Ayaneo finally pulled back the curtain on its first Android phone - and it's straight out of the early 2010s. The Pocket Play features a slide-out mechanism revealing full gaming controls, directly channeling the 2011 Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. The device marks Ayaneo's bold bet that gaming-focused phones still have an audience, even as mainstream manufacturers have largely abandoned physical gamepad layouts.
The gaming phone is making a quiet comeback, and Ayaneo just made its move. After teasing the device since August, the retro gaming handheld maker unveiled the full design of its Pocket Play - and it's unmistakably a love letter to one of gaming's most underrated phones.
The resemblance to the 2011 Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is no accident. Ayaneo leaned all the way in, designing a phone where the screen slides upward to reveal a complete set of inset gaming controls. You get a proper D-pad on the left, ABXY face buttons on the right, and two circular touch pads flanking the screen. Rounding out the control scheme are dual shoulder button sets on the back - essentially giving you a complete console layout tucked underneath your phone display.
What's missing tells you something about how mobile design has evolved. There's no 3.5mm headphone jack, which would've been standard in the Xperia Play era but is now considered legacy tech even by gaming hardware makers.
The real mystery? Almost everything else. Ayaneo's Kickstarter page launches with the design revealed but specs completely locked down. No processor details, no RAM configurations, no battery specs, no pricing. Just renders in black and silver and a vague "coming soon" launch window. That's either brilliant teasers or a sign they're still finalizing the hardware. Given that Ayaneo runs gaming handhelds - not traditional phones - we're curious how polished the actual phone experience will be.
Timing-wise, the Pocket Play arrives as the second major Xperia Play homage hitting the market this year. Anbernic's RG Slide arrived earlier with a similar sliding design for $189. The difference? The RG Slide is purpose-built for emulation - it's not trying to be your daily driver. The Pocket Play, by contrast, runs Android and appears designed to actually replace your phone, not sit alongside it as a dedicated gaming device.
