In a world where PC gaming hardware is dominated by a handful of giants, whose “GET OUR STUFF, CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES” message is expressed in truly horrible product aesthetics, I’m super happy to see a manufacturer like Ayaneo following a different path.
Specializes in gaming laptops (such as the Ayaneo Kun and the Air 1S), built around AMD's low-power, high-performance APUs, but also dabbles in mini PCs. The Retro Mini AM02 is its second such release, and it's adorable.
It's a miniature homage to the original Nintendo Entertainment System, with a front cover that opens to reveal two USB 2.3 ports, a USB4 Type-C, and a combo audio jack. It's sleek, tactile, easy on the eyes, and once you've got it set up on your desk (or next to your TV, we'll get to that), I defy you not to cast a few admiring glances at it from time to time.
The Retro Mini AM02's styling matches the machine's capabilities. It says “Make me an emulator! PLAY ALL THE GAMES YOU GREW UP WITH!”, which is absolutely possible and absolutely necessary (I did it), but that doesn't preclude the fact that the hardware is capable of more.
Powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 7840HS, the higher-powered version of the 7840U found in Ayaneo's handhelds, and a Radeon 780M iGPU, most modern games should run fine at 1080P, provided you're willing to sacrifice higher graphics settings.
There’s a 4-inch touchscreen on the lid that can be swiped left or right to display detailed system information, a clock, or a quick-access panel for switching between preset performance modes. It’s just begging for some custom wallpaper options, though the functionality isn’t there yet – Ayaneo is planning this for a future software update.
Around the back, there are two 1Gb and 2.5Gb Ethernet ports, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, and a USB-C port reserved for the AM02’s power adapter. The kit also supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. All in all, everything is fine in terms of specs, although a second USB-C on the front would have been welcome.
The Retro Mini AM02 comes with Ayaspace pre-installed, Ayaneo’s hardware interface layer and game library. Designed for its handheld devices, it feels most comfortable with a gamepad. This implies a solid use case for the Retro Mini as a dedicated microconsole to plug into your TV, and in that scenario, you can set Ayaspace to run full-screen on startup. It’s still an app that runs on Windows 11, of course, not an operating system in and of itself, and for more traditional desktop PC use, I set it to minimize to the system tray on Windows startup and invoke it only when needed.
It can be a little clunky and slow to use a keyboard and mouse as primary input devices (the user experience was clearly designed with gamepad controls in mind first), but it works well enough. What I did notice during my time using the Retro Mini were several small technical and UI improvements to Ayaspace, which I hope will continue.
Image 1 of 4
Ayaspace’s performance tab is packed with tweaks. These sliders and toggles display BIOS-level hardware settings, including the CPU TDP limit, sliders for CPU and iGPU clock speeds, a CPU turbo toggle, a general power policy setting, and automatic or custom fan curves for the CPU cooler.
There are three factory presets: Power Saving (8W TDP, potato mode, just about perfect for web browsing), Balanced (15W TDP, good for emulation and simpler indie games), and Extreme (28W TDP, with less-than-full CPU and iGPU clock speeds, but good for less demanding titles). You can also create custom presets, though only the factory presets appear on the 4-inch touchscreen’s mode switcher.
Obviously, the first thing I did was crank everything up to max—the TDP slider goes to 45W, after all. It’s possible to get some nice performance boosts with custom presets, though whether those improvements are marginal or noticeable depends entirely on the title. I set up an “Overclock” preset, with the TDP set to 45W, the CPU and iGPU given free rein to their full clock speed ranges, and the CPU Turbo option enabled.
Cranking things up like this does allow you to get a decent performance boost. The best improvement I saw was in Doom Eternal (which looks fabulous at 1080p with medium settings, by the way), and switching between the 28W Extreme preset and my custom 45W “Overclock” preset saw the frame rate jump from around 60-70fps to 70-90fps playing the same section of the same level. Which was deeply gratifying, and speaks volumes to how massively well-optimized Doom Eternal is. Just don’t expect those kinds of improvements in every game.
On paper, the Ryzen 7 7840HS can reach up to 54W, but Ayaspace sets a maximum limit of 45W. Similarly, the chip should boost to 5.1GHz, but Ayaspace limits this to 4.7GHz. We queried Ayaneo on this, and he responded by telling us that the Retro mini is designed with specific size and thickness constraints, and that the limitation is there to ensure effective cooling and optimal performance. Which makes sense; it is indeed a tiny box, and certainly a challenge to cool.
It's a tactic sometimes used in the laptop industry to keep temperatures down and preserve battery life, though the latter is clearly not taken into account here. So it's a shame that you can't access the higher capabilities of the 7840HS, which other manufacturers have achieved with their own proprietary cooling solutions.
Image 1 of 2
Buy if…
✅ You want to build a great TV-compatible emulation station: I mean, look at him. How cute is that little guy?
✅ You play a lot of indie games and some heavier titles: The AMD CPU, with its powerful integrated GPU, is perfectly capable of running both indie classics and modern games at a decent pace.
Don't buy if…
❌ You want the most powerful mini PC out there: There are certainly micromachines that get more out of very similar silicon.
❌ You are looking for completely silent operation: It can definitely get a bit 'chatty' when its fans kick in if you start pushing the AMD CPU a bit harder.
In terms of modern gaming performance, and considering that it can be played in excess of 30fps, the Retro Mini sets a good example. Cyberpunk at 1080P with Ultra settings, FSR2 set to auto and no Ray Tracing runs well at 52fps. Total War: Warhammer 3’s campaign map is rather punchier, at just 25fps at 1080P/medium/28W, although this rises to a more comfortable 30fps when we up the TDP to 45W and crank up the clock speeds. Forza Motorsport was slick, fluid and enjoyable at 45W, but it’s hard to recommend Homeworld 3 on hardware in this class – despite the tested average of around 40fps, you’re beset by frequent, patchy 1% lows.
We also ran a handful of indie and older games at 1080p/medium/45W, to get a sense of the frame rate ranges you can expect in different games. None of the following have built-in benchmarks, so we’ve kept them out of the official table, but we hope they give you a sense of the Retro Mini’s broader capabilities. Subnautica was eminently playable around the 50-60fps mark, Stray stayed comfortably in the 45-60fps range, Soulstone Survivors got 90fps that dipped to a still-very-acceptable 45fps during peak pyro, Still Wakes the Deep managed 60-70fps, and Bioshock Remastered hovered at a downright fun 130-200fps.
Setting it up as an emulator was a breeze thanks to the free and very easy-to-use Emudeck, and in no time at all I had my favourite games from yesteryear in my Steam library, playable seamlessly on the TV with an Xbox Elite controller. And I think that's just glorious. Sure, any old PC can be set up as an emulator in the same way. But when you turn the Retro Mini AM02 into a retro console emulator for the living room, everything falls into place and you get the feeling that it's fulfilling its destiny.
