AYANEO’s $89 GBA sold through its first batch in two days, and the restock is already going

Two days. That is how long the KONKR Pocket Advance’s first allocation lasted after pre-orders opened on August 5. AYANEO announced on Thursday that “the demand far exceeded our expectations” and that some configurations sold out so quickly they had to be temporarily pulled from sale entirely. The coral, navy and gray versions are now restocked, and a new Peach Edition has joined them, same hardware, same $89 and $109 pre-order prices, its own spot on the store.

I wrote about this device on Wednesday, and the argument then was the screen: a 3.5 inch 960×640 panel that scales the GBA’s 240×160 at an exact 4x with nothing interpolated. AYANEO built its name on Windows handhelds that cost more than a games console, and its first genuinely cheap device is the one readers apparently could not order fast enough. Including me, I preordered mine the day it was available. Anbernic already knew there was an audience at the bottom of the price ladder. Now the company from the top has figured it out too, and I would expect every handheld maker watching this launch to draw the same conclusion. We like cheap systems that are specialized.

Mine is on the POCG review queue. The spec sheet reads well and the panel maths is genuinely right, but a $89 handheld from a premium maker is exactly the kind of claim I want to investigate.