Ayaneo announced a temporary halt to preorders for its flagship Next 2 Windows gaming handheld, citing manufacturing costs that have become unsustainable. The company suspended pre-orders for the Next 2 Windows handheld due to ever-increasing storage costs.
The decision highlights the brutal economics facing hardware makers in an environment of constrained chip supplies. According to Ayaneo, "We found that storage prices had increased to several times higher than before the holiday. Under such circumstances, the overall cost of the product has turn into far higher than our current selling price." The handheld now costs almost twice as much to make as the original selling price.
The base configuration, with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, carried a retail price of $1,999 before the suspension. Ayaneo confirmed that this was a temporary suspension and that it might resume sales of the handheld if storage prices fall to "more reasonable levels." The company also pledged to honour existing pre-orders and maintain after-sales service.
The broader context reveals an industry-wide struggle. The skyrocketing costs are associated with the AI/RAM crisis. Some analysts predict the crisis will continue throughout 2026, with potential improvements towards the end of 2027. Ayaneo was already under significant pressure when it launched preorders in February. The company claimed that storage costs were very high when it first unveiled the Next 2, adding that it was therefore already under "significant cost pressure." However, it chose to open pre-orders and release it as planned.
Premium components explain the pricing challenge. The AYANEO Next 2 offers an AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 or Max Plus 395 processor, 32GB to 128GB of RAM, 1TB or 2TB of storage, a 9.06-inch 165Hz OLED screen, and dual touchpads. The most ambitious configuration, with 128GB of RAM and 2TB of storage, reached $4,299 at full retail price.
The suspension reflects a tension in the Windows handheld market. New Omdia research reveals 2.3 million PC gaming handhelds, including the Steam Deck, will be sold globally in 2025, representing growth of 32% from 2024, when 1.7 million units were sold. Yet Windows 11 is currently poorly suited to handheld gaming, and devices are not delivering a generational leap in performance over the market leading Steam Deck.
For Ayaneo, the economics became impossible to ignore. The company has historically used crowdfunding platforms to launch handhelds, and the Next 2 represented an ambitious bid to capture enthusiasts willing to pay premium prices for cutting-edge hardware. But when the cost of realising that vision approaches twice the asking price, continuation becomes a choice between heavy losses or halting sales. Ayaneo chose the latter, at least for now.