Updates: 1. Full review is up! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8T7smkAG4zA.html 2. It is possible to turn down the LED brightness by making the color "darker" in the settings. 3. The "Charging Separation" option is a power passthrough, very handy. 4. There is a bug in Yuzu Android where swapping between Docked/Handheld mode while in-game doesn't do anything, so the Bowser's Fury gameplay was actually in handheld mode (and not docked mode like I stated). I tested it again in true Docked mode and it doesn't run at full speed, but I have other configurations and tests I need to do before I can say it's "playable" one way or another.
I was just about to comment to tell you to do this :) - ALSO you said there are LEDs ONLY on the TRANSPARENT models, but you show us the indiegogo page and there is a black model with LEDs in the ring around the thumbsticks and side bar.... Or is that just a deceptive pic?? And even the packaging shows a white model with that beautiful rainbow colored foil in those same areas, inferring they light up...... - I scrubbed through the video to try to find that part where you say the LEDs are only on the transparent models, but I couldn't find it right away so I gave up.... I'm guessing you were talking about LEDs that are inside the case, like that 4 'cross-shaped' lights around the thumbsticks.... but I think they're not extra and its just the way they light up the ring.... I have no idea lol
Do a switch emulation video and include. dragons dogma, I prefer play on skyline but maybe yuzu got an update. also when the game make weird sound or freezes on skyline just press pause and play. Love the video can't wait to see more about this device.
It is nuts that we are able to get this level of performance at this price now! Looking like we're going to be hitting the limit of what the emulators are going to be capable of soon, hopefully some PS3 and OG Xbox android emulation will be in our future for the next level.
@MANGOM1LK there's also similar work being done with both xemu and cemu for xbox and wii u. In the next 1-2 years they'll probably be released and the odin 2 will probably be perfect for them.
@@MANGOM1LK I'm glad they're getting to work on it early before the tech gets there, but like... That seems like it's gonna take a while before ARM can actually do that lol considering x86 struggles as is with it. It will basically push those ARM chips (even the modern most powerful ones) to the very max. I give it like 5 years before viable Xenia emu on phones / arm handhelds. I hope I'm wrong and it comes out sooner though.
11:37 "Charging Separation" means if the device is connected to the charger and using it, it won't charge the battery so the power will go directly to the device, bypassing the battery. Works similar like a laptop. This option is already on gaming phones like Asus ROG phones and Nubia Red Magic.
That's very handy to know, thanks! It'd be better if AYN called it something that makes sense, like Optimized Charging which caps the charge at 80% on Windows, macOS, iOS, and even some Android phones.
@@chemonmusicwell I'm your friend Jorge from Mexico. I have the Steam Deck, the AYA Neo Pro 2021, The Aya Neo 2s and the Odin Pro 1. And I'm about to buy this console :D I mean, I don't need it... but on the other hand... I really need it! You know what I mean ;)
Finally, after 3 + years this is my endgame. Power and the form factor are exactly what I have been waiting for. I wish it were $250-$275 but beggars can't be choosers. I can't wait to see your and other reviews.
Always wish it was cheaper, but I am still very excited about this product. In Russ' review of the original Odin he said he wishes he bought something like this when he first got into emulation. I am new to emulation, this is my first device. I expect to never watch another review about this topic ever again. I love hardware but... how many of these things do you need? For me it certainly isn't a dozen like some of the fellas on r/SBCGaming.
I'm low key more intrested in the two new upcoming "under $200" RK3588S handhelds from GameForce and the Orange Pi company. The GameForce Alpha is already confirmed to be $170, and the RK3588S can emulate PS2 and NGC at x2 resolution extremely well.
@@Mister_Phafanapolis Yeah, cheaper, smaller, more power, ect. never satisfied lol. If they could put this power in RP3+ for $250 that would be my true endgame.
Ordered the Odin 2 pro after watching. I was waiting for a handheld that emulates 3ds/ps2/gamecube games for a reasonable price without tweaking the settings too much. Switch emulation is a bonus 😊
Great video sir! Appreciated you tested Yuzu in Docked Mode, super impressive performance. In standard mode no less! Also that blue looks beautiful, although maybe the solid colors are better for RGB enthusiasts 🥹. Looking forward to your review! - Stubbs
Charging separation allows you to play with the console using a charger without charging the battery. I have this function on my Red Magic Pro 7S. P.s, love your videos! Always so informative and professional. 👍🏽
@@salmansengul This is taken from Red Magic's official website, hope this helps: Originally we came up with this idea to help improve the gaming experience for players that like to game for long marathons. Players who like to charge their phone while also playing their favorite game like COD: Mobile or Genshin Impact are more likely to experience the phone feeling warmer, so we set out to give them a good gaming experience by preventing this heat. Our genius solution was Charge Separation. Instead of charging the battery when you’re plugged in, you can opt to turn on Charge Separation and tell the REDMAGIC smartphone to power itself directly from the power cord. This power will bypass the battery completely, not using it at all. By not charging the battery up while at the same time using the power needed to play intense games, it keeps the thermals down so the games run smoothly and the phone won’t feel hot in your hands. The added benefit to this Charge Separation though is that it extends the life of the battery a fair bit. If you are not using the battery to power the phone or charging it up, it’s just sitting there happily, not using up its lifetime supply of charging and discharging.
@@salmansengul There's some conflicting info out there but using the battery while charging it is at least as bad as using it normally (you only get so much usage out of a battery), while the charging separation doesn't use the battery at all.
I'm still gonna rock the Odin Pro for a few more years at least. Anyone who doesn't have a handheld yet and wants one this is probably your best choice. PC handhelds just don't have enough battery life to be convenient for another year probably. I personally have no trouble fitting the Odin in my pocket and I find the ergonomics to be really good.
An year isn't going to make x86 processors use any less power or come with some major groundbreaking new battery tech. x86 processors will be sucking juice the same way next year, and still playing games these ARM handhelds won't run natively.
Russ you've made my entire year with this review. I was very nervous if I made the right choice buying this device and it's exceeded all of my expectations. I'm so excited December can't get here fast enough!
this is no doubt an endgame for most people, any Anbernic or Retroid devices that comes out after this would become irrelavant and will feel outdated if they still stuck with the ancient T6 chipset. now other companies will have no choice but to follow Ayn and to release their newer devices with a Snapdragon chip and this would change the retro handhelds market forever, and this is a good thing. im sick of having no choice but to settle with a T618 chip where there's a shit tons of a good Snapdragon chipset out there to choose from. now comes Ayn Odin 2 with the current modern chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, theres no way you would go back or even want a device with a T6 chipset.
Really tempted to order this in white, it looks awesome. Of course my only worry would be the delivery timeline, but the fact that they're on track with sending out review units seems promising. Looking forward to your in-depth review! Update: ordered one, lol. I couldn't resist!
I loved the first Odin, and after the steam deck I felt I didn't need anything else in my life when it came to portable gaming and for a year and a half I have been satisfied, but this.... it awakened something... like when I first saw the moqi i7s years ago..... I am buying this.
🤩 this is what i been waiting for, exactly what i back, can't wait for mine to be shipped, will be getting 1tb micro SD card and will be putting all compatible/playable switch and vita games
It better be for that price. Personally I can't imagine sinking $300+ into a chinese handheld. As soon as something goes wrong it will be a nightmare / big expense trying to get it fixed or replaced.
I've already placed an order for one of these. I still have the Anbernic 351P, but I got tired after the company releasing smaller updates and new devices every few months! This should be great for the next decade! Looking forward to get mine in December. 👍
I might have to sell my Odin 1 for this thing. Would love to see a comparison of performance with the steam deck and rog ally. Keep up the great work Russ ❤!
yeah but 128 GBs of memory is not enough for all that emulation stuff. I have the Anbernic RG353VS and i have something like 100 GBs occupied already.. add ps2 GC Switch stuff and you'll get to 200 GBs easily. And okay you can add a 256 GBs micro SD and that's 30$, at that point you add other 40$ and you have the Pro version
@@Tonno7 Alternatively you could choose to not have like 50 games on your console that you never play. You could have 10 GC games and 10 PS2 games and still have plenty of storage left over for other things. Also your logic is weird. At the end of the day you're still out 70 extra dollars you didn't have to spend, no matter how much you try and justify it by cutting the price in weird fractions. Also keep in mind... this thing has Wifi7, which means as long as the storage and your home router is up to snuff it could transfer a whole PS2 game in less than a second. So you can just store all the games you want on your already existing PC with several hundred gigs capacity, and then swap out games any time you are home quick and easy.
I am so glad I ordered one of these. I do have the d1200 AYANEO coming too but fingers crossed Ayn can get the Odin 2 out to backers starting in December.
Whats crazy is that I preordered the Loki back in July of 2022 still havnt heard anything. and at this point I am sure the current line up of hand helps are surpassing what I preordered a year ago.
I wish it could run Steam OS or something similar. I know AAA games wouldn't work, but it would have a virtually infinite library of older games and indie games.
Really crazy device. I've been waiting for the device that's *just* right, and this might possibly be it. Looking forward to the in-depth review. I'd love to know if the base model can handle all of these things as well, $300 is an amazing price for all that. I want to see how Star Rail runs on the thing too, it'd be perfect with all of those things together.
Sweet! Got the Max and the dock for like $450 on the super earlybird special. Can't wait! I'm really hoping the dock is an interchangable device so that I can also put my Loki Max in it also.
11:38 Charging separation is pulling power directly from the wall and not the battery, which is AWESOME! Also there is a brightness slider, when you choose the colors, bring it down towards the black, simple. :) Oh man, I already have the Odin and I LOVE it but after this, I may just get the Odin 2, it's hella expensive in Canada, $507 for the pro, I might just go for the base like my Odin base, switch? meh... never played it. Wondering on your next video if you can show us the ram allocation and have cpu float to see how the clocks ramp up with battery drain in your in depth review. Plz! Great vid once again. ^_^
So happy i preordered the pro! Might have to get a second one so both my boys can share and finally get to play all retro games on the go when we travel!
When you get towards that 300-350 my brain goes unless you need more portability or some android specific thing fine but otherwise a steam deck is a better value than this in almost everyway especially if the refurbished ones ever get back into stock.
@@zstick the deck has alot better emulation then this Odin device and with the steam os 3.5 update the deck improved emulatation performance especially dolphin emulator.
@@Spencerwalker21 Cool. I'd never considered the deck before but refurbished might be a good way to go. Still, I'm saving my money for whatever the next Nintendo console will be.
I've got a beefy PC that I can stream in home if needed. I think the appeal for me is the battery life and the android platform. Stream access to PS5/XBOX. Android games. Pretty good coverage for sub 720p gaming. More freedom with customization (debatable, imo). Ntm groups have been developing on Android over a decade now.
Man I’m tempted - I don’t like the size though. I’m in love with my RP3+. Hoping that the Retroid 4 or Retroid 3S or RP2 ULTIMATE will have similar specs lol
@@rrwhollowayI don’t think we will get a much smaller device that this unfortunately. The market seems to be wanting larger and larger devices. My dream size is around the PSVita, but yeah, don’t think it’s gonna happen
Not likely. Because RP and AYN have the same parent company, AYN is the high end product of that company. Even the RP3+ is about half or third as powerful as the first Odin. These are two brands for different budgets.
@@awesomereviews1561 makes sense - I would think another company would make a device with the same specs but smaller. I wouldn’t care if the price is over $200
This is it... this is the handheld I wanted for almost the price I wanted. Only the size might be a bit big (so not a complete replacement for my RG353P) Will wait a bit longer though because I only buy handhelds after they are on the market and shipping.
I purchased one after watching your video. It convinced me that it’s a good value buy. Russ, I’ve watched 10-12 of your videos and finally subscribed. 👍🏻
Apparently, according to some people at r/SBCgaming, they are NOT expected to have severe shipping issues. They seem to have a more streamlined and stable production line than they originally did.
Seems like a great device. My impulsive side wants to throw my money at it. But I keep telling myself I’ll wait for something powerful in a good form factor WITH an OLED screen under $300. I got a G-Cloud and a Deck, also an S23 Ultra. Wish I could make those 3 one device and not be over $400.
I'm also tempted to throw money at it, but want an OLED screen, maybe even 16:10 to use more screen real estate for 4:3 aspect games. As the D-Pad is important to me, I would also prefer it to be more comfortable to use. And best would be a system with custom firmware instead of Android. I wish they would offer more options besides more RAM or storage and different shells.
Russ, can you show how much ram is being used on Yuzu emulation? I think a lot of us want to know if spending hundreds more $ on 12 or 16gb is really necessary.
Hi Russ! Very cool price and performance on the Odin 2, though I'm always a little worried about delivery time with AYN. As a side note the G Cloud just got video out on the USB-C port in a firmware update. The G Cloud is even less of a good deal at $300 compared to the Oden 2 base model, but I'm pretty happy that Logitech has continued to add features and fixes.
I think the biggest think I would want to know is, would it be worth buying if i already have an Odin 1, or even a steam deck. Like, what benefit would it offer over those two devices?
The biggest difference to the steam deck is the operating system, android vs linux/windows. If you already have an Odin 1 for android, and especially if you own a steam deck, I don't see a need to get this
Huge performance boost over the Odin 1, which will help PS2/Gamecube run perfectly and make Switch possible. For the Steam Deck, the advantage is more in battery/portability, or if you really like Android games for some reason.
An Odin 2 will be solid for 5 years when it comes to Emulation. As the next Emulated Consoles expected get to Android are Original Xbox, PS3, X360 and WiiU. But none of those are happening in any developed state until 5 years from now. As they are just now getting to the desired state for PC. Porting such software to ARM and Android is not an easy task. The only consoles that the Odin 2 don't tops right now are Switch and PS Vita. Everything else it already tops. Even when it comes to games ported to Android. An Odin 2 will be able to play such games well for the next five years.. In terms of upcoming Android handhelds. Now it is just about form factor and niche specializations. And Price. In 2 years, A device with same specs will have better battery for $199. In 3 years it will be $149. That is what is going to be crazy.
I love how you say a quick video but here we are lol I can listen to you talk nonsense any time regardless of length. I think the battery on this device is what will set it apart from any windows handheld. Even though you don't have a full range of emulation like you do with windows, I think this is the Android compromise for larger battery life and portability
How many years of software support/updates will it receive? Will 3rd parties be able to release homebrew android versions for it if the company doesn’t? It’s a non starter for me if there’s no ability to get software improvements over time.
Just put in my pre-order for the Pro model! I've been waiting for a device to replace my Pocket 3+ and has no issues running GC and 3DS. Get those orders in asap, cause they're going fast.
At this point, the only thing I care about this thing right now is what the input latency is like. The original Odin Pro (which I own) is input latency. You have to jack around with runahead in RetroArch to make the dang thing playable on any but the slowest-paced turn-based games, and that creates some weird unpredictable graphical issues in games like Super Mario World and Shining Force that I just cannot un-see. If that's fixed in this model (it has never been fixed in Odin Pro firmware updates) then I can consider it with its 6" display. Otherwise I'll probably have to pass.
I hadn't noticed any input delay in RetroArch on the Odin Lite. Played through a handful of Mario 64 ROM hacks from start to finish. Both with the built-in gamepad, and with a wireless 2.4 GHz controller (Tribute64). Also tried the 8bitdo Pro 2 via USB and didn't notice any lag.
i'll wait and see the performance of the 8gb model, but this is looking like the device i've been waiting for. Been wanting something smaller than a Steam Deck that was a one stop shop emulating that ps2/gc era.
@@KyleRuggles I fear 12gb will be touching the limit when using Yuzu and some higher AAA games, considering Android 13 consumes about 2GB of ram itself we "only" have 10GB left, but I think should be enough. Maybe playing some TOTK at 2k resolution for some TV gameplay will need more IMO
I ordered a Odin 2 Pro during the initial IGG campaign, and I'm glad to see that the hardware is more than meeting my relatively modest expectations. About my only question left is battery life - the Odin Pro has the longest battery life of any of my handhelds (and it's one of the main reasons it's my go-to device these days), and if the Odin 2 can get anywhere near that, it will probably end up being the only retro handheld I need. Now we can only hope that Ayn can actually get these out the door on time.
Pretty sure the Odin 2 battery is bigger...as long as you don't hang out in performance mode all day I'm sure the battery life will be quite promising!
Can we have a massive emulation showcase both on the handheld and using usb c out. I'm curious to see how far ps2/gc can be pushed on this. Games I'd like to see. Resident evils 1-3, outbreak. Kingdom hearts , onimuaha games. Would love to play these at 1080p handheld and 4k hdmi out if its even possible. Also using Bluetooth controllers for latency testing too. Only a handful of videos on the odin 2 need more content. Keep up the good work
This is really, really tempting. I'm usually all about recommending using an old flagship (either one you own or buy one off eBay for cheap) paired with a telescoping controller to make a beastly horizontal handheld. That still makes a lot of sense to me at the $100-$200 level; but, with the Odin 2 it now no longer makes sense above that. Good wired telescopic controllers with analog triggers are at a minimum $50, so subtract that from the price because they're not needed here. You can't get anything with an 8G2 and active cooling for anywhere near $250, new or used. Remove the active cooling from the equation and you're still going to struggle to hit that price point short of getting very lucky with some carrier promotion. Arguably this is one of the greatest deals in the history of this hobby. The question, for me, is do I want to drop $300-$400 (depending on which grade I opt for) on a toy? I definitely want to; but, you know how it is. It sure is tempting.
Great review. I am glad that I made my preorder for the Odin 2 as my first and seemingly only handheld. Would like to know how it handles game streaming/ remote play in future videos.
Great video. Looking forward to the main review. Any chance of comparing to steam deck for emulation? I find Kirby is still under 30 often on steam deck.
I heard charging separation is to power the device without charging battery while you plug in, thus no need to worry about overheating from charging if you want to play
Crazy to see we are emulating switch now, a system currently still on the market. Plus the price is reasonable when you don't need to spend money on the games
I cannot wait for the Christmas devices :D I wish I could pick one of these up in a store with a bit quicker shipping because by the time I'd get this there would be at least 2 or more devices that will be coming out.
Very excited for the full review and benchmarks! I am incredibly interested in seeing performance difference between the "Standard" and "Full Performance" mode in Switch games and the impact is has with battery life!
