OVERAyaneo Konkr Pocket Block: the stick-less vertical handheld starts shipping
Ayaneo’s Konkr Pocket Block is a vertical handheld with no analog sticks at all, and it’s finally on its way to buyers: Ayaneo told pre-order customers the first batches would ship between October 19 and 23, with new orders shipping by the end of October. Before the boxes went out, Ayaneo showed the device off in action — including a video of the team playing Stardew Valley on it.
The hardware
The Pocket Block is built around a 3.33-inch LCD with a 4:3 aspect ratio at 960×720, a MediaTek Helio G85 processor, 2–3GB of RAM, and 32–64GB of storage plus a microSD slot. It runs Android 12, with a 3,500mAh battery, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi 5, and Bluetooth 5.0. With no sticks, it’s aimed squarely at d-pad-friendly games: platformers, puzzle games, farming sims, and retro titles that never needed an analog stick in the first place.
What it costs
At the early-bird price, the 2GB + 32GB version in Original Grey is $79, and the 3GB + 64GB version in Atoms White, Original Grey, or Cube Purple is $99. The regular prices are $89 and $109, and Ayaneo said the early-bird deal runs until shipping starts. That puts it in impulse-buy territory next to the $269–$399 handhelds dominating the news cycle — a second device for the nightstand, or a first handheld for someone curious about the hobby.
The obvious question is what a stick-less handheld gives up, and the answer is mostly modern 3D games that expect dual-analog control. What it keeps is a pocketable, cheap way into the games that defined handhelds in the first place. Ayaneo’s Stardew Valley demo makes the pitch plainly: this is a device for games you play with a d-pad.