It’s been a busy time for AYANEO lately. Hot on the heels of the official launch of the new Pocket VERT handheld, the company also unveiled more details surrounding the upcoming Pocket Play, its first-ever sliding gaming smartphone (ala Xperia Play, if you will). The Pocket Play is now on Kickstarter, and potential backers who long for the golden days of the Xperia Play—and to an extent, the PSP Go—might want to check out what AYANEO has to offer with this one.
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According to AYANEO, the Pocket Play will feature a 6.8-inch OLED display, which is something that’s not really uncommon on most Android smartphones nowadays. It also comes with a 2400x1080p resolution, as well as a 165Hz refresh rate, a rarity in today’s market. Given the combination of the high resolution, smooth refresh rate and vibrant OLED colours, we’re willing to bet that the Pocket Play might be one of the best displays that we’re going to see on a dedicated gaming phone.
As you can probably tell, AYANEO has pretty much based the Pocket Play’s design on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, which itself was based on the PSP Go from years ago. All of these use a sliding mechanism, which allows the device to hide its controls underneath the display. Available in black and white, the Pocket Play comes with a mostly sleek look, and the same can be said for its control setup.
It’s clear that AYANEO’s experience in developing handheld gaming devices has translated to the Pocket Play, which comes with a rather complete set of controls. One consideration are the missing analogue sticks, although AYANEO has equipped the device with a pair of circular touchpads as a substitute. The large display in front also comes with just a bit of bezel to accommodate the front earpiece and camera.
On the edges of the device, you’ll find a volume rocker and power button, although you also get a quadruple trigger button setup, which includes L1, L2, R1, and R2 buttons. The bottom meanwhile houses your speaker, microphone and sim tray, a common setup found in most smartphones nowadays. Overall though it looks rather sleek, with just enough hardware to help is stand out from a segment dominated by the likes of the ROG Phones and Xiaomi’s POCO brand, to name a couple.
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At the moment however, other details such as pricing and availability are still a mystery. As such, fans looking to invest in AYANEO’s gaming phone might have to wait a bit more for additional information on the device.
