AYN Thor: The Best Handheld So Far this 2026

AYN Thor – A Worthy Steam Deck Alternative in Android formula

The AYN Thor is the handheld I keep reaching for, and the reason is simple: it plays my Steam games. Not streamed from a PC somewhere. Actually on the device. I have been using Gamenative, a free app that lets you sign in to your Steam, Epic, or GOG account and run the games you already own directly on Android, with cloud saves. It works. I stopped using Gamehub Lite weeks ago because Gamenative turned out to be more useful, and the Thor runs it without breaking a sweat.

The AYN Thor is a clamshell, a design that disappeared from the mainstream after the Nintendo DS era, and AYN brings it back properly. The main screen is a 6-inch AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and there is a second 3.92-inch AMOLED touchscreen on the bottom half. Games that want a map, an inventory, or a quick menu can use that bottom screen while the action stays on the main display. It sounds gimmicky until you play something that uses it well, and then it feels like the most natural thing in the world.

Priced competitively during RAMpocalypse

Then there is the price. The Thor starts well below what a Steam Deck costs these days, and that matters more than ever. Device prices keep climbing as RAM and GPU costs rise, so finding a capable handheld that undercuts the Steam Deck is rare. The Thor does exactly that. Even the higher-tier models with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 stay under the Steam Deck’s price, and the base model is a bargain for what it plays.

Because the Thor runs Android, it has the entire Google Play Store available. You are not locked into one storefront. Install your emulators, your game streaming apps, your media apps, your productivity tools, whatever you want. It is a handheld first, but it is also just an Android device, and that flexibility is the whole appeal.

Pair it with a keyboard and a mouse, and the Thor turns into something else entirely: a dual-screen mini PC. The 6-inch main display plus the bottom touchscreen gives you two working screens on a machine that fits in a bag pocket. For travel, it is the rare device that covers both play and work.

Under the hood, the Thor does not cut corners where it counts. The main models run a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, backed by 8GB to 16GB of RAM depending on the variant, with storage from 128GB up to 1TB, expandable via microSD. The 6,000mAh battery keeps sessions long, and it charges at up to 27W. The hall-effect sticks should hold up to serious use. At 380 grams, it is heavier than a phone but lighter than most handhelds with this kind of firepower.

Available at Datablitz at SM Cyberzone

The reaction from everyone who has tried mine is the same: they start skeptical about the second screen, and they end up asking where to buy one. The answer, here in the Philippines, is Datablitz at SM Cyberzone. You can pick up the Thor there and check the dual-screen setup in person, which honestly is the only way to understand it. Specs on paper do not do it justice.

That is the thing about Cyberzone. It is the zone where tech stops being a spec sheet and becomes something you can hold, try, and decide on with your own hands. Tech we like, zone we love. The AYN Thor is exactly the kind of tech we like, and SM Cyberzone is exactly where you should go to meet it.

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Founded in 2009 by Gian Viterbo, Gadget Pilipinas is one of Philippines’ top sources for news, tutorials, reviews and tips about the latest trends in technology, gadgets, games, social and digital media and cyber culture.