Chinese maker AYANEO, responsible for a bunch of Android-powered retro handhelds in previous years, has revealed the price, specs, and release date for its Macintosh-inspired mini PC.
The AM01 was announced back at the start of November with an IndieGoGo campaign. This features an AMD processor, which you can choose between a Ryzen 3 or a Ryzen 7. These chips are powerful enough to run games up to the PlayStation 3 era, as long as you own the games.
You can choose between 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of fast DDR4 memory, but you'll have to shell out some extra cash for storage, as the AM01 doesn't include an SSD drive. Yet the campaign does offer add-ons that can include these if you wish.
With Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, you can easily connect to your home internet and to a controller of your choice. At the back of this mini-PC, it also features 3 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB-C port, Ethernet, a headphone jack, and both a HDMI and DisplayPort for a Monitor. This mini-PC also comes with an activation key for Windows 11 Home, so it's just a matter of installing it, entering the key and you're good to go.
AYANEO has confirmed that it has begun to ship the AM01, and you can buy one right now for $150 — down from $200 until the IndieGoGo campaign ends on December 29. Already, this has made some of the team at iMore excited about what this mini-PC could do with these specs — especially as it could be a great Christmas present for someone.
Ryzen to the Future — iMore's take
I've owned a Steam Deck, Valve's PC handheld, for the past year, and have loved it. This replaced my Gaming PC that I built during the pandemic in 2020, and it's amazing to me how I can take it out of my carry-bag at any time, and see how much further I can get in Half-Life 2.
Yet these mini-PCs have some advantages over my Steam Deck, which has me curious. For one thing, it runs through a power socket — so, barring any power cuts, there's no chance of this AM01 running out of battery. With its AMD Ryzen chip, this mini-PC can also run games at far higher resolutions on my 4K TV, and at higher framerates compared to my Steam Deck.
When I factor in its Macintosh-inspired design and how small it looks, especially compared to a Mac mini, I can see how it can sit beside my Apple TV in the front room. iMore will be reviewing the AM01 soon — but you may be hearing more about it in the coming months, to see how this mini-PC truly fares with certain games that I play.
