Overview
- Ayaneo paused new preorders for its Next 2 Windows gaming handheld, citing a spike in digital storage prices that blew past its forecasts.
- The company will honor all existing preorders and describes the halt as temporary, with sales resuming only if storage prices ease.
- Ayaneo says the cost to build each unit now approaches double the sticker price, leaving no viable margin to sell at $1,999.
- The high-end specs, including a 9.06-inch OLED screen, a Ryzen AI Max 385 chip, Radeon 8050S graphics, 32GB of memory, and a 1TB SSD, make the device especially sensitive to storage costs.
- The surge in SSD pricing shows how sudden component swings can squeeze smaller hardware makers, leading to pauses, price hikes, or trimmed features on premium devices.