- It's Retro Handheld time.
This is the Ayn Odin,
a project that I've been kind
of looking at ever since that video I did
on the Anbernic and Retroid Pocket on LTT.
This is different.
This promises to be for the Retro Handheld community.
What the Steam Deck is to the PC community.
That's big shoes to fill.
Let's take a look at the box and see if they...
Oh okay, there's nothing really.
They didn't even take any of the boxes for what we have.
I don't know if we got a light, a base or a pro model,
there are three models.
Let's just get into the box and calm ourselves down.
For you, I have this screen protector,
And if you will not calm down, I will break it.
- Tempered glass,
actually yeah pretty good screen protector.
All right, so we got the unit itself and a little baggy.
What else we got here?
Nice little fabric.
We got a USB type.
Type, A to C, but it's purple.
Why?
That looks like 2.0 to me.
There's only four contacts in there.
You're entering the system right.
This one is Android.
We have three CPU options.
You've got the Snapdragon 845
and the Kryo Gold and Kryo Silver
which I'm not sure the big and little course.
Is that what that is?
- 4 AKs of Ram,
a full HD IPS display six inches.
Well, 5.9, eight inches close enough with touch 369 PPI.
Nice.
Dragontrail Glass.
Now I feel even worse about that screen protector.
Wireless up to AC.
So not wireless six or anything like that.
USB 3.1 type C on it
with mini HDMI, 3.5 millimeter Audio Jack, Android 10.
The Retroid I think only ever goes up
to Android seven or nine.
Maybe if you update it, it comes with five.
The Anbernic just runs emulation station
in I think a Linux history of some kind.
This runs Android 10.
So that means it can actually run,
some fairly recent applications if you want to.
So you could actually use it
for mobile gaming in the traditional sense.
All right, let's get it outta the packaging here.
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This feels really nice.
It's plastic is almost like a soft touch.
It feels,
- Yeah satiny.
Then it's got triggers and they feel good.
And they have a little detent at the end too.
There's like when you get down to the end,
there's a little bit of extra tension required
to get it down to the actual end of the travel.
Actually, that'd be pretty good for GameCube emulation
because GameCube has that extra detent.
That's pretty cool.
It's got paddles on the back here.
I'm not sure what you'd use those for?
Probably, I guess just map it to whatever you want.
It does have a cooling fan
or at least I think that's a fan in there.
So these are the speakers here.
They're stereo, they'll fire down into your palms,
which actually might be good for audio quality
because like they're not firing directly in
so they're be muffled, but they're firing
in such a way that when you're holding in the device,
the sound will come down into your palm and then reflect up.
The shoulder buttons feel very nice.
These are really thin.
They're reassuringly clicky, honestly, really shocking.
I'm not a huge fan of the clickiness of the D-pad.
It's got tactile switches instead of rubber domes,
which mean, some people like that.
It is faster than a rubber dome.
And you know when you've actually pressed it,
but if you're used to rubber domes,
it's a little bit annoying.
Also the D-pad is pretty small.
Like my finger covers the whole thing.
I mean, if you're playing a fighting game,
you're probably not gonna want to use the D-pad.
These analog sticks feel a lot like the Nintendo Switch.
And I think they may actually be,
Nintendo Switch analog sticks.
from the Joy-Cons.
The face buttons themselves are rubber dome though.
So that is a good feeling for me.
And they they've got a pretty good snap to them.
They feel good.
What is this?
Little door for our...
It's got a micro HDMI
as well as a TransFlash card slot in micro SD.
This size, is fairly pocketable.
Here's my iPhone right next to it.
It's basically my iPhone but with controllers.
It feels identical.
- Possibly you might get drift issues.
I'd have to take this apart
to see if it's the same like actual mechanism
and just the cap that's different.
And it's only very slightly different.
The motion feels identical.
It is smaller than the regular switch.
It is a little bit thicker though.
It's only because they've got these grips,
whereas the switch is just completely flat on the back.
So this has that contour grip,
which honestly, again, it feels really nice in the hand.
It's nice to hold.
It's similar to the way the Steam Deck feels.
With those...
This one's kind of taken apart a little bit,
but it's got that molding on the back
that makes it thicker and a little bit more unwieldy.
But at the same time, it makes it much easier to hold.
And it kind of reminds me of a smaller Steam Deck.
It's like if the Steam Deck and a Switch had a baby.
Look at that.
Let's see how heavy this thing is in comparison
to the competition.
It doesn't have its screws.
There is a can missing and it doesn't have its SSD.
So this is a Steam Deck
that's been lightened up a little bit, 650 grams.
Yeah. 1.4 pounds.
Switch O lid, this is a little bit heavier
than a standard Switch.
Almost a pound I think, 9.95 pounds
or point nine six pounds.
And this guy, 366 grams, like point eight pounds.
And that's not even the only thing we got here,
like the Steam Deck, this thing has a Dock.
The Steam Deck Dock is not available yet.
This one is.
This is Ayn's Super Dock.
Let's get it outta the packaging here
'cause it's already kind of exploded.
So that's why it felt flimsy.
This thing has a little window
for you to slide your Ayn Odin into.
So you basically do this whole thing like this.
Just fits right in there.
Just like a Switch.
- Now it has a screen protector.
Just take this with you wherever you go.
Also I'm noticing something pretty cursed.
This is the button layout for an Xbox controller.
You gotta a green A button, red B button,
a blue X button and a yellow Y button.
Remember that pattern yellow B button,
red A button, green Y button and blue X button.
They're in completely different locations
with completely different colors.
They kind of copied Nintendo more here
in terms of the whole layout right?
So I don't know why they couldn't have just kept the colors.
So this is what makes it a Super Dock.
These are an Nintendo 64 controller ports.
- So you can use an N64 controller
on your Ayn Odin with the Super Dock.
And these are GameCube controller ports.
- So you don't even need an adapter
or like a third party controller or anything like that
in order to get authentic controls for these games.
And that's the problem for most handheld driven consoles
because these controllers were so strange in their layout.
It's actually kind of difficult to map the them
to any kind of legible modern controller
try playing an N64 game with an Xbox controller.
There are two HDMIs on here.
Well the type C is obviously for power.
Ethernet, I get that,
you get the three USBs, seems a little overkill
'cause you also have two USBs up here,
which ain't sure how many things are you gonna hang off
with this with USB?
If you've already got ethernet.
The HDMI output on the side is for 10 ABP specifically.
And the HDMI output on the back is for 4K specifically.
I've never seen that before.
I have no idea why they couldn't have just made the 4K,
why do 10 ABP as well.
There's more to this dock.
We're not done yet.
This really just puts this dock over
into why doesn't everything have this territory, omega dock.
There we go.
Check that out.
That is a Serial ATA port.
You can slide a two and a half inch hard drive
or SSD into this thing.
And it'll automatically connect.
Once you dock the Odin.
You can have a huge game library on this
and then carry your Nintendo and any S games
on this because there's small.
It's like the best of both worlds.
This has all the IO.
Every dock should have this.
The Steam Deck Dock should have this, valve please.
The USB-C port is there
and it's got like a little collar very awkward
to get in there from here.
But it makes it that only, when this is fully aligned.
Will it get down there?
So you're not gonna scratch up your console.
It's like the perfect dock.
Sorry, I know,
I just said that I was gonna get it back together,
but as I'm doing it, I'm reminded the one thing
that I would strongly hope to have fixed
in a future revision.
There's no way to get this up
after you've taken the screws out
without like sticking a screwdriver in here
and like kind of prying it.
So there's no way in.
That's something I'd like to see fixed
for a future revision.
Other than that, the dock is great.
See it's begging for a peal.
It's got these little bubbles here.
Just gonna pull it right off there.
I've had better.
Nice bit up animation.
It doesn't look that there's any proprietary anything
in here as far as software goes, Google...
Here we go.
So Odin settings, it's got an ambient LED joystick.
Joysticks light up.
I think it's just blue and the side LEDs.
It's got some of that side lighting action.
So you have to choose and you have
to restart it between selecting this,
whether you want display port over type C,
which is 4K 60 compatible
or HDMI, which is 10 ABP compatible.
So this version of it can in fact run
with this here little port
and the 10 ABP port on the side here
or it can run with display port on the bottom.
Performance seems solid.
I need to turn up the chunks count
'cause it seems like it's a solid 60.
Supposedly this thing can do like Dreamcast games
and a bunch of really high end emulators.
But it's also useful for things like, well, mobile games,
Minecraft, Genshin Impact.
What else do the kids play these days Jono?
- COD mobile.
So it slowed down a little bit
while it loading those chunks,
but it is now back up to basically a solid 60,
maybe a couple drops down
in the fifties or forties, depending on what I'm looking at.
This is base.
This is pretty much cranked at this point
and this is 10 ABP.
Now granted,
Minecraft isn't the most graphically intensive application
out there but it is one
of the most unoptimized applications out there.
So it's starting to chug a little bit
when I look out this way.
So there must be a whole bunch
of stuff in that particular direction.
So it's like dropping down to like 30-ish, I think.
Maybe they'll play on maximum chunk,
but I mean this is a Snapdragon 845 SoC.
So you can basically expect,
pretty much top tier performance,
but I was...
This is what I was going to say,
but is this fan thing?
Just not a thing.
Is that just not, is that not a fan?
I don't think that's a fan.
What are you?
287 US dollars.
For the extra 50 bucks you get a better battery.
Wait, what else do...
- More Ram and more storage.
Obviously you go for the base of the pro right?
$67 for this.
There's not a whole lot of stuff in here.
There's a USB hub obviously
and an ethernet controller and I guess a display port
to HDMI or I guess that's done on board.
I'm not entirely sure.
It does have the controller ports
and stuff like, a controller converter
for this many controllers would be probably more than that.
Get the dock and get this,
cost you what, 350 bucks total.
And you've got,
pretty much the perfect hybrid portable device
that you can get for retro gaming.
You can stream PC games
with I think Steam Link or Moonlight.
If you've got an Nvidia Card or AMD Link
I was going to just leave it there.
But Jono so rudely interrupted my attempt
to close this video out by saying,
Hey, you should go
and put on some Crab Rave.
It's a little distorty at max volume.
Highs are good though.
Having your hands there does changes in it.
That's not bad.
Like it's not amazing.
Very different, sounds different
with your hands away from it.
The stereo imaging sounds pretty good.
The top end sounds pretty tight.
The base is heavier than I would expect.
It does get a little bit distorty up at the max volume
but overall clarity is really good.
Let me just quickly do my phone.
(upbeat music)
Very strong performance.
I would say that it actually probably sounds better
than my phone because of the serial separation.
I would've expected the speakers, especially
on a device that costs this little to be a weak point
because they always are.
It's always either the screen
or the speakers or the controls,
but none of it feels bad and none of it is bad.
It's all very solid.
Obviously the chipset is going to be the limiting factor.
It's not like the top end Snapdragon,
but it's an 845 which is not a slouch,
especially for the price.
Would I buy this?
Probably like if I were in the market
for something like this,
I mean, I've got a Steam Deck reservation
and so I'm not currently.
But at the same time, the Steam Deck is huge by comparison.
So if I had to commute every day,
this would be my go-to probably not the Steam Deck.
That's just the bottom line.
Thanks for watching this episode of short circuit guys.
This is not entirely retro flavored, but pretty retro.
If you want something similar, maybe go check
out our Analogue Pocket episode,
got plenty more like this and not like it as well.