The sticks are a little lower-profile than the Switch’s, but they’re comfortable and easy to use. The D-pad appears to be identical to the PlayStation Vita’s, which is a very good thing. The grips are more comfortable and house useful customizable rear buttons. The 5.98-inch 1080p LCD is bigger and sharper. As someone who used a Switch Lite for a couple of years, though, I actually think Ayn’s hardware is better. The Odin’s design inspiration is pretty obvious: it’s basically a Nintendo Switch Lite running Android.

Inevitably needs some software tweaking.

But it’s powerful enough to play more types of games than any of its Android competitors, while its design and control layout give it much more flexibility. It’s made by a small company in Shenzhen without any aspirations to create a brand new gaming platform, instead entrusting you to run whatever game you want on the device from the start. The $200–$300 (depending on configuration) Ayn Odin is a new Android handheld that builds on that approach.

Companies like Retroid and Anbernic are churning out cheap, low-powered Android handhelds in a variety of shapes and sizes, usually with emulation in mind. You don’t have to have sweeping ambitions to build a platform ecosystem if all you want to do is sell to a small crowd of retro game enthusiasts. Recently, though, the open nature of Android and the accessibility of manufacturing have let countless smaller Chinese companies produce their own spin on the idea. It turns out Google’s OS isn’t a panacea for building your own ecosystem. Nvidia’s streaming-focused Shield, meanwhile, evolved into a great streaming box but didn’t do much to make Android a better gaming platform. The Ouya, for example, was a high-profile Kickstarter success and a disastrous commercial flop. There have been several attempts to create Android-based game consoles, but none have really gone to plan.

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