This could be the most powerful retro gaming handheld made to date

The gaming handheld has exploded in recent times, especially when it comes to portable retro machines. We've been flooded by Chinese handhelds of all shapes and sizes, and at all budgets. However, few have had as much class as Ayaneo's.

The company has carved a niche for itself in producing premium gaming handhelds for all tastes, which are priced a touch above rivals but also come with a few added extras.

Its latest is no exception – announced this week alongside the Gaming Pad during the Games Developers Conference (GDC), the Ayaneo Pocket S2 is a sharply designed follow-up to one of the best portable Android devices out there, and this time it gets a significant processor bump.

That's because it'll be one of the first devices to run on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 platform – a faster, more powerful chipset designed specifically for mobile gaming.

This will enable the Pocket S2 to be more than capable when it comes to Android gaming and cloud streaming, through the likes of Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now. Perhaps more exciting for the retro games community though is its potential for emulation.

Sporting a 6.4-inch 1440p IPS display, the chip inside the Pocket S2 comes with a boast of 30% more CPU and 28% more GPU performance. That could technically make games for even the trickier systems run more accurately, such as Switch, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Of course, it depends on Android emulators for those systems becoming more capable too (or even available in the case of those for Switch, as Nintendo swoops to shut them down as soon as they pop up). But, at least the developers know they'll have more firepower to drive them.

Other specifications for the Pocket S2 include Wi-Fi 7 for more stable wireless connectivity – handy for cloud gaming – and what Ayaneo claims to be the "largest battery among Android handhelds of its size".

An ultra-large heat sink and active cooling fan are on board too, to make sure your performance doesn't dip when there's more stress on the chipset, while Hall effect thumbsticks and linear triggers should feel great to play with.

The whole shebang is finished off in a CNC all-metal frame for a premium feel.

We don't yet know when the Ayaneo Pocket S2 will be available, nor how much it'll cost. But, the current Pocket S starts at $559 (around £430 / A$880) for the 12GB model with 128GB of storage, so we'd expect something similar second time around.

We'll let you know when we find out more.