So as of writing this (**2026-02-24**) I got laid off! Whenever something like this happens I usually indulge in some retail therapy to take the sting away, and since I’d been eyeing the **Ayn Thor** for a while anyways, I decided to grab it. A great choice, in my humble opinion. Perhaps the best choice, even? I’ve played and reviewed many [[Less Doomscrolling More Silly Lil Tech Toys|silly little tech toys]] over the past two years of getting into this hobby, enough that I should probably give them a section on this blog. But none of them are as immediately captivating as the **Ayn Thor**, thanks to its honestly revolutionary duel-screen design. This is the fastest I’ve ever fallen in love with a piece of technology since getting into [[Obsidian]] years ago. ![[Thoughts on the Ayn Thor-1771967149590.png]] I love this thing a lot, so I’m going to be pretty particular about the specs in ways that I’m usually not. I got the black version of the Thor, at the base level, which has 8 gigs of memory and 127 gigs of internal storage — more than enough for me.[^1] It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 GPU, which can be described as “more than enough for 90% of your needs.” That said, whichever model you pick is going to give you drift-less hall effect joysticks, a video out display port, active cooling, and a 6000mAh battery that will last you a decade per game session. The crown jewels, though, are the not one, but *two* gorgeous AMOLED displays. The top is a 6-inch 1080 x 1920 screen that can run at 120FPS, and the bottom is a 3.92 inch 1080 x 1240 screen that runs at 60FPS. I usually keep the top screen locked to 60Hz to save some battery life, but you can change that — and multiple other settings — with a quick press of the Ayn button. >[!INFO] Too Black, Too Strong > I heard people call the Black model of the Thor a fingerprint magnet, but I got it because it’s Black History Month. That being said, I think y’all just aren’t keeping your hands clean. My unit is absolutely spotless. Clean your hands, nerds, you’re making us look bad. The whole thing is covered in glass, which I personally don’t like — I don’t plan on dropping this thing anyways, but now I’m making it a priority — but it does make the **Thor** look sleek. It’s also easy to hold, despite having a flat bottom. Much like the [[Retroid Pocket Flip 2]], the length of the device means that it fits my big, meaty claws. And the TPU case I opted to have included makes it even easier to hold. The whole thing feels nice and sturdy. I’m also pretty sensitive to heat, but the **Thor** stayed cool in pretty much all circumstances, thanks to its surprisingly quiet internal fans. I find measuring size on these sorts of things to be relatively useless, so I’ll just say that it’s nearly identical to the size of a **3DS XL**. As for the ergos of the buttons, it’s pretty much flawless. The only exception may be games that require lots of usage of both joysticks, especially if you tend to use the pad of your thumb to control the right stick on the handheld of your choice. It just tends to be too low for that sort of grip, meaning it’s easier to use the middle of the thumb instead. I do that anyways, but I could easily see it being uncomfortable for people with soft, baby-twink hands. The **Thor** is similar to any other Android-powered handled, so I won’t get into the specifics of those, and instead get into the parts of it that stand out with the duel-screen. To start with, I’m running the Cocoon frontend on it, a gorgeous little wrapper that makes the **Thor** look and feel even more like a [[Nintendo]]-made console, just without the [indentured servitude](https://paletteswap.site/different-colors/nintendo-hoping-youve-forgotten-it-enslaved-that-one-switch-hacker-by-now/).  It’s that screen experience that brings everything together. Obviously playing [[Nintendo 3DS]] and [[Nintendo DS]] games on a system that doesn’t have terrible screens and integer-scaling and fast-forward and Retroachievements is going to be the standout feature. But expand your brain and you’ll realize there’s so much more you can do. What about watching YouTube on the bottom screen and playing a game on the top? Or playing Warframe while leaving the wiki open for easy referencing? Tired of needing to switch screens back and forth to figure out what the fuck you’re supposed to be doing to get the true ending in **Valkyrie Profile**? Slap the [Pixel Guide](https://pixelguide.app/) on your **Thor** and follow along. You can also pick different volume balances for each screen too, so you can go full podcast mode. You could even play two games at once, but I haven’t reached that level of cocomelon yet. ![[Thoughts on the Ayn Thor-1771967119375.png|635x847]] Performance-wise, the **Thor** is about as powerful as the **Odin 2**, meaning it can play everything up to the PS2 era pretty much perfectly. It can also handle any Android-based Play Store game without issue as well — just get a real game please, not some gacha trash. The main new thing that I’ve tried now is Switch emulation via Eden. The **Thor** plays *ALL OF MY LEGALLY OWNED AND PURCHASED SWITCH ROMS* pretty much perfectly. They’re a little finicky to set up though, so be prepared to tinker. Still, the ability to play **Final Fantasy Theatrhythm: Curtain Call** on such a small device is extremely cool. Same with my ability to put all my [[Vanillaware]] games on a single device, since **Vanillaware** themselves seem allergic to doing so. ![[Thoughts on the Ayn Thor-1771967165210.png]] There’s also apps like **GameNative**, which let you play your own Steam games via a wrapper. This is the highest tier of tinkering, I’d say, depending on the model you purchase and the games you play. Intense stuff is going to be such a pain that I wouldn’t consider it worth trying. But all those indie games you’ve collected over the years should fit perfectly on this thing. I’m finishing up my run of [[Aeruta]] on the **Thor** right now, actually! All this to say, you can play pretty much anything on this thing, for anywhere between 4-16 hours, depending on the game and your internal performance settings. I don’t think the **Ayn Thor** is perfect, but damn if I wouldn’t consider it *close*. I haven’t been able to tear myself away from the thing. Going through my DS and 3DS games with a fresh coat of paint, fast-forward, and upscaled graphics has been fun, for sure. But so has been watching a Hasanabi stream while still being able to hear Masashi Hamauzu’s best soundtrack in the Android version of **SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered**. The combination of multi-tasking, flexibility and power make the **Thor** a great all-in-one device with very few downsides. [^1]: Plus for the latter you can insert a microSD card for even more space.