AYANEO Cancels the Pocket Micro 2 Immediately After Launch

I take back everything I said about AYANEO’s Pocket Micro 2.

Just a couple weeks ago, we started hearing real murmurings about the upcoming Pocket Micro 2, the sequel to the flawed Pocket Micro that released a few years back and showed real promise. AYANEO pulled out the big guns for this new revised model: inset sticks, a 52% increased battery size, and a heavy-hitting Snapdragon 865 processor for its size class. They even announced an exclusive GameCube-inspired colorway, a first for AYANEO!

I mean, just look at that thing.

I’ve talked a lot in the past about how much I love small handhelds. EDC means a lot to me when determining the worth of these little devices. So, of course I was enamored by the concept of a powerhouse that small, and poised to fit entirely within a jeans pocket. To me, the Pocket Micro 2 was going to be revolutionary.

Notice the use of the past-tense here. The AYANEO Pocket Micro 2 is completely and utterly dead…before its even shipped.

Excluding the small handful of reviewers that are lucky enough to find themselves with a complimentary unit from AYANEO, the rest of the world, save for a lucky one hundred and ten people, are shit out of luck, according to AYANEO employee John Nee.

Let me break that down by the models, as two configurations and three distinct colorways were offered:

6GB + 128GB, “Frosty White”: 30 units

6GB + 128GB, “Midnight Black”: 30 units

8GB + 256GB, “Frosty White”: 10 units

8GB + 256GB, “Midnight Black”: 10 units

8GB + 256GB, “Stardust Purple”: 30 units

Adding that up, the entire first batch of this seemingly amazing device is limited to a mere 110 units. Keep in mind, most AYANEO devices launch with a few thousand units available for pre-order, at least. The difference here is that these are not pre-orders: They are direct orders for the first batch, shipping just next week. But unless you were on that lucky, lucky boat, that’s the only batch you’re ever getting.

To give you a timeline on this whole debacle, keep in mind that the information on unit availability was posted at 10:52 AM EST on the June 26, 2026. When that information was made available, orders had been open for more than two hours - since the middle of Arthur Zhang’s livestream revealing the specs and price. This means that the window to order (which wasn’t even announced) ended before the device was even finished being revealed.

I had one in my cart. I completed the checkout. The order should’ve processed. A weird PayPal error on my end caused the AYANEO site to freak out, and by the time I realized this, I was already three hours deep into my shift at work. But every single AYANEO Pocket Micro 2 that was ever going to be made was gone by that time. But nobody was meant to know this, because everyone was meant to think this console was actually going to get a full release.

To explain what I mean, we need to look at what was originally shared during the livestream; the pricing information, directly shown off by Arthur Zhang:

Note the “Launch Offer Price,” seemingly different from the “Retail Price.”

At first glance, this lineup seems incredibly standard for AYANEO. An early-bird price (in the past, usually a perk of an Indiegogo campaign) followed by a later-batch full price when the device is added to their catalog in earnest. All seems typical, except for one major flaw: There was no earnesty in this device being part of their catalog at any point during its launch.

We can see a little bit more information about its cancellation by peeking at John Nee’s messages in the official AYANEO Discord:

John Nee responding to whatobiplays regarding a potential restock.

John goes on at some length to describe that the device is cancelled due to “cost issue,” and that the price would need to be closer to $349 USD in order to be sustainable. For this reason, the device’s very existence isn’t feasible, and the existing stock (essentially a sample batch) is all that will ever be produced.

But this is incongruent with the information found above regarding pricing, as with all other AYANEO products, the later batches get the “Retail Pricing” described, implying the existence of other batches in the first place, or otherwise a stock not intentionally made pitifully finite by the manufacturer. Nothing in the pre-launch information suggested that the Pocket Micro 2 was intended to be a limited-time run, or that stock would even be kept to a specifically-sized batch. Again, all of that information came after the fact.

Now obviously, I understand that the world of business is a vast network of industries that I am not a part of. I am no console manufacturer, nor am I, by any means, an accountant.

However.

I don’t find it very difficult to imagine what I would do if I were in the shoes of an upper executive in this scenario, finding out that the device my goons down in the basement just designed isn’t at all feasible to produce at the price the company wants to sell it at. I can think of a good handful of things I would probably consider; options that I’d weigh, and paths I might take. At no point does “lie to consumers by posing as a regular console launch, only to pull the rug that I don’t intend on producing anything only AFTER the fact” cross my mind. Well, until AYANEO put the idea there, that is.

To my knowledge, I am the very first person to cover this development in news format. I find it important, then, to use the opportunity to describe this behavior as absolutely abhorrent. It’s fucking disrespectful, for starters, to the people that bothered to waste their time following the announcements and information about a handheld they were never intended to have. Beyond that, it shows that AYANEO have absolutely no qualms with misleading and outright lying to their consumers just because they think they can get away with it.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: AYANEO did not just “decide” to cancel the console twelve hours after its official launch. The cost is information they have had since production began, regardless of any developments in the already-in-shambles microchip sector. A sudden near 150% theoretical price hike (offered as a hypothetical only after the outrage began, and as of yet just vapor) doesn’t just get dropped suddenly in AYANEO’s lap. This is their umpteenth console. They couldn’t have not known before rolling out their fancy promotional images and Arthur Zhang’s hour-long live presentation.

You got that right.

Overall, this whole situation just puts an awful taste in my mouth. I’m highly unlikely to trust AYANEO in the future, let alone purchase anything from them, given this pathetic stunt. I’d say I have hope for their response in the coming days, but their track record is already so abhorrent that I’d rather not go and get your hopes up.

Just a shame.

If you’d like me to review a product, email me: me@jaw.fyi