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The original was posted on /r/ayaneo by /u/jdub-951 on 2024-07-09 00:52:01+00:00.
tl;dr: I ordered an Ayaneo 2 on Indiegogo. The unit arrived effectively DOA - hard reset after about 10 minutes of playing games. This was when Ayaneo’s support was truly ghastly. Multiple attempts to fix the problem resulted in support ghosting me and or offering me to spend hundreds of dollars to fix what should have been a warranty repair. After they swore things were better, they arranged a courier to pick up the unit, supposedly “fixed” it, and it returned today. Same problem. $1200 paperweight.
I own several gaming handhelds, and the Ayaneo 2 is without a doubt the one that feels the most premium, and which I would love to game on - if only it worked.
I ordered my Ayaneo 2 (32G/2T) as an Indegogo purchase. It arrived in mid-March of 2023. Immediately there was a problem. The first day I was able to actually play games on the unit, I noticed that it would hard-reset after about 5 minutes of intense play. I contacted AyaNeo on March 30, 2023, showing video evidence of the problem. After 23 emails trying to get a repair over a period of 4 months that reads like a dystopian novel, AyaNeo suggested, on July 31, 2023, that because I was a “good customer” they would discount the price of a motherboard replacement by 50%, if I would pay for return shipping (I didn’t quote it, but I would expect >$200 from the US to China). Since I already had a Rog Ally at this point, I basically told them thanks but no thanks.
On August 11, 2023, they confirmed that they would be able to send me a motherboard upgrade to the AN2S for $150. I told them to send it. They never did. I prompted multiple times, and AyaNeo finally stopped responding to emails on November 9, 2023.
Earlier this year (March 21, to be precise), I responded with a short version of this story in a thread on Reddit. Someone from AyaNeo replied, assuring me that things were different now and they would take care of me. I went through the same process of proving (again) using the same video from a year earlier that my device never worked from the moment I got it. After about a month of back and forth, support agreed to arrange a pickup. The pickup process was basically a DHL courier arrangement in the middle of the night. Because I didn’t have everything together, I delayed my initial courier shipment by one day, and informed AyaNeo about this. They sent a panicked email saying that the address on the waybill was wrong, and under no circumstances should I give the package to the courier. I cancelled the pickup, and waited to hear back. Four days later, we did the same thing, though this time DHL picked up the package on May 22. The package transited to China, where it showed to be stuck in Shenzhen for about 2 weeks. Somehow it magically appeared in Hong Kong “at their repair center” and was “fixed” and returned to me today.
Unfortunately, the issue is not fixed. I am certain I received the same unit I sent, because it has the same tempered glass screen protector on it. I am tempted at this point to open the unit up and see if it has all four screws holding the sides in (my unit only had 3 screws when I replaced the thermal management with the updated solution, hoping that might fix things).
The bottom line, again, is that you should understand that buying anything from this company is a huge risk. AN devices feel premium, but they are not. They are boutique handhelds) that do not have sufficient volume or quality control to actually create the kind of experience they supposedly offer. I would highly recommend that anyone who is considering buying an AyaNeo device order one from a storefront where you are able to return the device if it does not work. I would also recommend that you be able to eat the entire purchase price if you get a dud.
I realize that there are many of you that are out there who have good experiences, and I’m glad for that. I wish I was among you. But I will never buy something from AyaNeo again, and I would recommend that anyone in the market avoid them. The risk of a non-functional device is simply too high, and service/support are absolutely non-existent.
) In thinking of the “boutique” nature of AN handhelds compared to the larger competition, I’m reminded of the exchange between James May and Jeremy Clarkson:
JM: “This is a coach-built, hand-built car.”
JC: “Hand-built is just another way of saying ‘The door will fall off.’”