If you thought the Nintendo DS concept was dead, think again

After previously teasing a new clamshell gaming handheld, Chinese specialist Ayaneo has revealed that there will be a second device in the range – something that looks rather familiar.

It doesn't take a hardened Nintendo fan to point to the influence behind the Ayaneo Flip DS. That's because, like the Japanese gaming giant's classic portable console of a similar name, it has dual screens.

In contrast to the regular Ayaneo Flip (now named Flip KB) the alternative clamshell doesn't feature a QWERTY keyboard. You get that second screen instead which is touch-enabled.

To be honest, we're not entirely what it'll be used for. It could work as a touchpad for better control of games that require a mouse, or it could be activated by a Nintendo DS / 2DS / 3DS emulator perhaps. Either way, it's nice to see something new coming to the current handheld gaming sphere – even though it's, ahem, technically old.

Liliputing claims to have received the details via a "leak" from Ayaneo itself. It has also learned that both Flip models will have a 7-inch main display that's capable of a 120Hz refresh rate.

We already knew that the Flip devices will be powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor, but now also that they'll feature Radeon 780M integrated graphics.

As we've mentioned before, the Ayaneo Flip KB and DS are likely to be Windows 11 based and therefore have the potential to run Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox Cloud Gaming. However, they'll also run Ayaneo's own proprietary OS on top, in the form of AyaSpace 2.0 which presents an easier to use interface to get straight to your games.

This is common on most of the company's handhelds, the others operate on Android.

As for price, it's anyone's guess at the moment as Ayaneo hasn't yet launched either of its new handhelds. It's still in the process of releasing the Ayaneo Slide at present – another device with a keyboard, but with a screen that slides upwards.

We'll let you know when we find out more though. It certainly makes the handheld gaming market a bit more interesting, that's for sure.