It’s no secret that I’ve become a fan of AYANEO in the last year or so. They’ve been putting out innovative PC handhelds left, right and centre with no signs of stopping, but the company has now turned its attention to mini PCs.
The AYANEO AM01 was designed to look like the original Macintosh and whilst it was super stylish, lacked a bit of power for AAA gaming, but the AM02 leaves absolutely no stones unturned both in design and power.
The AYANEO Am02 might just be one of the most unique and exciting tech products that I’ve ever reviewed in the PC space. It looks like the NES, but in case you couldn’t tell from the photos, that’s a working 4-inch touchscreen display on the top of it.
Whilst you might not think there’s a lot of need for a touch screen at the top of your mini PC. It’s super helpful for a number of reasons. You can display information such as the time and weather, or even have a screen that allows you to control volume on the fly, but if you’re somebody who likes to keep a close eye on performance and how your internals are running, there’s a full display that shows current FPS, how much internet your PC is using as well as temperatures of your CPU/GPU and how much they’re being pushed.
It’s a great way to keep an eye on current gameplay and making sure you’re getting the most out of the system without having to have an overlay on your screen. Given this is a brand new product, there are a few bugs (mainly some things showing in other languages), but AYANEO are fantastic are patching things quickly. It’s only a matter of time before there’s a bunch of other uses for this screen as well, so it’s exciting to see what happens in this space.
There’s a heap of other nods to the NES as well. The power button has a little light indicator just like the original did, and you can press the eject button on the left to flip the lid open and reveal a number of ports.
As far as ports go, on the back, you’ve got USB Type C for charging (100w required), a 2.5GB ethernet port as well as a 1000MBPS gigabit port, two USB-A ports, HDMI as well as DisplayPort for video output. On the front, you’ve got another two USB-A ports, 3.5mm jack and a USB4 Type-C DP port.
I’d really have loved for this device to have a fully-fledged USB-C port on the back for video/power, but because most monitors only support passthrough at 90w, we’re probably not at that stage yet, but it would make it a lot more convenient. Regardless, absolutely everything you’d need connectivity-wise out of a mini PC is here.
In terms of the specs of the mini PC, the AYANEO AM02 comes with the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS and can be purchased in the below configurations:
- Barebones – $441 USD (~$670 AUD)
- 16GB + 512GB – $531 USD (~$841 AUD)
- 16GB + 1TB – $571 USD (~$868 AUD)
- 32GB + 1TB – $631 USD (~$959 AUD)
I was sent over the 32GB + 1TB version, but if you buy the barebones, or the other versions, you’re able to upgrade the SSD and memory after the fact. The performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS is a bit above that found in the AYANEO 2S meaning that you can play most AAA games at 1080p, whilst getting 60 FPS. This is particularly true for those that take advantage of AMD FSR in which case for games such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Forza Horizon 5 you can push the resolution up or get even more frames out of it.
Obviously, if you’re playing indie games or emulation, this thing is an absolute dream with you able to push it to 4K and well above the 120 FPS mark in most cases. Similarly, if you’re doing just day to day work, video editing or any kind of content creation it’s a great little unit as well.
The AM02 comes preloaded with AYASpace and there’s a new overlay which that shows performance metrics which I really love as well, particularly for the desktop environment, so it’s nice to see the company improving things there as well. It’s worth mentioning that you can mount the unit to the back of your monitor with included screws, although you’d be hiding that gorgeous design and display.
I will say that if there’s one area that I’d like to see improved in future iterations it’s the fan noise which really ramps up whilst gaming. It’s to be expected given the smaller size of the unit, and I’d recommend just chucking on some headphones or cranking the speakers if you’re doing intense AAA gaming.
Overall, the AM02 represents really great value for money, particularly if you’re somebody who cares a lot about aesthetics and doesn’t want to plonk any old mini PC on your desk. I could see this going really well in a living room situation as well.
