In a world where the gaming hardware market is dominated by a handful of giants whose message of “OWN OUR GEAR, DESTROY YOUR ENEMIES” is expressed through truly awful product aesthetics, I’m just overjoyed that a manufacturer like Ayaneo is taking a different path.
It specializes in portable gaming PCs (like the Ayaneo Kun and Air 1S) built around AMD’s powerful, low-power APUs, but it also dabbles in mini PCs. The Retro Mini AM02 is its second such iteration, and it’s as cute as a button.
It’s a miniature homage to the original Nintendo Entertainment System, complete with a front cover that opens to reveal two USB 2.3 ports, a USB 4 Type-C port, and a combined audio jack. It’s sleek, tactile, visually pleasing, and once you’ve got it installed on your desk (or by your TV, we’ll get to that), I challenge you not to occasionally admire it.
The Mini AM02’s retro style is matched by the machine’s capabilities. It says, “MAKE ME AN EMULATOR! PLAY ALL THE GAMES YOU GROW UP WITH!”, which you absolutely can, absolutely should—I absolutely did—but that doesn’t negate the fact that the hardware is capable of more.
With an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor (a more powerful version of the 7840U chip used in Ayaneo laptops) and integrated Radeon 780M graphics, most newfangled games should run smoothly at 1080p, as long as you’re willing to sacrifice the higher graphics settings.
The lid houses a 4-inch touchscreen that can be swiped left or right to display detailed system information, a clock, or a quick access panel for switching between preset performance modes. It begs for a few custom wallpaper options, though the functionality isn’t available yet—Ayaneo plans to do so in a future software update.
On the back are two 1Gb and 2.5Gb Ethernet ports, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, and a USB-C port reserved for the AM02 power adapter. The set also supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. In tiny, everything is fine in terms of specifications, although a second USB-C port on the front would be welcome.
The Retro Mini AM02 comes with Ayaspace, Ayaneo’s hardware interface and game library, pre-installed. Designed for their portable devices, it’s most at home with a gamepad. This means there’s a forceful utilize case for the Retro Mini as a dedicated micro-console to connect to your TV, and in that scenario you can configure Ayaspace to run full screen on boot. Of course, it’s still an app that runs on Windows 11, not a standalone operating system, and for more established desktop utilize, I set it to minimize to the system tray on Windows boot and only invoke it when needed.
It can feel a bit clunky and sluggish when using a keyboard and mouse as your primary input devices — the UX was clearly designed with gamepad controls in mind first — but it works well enough. What I noticed during my time with the Retro Mini are a few tiny technical and UI-improving updates from Ayaspace that I expect to see continued.
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The Ayaspace performance tab is flooded with tweakers. These switches and sliders expose BIOS-level hardware settings, including the CPU TDP limit, CPU and iGPU clock speed sliders, CPU turbo switch, general power policy setting, and automatic or custom fan curves for the CPU cooler.
There are three presets: Power Saving (8W TDP, potato mode, borderline good for web browsing), Balanced (15W TDP, good for emulation and simpler indie games), and Extreme (28W TDP, with less than full CPU and iGPU clock speeds, but good for less demanding titles). You can also create your own settings, but only the factory settings appear on the 4-inch touchscreen mode switch.
Of course, the first thing I did was overclock everything; the TDP slider finally reaches 45W. It’s possible to get some nice performance gains with custom settings, though whether those gains are marginal or noticeable depends entirely on the title. I set the “Overclock” preset, with the TDP set to 45W, the CPU and iGPU were given free rein at full speed, and the CPU Turbo option was activated.
Overclocking things this way gives a decent boost in performance. The biggest boost I saw was in Doom Eternal — which looks fantastic at 1080p with medium settings, by the way — and switching between the standard 28W Extreme and my 45W custom “Overclock” setting, frame rates went from around 60-70fps to 70-90fps while playing the same section of the same level. Which was deeply satisfying, and speaks volumes about how incredibly well-optimized Doom Eternal is. Just don’t expect gains like that in every game.
On paper, the Ryzen 7 7840HS can go up to 54W, but Ayaspace sets the maximum limit at 45W. Similarly, the chip should boost to 5.1GHz, but Ayaspace caps that at 4.7GHz. We asked Ayaneo about this, and they replied that the Retro mini has been designed with specific size and thickness constraints, and that limitation is there to ensure effective cooling and optimal performance. Which makes sense; it’s a petite little box indeed, and cooling it is undoubtedly a challenge.
It’s a tactic sometimes used in laptops to keep temperatures down and extend battery life, though the latter is clearly not a consideration here, so it’s a shame you can’t access the absolute top-of-the-line capabilities of the 7840HS, something some other manufacturers have achieved with their own proprietary cooling solutions.
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Buy if…
✅ Want to build a handsome TV-friendly emulation station: Well, look at this. How cute is this little thing?
✅ You play a lot of indie games, as well as some heavier titles: The AMD processor with a powerful integrated graphics processor does a great job of playing both classic indie games and newfangled games at decent speeds.
Don’t buy if…
❌ You want the most powerful mini PC available: There are certainly micromachines that utilize more of very similar silicon.
❌ Are you looking for a completely noiseless operation: It can definitely get a bit “chatty” when the fans start spinning up, which should mean the AMD CPU needs to be running at full speed.
In terms of newfangled gaming performance, and if we’re looking at 30+ fps as playable, the Retro Mini does a pretty good job. Cyberpunk at 1080P with Ultra settings, FSR2 set to auto and no Ray Tracing runs nicely at 52 fps. The Total War: Warhammer 3 campaign map is a bit more demanding, only hitting 25 fps at 1080P/medium/28W, though that rises to a more comfortable 30 fps when you bump the TDP to 45W and overclock the clocks. Forza Motorsport was silky, slick and enjoyable at 45W, but it’s difficult to recommend Homeworld 3 on this category of hardware; despite a test average of around 40 fps, you’re plagued by recurrent, jagged 1% drops.
We also ran a few indie and older games at 1080p/medium/45W to get a feel for the frame-rate ranges you can expect from different titles. None of the games below have built-in benchmarks, so we’ve included them in the official comparison, but we hope they give you a taste of the Retro Mini’s wider capabilities. Subnautica was fully playable at around 50-60fps, Stray comfortably landed in the 45-60fps range, Soulstone Survivors hit 90fps, which dropped to a still-very-bearable 45fps during the peak fireworks displays, Still Wakes the Deep hit 60-70fps, and Bioshock Remastered romped around at a frankly hilarious 130-200fps.
Setting it up as an emulator was a piece of cake thanks to the free and incredibly user-friendly Emudeck, and in no time at all my favorite games from years gone by filled my Steam library, flawlessly playable on my TV via my Xbox Elite gamepad. And I think that’s just great. Sure, any ancient computer can be set up as an emulator in the same way. But when you turn the Retro Mini AM02 into a retro console emulator for your living room, everything falls into place and it feels like it’s fulfilling its purpose.
