'Continuing to sell this product is no longer sustainable': Ayaneo has suspended pre-orders of its uber-powerful Next 2 gaming handheld after costs approached 'twice the price we originally set'

I can't have been the only one intrigued by the prospect of Ayaneo's Next 2 handheld, a Strix Halo-powered machine with a whopping 115 Wh battery, twin NVMe drives, a whole host of high-capacity memory configurations, and the sort of specs sheet that would make many gaming laptops tremble in their boots.

Well, the company has just announced it's temporarily suspending pre-orders of the device, as storage costs make it less than viable in the middle of the ongoing memory and storage supply crisis.

The announcement was made on Ayaneo's Indiegogo page, and it makes for sad reading. The company goes into great detail to explain its decision, and the timeline surrounding the Next 2's fall from grace.

"When we launched Next 2, storage prices were already at a very high level", the statement reads. "At that time, we were already under significant cost pressure. However, considering that many Ayaneo fans had been looking forward to this product for a long time, we still decided to release it as planned and open pre-orders so as not to disappoint our supporters.

"However, after the Chinese New Year, when we communicated with our suppliers again to confirm the latest storage procurement prices, we found that storage prices had increased to several times higher than before the holiday. Under such circumstances, the overall cost of the product has become far higher than our current selling price."

"In fact, even before the launch of Next 2, storage prices had already been rising for several months", the statement continues. "At that time, we believed the price might be approaching its peak. Even if it meant making little to no profit—or even a slight loss—we still decided to move forward with the launch.

"However, what we did not expect was that storage prices would not only continue to rise but would increase even more rapidly. At present, the total cost of the product has far exceeded our selling price, even approaching twice the price we originally set. Under such circumstances, continuing to sell this product is no longer sustainable."

Ayaneo goes to great pains to point out that production will still go ahead as planned for backers who have already pre-ordered the handheld, and that the suspension is temporary. "If storage prices return to more reasonable levels in the future, we may consider resuming the sale of Next 2", says the company.

Whenever that is. Current estimates vary as to when this whole fiasco might eventually peter out, but it's looking like 2026 is a write-off, and likely 2027 as well.

DRAM manufacturers are scrambling to bring new facilities online to keep up with the AI server-based demand, but it takes a long time to gussy up an electronics supply chain, and I fully expect we won't see the end of highly-inflated memory and storage prices any time soon.

Cheery news all round, ey? On the plus side, Ayaneo's transparency here is refreshing, and it says that after-sales service support will not be affected. It seems to be about as well-handled as you could reasonably expect, but that doesn't stop it from being disappointing news for those of you looking for a handheld gaming PC with serious grunt.