- Ayaneo makes its first Android phone
- Called the Pocket Play, this is a gaming phone with physical slide-out buttons like the Xperia Play
- Details are light, but it will launch on Kickstarter soon
If you miss the days when you could buy a handheld console that also happened to be a phone, like with the Xperia Play and N-Gage, then there’s a new handset you’ll probably be interested in.
Ayaneo – which is known for making retro handheld consoles – is set to make its first Android phone, called the Pocket Play, and the company has now revealed the design of this device.
As with the Xperia Play, you can slide the screen up to reveal physical controls, including a D-pad, a pair of circular touchpads, ABXY buttons and two shoulder buttons on either side, hidden behind.
So unlike the current top gaming phones, which are still primarily touchscreens, this one has a full set of physical buttons as well as its touchscreen.
This design probably means the Ayaneo Pocket Play will be a bit chunky, but it will certainly take up less space than carrying around both a smartphone and a handheld console, so if you’re the type to do that, this could be an appealing alternative.
No word on the specs
Unfortunately, we don’t know much else about it yet – there are no specs, no pricing, and not even a release date, aside from a claim that it’s “launching soon” on Kickstarter. But that’s probably right when you’ll be able to back it up, so it’ll probably be a while before it actually ships.
Still, it should at least mean we’ll be learning a lot more about the Ayaneo Pocket Play soon, and in the meantime, there’s an option on the Kickstarter page to let you know when the project launches.
And while this is certainly niche, it’s nice to see some variety among smartphones, rather than them all being nearly identical slabs.
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