2026-05-04

Anbernic 'RG Rotate' Officially Announced, AYANEO Discontinues Select Models, GPD Next-Gen Mini PC Trends

Between late April and early May 2026, the retro gaming console and portable gaming PC market saw significant developments. Anbernic revealed details for its new 'RG Rotate' device, featuring a unique rotating display. Meanwhile, AYANEO announced the discontinuation of select models and price adjustments due to the global surge in memory costs. Additionally, GPD unveiled a mini PC and eGPU dock utilizing the next-generation 'MCIO' interface, setting a new standard for expandability.

Anbernic 'RG Rotate' specs and release date revealed

Anbernic has revealed the detailed specifications and release date for its new Android-powered handheld, the 'RG Rotate,' which had been teased in previous videos. Its most notable feature is a unique slide-and-rotate mechanism that reveals the D-pad and action buttons by rotating the 1:1 aspect ratio 3.5-inch IPS display (720x720 resolution).

The device is powered by the 'Unisoc Tiger T618' SoC, paired with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 2000mAh battery. While this chipset is somewhat dated, it offers enough performance to handle the original PlayStation, N64, and some GameCube titles. However, as it lacks analog sticks, it is positioned primarily as a device for 2D games and early 3D titles.

The release date is set for May 11, 2026. Pricing starts at $87.99 for the plastic-backed 'Polar Black' model and $107.99 for the full CNC aluminum-bodied 'Aurora Silver' model, with a small early-bird discount planned for the launch. The device has garnered community attention as an ambitious project that pursues the portability of the Game Boy Advance SP while experimenting with a new form factor.

AYANEO to discontinue select models and raise prices due to memory cost surge

The global surge in RAM and storage prices, triggered by AI demand and other factors, is having a serious impact on the portable gaming PC market. AYANEO announced via its official Discord that it will be raising prices across 'most of its product line' due to increased manufacturing costs.

In more serious news, the company confirmed that popular models such as the 'Pocket DS,' 'Pocket AIR Mini B.Duck Edition,' and 'KONKR Pocket FIT' have only 30 to 50 units of stock remaining per SKU, and will be discontinued once these are sold out.

While four models—the 'Mini PC,' 'Pocket S Mini,' 'Pocket VERT,' and 'Pocket MICRO'—are exempt from this price hike, they had already undergone price adjustments previously. Competitors like Retroid and AYN have also recently raised prices, highlighting that maintaining cost-performance is the biggest challenge for manufacturers in the 2026 handheld market.

GPD announces 'GPD Box' mini PC and eGPU dock featuring next-gen 'MCIO' standard

GPD, a veteran in the portable gaming PC space, has made a full-scale entry into the mini PC market. The newly announced 'GPD Box' is a 0.93-liter small-form-factor desktop PC powered by Intel's next-generation 'Panther Lake' CPU. Configurations are expected to include a 'Core Ultra X7 358H' model with an integrated Intel Arc B390 iGPU.

The most notable feature of this new product is the adoption of the next-generation external connection interface, the 'MCIO 8i' port. Based on PCIe 5.0 x8, the MCIO boasts a bidirectional bandwidth of 512Gbps, significantly outperforming the current mainstream OCuLink (PCIe 4.0 x4).

At the same time, GPD also announced the 'GPD G2' eGPU dock with a built-in power supply. According to the company, when connecting a desktop-grade NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 via MCIO, performance loss is limited to just 2%. While the release date and pricing are yet to be determined, this technology is expected to resolve bottlenecks in external GPU connections for portable devices and mini PCs.