AYN Thor review - "A truly phenomenal entry into the handheld gaming sphere"

• Superb build quality puts the Thor above its peers in what's become a bit of a crowded market
• A beautiful OLED top screen makes the Thor perfect for playing games, watching movies or videos, or even doing some light regular internet browsing
• The Thor does require some light tweaking and internal file editing to make it really shine

If you, like me, have an interest in retro gaming, you’ve likely come to realise that getting involved in that scene in the modern era is nigh impossible unless you’re filthy rich.

With even not-so-old consoles like the Nintendo 3DS going for used prices ranging around $300 on average, and older consoles being pretty difficult to get ahold of in general, current markets are not conducive to digging into the monumental past of video game history.

Lucky for us, we have a new option in the form of the recently released AYN Thor. This handheld console is clearly designed to emulate the 3DS especially, but is potentially even better due to the absolutely killer 1920x1080 OLED screen up top that looks phenomenal in action, alongside some pretty darn beefy technical specs within the machine itself too.

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Sporting a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU, the Thor can hold up against a majority of whatever you might throw at it.

While it is generally made for emulation of older consoles, even the beefiest of mobile endeavours, such as Where Winds Meet or the recently launched mobile rendition of Warframe, can be run at the absolute highest settings with next to no performance issues.

Having played most of the bigger names on the mobile market myself on the Thor, I can say that all of them have run at a crisp 60-120fps without any major dips in the slightest.

When it comes to the emulation side of things, the Thor is also thoroughly impressive. I have personally run entries from the PS1, PS2, New 3DS, and even the darn Nintendo Switch, all without a single hitch in the performance. 

When it comes to emulating PC games through apps such as Gamehub or Gamenative, things can get a bit tricky. If this is going to be a major focus for you, I’d recommend grabbing the Pro model due to the increased RAM, which will make PC games run a lot smoother for you.

Basically, what I’m getting at here is that this thing really is all it’s cracked up to be, and I have next to no complaints with the performance, though sometimes it does take a mild amount of tweaking to make sure that performance stays absolutely consistent.

Speaking of tweaking, this is where things can get a bit shaky if you’re not a real tech nerd. The Thor itself comes out of the box as what is essentially a glorified Android phone.

Built on that Android platform, you get the normal included apps that would come with one, and that’s about it. From there, the world is your oyster, and that can be overwhelming and difficult for people not adjusted to tweaking emulators or utilising launchers.

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For some interested parties, this will be a negative, but having set up a great front-end launcher myself amidst the many options there are for Android devices, I got a real kick out of figuring everything out for myself and toying with all the cool stuff people have developed for the platform out there.

 

While it is a lot of file digging and unzipping, it starts to feel like you’re creating your own dream emulation device instead of just popping open the very beautiful package and going right in.

All in all, the Thor is a downright miracle of a device, and for the semi-pricey but comparatively very reasonable price range of $249-$489, it’s really a steal when compared to dropping thousands on retro gaming gear. 

Outside of the initial set-up, for which there are a lot of guides out there to help you along, this device runs absolutely flawlessly 99% of the time and gets my glowing recommendation for someone looking for a Steam Deck alternative or just a really solid handheld gaming avenue.