There are two kinds of handheld gaming devices these days. The first are the portable powerhouses that try to cram a gaming PC into something you can fit in a backpack. The second are the nostalgia machines, small, affordable devices designed to let you relive the glory days of retro gaming while pretending your ever-growing Steam backlog doesn’t exist.
Ayaneo’s newly revealed Konkr Pocket Block firmly belongs to the latter category, and I have to admit, it has me intrigued. Unveiled during Ayaneo’s recent Product Sharing Session, the Konkr Pocket Block is a compact vertical handheld that looks like someone took a classic Game Boy, gave it a modern makeover, and then sprinkled a little AI buzzword magic over the top.
The result is a device that immediately stands out in the increasingly crowded retro handheld market.
What caught my eye first was the design. The Pocket Block embraces simplicity. Unlike many of Ayaneo’s previous handhelds, there are no analogue sticks protruding from the device. Instead, it opts for a clean, classic layout focused on physical buttons and portability.
It’s small enough to genuinely live up to its name, looking like something you could slip into your pocket and carry around all day. The grey and purple colourways shown during the reveal lean heavily into retro aesthetics, giving the device a nostalgic charm that feels deliberate rather than accidental.
If you’ve spent any amount of time obsessing over handheld gaming history, or collecting retro consoles you definitely didn’t need but absolutely bought anyway, there’s something immediately appealing about its old-school silhouette.
Of course, Ayaneo isn’t just selling nostalgia.
The company is marketing the Pocket Block as the world’s first AI-powered handheld gaming console. What exactly that means remains a little unclear, but Ayaneo has hinted at AI-assisted tools designed to improve system interactions and enhance the overall gaming experience.
The company suggests these features could help with performance tuning, provide smart shortcuts within the interface, and generally make the handheld feel more intuitive to use.
Whether those features turn out to be genuinely useful or just another excuse to slap “AI” on a product box remains to be seen. At the moment, the AI functionality feels more like a mystery than a selling point.
Under the hood, the Pocket Block runs Android alongside Ayaneo’s custom software ecosystem. That means access to Android games, cloud gaming services, streaming applications, and emulation. Ayaneo is also bringing its newly developed emulator software to the platform, making it easier for retro enthusiasts to dive straight into classic gaming libraries.
There’s still plenty we don’t know about the Konkr Pocket Block. Pricing, specifications, release dates, and the full extent of its AI capabilities remain under wraps. But even from this early look, it’s shaping up to be one of the more interesting handhelds on the horizon.
Will it revolutionise portable gaming? Probably not. Will it tempt retro gaming fans who already own far too many handhelds? Unfortunately for my wallet, the answer might be yes.
