AYANEO GEEK 1S Review – Ryzen 7 7840U powered AAA gaming handheld PC

The AYANEO GEEK 1S is an update to the GEEK model released earlier this year. In our AYANEO GEEK 1S review we learn if paying for premium is worth it compared to the budget handheld gaming computers.

AYANEO GEEK 1S Review Video

Unboxing the AYA NEO GEEK 1S

Kicking of our AYA NEO GEEK 1S review we have the unboxing. First we have some user guides which are in English and Chinese. There is also an envelope which has a small tool for opening the portable gaming PC if you need to upgrade the SSD for example. Next we have the AYANEO GEEK 1S itself which we will show in more detail shortly.

There is a 100W charger with US plug, and in the box there are UK and European plug adaptors also included.

Two USB Type-C to Type-A adaptors are included so you can connect wired peripherals such as a mouse and keyboard. There are also replacement side panels which you use after opening the device. And in the last box is a USB Type-C charge cable.

Overview of the AYA NEO GEEK 1S

Next in our AYA NEO GEEK 1S review we take a closer look at the mobile gaming PC. The AYA NEO Geek 1S measures around 10.4 x 4.1 x 0.87 inches (26.45 x 10.55 x 2.23 cm) and weighs 672g. The GEEK 1S is available is three colours; Fantasy Black, Pure White and Nebula Purple.

The display is a 7” IPS touchscreen with a slim bezel. There are two models available with a choice of 800P or 1200P resolution. In this review we are using the 800P model.

On the front we have the hall effect sensor analogue sticks and gaming buttons. There’s two additional buttons in the bottom right, these are shortcuts for accessing the AYA SPACE app and overlay.

Along the top are the shoulder and hall effect trigger buttons. There are also two small macro buttons which can be configured in the AYA SPACE software.

Next we have the power button which has a fingerprint sensor and beside that is the volume rocker. There are two USB Type-C ports, one is USB 4 for data and charging. You can connect the GPD G1 docking station to this portable gaming computer for extra graphics power. The other USB 3.2 for data only.

On the bottom we have a second USB 4 Type-C port, micro sd card reader and a 3.5mm headphone port.

AYA NEO GEEK 1S Technical Specifications

	AYANEO 2S	AYANEO GEEK 1S
SCREEN SIZE	7″ IPS No-bezel screen	7″ IPS Slim-bezel screen. 800P or 1200P resolution
CONTROLLER	Master controller	GEEK controller
GYROSCOPE	Fuselage + grip dual six-axis gyroscope	Fuselage gyroscope
VIBRATION MOTOR	HD Linear motor	Dual X-axis Linear Motors
RAM	16GB/32GB/64GB LPDDR5X 7500MT/s (set to 6400)	16GB/32GB LPDDR5X 7500MT/s (set to 6400)
SSD	512GB/2TB/4TB SSD	512GB/2TB SSD

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, 8 cores & 16 threads running up to 5.1GHz up to 30W TDP
GPU	AMD Radeon 780M
HEAT DISSIPATION	3+1 three copper tube, large copper sheet, graphene patch
GRIP	“Baby Sleeping Position” Grip
JOYSTICK	Hall sensor analogue sticks
INTERFACE	2x Full-featured USB 4 Type C (data + charge) 1x USB 3.2 Type C (data only) 1x 3.5mm headphone jack 1x 300MB/s micro SD card slot
FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION	Power key integrated fingerprint recognition
BATTERY	50.25Wh
CONNECTIVITY	Wi-Fi 6E & Bluetooth 5.2
OS	Windows 11 64-bit Home Edition

A part of our AYANEO GEEK 1S review we cover the technical specifications as well as some tests. In our battery tests we got 1 hour 20 minutes at 28W while running Street Fighter 6 benchmark on a loop. And we got an impressive 10 hours 26 mins sitting idle on the desktop at 28W TDP.

We also tested the fan noise and temperatures while running the benchmarks. We got a highest fan noise of 67 db, and highest temperature of 49 °C.

System Benchmarks

We continue our AYANEO GEEK 1S review with some system benchmarks. AMD have finally released some usable drivers for the 7000 series compact gaming PC’s and we are using version 23.9.2 in these tests. We will be making  a new video soon which will compare all the 7000 series handhelds together with the same drivers, so we won’t directly compare them in this video.

3DMark

For the 3DMark benchmarks we are running Time Spy, Night Raid and Fire Strike. Overall the scores were a little lower than the other handheld gaming computer’s but do keep in mind that they were using older beta drivers which generally performed faster, As we will see in the games benchmarks there are similar performance differences across all the tests.

PCMark

PCMark tests your more day-to-day usage of a Windows device with tests for opening software, web browsing, media playing etc. We got a score of 6364 which worked out around average compared to the other handhelds.

Cinebench

Cinebench tests the performance for single and multi-core processing. We saw very good scores for both tests. The single core score came in second place, and multi-core came in first place compared with the other portable gaming computer’s.

Gaming Benchmarks

And this AYA NEO GEEK 1S review would be nothing without some gaming benchmarks. For the gaming benchmarks we are running at 800P or 720P and testing at 28W, 20W and 11W TDP. We will update our blog post for this review with the results for the AYANEO GEEK 1S 1200P model once we have them.

Forza Horizon 5

As always we get some great results on Forza Horizon 5. We are using the Very Low graphics settings and at 800P 28W TDP we get 115 frames per second, dropping to 107 FPS at 20W and 62 FPS at 11W.

We are not directly comparing with other portable gaming PC’s in this review as they are using different driver versions, but overall the scores are good in comparison.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

For Shadow of the Tomb Raider we are running at 800P on the Lowest graphics settings. At 28W TDP we get 77 FPS, and at 20W TDP we strangely get 1 frame higher at 78. We retested this a few times and got the same results. And at 11W TDP we got 55 FPS.

Overall the scores were lower than others and we are fairly sure this is a driver issue, some kind of incompatibility rather than a performance issue.

Cyberpunk 2077

For Cyberpunk we are using an older version of the game and not the latest as the benchmarks were made just before the game updated. We are on the default Low graphics settings with no FSR enabled. At 28W TDP we get 64 frames per second, at 20W we get 59, and at 11W TDP we get 33 frames per second.

Overall the scores are in line with the other 7000 series compact gaming PC’s. So no weird results for this benchmark.

Street Fighter VI

On our Street Fighter VI benchmarks we are running at 28W TDP 720P on the highest graphics settings to push the handheld. Across the three benchmarks we got 47, 49 and 42 frames per second.

The results are a mix of higher and lower than other handhelds, it was lower on Fighting Ground and World Tour, and higher on the Battle Hub. This is a good reason why we want to test on the same driver versions to get a proper comparison.

Benchmark Summary

Overall the AYANEO GEEK 1S does well in the benchmarks. As mentioned we will have a video soon with all these handhelds tested with the same drivers for a fair comparison. We do see some great results in the Cinebench benchmarks which is a good indication. Though for graphics we see a little less in overall performance. While the drivers have improved since the first official AMD drivers, they still have a bit more to go before they at least match the beta drivers performance we tested with other handheld gaming computer’s.

Final Thoughts

It is now time to sum up our thoughts on this AYA NEO GEEK 1S review. Keep in mind that we are reviewing the 800P resolution model so everything we played was at a lower resolution by design. Most portable gaming PC’s support 1080P or above. Once we get the 1200P model we will update our blog post for this review with the benchmark results.

For the AYA EO GEEK 1S there is little to complain about. Overall the performance is as good as the other 7840U handhelds that we have benchmarked so far. The quality of the product does make a difference compared to say the lower end AOKZOE A1 Pro mobile gaming PC. It feels more comfortable in your hand which is important for longer gameplay sessions. 

These design choices, materials and extras such as hall effect sensors and triggers do add value to a premium product. So yes the AYA NEO is more expensive than the A1 Pro but in terms of performance there is not a great deal between them. It is also worth considering this model only has 800P resolution compared to 1200P on the A1 Pro.

These are some things you should consider when looking for a handheld gaming PC. Do you want to spend extra for comfort and some higher end components and features? Or stick to a budget with a bit less comfort and fewer features, all the while knowing they both perform much the same as each other. We are very interested to hear your thoughts, let us know in the comments.

The AYANEO GEEK 1S for me at least is a handheld definitely worth considering. All the games and emulators we tried worked great with no issues, at least not due to performance of the device itself. We like the design and comfortability, AYA SPACE still needs a bit of work though as its lost its way since the original software. But other than that we can’t really find fault with it.

Where to buy the AYA NEO GEEK 1S

You can learn more and order your AYANEO GEEK 1S here. Use the discount code GEEKOFF5 for 5% off. Please note that the code may expire after one month of this video and can not be used while there is a sale or other promotions.

That wraps up our AYA NEO GEEK 1S review, we hope you have found it useful. Let us know what you think of this handheld in the comments.