The arrival of the Nintendo Switch has made it clear: the Aya Neo goes one step further in theory: it's a portable gaming PC

This innovative gadget is currently in the midst of a highly successful crowdfunding campaign If successful, this could be one of the first opportunities for the general public to get their hands on a gadget that has been a CES concept until now

The information comes from Indiegogo, where Aya Neo is a boutique electronics manufacturer in China The sales pitch is pretty simple: the Aya Neo is a gaming PC in a handheld console shell, with two analog sticks, a D-pad, face buttons, and a handful of function buttons But you have to be prepared to spend quite a bit of money

The Aya Neo can run demanding PC games at 1280 x 800 resolution at a frame rate of at least 30 frames per second The Aya Neo is available for $870 (HK$6,750) This is nearly three times the price of the Nintendo Switch However, the Neo is more like a low-end gaming laptop than a mini-gaming console

Whatever else can be said about the Aya Neo, it does not do anything halfway The system comes with a 7-inch IPS screen, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U CPU, integrated AMD Radeon GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD storage, and at least 5 hours of battery life It also has a full complement of ports, including three USB-C ports with video output and a 35 mm headphone jack; Wi-Fi 6 lets you quickly download new games, and Bluetooth 50 lets you connect controllers and other peripherals

What's interesting about the Aya Neo, however, is that it appears to have been designed from the ground up as a handheld, rather than a super-compact PC that just happens to have a joystick: the 800p screen is a touchscreen, and the joystick is similar to the Razer Kishi There is also an optional $47 docking station that allows the device to stand vertically and play like a small stand-alone console

Performance-wise, the Aya Neo is not as good as a traditional gaming laptop or desktop PC, but the device seems to hold its own Developers are promising frame rates of 30 fps for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, 45 fps for The Witcher 3, and 60 fps for Skyrim Cyberpunk 2077 can also run at 30 fps (but it is unclear if it can run without bugs)

What sets Aya Neo apart from similar concept projects is that the first project has already sold out, and the second has nearly $15 million in hand as of this writing The second Aya Neo device has a more UI, weight, and controller rumble than the first, buttons, game stability, and screen resolution should be improved

Whether any of this makes the Aya Neo worth buying--especially over the Switch--is debatable In theory, it's a significant expense to suddenly spend nearly $900 on a handheld console, even though it already has the library to do so; there's also the question of whether the Aya Neo can deliver on its promise An ambitious handheld, Aya Neo would not be the first company with a big dream and a lot of crowdfunding resources to combine the two into a complex success

In any case, Tom's Guide always urges caution when dealing with crowdfunding campaigns and cautions readers not to pledge more than they can afford to lose; while the promise of a handheld console that is more versatile and powerful than the Switch may be appealing, the prospect of a portable console with more features than the Switch may not be as attractive and whether the production rate is commensurate with the scale of demand