breathes new life into hardware that may not have been used otherwise. Props to Ayaneo for that. Seriously.

Overall, if you want to pick up one of these, you won't be disappointed. I love it, and I'm going to be trying to figure out some uses for it that aren't just using it as a PC. It definitely makes a nice NAS, but there's so much more you can do with it too, and I'm glad Ayaneo realizes that.